After I'd published Occasional Beasts: Tales, what I felt it was my best collection and contained some of my best tales. I thought, yes, this will generate sales.
It did not generate much of anything, sadly.
This was 2018. I had been consistent in getting out a book or chapbook for a few years running, so decided to pull back on the reins, give myself and the readers, however few they may be, a break. I decided not to publish a book in 2019. 2020 would have to do.
Yeah, right.
We all know what 2020 threw at us. Top that off with two of the three publishers for my books going out of business between then and Right Now, and nothing I had planned in my head was even in the realm of possibility.
But, even amid the chaos of Covid, I kept writing. Sometimes sporadically, sometimes locked in. Strange times, but I tried to lean on writing as a way to keep myself sane, which is often what I lean on it for.
Fast forward to late 2022. I hooked up with Crossroad Press for reissues of three of the books...which became three and a half. Up first is Autumn in the Abyss Redux, which will contain the five tales from that mini-collection, all of Occasional Beasts: Tales, and six tales from The Dark is Light Enough For Me. Twenty-Five in all, this is a burly beast of a collection, a recap of the first part of my so-called writing journey (though, TBH, a true summing up would include many of my earliest tales in a collection, which I might actually look into putting together at some point). Along with a re-issue of Riding the Centipede, my Stoker nominated debut collection, this seems a succinct way to re-introduce myself to the world today. Something like that, c'mon.
But it's all with a purpose but not set plans. Not teasing out more laughter from any unknown, unseen forces, but I like getting these earlier titles re-issued with what should follow.
What, exactly, should follow, JCS?
Out in submission land, there's a lot going on.
I have two completed novels (Odd Blue, originally called Birdland, as well as Our Savage Anatomies), along with a novella that needs me to shove it out of the nest, The Ouroboros Ballads, and, soon after that, another novel, The Ecstasy of Becoming. More details on all of these sooner than later.
That's a lot in the pipeline, a lot for a publisher and/or an agent to love.
Add to that at least one compilation, tentatively titled, It's Hard To Be Me & Other Confessions...or something like that, haha...and even a poetry collection.
So, plans falter, but I kept my nose to the grindstone and wrote a fair amount--this doesn't even include short stories and a long novelette/short novella, etc. Busy is good, as I often say.
But for now, with more details to come, Autumn in the Abyss is up first. You know that from the previous blog post. This was supposed to be the lead in post for that one, but as noted already about how things go: plans? hahahaha...
Are you ready for this?
I certainly am!
Here's a link to the book: Autumn in the Abyss Redux - Kindle edition by Smith, John Claude. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
And, for the sake of amusement and because this is how it often feels when writing, here's J.G. Ballard's edits for the first page of Crash, one of my, if not my, favorite novels.
No comments:
Post a Comment