James K. Decker's Blog

I realize I’ve been quiet for a while…often when I’ve got my head down writing I forget to do most if not all of the other stuff.

Currently I’m not contracted for anything specific, which has left me open to begin completely new stories.  The first is complete - my new SF series opener THE TEKLAVAD DILEMMA is in the hands of my agent and (I think) on the desk of my editor at Penguin who gets first crack at it. The story features a pair of freelance merc sisters, an A.I./human hybrid and an unhinged ‘golem’ neuter in a mystery/adventure that I think should tickle SF fans as much as it tickled me.

While that’s being shopped, I’m ~25% of the way into a second SF series opener (tentatively titled DEAD DROP) that merges SF with more paranormal tropes such as mind reading and divination.  I wouldn’t call it paranormal or fantasy – it’s definitely SF – but I think fans of all three should get a kick out of it.

It’s funny – writing is such a tricky business, almost akin to trying to break into film or pro athletics at least as far as the ratio of hopefuls to actual successes goes…it’s easy to get frustrated, and discouraged if not outright despondent, but even on ‘down’ days I find that when I sit down to write none of it matters.  Inside the moment I just love the act of writing, and I find that I forget all of the other (often negative) stuff that can go along with putting yourself out there for the world to see.  There’s plenty of positive stuff, too, don’t get me wrong – I love interacting with fans more than almost anything else I think – but I think every struggling writer will know what I mean when I say that some days are harder than others.  On those hard days, it’s the love of it that pushes you forward even when you can’t see the road ahead.

Will either of these novels see the light of day?  I hope so – I could write many more entries for either, or both.  If they do see the light of day, will they hit?  Again, I hope so, but there’s no way to know.

What I do know is that whether they do or not, I will keep writing either way.

FALLOUT, sequel to THE BURN ZONE, has officially launched!  I hope that you enjoy this installment of the Haan series, in which the status quo (such as it was) begins to get upended and the story grows in scope.  In THE BURN ZONE, Sam learned a lot about the Haan that she’d never suspected but found herself preoccupied with the struggle to save her father.  In FALLOUT, she must decide what to do with this new information and then act on it, which for better or worse, she does.

Old characters return, new characters are introduced, and at least two of them will be changed fundamentally, and irreversibly.  Hope to see you there!

I don’t have a huge problem with self-publishing, by and large.  Honestly, I feel like it can be a good outlet for even published authors to explore some stranger avenues, and I don’t hate it on principle.  My main issue with it is that most of it just isn’t very good, though I suppose you could make the same argument of almost anything.  That all said, there are varying degrees of ‘bad’.

I’m not going to name the author in question or the book in question because I’m really not out to get anyone, but I ran into a situation that seemed like such a great object lesson that I felt like I wanted to share it.  My wife likes Goodreads a lot and recently agreed to review someone’s self-published book in return for a free copy.  However, once she received it she found that it was just painful to read and I have to say I kind of agree…no one in the opening chapter ‘says’ anything they ‘explosively curse aloud’ at every turn.  No one ‘realizes’ anything, they (in the case of someone lying in bed) ‘cogitate horizontally’ that someone has arrived.  She wanted to know if, as an author, I would prefer a bad review to no review at all where one had been promised.  I told her that bad reviews come with the good, and not everyone is going to like everything you write, however this review was solicited by a self-published author so I thought I’d check out the author’s other reviews to get a temperature reading.

The author in question writes anonymously, which right off the bat makes me feel like whoever they are they aren’t really confident in their work and don’t have enough skin in the game.  All of the reviews seemed to be solicited except one which was written by some kind of hired ‘promotion specialist’ (I think also the only five star review).  Every positive review was responded to by this same promotion specialist letting the reviewer know that any quibbles they have are addressed in the latest version.  Every bad review pretty much got attacked, the reviewer jumped on by this same promotions specialist, and in most cases personally insulted.  One reviewer went so far as to share an email exchange she had with the author, where she tried to explain to him that she’d rather decline the review than say anything too negative about it, and was told she was a ‘shit’ and should ‘hang herself’.

Now, I can’t say with complete certainty that this author’s hired ‘promotion specialist’ is actually the anonymous author himself/herself, but I suspect that is the case.  My suggestion to my wife was to just delete the book from her Kindle, and forget about it.  Sending a free digital copy of a self-published book cost the author nothing, and leaves her with no obligation to provide the review.  Whoever this author is, they don’t appear to be ready for prime time and don’t appear interested in any sort of constructive feedback, either.  They want their book to be praised as it is, and so let them cast their net and find people willing to do that.

My wife, understandably, found herself a little soured by the whole thing, though, and I doubt she’ll agree to get involved in this sort of thing in the future.

I realize that I don’t need to explain to most authors (self-published or not) why this is all many different kinds of wrong, but if you ever find yourself in need of a reminder as to why it’s best to distance yourself from reviews and remain professional at all times, let this be it.

I’ve had four novels published now, and one novella.  My fifth novel is due to hit shelves early next year, and I’m working on my sixth – but I’ve never gotten an audiobook deal.  Since I’d really like to have an audiobook for The Burn Zone, this go around I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands.  There’s a service called ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) that I first heard about when someone on Twitter linked to an article where Neil Gaiman touted the service.  It provides a platform for authors, narrators and producers to find one another and work out the best way to move forward with a project.  The end product (depending on the options you choose) can be distributed on all the major digital distribution centers.

So, with the help of my agent, I’ve gotten set up and I’m going to give it a go.  You can check the project link out HERE if you like.  Has anyone else out there had experience with this service already?  If so, I’d love to hear about it.

The Burn Zone has been out for about six months now, and the sequel, Fallout, just became available for pre-order (currently it is only available at Amazon right now as far as I know – I’ll update with more links as they become available).

This series has been such a trip to write so far.  In a way the first novel felt a bit more intimate, at least to me.  Larger problems loomed, but Sam’s immediate goal was very personal.  Fallout expands the scope a little, bringing back some old friends and introducing some new ones.  Things heat up in the next book, now that a few cats have escaped their bag at the end of The Burn Zone.  No longer able to ignore what she knows, Sam has to figure out how she will deal with the secrets she’s learned, and what action to take.  I hope you’ll join me to see how far she’s willing to go come February 4th, 2014.

THE BURN ZONE launches today!  Like Science Fiction?  Like excitement?  Like intrigue?  Pick yourself up a copy at these fine outlets:

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

POWELLS

INDIE BOUND

KOBO

SONY

Or head on down to your local brick and mortar shop.  Tell the person manning the counter that I sent you, and that the password is ‘nacho’.  They will pretend they don’t know who I am, but that is just part of the cover.

** NOTE: While there a fewer than fifteen reviews for THE BURN ZONE on Amazon, I will send a free copy of the prequel novella EMBER to anyone who reviews it and is interested (e-reader is required, as there is no print version of EMBER.) **

Ah, review time!

Back when I wrote STATE OF DECAY (under the name James Knapp), which was my first novel ever published, one early reviewer absolutely panned it on a relatively high-profile site about a month before it came out.  It was the first review I ever received for anything I’d ever written, and there it was, by itself, the first link that popped up whenever anyone searched for my book, for a full month before the public at large got their hands on it.  Once more reviews started to come out, I realized that a lot of reviewers actually really liked it, and STATE OF DECAY was eventually nominated for the Philip K Dick Award and also the Compton Crook Award (which it won), but for that month, as a fledgling author alone with that review, I was devastated.  I’ve learned over the years to take reviews (even bad ones) in stride, but man, that first one stung.

Early reviews for THE BURN ZONE, I’m pleased to say, have been fantastic so far and my smile comes with a sigh of relief.  Not that I expected it to do poorly, but putting yourself out there can be nerve wracking.  I see bad reviews as inevitable, all authors get them and I don’t obsess over them anymore, but still…obviously you want most of them to be good.  The general tone I’m picking up is that so far people are really digging what they’ve read, and so I’m pretty psyched..  Fingers crossed that this is a sign of things to come.

Here’s the latest batch, if you’re interested:

Blogcritics.org

Addicted2Heroines

Roundtable Reviews

And of course, the buzz on Goodreads

Well, The Burn Zone will be hitting shelves in less than a month, the sequel Move the Stars has been submitted to my editor, and I’ve decompressed for a week.  The itch to write has returned.  There will be a while before edits for Move the Stars, and longer still before a third book, so I’ve taken a step back to examine my back burner where other nefarious projects have been simmering.

The problem isn’t deciding what to write in this case, but rather what to write first.  I have one finished novel (a near future SF adventure) in need of further polishing (and perhaps a shift in the market winds), and two other projects, one with about 20K the other with about  40K words worth of material set down, both SF, both extremely strange.  One is sad and bleak while the other is almost more of a violent black comedy.  I have an outline and opening chapter of a new series, and lastly, one other finished work in need of more polishing which is hands down the creepiest thing I have ever put down on paper.  It is also SF.  Because I likes me some SF.

This last one is the one I have chosen to work on because it’s close to where I want it to be, and because it’s never left my head.  As I get back into it, I can feel it coming together.  I call it Holyfield.  If I ever find a publisher for it, I will relish the chance to disturb you.

Publicity continues to brew for The Burn Zone…I have events in Chicago, and some other potentially exciting stuff with podcasts and radio…nothing is a verified go yet, but I feel like we’re building to something.  Launch day is so soon I can taste it, now.

Stay tuned…

Ok, we’re coming down to the wire here, and I have six galleys of THE BURN ZONE to giveaway.  The giveaway will be tied to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, and I’ll be giving away one copy to every 500th follower I get on Twitter, and every 500th like I get on my Facebook page.  You can do both, and double your chances of winning.

Each galley will be signed by me, but to sweeten the pot I’m going to offer up something I hope will be a little more interesting.

1.  The first 500th to either join Twitter or like my Facebook page will receive the galley, signed, and I will also illustrate the cover page (see this link to see the kind of stuff I do for those).  In addition, I will beam a copy of the prequel novella EMBER to your e-reader of choice free of charge.

2.  The next 500th (Twitter or Facebook) will receive the galley, signed, and also a free copy of the prequel novella EMBER sent to your e-reader of choice.

3.  For each 500th after that, the winner will receive a copy of the galley, signed.

The accounts are as follows:

Hope to see you there, and good luck!