Like so many authors, particularly in specialty genres (like lyric poetry and literary historical fiction), I have a day job and a resume for the day job which would probably be very baffling to my readers. And like most would-be English teachers who exited graduate school in the early 1980's with virtually no hope of employment, I took courses in what they told me I'd be good at (computer programming) and so that's how I keep body and soul together.

What that means is that I have a consulting job by day in high technology, and by night, weekend and holidays, I write, and sometimes publish. I spent a good deal of the 1990's and early 00's sending out queries, sample chapters and -- in the case of poems -- sheaves of my best poems, a few of which were published in some of the smaller poetry journals, some of which did not survive the decade.

And after decades of striving, I completed one of my novels, (not shown here, yet), a historical novel based on the first six weeks of Alexander III's March Upcountry. (http://www.zebratta.com/Books/Confess...). I went to traditional publishers with this book and with my second-finished book, the first of a trilogy. I have a thick folder of rejection slips. But I am glad I have them, because I spent several years improving my books, hiring copy-editors and getting lots of "beta" feedback. It made the current books better.

Since then I have completed over 30 novels, and published (very cautiously, in print) two of them: The Erotic Etudes, which I considered my most solid work stylistically, and Tourmaline, the first book in a 22-volume police procedural/gay romance/ M/M novel. It was widely distributed in Livejournal circles and got enthusiastic reviews and some modest sales when printed. People keep reading it on Livejournal and I am making the transition to e-book publication for the completed and re-edited follow-on books.

Other novels of mine (available on Zebratta.org in e-book format without ISBN) will soon be making their way to distribution on Lulu when I scrape up the dough for a block of ISBN numbers. Sadly, each e-book format requires an ISBN so I'm still doing research on that. I'm not going to get Lulu ISBN's. I own these things, and one day they will get far wider distribution and sales. Vaster than empires, and more slow.

I have been actively writing fiction since 1973, and polishing books since 2000. I think the time invested in perfecting them is worth it. But considering the time it takes to write, edit, hire professional assistance to copy-edit, and then publish while having a more-than-full time job consulting, it gives the impression (unless you go to Livejournal) that my opus is small. It is not small, just unfolding :) Please stay tuned in this space, and on zebratta.org. You can read earlier versions of work that I have yet to finalize on zebratta.com which includes my published poetry book, "Epistle to the North Americans."

I believed in the early 1990's that publishing would be revolutionized within my lifetime in electronic form, and this has happened in the last 25 years. That is why Threshold Publishing Company exists, and that is why I keep going in this labor of love.

Thank you for reading,

E.L. Van Hine
January 2017