January in Review

Time to look back at the month of January and see how I’m doing.

I released my second book, the first book in the House of Cabal series. I’m proud to finally have more than one book in my catalog.

I started my mailing list, which you can sign up for HERE. You get a free Lovecraftian short story, “The Ovum Horror,” for signing up.

I worked on the final draft of House of Cabal Volume Two: Estate, but I didn’t make as much progress as I was hoping. Being sick this month stymied some of my progress. I have a lot of work to do in February to get volume two done in time for its March release.

I read two books and started a few others. I’m way behind on my reading goal of reading 75 books this year, up from 50 last year.

As a reward for releasing House of Cabal Volume One: Eden, I finally got to play The Witness. The Witness is a puzzle exploration game and the reason I bought the PS4 almost two years ago.

On to next month!

Update: I finished reading another book (that makes three). And I added my own books to the right side of my blog. Don’t they look nice?

Write until you can do your idea justice.

January was a great way to kick off the year. I published House of Cabal Volume One: Eden.

This book has been a long time coming. I started writing it fifteen years ago. It grew into an idea that I knew was bigger than one book and more importantly, an idea I wasn’t skilled enough to write at the time.

So I went to college, and I wrote other things: three screenplays, a horror novel The Forgiving, rough drafts of a few other novels. Now I’ve circled back to House of Cabal in earnest, now that I can do it justice.

All that time it wasn’t dormant. I worked on it, trying different permutations, but none of them felt good enough until now. It took me about twenty years of writing to get good enough so that House of Cabal Volume One: Eden could be good enough to publish. It’s not perfect, far from it, but it fulfills the promise of my idea and conveys it to the reader.

And that’s all I really want.

Using the Self to Write

What does “Self Write” mean? Self Write simply means to use the self to write. While the idea is simple, there is nothing simple about the self. The self is a wellspring of creativity and insight, but it can often get obscured when you try to write something down.

You can often get locked into writing what you think other people would say. Don’t you want to sound like your favorite author? Or worse, your mind will just volunteer what you’ve heard before. Or you can be inhibited by all the things you were advised not to say. Some of this advice is useful. Most is nonsense.

The self is made up of all those ideas you’ve come into contact with over time, so it makes sense these creativity blocks would happen when you try to write something new, but you are also more than those things. You are a synthesis.

The self is more than a repetition of other selves. The self is a response, a sometimes subtle evolution of countless ideas and thoughts that helped inform your perspective. Just as you are a response to the world around you, when you Self Write, what you write contributes to an ongoing conversation.

Being yourself is the only way to synthesize information and create something new. Only this way can you be an evolution of what came before. That is what it means to Self Write.

The Witness is Out

The Witness has been released, which means you can no longer get a free copy of House of Cabal: Eden. The good news (besides that you can now play The Witness): my new book is still just $2.99.

If you haven’t played The Witness yet, I highly recommend it. It’s a puzzle game to rule all puzzle games, it’s gorgeous, and it has a lot in common with House of Cabal. As the series progresses, House of Cabal also has a strong puzzle element. More on that when I release volume two in March.

The Episodic Nature of House of Cabal

House of Cabal Vol. 1 was released earlier this month, and I’m hard at work on Vol. 2 to make its fast approaching March release date.

Vol. 2 picks up right where Vol. 1 leaves off. While each volume does have a separate plot arc, the volumes aren’t meant to stand alone. They are more like episodes of a TV series, or the six issue arc of a comic book. I hope you enjoy their episodic nature. I think it adds to the fun.

If you haven’t picked up Vol. 1 yet, you can buy it HERE from Amazon. Don’t forget to leave a review!

The Witness Deal

The Witness

To celebrate the release of The Witness, a video game I have very much looked forward to for a number of years, you can now get a FREE copy of House of Cabal: Eden from Smashwords HERE.

Just use this Coupon Code: JE86F. This coupon expires on the release date of The Witness: January 26, 2016.

My book’s narrator is a witness angel named Pinsleep. I thought it would be nice to celebrate the connection between Jonathan Blow’s indie game and my indie book.

Jonathan Blow also created the indie hit Braid. He has been working on The Witness for the last seven years. I know what it’s like to work on something for a long time and finally have it released and I’m happy to be releasing my work around the same time as his.

The Creativity of Burrow Cat

This year is going to be strange. I can tell already. Here is a picture I randomly drew using Microsoft Paint. Good, bad, it doesn’t really matter. And making value judgements will just stifle my creativity.

I’m letting the muse take me wherever.

I might draw some comics this year. Who knows? It’s been in the back of my mind for a while.

This is my year of creativity. I’m free. It’s time I embrace the endless possibilities.

 

Book Release

House of Cabal: Eden has been released onto the world! It’s a bit like releasing a fish into the ocean. The ocean is a big unknown. Good luck, fishy.

I started working on the House of Cabal series in 1999 and the first volume is finally out!

Thank you all for your support. It means the world to me.

You can buy House of Cabal: Eden from Amazon HERE. It’s only $2.99, so it shouldn’t break the bank.

You can also get a free review copy from Smashwords HERE. Just use this Coupon Code: JE86F. This coupon Expires: January 26, 2016.

 

House of Cabal Release Date

Tomorrow is the big day. I’m releasing House of Cabal: Eden this Friday! There will be a code for a free review copy here on my blog.

Uploading to Amazon and Smashwords has been relatively painless, but I’ve been sick all this week and made a few errors here and there. I think I’ve fixed most of it. Everything should be good for the big day.

See you back here on the 8^th.