New book available!

Hello all,

It’s been a while. Hope you are doing all right considering this strip-mall apocalypse of ours seems never-ending. I hope you are working, healthy (and the same to you and yours). I’ve been busy…I am back in school working on an Ed.D. and putting final edits in for a novella I will have out some time next year! For now, just a small victory for my writing: I snuck my way into the TOC of Ghost Parachute: 105 Flash Fiction Stories. Yep, 105 stories are in this collection, so there is sure to be something that grabs you and gets you thinking. There is also some spectacular art accompanying many of the stories for the more visually inclined.

Ghost Parachute has been around for a minute. As a literary magazine that publishes almost all of its content online, it’s a real treat to see it in print form and on my shelf. It’s even sweeter to be included in this curated set of fine flash fiction. Ghost Parachute has been good to me over the years (you can find links to my stories they have published on my Written Works page. Great people and well worth the support. Support indie writers and publishers — it helps keep us caffeinated and creating.

Check out Ghost Parachute: 105 Flash Fiction Stories on my Books page.

Tom LucasLeave a comment

Here’s 30 Seconds of Writer Inspiration If You Need It.

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The world is on fire and fevered egos threaten the utter collapse of civilization. I find each day more difficult to de-toxify than the last. Maybe if we’re lucky, a heretofore unknown meteor will smash into the earth and hasten our inevitable extinction.

Oh, and I got another rejection on my novella.

A bit of a tough morning but this isn’t a pity post.

Far from it. Whenever I get a rejection, I give myself a couple of hours to feel disappointed and then I get back to it. Whether it’s a yes or a no, the next step is starting another project.

Submitting and rejection are a part of the process. In my non-fiction writing life, I write scripts for marketing videos and they are routinely revised as they go through a company’s marketing and legal departments. I embrace it.

And this is only the second rejection for my Cthulhu vs. Encyclopedia Brown novella, and there are many fine publishers still out there. I have no doubt it will find a home.

The first rejection was much more difficult as it was a solicited manuscript. A handshake deal. After many months of waiting (not unreasonable for a small press), I was told “we are going in another direction.” I really love this publisher too. Great people, cool books, and they have mean hustle.

So it goes.

Many writers and publishers fill my news feed. On any given day, there are two things I can count on – someone announcing a book release and seeing an ad for Geico auto insurance. It can feel like standing on the side of the road watching the cars zip by. A bystander while the world moves on.

Maybe you can empathize.

I grew tired of this feeling. My solution was to set aside an hour every morning (6am-7am) for writing projects.

Anything that moves me forward, even if only inches.

I’ve been doing this for about 5 months now and have revised and added new content to a current manuscript, revitalized a few professional relationships, conducted a ton of research as I had a comic book thing taking off for a hot minute there. Currently on pause as the artist just had a baby. Of all the nerve! I’m also working on school applications as I have decided to pursue a doctor of education.

Once this manuscript is done, I’m moving to one that I have in the drawer that is already at 60k words. Also, plans for revisiting the universe of Pax Titanus in the next year or two.

In short, if things aren’t going your way, remain undaunted. Don’t ever stop.

Like sharks, we have to keep swimming.

 

Tom LucasLeave a comment

A Brief Reflection Before I Hit Send

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counting IIII (cc). creative commons by marfis75

Last year was a bit strange for me as I didn’t submit anything for publication. Not a word.  It was the first year since 2011 that I didn’t get something published somewhere. Instead, I spent the first half working on a new novel. It’s something that I’m pretty excited about. Sort of a Constantine meets Ready Player One thing. When I’m done with it, I’m going to have a fun book to take to market.

I put it down the middle of summer and began research and review for a novella. That manuscript — I just put final touches on the the draft and I’m submitting it to the publisher as soon as I finish this blog post.

Man, I feel weird right now. I know I should have some sense of accomplishment as I’ve been working on this book (if you include the research) for about ten months. I’ve lived it, filled my daily thoughts with it, scheduled daily writing time for it (before or after my job and side hustle), and never let it slide to the back of the stove top.

This morning should be a bit of a celebration, but instead, I just feel spent. And that’s okay. It’s been a lot of work. Every time I have had any level of writing success, I feel like celebrating. Go out to dinner, buy something frivolous, etc.

But I never do. I just start thinking about the next thing I’m going to work on. One day, I hope to learn to be a bit more happy about it all.

So, what’s the novella about? The quick pitch is: Encyclopedia Brown vs. Cthulhu. What happens when we take a beloved kid detective (of my own creation, not the actual Encyclopedia Brown) , pluck him from innocence, and drop him into deadly, tentacled embrace of cosmic horror? Pretty cool, right?

I originally put this project together for a pitch workshop at a little writing conference back in 2015 and although the entire room loved it, the guy running the workshop (who also is a publisher that I admire greatly) did not.  Boo! It sat dormant in my brain basket until last February, when I ran into another publisher at AWP who happened to be in that workshop and they wanted to know if I had done anything with it.

I put together a revised one-page pitch for them and after giving me some notes, I got to work.

Whammo. Blammo. Here we are.

You just have to keep putting it out there because you just never know. Things have a tendency to ripple forward and catch you by surprise — sometimes pleasantly.

But, as I ready the email to submit the work, I have my doubts. Self-doubt, based on my observations, is a common writer ailment. I guess I’m normal? So many things have to be working in order for the writing to be great, and there are a million ways for it to go wrong.  So, I worry.

Toss in a little Imposter Syndrome and it’s so easy to just keep the writing in a drawer. Just don’t hit send.

I’m not good, it isn’t good, it’s going to get rejected, the story doesn’t work, what was I thinking, etc.

I’m allowing myself to go through this awful thought life-cycle but I’m still going to submit the manuscript. We all have our process and mine is to just buckle up, feel the feelings and hope that I get to the other side of it before too long.

And all that’s okay. My worries just mean that I care an awful fucking lot about the work. Passion is a necessary thing for creating. There’s no rule that says it has to feel good.

Just hit send.

Just hit send.

There.

I hit send.

 

 

 

Tom Lucas7 Comments