In their 1988 comeback tour, the band Devo would often begin their concerts by sitting on stools and playing an acoustic version of the song “Jocko Homo.” Afterward, Mark Mothersbaugh would say something to the effect of:
I bet you’re wondering why we’re all sitting down. It’s just to prove that after ten years in this business, WE STILL CAN.
This Friday is more than the release of Dig Two Graves, the new Daniel Faust novel. It’s my anniversary, marking the day when I’ll have survived the writing business for ten years. And I’m happy to say that I’m writing this post sitting down.
Making a life in the creative arts is wild, my friends. It’s a bloodsport. Shady deals, predatory contracts; when your sales are running hot, everybody wants a cut of your action. When you’re running cold, the same folks who welcomed you in will boot you out the door and into the snow so fast you’ll never see it coming.
We spend months or years writing books fueled by nothing but coffee and hope, then send them out into the world. Will they sink or swim? No clue until you get there. Every flop is a surprise, and every smash hit is, too. After all, nobody has any idea what really makes a book a best-seller, not until it’s in readers’ hands.
So you write on faith.
It’s never just writing, though. Because while you’re writing one book you’re spinning plates trying to promote another one, to sell a third to a publishing house, to get an agent to bite at a fourth. You’re planning ahead, trying to pen a strategy in an industry that shifts on a weekly basis, which feels like marching uphill on a sand-dune.
This is not a job for people who want a steady nine to five. It always baffles me how many get-rich-quick schemers flock to writing under the bizarre belief that it’s a path to easy money. Ten years ago, the popular credo was “grab whatever the trend of the microsecond is, copy another book beat for beat, and shove it out the door without so much as an editing pass,” figuring that if they glutted the shelves with enough crap that something would eventually have to be a hit. Most of those dudes aren’t around anymore. Today, the chuckleheads are all trying to get ChatGPT to write a novel for them with the press of a button, and once again, the only thing they’ll succeed at is annoying the rest of us.
(The common thread, aside from a total lack of respect for their customers, is that the schemers aren’t readers. There’s no love for storytelling in what they do, and you know what? A reader can always tell. The love is the secret ingredient.)
I worked in accounting before I became a full-time author, handling the payroll and finances of a pretty big company and responsible for millions of dollars in assets…and that was less stressful than being a writer. But, you know what?
I wouldn’t trade this life for anything in the world. Even the bad parts are among the best parts, and the sting of endless rejections pales in comparison to knowing you’ve made some reader smile, that you’ve improved their day, maybe even their life a little bit. That your voice has been heard, and you’re not just shouting into the void. Worth it. All the blood, sweat, and tears are worth it.
So I’m coming up on my ten-year anniversary. Gonna see if I can wrangle up another ten more, at least. I’ve got more stories to write.
While I’m here, I thought I’d answer a few questions I’ve been getting a lot of lately. People have asked if there will be any more adventures for Lionel and Maddie (of Ghosts of Gotham/A Time for Witches — or for my new German friends, Die Giester von New York/Die Hexen von New York.) The answer is, I think so. I knew there would be a sequel to Ghosts as soon as I finished the last page; I couldn’t leave the protagonists like that. The follow-up bookended things nicely, I thought, and my stance has been “I’ll only do a third if I find a really compelling story to tell with these characters.” I think I’ve managed it, and it’s in the early outlining stage.
Another frequently-asked question is… *sigh*. You know.
YES. DANIEL IS GETTING HIS CAR BACK.
It doesn’t happen in Dig Two Graves (he’s on foot for most of the book, for reasons that will become clear), but at a point in the near future he’s going to need a fast ride and you know only one car will do. That’s all the spoilers you get.
On that note, since I mentioned a little while ago that the whole Enemy story arc is reaching its end, people have been asking if that also marks the end of the Daniel Faust series (and Harmony Black fans have been asking the same about her books.) Nope! Dan’s got other fish to fry, and Harmony and Jessie are about to meet their new worst nightmare (well, technically they already did, I wrote that chapter yesterday.)
And I’m working on a little surprise. One that’s required me to shift my plans behind the scenes and move some projected storylines around. See, my greatest career regret is the Wisdom’s Grave trilogy. Oh, not the books themselves! A ton of people love that trilogy, and I’m happy with how it came out. The massive screwup I committed was putting some plot elements that impacted both the Faust and Harmony books in that trilogy and hoping that just summarizing things in the “Story So Far” prefaces would suffice for people who didn’t want to read them.
I was very, deeply, stupidly wrong. I’ve seen several people say they stopped reading my books completely after that, which stings like hell, and I can only blame myself for it. So I made a new rule: no character crossovers unless it’s completely encapsulated (for instance, Dan and Harmony can cross paths, but not in a way that’s going to have major consequences back in their “home” series.) I make mistakes, but I do try my best to learn from ‘em.
So what if I want to do something…big? Something that would unavoidably impact everyone in the world of the First Story? (Obviously I’m not going to spoil it, but if I do my job right, when it goes down you’ll say “Oh, of course that’s what happened.”)
While Daniel heads for his showdown with the Enemy, the events of Never Send Roses have triggered a new and alien threat for the Vigilant team. These two crises may be slightly more related than they first appear. The next two Harmony and the next two Faust books are being structured to dovetail and build toward one big climax, a climax that will play out for both groups of characters at the same time. If you read both series, you’ll see the same earth-shaking event from very different perspectives. If you only read one, you’ll still get the complete story and still see it all right at ground zero.
It’s taken a ton of finagling with outlines to make all the plots and pieces line up, but I think I can pull it off. We’ll see! If not, it’ll be an interesting failure. And after that…well, I’ve got plans, and the books will continue, but I’ll keep the details under wraps for now.
Hey. Thank you.
Yeah, you, the person reading this right now. Because you’re the reason I can do this. My readers make it possible for me to tell these stories, to weave these worlds, to put my passions on the page. The gratitude I feel is overflowing my heart, and it’s hard to believe I’ve been in the writing game for this many years but I’m still here and I’m fired up to keep going.
I offer thanks to the Lady of Love, to the Lady in Red, and to the divine Muses. And to coffee. Lots of it. Like many writers, my bloodstream is about ninety percent coffee (the remaining ten percent is antidepressants and cannabis.)
Ten more years? Heck, let’s shoot for twenty.
“The art of making art
Is putting it together
Bit by bit”
- Putting It Together, Stephen Sondheim
