Some authors drive me insane, particularly myself. There are some days I don’t consider myself an author at all, and those are the days when nothing seems to go right. A month ago I offered to critique a short story, and after reading this story thoroughly the first time I became very upset with myself for volunteering to do it, and even more upset at the author who gave it to me. When it was time to vocally critique the story to a group of people, I confidently understood that I had to speak my mind and tell the truth. Years ago, before Wrath was published, people who offered me their honest opinion was the best advice I had ever received. As I began to read my comments aloud I could feel this writer staring wide eyed at me, eagerly anticipating this critique. I knew what I wanted to say. I was going to encourage him for his effort but ultimately do my best to help him by pointing out his errors. I tanked. I have no idea why it happened…but my mind went blank. I’ve opinionated in front of large groups of people in the past and did just fine. For one reason or another I had a voice in my mind that was screaming at me to stop. I should have listened to it. I realized that I did not want to say anything negative about the author's work, and I was wishing at that moment I had concentrated on the positives, (even though there were none) instead of the negatives. I managed to fight my way through it, but because I flustered myself I don’t think I made any sense and probably did more harm than good. More importantly, I learned something about myself that day. I’ve never had to point out the negative before, and I am not good at it. I also learned not to offer critiques for people I don’t know.

Then there are days like today. I’ve just finished reading a large expert from my latest project, Memoirs of the Dragon Death King, and I found myself giddy with excitement. Not only that, I managed to finish writing a section that has been incredibly difficult for me to piece together. That felt good. I hope to have another solid push here in the next month or so and finally finish this novel. I’ve met some superb people (publishers and agents) during the last World Fantasy, people that I would be honored to work with, and the very same who are at least willing to allow me the opportunity to show them this book.

Many of you have noticed that Resurgence is still not released. I have cancelled all plans to publish it through Phantasy Ink. After Memoirs is complete I’m returning to finish The Demons of Destiny series. In an age where Fantasy is saturated with Vampire’s and Zombie’s, there has been a sudden interest from publishers for Sword and Sorcery. I have received some interest for Demons as a complete novel. Yes, you read that correctly. The Wrath of Zar, The Resurgence of Granaz, and The Essence of Yannina—all in one novel. How cool is that? This is not happening for certain, but there is good chance.

At the moment I’m in writing mode, and until I switch back into marketing mode I will only provide updates to this site quarterly. I’ll return in the Spring with another update. I know I’ve promised to post the opening chapter for Memoirs, but I’ve become strangely obsessed with keeping this novel in the dark. What I can do is update the Memoirs page with my latest edit for the introduction. I suppose that is not much, but I promise one day you will understand why.