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Posts in the "The Year Ahead" Category

  • Oh crap, it’s over!  Much as I enjoyed this year, I’m looking forward to next year as it looks to be just bust-a-gut full of good times.   For example, I think I may be able to pay off my mortgage next year.  That’s the kind of wild and crazy lady I am.  Might even make a few extra payments on my student loans!  Hoo boy, you never know what I’ll do next!  But seriously, here’s a quick look at my plans:

    • Next year, I plan to take over the world using an elite cadre of invisible war elephants and spoons.  The really shiny kind.  They’ll never see it coming.  (Because I’ll get lazy halfway through the year and not bother. )
    • More probably, I’ll be doing stuff for the release of my next science fiction novel coming out with Night Shade Books in the fall of 2012.  It is currently titled Spin The Sky but I’m thinking about changing that to The Trojan Spaceship as I am knee-deep in rewrites just now.
    • After rewriting, re-editing, getting tons of critiques and then re-writing and re-editing a few more times, I may be on my last major re-tool of this YA science fiction I’ve been tinkering with for the past two years.  I’m keen to release it as a indie e-book, but I get a huge lecture every time I say that, so I will be a good author and query around for it.  If that doesn’t pan out, though, I am totally going the independent publish route.  All the cool kids are doing it.
    • I need to finish up this adult science fiction I’m about halfway through.  I keep avoiding it because I have performance anxiety about writing sex scenes and this thing is going to have some of those if I have to duct-tape myself to a chair to type them out.
    • I really feel like having Night Bazaar as a weekly online writing project has been beneficial for many reasons, so I’ve invented a writing project for myself for next year. My goal is to write some journalist-type news articles about whatever the heck I’m doing twice a month to get some practice with that style of writing.  I may try to shop them out to online news sources or I may be lazy and just post them on my website: www.katystauber.com.  This weekend I’ll be finishing up my article about my erotic book club.
    • I’m already signed up for sailing lessons in order to fulfill my recurring fantasy in a mature fashion.  I dream of sailing off the end of the world to see what’s on the other side.

    It’s been fun guys!  May your next year be splendiferously full of chocolate and orgasms (or whatever really makes your day).

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  • This is my final column for The Night Bazaar. The blog was conceived as a way to promote writers who had books coming out from Night Shade in 2011, and next year it’ll be promoting writers who have books coming out from Night Shade in 2012, so that puts me on the night train to the big adios, suckers.

    Thanks to Courtney for getting this blog up and running — it’s been a blast. And it’s been a pleasure to blog with talents like Bradley, Kameron, John, Stina, Katy, and Martha, not to mention our brilliant parade of guest bloggers.

    I haven’t got the foggiest idea what the new year will hold for me, writing-wise, since the novels I’m currently working on are not yet sold. I hope to work with Night Shade again, but not every book works for every publisher, and it really isn’t anything personal. So in the meantime, here’s where you can find me in the year to come.

    You can visit my personal site at Thomasroche.com.

    You can find ebook editions of my other zombie/paranormal stories on Amazon, here, here, here, here, and here, or read my 1997 dark erotica collection Dark Matter now back in ebook form from Renaissance eBooks.

    You can find me weekly blogging about science, technology and the paranormal at Techyum.com.

    You can find me blogging about sex, science and politics at TinyNibbles.com.

    If you’re in San Francisco or its environs, you can take the 60-hour training for sex educators that I teach twice a year with San Francisco Sex Information. This is a sex-positive, life-changing, life-affirming class that aims for a descriptive, rather than a proscriptive, approach. It provides concrete information for teachers, writers, psychotherapists, social workers, doctors, nurses, ministers, reproductive counselors, and anyone else who provides her or his clients with descriptive information about sexuality.

    You can find me blogging every month or so about writing erotica at WriteSex.net.

    You can read my hard-boiled crime blog at Boiled Hard.

    You can add me on Good ReadsTwitterFacebookTwitpic, and Flickr, if you’re into that sort of thing. You can check out my Amazon Author Page.

    You can also add me on Tumblr, if you’re one of those people.

    You can also add The Panama Laugh on Facebook and Twitter.

    And if you enjoyed The Panama Laugh and want to see a sequel, you can visit PanamaLaugh.com for updates.

    Of course you can always just drop me a line, which is cool, too. Hopefully you’ll be seeing lots more of me on the bookshelves, virtual or otherwise. But whatever the future brings, it’s been hella fun blogging here. Thanks for listening.

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  • So here we are. A full year since starting up this here blog.

    Despite the theme of our posts this week, my urge is to look back over the past twelve months and talk about what the blog has meant to me and the changes I’ve gone through as a writer and as a person. I know we did that last week, but I’m having an attack of nostalgia. Can you blame me?

    This isn’t to say that there aren’t things I’m looking forward to, though. I’m looking forward to quite a bit, actually. First, I’m itching to get The Straits of Galahesh out on the streets. It’s not quite the same aching desire that came from waiting for Winds to debut. Winds was my first book, and I had nothing to “hold me over,” as it were, and so it became this fingernail-gnawing delay where every day seemed longer than the one before. This year, there are still a lot of things to do to promote Winds so that it continues to find attention. So I’m alright with the wait for Straits. It’ll come.

    I’m looking forward to the release of Book 2 in another way as well. I think I’m going to feel like a grown-up writer when it happens. Perhaps not mature, mind you, but certainly no neophyte either. It feels as though once might have been a fluke. There are plenty of books and trilogies and series that never carry the author into a larger career. In many ways, there’s not a lot I can do about that—this is a very competitive business—but I’ll do what little I can and hope that word continues to spread and I can continue to share the stories I’ve grown to love writing. (more…)

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  • It’s been quite a year — a really, really good one too, and I’m so thankful that it all went as well as it did. What’s next for me? First, the next book in the Fey and the Fallen series: And Blue Skies from Pain will be released in March of 2012. (So, I’m afraid y’all are stuck with me for a few more months yet, only on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays.) And I’m working on another novel — because if there’s one rule of being a writer it’s: WRITE THE NEXT ONE. All in all, this is what I love doing more than anything in my life, and I know just how lucky I am that I’ve been able to sell one, let alone two novels so far. So, hurray for doing what you love and having the opportunity to make even a little money at it! May everyone be so lucky. Because wouldn’t the world be a different place if everyone was doing whatever it was they most had a passion for? Sure, it’s scary sometimes, and it’s hard work, but it beats the hell out of never having tried.

    What else? I need to get back into shape for fencing again. It’s time to pick up a blade — or in my case, sometimes two. It keeps my mind sharp, and I miss it a lot. If possible, I want to travel some more as well. I’d dearly love to make it to Ireland next year. (We’ll see.) But, hey, I’ll settle for just making it to WFC and Norwescon again. I plan on a trip down to Galveston and the Elissa too. (I’ve always had a thing for Tall Ships.) And then there’s my gi-normous pile of To Be Read books. I really have to make more headway before I bring home another novel. The new books I want to read are too numerous to name, but I’ll definitely say that David Coe’s next novel is one I can’t wait to read. Here’s hoping I learn to read faster. I’ve also a number of films I want to catch up on too. (Can you believe I’ve only just seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes? And me an Apes fan since I was a kid.) I suspect I need to learn to manage my time better. (I seriously don’t know how Courtney does it all.)

    Anyway, may 2012 be a great year for you and yours.

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  • 2011 is coming to a close, and it’s time for me and the other excellent Night Bazaar denizens to shuffle (or bounce) out the exit and leave the stage to a new chorus of voices.  It’s been a wild, wonderful, crazy year, and as I said in last week’s post, I’m eternally grateful to the gang here at the Bazaar for making my experience of first publication that much more fun (and helping to keep me sane).

    So what’s ahead for me in 2012?  First off, there’s the biggie: finishing The Tainted City.  Right now the novel is scheduled for publication in October, which means my deadline is Real Soon Now (pant, pant, augh!).  Some days I think my brain will explode (especially if my son outgrows the need for a nap, which oh god, I pray he does not do until this book is done…).  But for all the stress involved in balancing parenthood, writing, and day job,  I remain ridiculously excited about the story.  I hope those of you who enjoyed Whitefire will enjoy Tainted City just as much!  (Click here to read a descriptive blurb – though only if you’ve already read Whitefire, since the blurb is slightly spoilerific for Whitefire otherwise.)

    What’s next after The Tainted City?  Before I type another word I’m gonna dive headfirst into my TBR pile.  So many good books I’m dying to read, and haven’t yet!  I remember after I finished my big revision of Whitefire, I read something like 2o books in two weeks – and wow, I felt so wonderfully recharged and itching to get back to work on my own story afterward.  (Other non-writing goals for 2012: climb at least one new peak over 14,000 feet, take my son to hike a nice easy Utah slot canyon like Little Wild Horse, ski the fall line of the infamous Spiral Stairs mogul run at Telluride without stopping or falling, and return to competition in figure skating.) (more…)

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