Discovering a Story: Mark Allan Gunnells on Balancing Writing & Work

Mark Allan Gunnells was in a dry spell.  He’d gone a year without selling a story.  He was getting discouraged, but he kept writing horror stories, novellas, and gay fiction.  Gunnells’ dry spell broke, finally, this winter with the acceptance of not one, not two, but three books! 

Gunnells’ zombie novella, Asylum came out last December from Apex Book Company’s relatively new imprint, The Zombie Feed.  Then came Whisonant/Creatures of the Light, two novellas in one binding, from Sideshow Press.  Pre-orders are open for Gunnells’ third book, Tales from the Midnight Shift, Volume 1, which takes its name from Gunnells’ day job as a security guard. 

For the last seven years Gunnells has maintained a steady output.  His secret?  He writes while at his day job.

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The Work Never Ends: Livia Reasoner on Freelancing

Novelist Livia Reasoner has never held a traditional “day job”, yet, as she says below, the work never ends.  She’s lived all her life in a small Texas town, raised children with husband James Reasoner, and now tends to her aging parents there.  In the late 1970s, the Reasoners built their own house together.  In 2008, they lost that house and their writing studio to a wildfire.  Together, they slapped off the ashes and rebuilt…  and, of course, kept on writing.

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A Fairly Normal Work Schedule: Cameron Judd on Freelancing

Cameron Judd’s recent novel, Outlaw Train, tells the story of a deputy left in charge, a train full of “curiosities,” and a whole mess of miscreants up to no good.  A bit weirder (in the best of ways) than most of Judd’s novels, Outlaw Train does have all the clean lines, gut-twisting plotting, and vivid characters.

 

If Max Brand and Sherwood Anderson collaborated on a novel, it might go sort of like Outlaw Train.  Read it for the characterization, for the plotting, for the style.  I read Judd’s novels with my mouth open and a pen in my hand, taking notes on craft and highlighting beautiful turns of phrase.

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No Shame In Being Persistent: John Tintera on Promoting Your Book

Meet John Tintera.  You might not recognize the name, but if you’ve been in a bookstore, lately, you’ve probably seen his work and the work of his team. I was introduced to Tintera by Matt Forbeck, whose Amortals and forthcoming Vegas Knights are published by Angry Robot.   Tintera is the Sales and Marketing Director for the Osprey Group, which includes the imprints Osprey Publishing, Shire, and Angry Robot.

What does that mean?  It means Tintera is one of the team-members who loves books and who talks numbers, marketing plans, and release schedules.  It also means that he does the stuff they didn’t teach us in creative writing workshops—the business, the promotion, the P&L [profit and loss] reports. Continue reading