My social media feeds look like I’ve been busy of late. And while I’m excited to share my good news, please bear in mind the timeline for accomplishments of any sort, especially in the world of writing, is long.  The schemes and projects discussed below were in the works for months, if not years. I’ve written about my process here and here, if you’d like to poke around in the disorderly attic that is my mind a bit further.

Montag Press is Publishing The Big Cinch Novel in 2021

The holy grail for writers who want to share their works widely, I recently signed a publishing contract with Montag Press for my Sean Joye Investigations novel, The Big Cinch. If you enjoyed The Resurrectionist and Water of Life and want to know what happens next, this book is for you. 

The Big Cinch Synopsis

Sean Joye is a disillusioned young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War. A recent immigrant to St. Louis, he finds himself embroiled in the activities of an elite, magic-dabbling family. The youngest daughter, Lillian, is eager to share her secrets—as well as her bedroom—with Sean, but he falls hard for Lillian’s fiancé, a WWI flying ace with a few secrets of his own. 

Sean asks the wrong questions about a kidnapped toddler and missing Native American artifacts. Soon he is on the run, a suspect in his lover’s bludgeoning and a tycoon’s murder. The city’s powerbrokers protect their own interests with every resource at their command, from homophobic rumor to police brutality to dark magic. 

The Big Cinch immerses the reader in a magic-laced world that has barely survived a brutal global war, the 1918 flu epidemic, and rampant ethnic violence. The cosmic balance is off kilter, allowing destructive energies to seep through cracks in reality. Those energies have touched Sean. Ignoring his magical insights since childhood, Sean hoped to escape fae attention, forget his assassin past, and make a clean new life in America.  He must tap the abilities he’s long rejected to protect the innocent and save his own skin. 

The Road to Publishing The Big Cinch

How long did The Big Cinch take to write, you ask? The book grew out of a 2008(ish) short story that wasn’t working so well.  I have Word documents of novel chapters imported from an old computer that are dated January 2011. 

Judging from the saved versions, my work habits look to have been a bit on-again-off-again for a while, but I got serious about it in 2016, producing a full manuscript for my writing group to review. Just for grins, I pitched the story to an agent in June of 2018, and in the late summer and fall of 2018 hired a developmental editor, sensitivity readers, and beta readers. I revised the story yet again a couple of times that early winter.

Starting in January 2019, I queried or pitched The Big Cinch to thirteen carefully researched agents and then nine appropriate publishers. Out of those twenty-two industry gatekeepers, three showed some interest in the book and one offered a publishing contact. I sent the manuscript to Montag Press in late November 2019 and received an offer in April of 2020.  

So, four or five years of sustained effort brought The Big Cinch to its new home, after I ruminated on the idea for a good ten years before that. 

Water of Life is a Finalist in Imadjinn Contest

Water of Life: A Novelette, published in 2019, is one of three finalists in the short story category for the Imaginarium Convention’s book awards. I’d planned to be in Louisville, KY at this convention in July, manning my very first author booth. Imaginarium happens online in September this year, and winners will be announced at that time. Wish me luck!

Water of Life Synopsis

Did faeries spirit away a young moonshiner?

Sean Joye can’t help but wonder but hopes for a more reasonable explanation. He’d fled to America in 1923 as soon as he’d mustered out of the army, aiming to put Ireland’s civil war, his assassin past, and the attention of a particularly pushy faerie behind him.  But his one-time lover, Caleb, is missing. As Sean treks through a November ice storm in search of his friend, the forest itself bristles with fae ill intent, and a strange old mountain woman would just as soon shoot Sean as feed him squirrel stew. Calamity reigns, unless Sean cracks the secret of Otter Springs and its water of life.

 Caleb’s whiskey is the best. Better than legit brands like Canadian Club, even. At home we call whiskey ‘uisce beatha’— the water of life. And maybe it is the water here.

Sean Joye, in Water of Life

The Road to Publishing Water of Life

Last summer (2019), I stuck my toe in the indie publishing game. I loved my weird little tale, Water of Life, and believed it needed to see the light of day. I’d been living with it for almost ten years, through beaucoup iterations and title changes, among them “Mountain Dew,” “Uisce Beatha,” and “Otters of Callow Creek.” Under the last moniker, it was a quarterly semi-finalist in the 2012 Writers of the Future Contest, then went on to rejection from seven fantasy/science fiction markets over the next five years. 

Thus, almost ten years on this story as well. See the pattern here?

Publishing Promotional Tie-Ins

I’d be the first to admit that I don’t have the talent, inclination, or time for the marketing required of a small-business person—which is what an independent author is. Nevertheless, last February I summoned the gumption to pitch a guest blog idea to fantasy/science fiction pro Cat Rambo (The World Remains Mysterious), hoping to promote Water of Life. And Cat fell for it! If you want to taste the Water of Life before diving in, check out Miss Lutra’s squirrel stew recipe, here. (You may need to scroll down to my entry on the page. Read the other blogs, too. Very cool.)

Publishing is Hard Work, So Savor the Reward

I’ve indulged in a good bit of bragging as well as a good bit of bitching today. While I know you all are happy to see my projects take off, I hope the behind-the-scenes look at the time and effort involved will inspire rather than dishearten my fellow artists.

And Now a Word From Our Sponsor

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And, of course, I’m selling books. Check them all out at Amazon.com. Order my novella, The Resurrectionist, here. My local writer’s guild has new anthology available, celebrating 100 years of writing! My Irish fae story, Bata Scoir, is featured therein. Find it here.

 If you’ve enjoyed one of my books, tell the world! Consider leaving a short review at Amazon or Goodreads. The direct link to review The Resurrectionist on Amazon is here and for Water of Life, here. Thanks in advance.