Like a Snowball Rolling Down Hill

I remember being so naive. My wife, due to a rising career in human resources, wanted me to stay home and write instead of going back to my construction estimating job. Since writing has always been my passion, ditching the work-only-for-the-paycheck model of life for one more fulfilling was a no-brainer.

So I started writing my first book, a half-baked murder mystery from the point of view of the killer. And it was TERRIBLE.

Still, I had this notion that any book written would be scooped up by publishers, rushed to print and would bring notoriety. Mounds of (well-deserved) rejections acquainted me with reality. Oddly enough, not only do agents and publishers not want to put out crap, there are a ton of other people writing books and it's actually quite the competitive field. Go figure!

You don't get a chance like mine every lifetime though, so I persevered, licked my wounds and learned. I had a great clarity when writing my second novel, The Twenty-Year Reset, and the result speaks for itself. Not only did I embrace my nerdish sci-fi loving, techno-roots, but I had less pressure on me during the writing process, which meant a greater ability to write for myself.

After tons of agent rejections, I decided that self-publishing was the way to go. This is a new era after all, and the positive feedback, many times from people who had no motive to blow smoke up my ass, told me I had something special on my hands and not to let it rot in obscurity.

Now, after launching my novel, I'm getting sales - and feedback. It's been gratifying to actually connect with people reading my novel and hear their thoughts. That's why most of us do this right? We want a connection - to impart a story and meaning to other people and see our ideas spin around in their minds. And to do that, you need readers.

My readership now may be relatively small by comparison, but it's that tiny snowball at the top of the hill. Give it a nudge and it'll roll down, collecting other readers and expanding the conversation. Being a father gave me patience, and that virtue is certainly coming in handy now, but it's also important to take a look around now, at the very beginning of things, and appreciate where I'm at. Any writer knows that beginnings are important, but sometimes we lose that sense of now in the rush of life.

So . . . here's to now and the future it helps usher in.

[Obligatory pitch for my novel below]

Twenty-Year Reset on Amazon

In a near future America where people only communicate through technology, humans live agoraphobically in a kind of technological womb. They never meet face to face and stepping outside is as unappealing as it is impractical. The Twenty-Year Reset challenges our embrace of the modern, social networked world overflowing with acquaintances masquarading as friends, where you can have dinner with a loved one and never take your eyes off of your cell phone. Where does humanity head when we become intrinsically interconnected by technology but our relationships become less substantial?