So, when last I left you in April, I had 50K words on the Moon Lake Book 2 manuscript. Four months later that word count has jumped to 62K.
That’s not a lot. I’m well aware. The thing is, sometimes I tell myself, “Just shit out a story already. Who cares if it’s good? Who cares how many subplots and how much character development it has? Just get it done!”
But then I think, the majority of people who read my books, actually read them YEARS after I’ve initially published them. For example, just this morning, for some reason as yet unknown to me, I’ve sold 20X more copies of Shooter than I have been selling in recent months. It’s a significant increase. Shooter is 10 years old at this point. But it’s experiencing a mini-Renaissance today for some reason.
So, I can’t put out shitty (to me) books. I can’t just load canon fodder into the tube and pelt you all with it and then move on. Even if many of you didn’t like some of my books, like, say, the Stark Ink series. To this day, I still get emails from people who say, “I had to take care of my parent while they were dying and this series really made me feel like someone out there knew and understood what I was going through.”
Those emails keep me going. Even if I’m not technically PUBLISHING as often as I used to, those emails make me fire up Scrivener, over and over again, try to push through.
So I’ve added 12K words to Moon Lake Book 2. I estimate it’s 2/3rds done. It’s changed a lot since I first conceived it, which is why it’s taking so damn long. But I want to be happy with it. I want people, 10 years from now, clicking randomly on a book to cuddle up with over a rainy weekend, to stumble upon Drowning and think, “Wow. That’s so much more than I was expecting from what appeared to be a Throwaway Romance Novel.”
Can I tell you that Shooter still gets Kindle Pages Read? Shooter has not been enrolled in Kindle Unlimited for over 5 years. So someone has kept Shooter in their very limited list of 5 titles borrowed for more than 5 fucking years at this point. And that’s really the best indicator that you fucking nailed something. Isn’t it? That someone would keep their very limited KU borrow slots occupied with a book I published way back in 2013.
That’s literally a Desert Island book. If you could only take 5 books with you on a desert island, Shooter makes SOMEONE’S top 5. That blows my mind.
It also tells me that I’m on the right track. Even if a blizzard, or a mudslide, covered the track for a while and slowed down my progress. I’m doing something. I’m leaving something behind in my wake that people can go back to 5, 7, 10 years later and still get something out of. And that’s really the whole point, right?
A dude read Shooter once. I have absolutely no idea how. But he emailed me, years ago. He said, “So I read your book.” I was thinking, “How? Why? You have a penis. This conversation should not be happening.”
He said, “I liked your book, actually. But I just wanted you to know that .45 revolvers don’t have safeties on them.”
And I FUCKING KNEW THAT! Because I’m from Indiana, and things like that become part of your operating system even if you, personally, do not own a .45 revolver. But halfway through writing Shooter, I switched the .45 revolver to a Desert Eagle, inspired by the always amazing, supernaturally super sexy, Magnum P.I. “team gun.” And while the revolver has no safety, the Desert Eagle does. It was a continuity error that I didn’t catch. My bad.
But my point is, people read my books that I didn’t expect to read my books. And people like some of my books longer than I expected anyone to like my books. And that’s really what I’m going for, quality (such as it is, typos and all) over quantity.
Anyway, I’m still poking away at Drowning. But I want to get it RIGHT. I want it to be a noir set in the woods of Idaho with a touch of Twin Peaks thrown in. And that’s not as easy to do as you might think. Keep in mind that RIGHT doesn’t necessarily mean “you like it.” You might not. It sucks if you don’t end up liking it, but some people get me. And when they do, it’s better than any other feeling on the planet.
Someone said Shelter “reinvented the erotic thriller genre.” And that’s basically the highest compliment any writer could ever receive.
Savannah is both the Femme Fatale AND the Damsel in the Distress, but in an effort to write her as a compelling character with the most agency possible is a tough task. I work at it every day. And I just hope that, 10 years from now, people stumble onto Moon Lake, like they are doing today, for some reason, with Shooter, and finding something compelling enough for them to keep reading.
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