Newsletter January 2024 - Introductions are in order

Hi everyone,

Thanks for checking out my newsletter! Introduction time. I'm a bioengineer in my day job, but I've been reading fantasy, sci fi, mystery, thriller, etc. my whole life.

At one point I decided to give it a shot myself. I've written five novels. The first one took 10 years as I read books on writing and experimented as I went. I did a second draft, but it was going to need a lot of work. Seriously, a lot of work.

Then I discovered National Novel Writing Month. For a palette cleanser, I decided to do a goofy idea that had been running through my head about a gnome who has to dig his old adventuring gear out of the closet in order to catch the person who murdered his friend. It was done in the style of the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald.

After one month, I had a first draft of something that was much better than the second draft of my first novel, so I chalked up the first one as a learning experience and dove into rewrites on what was to become A Clockwork Murder.

I formed a writing critique group, I went to writing conferences, and I polished until it was ready to share. Several agents and editors read it and a few told me "I like it, but I don't think I can sell it." At the time, there wasn't a market for quirky, humorous, murder mysteries set in fantasy worlds. /sigh

Deflated, I spent the next several NaNoWriMo's writing other style novels that might be more marketable, but none of them grabbed me the way A Clockwork Murder did. Eventually I got married and we had kids, so I transitioned to writing and self-publishing children's books. But that's a story for another newsletter.

I did put A Clockwork Murder up on Amazon, but my plan is to re-release it here as a serial, along with some of my short stories.

My goal with this site is to post my old writing as I work on my new one, titled Under the Diamond Moon. I'm going to post everything serially as I compose (but don't worry, it won't be first draft quality, I'll polish). I've never done that and it seems like a fun challenge.

My other goal with this site is to build an audience of people who enjoy my style. I gotta find my tribe! Please share this with your friends and sign up so I can see how many folks read my work. If I find a good audience, maybe I'll go back to the publishing world and try again, but mainly I enjoy writing for the sake of writing. Still, it's more fun when people read it so I have folks to talk to about it.

Next week I'll post a short story that I'm quite proud of.

Best,

Todd