2021

Hi everyone, long time no post. I stepped back from social media for a while to concentrate on other stuff. Some of my time went into work — new role with new demands —, some time went into the final touches of my latest novel.

On the last day of 2021, let’s take a small review of my year in writing. Here are my personal creative highlights during a strange year 2021 (another one!).

THE TRANSPORT PUBLISHED

2020 was the year when I wrote my sci-fi military action thriller The Transport, but 2021 was the year when I published it. Usually I get by with two new books on the market each year, but in 2021 it was a little different.

THE TRANSPORT — THE AUDIOBOOK PODCAST

It started as an experiment. And as a nod to one of my writer role models Scott Sigler and his audiobook podcast from 2006(?) Earthcore, which sort of started the sci-fi journey for me. During the recording an publishing of the audiobook I learned a lot about recording, audio processing, and reading aloud. And I managed to get through all the hundred-plus chapters, staying at it, releasing episode after episode. In that respect, the audio book was like a small writing project from beginning to end. Will I repeat it? Probably not, as it takes too much time off writing.

THE FEBRUARY SONGS PROJECT

Another completely different creative project. Writing songs, recording them, and publish them. One song a day throughout the month of February. I had not written a single songer for almost over thirty years and it was a huge learning and endurance process during the COVID-pandemic-dominated month. I had to learn Logic Pro almost from scratch, juggle the various equipment, fight with skill limitations on almost every instrument (including my voice). But somehow, it all worked out. Almost a year after, I can listen to the songs again without constantly thinking “Jeez, you shoulda… Oh, no, that was soooo sloppy…”. This experiment, I probably will repeat in February 2022, need to put some mental and conceptual planning into it, though.

THE OLD MAN BOOK PROJECT

As I write this, in the middle of my Christmas vacations break, I reached one of my edting milestones. One more pass and the manuscript will be ready for the editor. Similar as THE TRANSPORT, this book is not part of a series but a stand alone thriller with a different kind of hero. If things go well, I’ll manage to publish it in February / March timeframe.

Well, and that’s a wrap to another year. Was it a good year? Creativity-wise definitely, with a lot learned and tried out. Commercially? Well… working on that! Thanks for everyone buying, reading, listening to my books. Keep it on!

Final Episode of THE TRANSPORT Podcast Out Today

A half-year rollercoaster comes to an end. Today I posted the last episode of my audiobook podcast THE TRANSPORT. 130 Chapters, 100K+ words, close to 500 pages. It was an experiment during the “boring” phases of the CORONA pandemic of lockdowns and public-life standstill. I learned a lot about reading aloud during those 26 weeks, about noise management (as I recorded predominantely in my living room at night), and about all the mistakes I still had in the manuscript despite a highly paid editor (Update time to the print and eBook editions of THE TRANSPORT!)

Will I repeat this? Maybe not. It took a lot of time off my writing activities. But it was fun during a stressful time, just as much fun as conceiving and writing my COVID Trouble over-the-top thriller last year. Hopefully, fingers crossed, this will be the last Corona project, two years is enough.

"A Brilliant Plan" now available on INKITT.com

Someone pointed me to the Midsummer Mystery Contest writing competition on the storyteller platform INKITT.com and suggested that I submitted my novel “A Brilliant Plan". And I did, of course. I had it previously published as sort of a test balloon on the story platform Wattpad.com with great success. I never had received so many comments, likes and suggestions than anywhere else. I had over 190.000 chapters read on Wattpad, that’s around 4000 readers! I love it.

If you haven’t read “A Brilliant Plan”, do so! One of my first full length novels in the crime mystery genre, it still holds up pretty well. Well, I must say that, as I am the author. But almost ten years and over ten full-length novels later, it still holds a special place in my heart. It was the first book that I wrote, which story-wise shaped up the way I wanted it. In earlier attempts on other stories, I felt that I lacked the voice and the intensity to make a story work over 300+ pages. “A Brilliant Plan” changed that.

It’s available on various platforms by now, if you fancy reading it on phone, tablet or PC. And, of course, in print, too. Just head over to my books page for the various links.

[Updated] And off we go again... Calendar Moonshine "Brilliant #3" in the making

UPDATE Jan 3 2021: You maybe noticed, a lot of stuff has happened since this post from April. COVID Trouble took priority. The Transport completion took priority. And my new project, the Audiobook Podcast Version of The Transport, took priority. The remaining 79066 words of Brilliant #3 might come. But then, maybe not.

Chapter One, Word One. Thirty minutes later 934 words down. 79066 words to go. No pressure.

Should anyone be teased enough, I recommend of course the two first books in the Brilliant Series, both available in all major eBook Retailers and in paperback.

A Brilliant Plan - It was planned as a routine job: get in, crack the safe, fetch the diamonds. Instead Calendar finds a dead body and by sheer chance becomes involved to find the murderer and the stolen jewels. To stay out of jail, Calendar has to use all her wits, skills and charm. And must solve a century old jewelry mystery.

Brilliant Actors - What could be more exciting than attending the Academy Awards ceremony, joining the hottest after-show party, and have an A-movie star wearing your jewelry? All of the above, plus spending the rest of the night in jail after a precious piece of jewelry is stolen! Calendar gets thirty days to clear her name or go to jail—permanently.

Getting closer to point "Writing-Burn-Down-Zero"

My new day job that I started earlier this year comes with a longer commute on the train. Time effectively spent with writing on my current book, a science fiction thriller romp with a lot of “citations” from classics such as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, “The Terminator”, or “Independence Day”. The writing process for me comes in several stages. Ideation and plotting are the core creative parts, fleshing out the story from a one liner (“A bunch of stranded aliens try to steal back their spaceship from US military”) to a fifty chapter structure. After that it’s writing. The most challenging part. Will the story idea hold up to hundred-thousand words? Will the characters be interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention for such a long time? Will all the plot-lines play out as sketched out?

Let me explain “Writing Burn Down Zero”: Burn down is my take on agile project methodology, adapted for writing. The fifty-plus chapter cards are my task repository, writing one after another — not necessarily in chapter order — is like developing a piece of software. One function point after another, each chapter stands on its own, with own drama and cast of characters, reactive or active, and with a small cliff hanger at the end. And the long list of chapters slowly burns down like a candle, two steps forward, one step back , putting flesh to the bare bone, creating life.

“Burn Down Zero” for my latest story approaches fast, I am running out of things to write, that moment when my burn down list will be empty. All chapters will be there. The story is there. All the characters are in. All stories within the story are resolved.

The story will be far from done, don’t get me wrong here. All over the place, I entered my open issue code “xxx”: missing story twists, missing descriptions, holes I found and was too lazy to resolve, missing characters. The next phase of work, resolving the xxx’ses, will take me as long as writing the story itself and usually adds ten percent of additional word count. I hate what’s ahead, but I love approaching Burn Down Zero! (Anytime next week)

The story is there.

It works!

I’ve made it this far!

A good feeling.

3 Things You Didn't Know About My Book "Teen Vampire Hunters"

• The inspiration for Aunt Louise was Margaret Rutherford, the 60ies Miss Marple actress. Originally she was supposed to snoop alongside the kids, but after I had included Dan and Tiff into the story, things became too crowded, so she remained a supporting player.

• The solution to the cellar mystery (open / closed casket) came as one of the very last story pieces. Usually I go more prepared into a storyline, especially for such a crucial bit. There simply seemed no solution at first. Risky, to build the story first and then solve the how-done-it But I dodged that bullet successfully in the end.

• I had intended to write “Teen Spaceship Hunters” as the second installment of the series. But the vampire story somehow created more initial story points in my notepad than the spaceship storyline. Spaceship Hunters is now back in the writing queue (as of today on slot #3, right after my current works “The Transport” and my first all German thriller “Säure”

And maybe a good time to remind you guys out there: the Teen Monster Hunter prequel “The Test” is available on Wattpad as a free read!