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!

Not Writing. Recording.

A quick update on what’s currently going on. Well, I’ll t ell you: a lot.

Podcast: You probably noticed by now, “The Transport” audiobook is in constant output state. A new podcast episode with three to five chapters every Monday. I just uploaded episode 8 to be scheduled on Feb 22nd. I needed to stay ahead of the curve in order to realize my new project, making music again.

Music: Yes, you heard right. With the production of the podcast came back the idea to do some music, too. Tinkering with keyboard, guitar and writing songs. More to come from February 1. I’ll have a separate post as an explainer on Saturday.

Writing: As I need some constant writing outlet, I started plotting for my next Troubleshooter thriller. It will be second book in my “inspired by current events” series, featuring Paul Trouble and Leah Steel. Their first adventure together was COVID Trouble of course. The new book has the working title “Billions of Troubles” and is inspired by the great, ugly, messy real life events around Germany’s Wirecard fraud scheme. A blue chip fin-tech company built on deceit and fraud, imploding after an inquiry by a journalist.

The Year So Fast / Upcoming

2018 is almost over and 2019 knocks at my door. I managed to publish my usual two books, the German version of Teen Monster Hunters and the English follow-up Teen Vampire Hunters. Which is good, I guess. Sales-wise the monthly checks came in from my various publishing platforms, but definitely not with the numbers I’d like to see. It remains an inner struggle to spend time with non-writing activities. Maybe I should heed a friend’s advice and hire someone to run social campaigns to extend my readership.

The second route in 2019 will be the conventional publisher route. I have 11 full size books under my belt, have the basic handiwork of a writer, and the discipline to deliver on time. My current project is aimed at a broader thriller scifi horror audience and hopefully an agent or publishing house will be interested.

On a personal level, there are also big changes ahead. I am switching jobs, leaving behind a lot of very nice colleagues. The new job is a bit cloak and dagger, so I will not elaborate. I might need to establish a sort of topical firewall to separate truth from believable fiction when writing crime and spy stories.

And so it goes… 2018. Thanks for the memories. Good riddance to lost opportunities. 2019, it’s in my hands to do it better.

Cover to Cover - Why I needed "Teen Monster Hunters" darker!

Saturday had been creative change day.

Closed the story line on another RomCom romantic comedy  (What do you think about the tagline: "Three friends, one startup, one vow: no romantic distractions. Yeah, right!")

Decided what to write next, continuing the Teen Monster Hunters series with the next 50K word novel, working title "Teen Vampire Hunters".

Changed the cover of Teen Monster Hunters. What? Why? I felt, the cover was too bright and cartoonish. I like the cartoon concept, to the extend that it will be a recurring theme for the next books and novella short stories. But for monster hunting story, the color scheme and cover should be slightly more edgy and scary. 

Before and after. What do you think?

Pronoun Publishing - R.I.P.

Today I received notification from one of my meta publishers "Pronoun" that they cease their operations. I have used them just a few weeks ago to publish my latest novel "Teen Monster Hunter" into the various e-channels for ebooks. 

Too bad. I really liked the uncomplicated interface that autosaved your inputs, always told you where you were in the process and did not asked you to overly format your Word document that would be converted by the service into the various' platform ebook formats. (A more detailed comparison to the gorilla in the room Smashwords can be found here)  No real reason was given by the mother-publishing company Macmillan. My guess: the financials weren't there for indie book publishing.

What does this mean for me? Well, first of all a lot of non-creative work to move some of my works over to another platform. Three of my works currently get distribution via Pronoun: "Teen Monster Hunters", "Troubleseeker", and "Pieces of Trouble".  Links change, formatting changes, resubmission process, new ISBN... I hate this distraction when all I want to do is write on my next books.

Teen Monster Hunters - out now! Plus free goody!

This is it: Teen Monster Hunters is finally out and available at all major e-tailers (Print version to follow in a few days). Follow Sally Storm and her formidable friends, genius Ryan Montgomery and single-word slow guy Moe Doe, at their high school adventure to discover there is more to their school than obnoxious football jocks and boring classes.

But wait, there is more: I created a small sequel to Teen Monster Hunters called "The Test". And guess what, it's free!!! All you have to do is follow it on Wattpad, the serialized chapters will come out every two days. Hope this gives you a taste of the new series, and makes you addicted (and makes you buy Teen Monster Hunters!)