That’s right. I’m still alive. I haven’t gone anywhere. I’ve been here the whole time, and I don’t plan on going anywhere soon.

However, my silence probably deserves an explanation. Hell, even if it doesn’t, I’m going to give you one, anyway. You deserve it.

My mentors (they don’t know they’re my mentors, but I think of them that way — and from what I’m going to say, some of you may figure out who I’m talking about) have a phrase that they use to describe life altering (or interrupting) events. Life rolls. These are things that come up that interfere with your life, your work, your ability to write. They are all-consuming and make getting anything creative done a real difficult proposition.

Where that’s relevant is that, over the last couple months, I’ve been right in the middle of one.

This life roll has roots that go back at least seven years, but the major events precipitating it begin near the end of 2009. You could even say that I’ve been living a life roll since the end of 2009 and only in the last couple months did it reach a state that it interfered with my ability to create.

Since 2009, my wife and I have experienced the following things: four car accidents in the space of one year that were not our fault, job loss, the sole client for my software business giving up on his business and leaving me in the lurch, long term unemployment (we now make a third of what we made before), and hospital stays for more than one family member.

We’re all still alive and we still have our home, but it all took a toll on my relationship with my wife, and we’ve been on rocky ground for quite a while.

In early September, things came to a head, and it forced me to reexamine my priorities, which is what I’ve been doing for the last couple months. I’m still doing it.

But I think I’m getting close to being able to sink my teeth into the stories again.

It won’t be the same, though.

You may not notice, honestly, because the projects I’ve started, I’m going to finish. They may just not get finished in the most timely fashion.

Before this all came down, I was going to try to publish something every four to six weeks. I was going to try to be one of those people that just flooded the market with their books to become successful.

Now, though, I’m not going to focus on producing as many books as I can. I don’t have the time, as I’ve had to take on some contract work to pay off a huge pile of debt. So with the time I have available for writing, I’m just going to focus on producing books that I’m excited about and trust that good things will happen. I’m going to try to live in the moment, as much as possible, instead of pining for a future that might never happen. I’m going to write for myself instead of to a business plan.

Reviews? Who cares.

Sales? Not going to worry about them.

Acclaim? Some of you like my writing. That’s good enough.

I love my wife too much to burn out my marriage in an effort to control something that I can’t control.

So what does this mean for the future?

I hope it means that you’ll see Bloodweave (the third A Wizard’s Work book) in the next year. You should see Minders released before Christmas, and hopefully before the end of November, and you’ll also be seeing the second Grim Repo book in the near future (right after Minders). I’ve got a couple of longish short stories to release at some point, too. Z3 (the third zombie novella) will probably see the light of day next year, too. And then, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll let you see this contemporary story that I’ve been dabbling with (I don’t know what genre it is, yet) over the last couple of months in an effort to get “something” done. Maybe I’ll write something completely different.

Whatever happens, it’ll be because it comes from my heart, and not from other peoples’ expectations.

And really, don’t we all want fiction that comes from the core of the writer’s being?

I hate doing this, which is probably why I’m a writer and not a salesman, but buy one of my books, if you haven’t. There are samples throughout the site (click on any book cover on the sidebar). If you’ve bought one of my books and liked it, buy more. Or if you’re a writer, try out my software at storyboxsoftware.com. My creditors will love you.