I Will Post More!

Okay, I admit, my blogging should not be so few and far between that I not only forget the password to my account, but I forget the account email as well! It took me 45 minutes to figure it out! Now that I remember, I swear I will post more often.

Here's what's been going on with my writing. "Mithras Court" is officially out of print. It's tragic that Wizards did not choose to get behind this book, but with the publishing industry semi-imploding, I guess I can't really blame them. The good news is that because of "Mithras Court" I got to join the Author's Guild and the Science Fiction Writers of America. And because of that, I was able to leverage the "Back in Print" program through iUniverse. What this means is that "Surviving Frank" once out of print, will be back in paperback within the month. I just need to review the proofs and give them the approvals they need to begin printing.

In other news, since "Surviving Frank" is nearly back, I've been inspired to actually really write the sequel. It's been tough to find inspiration this year for prose. I have, however continued working on a screenplay with my good friend, Brent Lane. More on that script later!

Blogging, Book Launches, and Snow

My friend, Dave Bara, tells me I should be blogging and maybe he's right. Here are my reservations about said method of communication:

1. I don't want do the "journaling" blog thing because I'm pretty sure no one cares what flavor of toothpaste I use and/or how it makes me feel emotionally.

2. I can never decide what themes or topics to cover or how what I write about them could come back to haunt me later....

That said, I'm going to give this a shot.

I had a book launch on November 15th and I have to say that it was pretty much an amazing moment for me. Twenty years since I submitted my first novel to a major publisher, fifteen years after I thought it would happen, I got to stand at a podium in a Barnes and Noble and pontificate, read, and take questions. The folks at the bookstore were awesome and really helpful and have continued to sell my book and push it in various locations around the store since. Sixty-five people showed up to that event, which I hear is an incredible showing even for a best seller. :-) Gotta love that! And I have to again thank everyone who attended for helping me to make the event so great!

The book continues to do fairly well, even before it has hit the shelves in many bookstores. Apparently, Barnes and Noble at least, sends books to their stores from their warehouse as slots in shelves open up. Their computers show the books on order, and yet they never seem to arrive, or at least the folks at the store don't quite no when. Fortunately, they can be short-listed which rushes them, and it seems that many stores do have them already. All that said, between that and Amazon, I think the book is doing great! Again, thanks to all who have read it or who will read it! So far, I'm getting great feedback!

One final note about writing in general. Despite this published book and some success, I have yet to attract or break through the barriers of the bigger or better agents who represent Scifi/Fantasy. Apparently, I'll have to do more to get on their radar; but that's a topic for another post.

Now about the snow. We just had a foot of snow in Seattle, the most they've seen in 18 years, the most I've seen since I moved here in 1995. Here's a personal tidbit. As a Bostonian, I take pride in being able to get my car out of a snow covered driveway and to drive in any conditions. So, this morning, I shoveled out a path behind my car up to the street, including a ramp at the end up to the extra 6 inches of "pavement" caused by crushed snow. I warmed up the car, climbed inside and hit the gas. The tires spun and caught; the car lurched backwards! The ramp worked like a charm; the car made it onto the street, tires still spinning and catching, spinning and catching. As the front end hit the road, finally, I jammed the breaks and turned the wheel. The front end slid around and came to a stop facing the direction I wanted to go. I rammed the shift into drive and gunned it; fish-tailing forward and finally heading towards the main roads.... oh yeah... now THAT was fun!

All right, that's all for now! Until next time;

Dave Page

Gothic Horror Novel is Finished!

So, by now you (and when I say "you" I mean the 2.4 people who currently read this blog) probably know I'm writing a horror novel for a new (and old) Wizards of the Coast book line. Having had only a limited release with "Surviving Frank", this is extremely exciting for me. Not only will this book be a massmarket paperback, but it'll be in bookstores everywhere all over the country, and probably in Europe too this November! In the past, with smaller publishers, I've had to beat the pavement and ask (read "beg") bookstores to carry my books. Right out of the gate, by default, this book will be everywhere. And that is AWESOME!

Now, back to the title of this post. I started writing this book in September and basically wrote a draft in five and a half months, a brutally grueling schedule and one that I wouldn't recommend as a rule to any writer. In the happy world in my brain, a novel draft should take anywhere from nine months to a year followed by another three to six months of revisions and editing. once I had completed the draft, I got a month and a half for the editorial/rewriting process, again brutal. That said, the experience has been really great and the opportunity to write in any of the Wizards of the Coast trademarked worlds is a thrill. So, this weekend, I finished the final major rewrite of the novel and sent the end back to my editor. That in itself is awesome, but who knew it could be funny as well? Here's the funny part:

My wife and I took our toddlers to an indoor playground at a community center on Sunday and it was there, sitting on a flourescent Orange "kid" table that was barely a foot and a half off the ground, that I sat with my laptop and nailed the ending. If you think that's funny, you should have seen the little bright yellow "kid" bench I was sitting on to do this. :-)

All in all, it's been a great experience. After waiting for a massmarket paperback release for about twenty years, I am finally, nearly there. Mark November 4th on your calendars!

Take care;

Dave Page

Old Blog Entries

Here are all the old Blog entries taken from my site. I promise new entries beginning weekly we're I'll talk more about the craft of writing and my experiences as well as whatever might be on my mind at the time.

-Dave

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4/17/07
"Surviving Frank" will return in trade paperback format. More to follow....
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4/9/07:
Click here to download a 30 page sample of my newly edited novel, "The Glass Vampire."
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4/4/07:
Greetings all:
It’s been far too long since I’ve done something with this site. I’ve been heads down with various novel and screenplay writing projects, not to mention buried underneath my nine month old twin girls. Anyhow, I’m writing this to let you all know that a site overhaul is coming, complete with an email link direct to me, new downloads, and a blog page. Also, stay tuned for the first chapter of “Fantasy Novel,” my own personal send-off on a genre that has become incredibly clichéd and boring in my opinion. I’ll be posting that one as I write it so it’ll be fresh out of my brain (after a critique and an edit that is).
That’s all for now. Consider this the first entry in my blog. I’m going to try to start writing entries weekly, but we’ll see how that goes. Life tends to get busy and when my head starts spinning, things slip through the cracks.
Take care and thanks for reading!
-Dave Page
PS. You can email me at blog@franktwolfe.com
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3/26/06

The Eberron short story anthology The Tales of the Last War, featuring David's story will be released on April 11th. Look for it in a bookstore near you! Click here to go order the book from Amazon.com.
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01/26/05
Check out the short story David wrote for the Magic the Gathering website!