As I've stated before, writing books wasn't part of the plan, but for the last five years it's all I've been doing, and loving every minute of it. I started with poetry and then tried my hand at novels and was hooked.
/The Poetry/
Gun Control for Polar Bears (2016) was my first book. It was a poetry book that I'd had sitting in random papers and on my computer for a little while. I'd read some to my wife periodically. As I was struggling with writing and sending out work and getting nowhere, my wife, Anchanie, suggested I send out my poetry. I honestly didn't think anyone would be interested. I figured if I was ever going to do a poetry book, I'd probably self-publish it, print some copies, and that's it.
I sent out what I'd titled Gun Control for Polar Bears - a title that doesn't mean anything, it was just the pattern of words that had come to me. Got a lot of rejections, which I was used to by that point. Interestingly enough, most of the rejections came with "I love that title though!" I got an email from Supposed Crimes LLC owner/publisher/author Christy Case. I expected another rejection upon opening it. It turned out that she loved the poetry and wanted to publish it. I had to read it again. No one had ever told me Yes before regarding my work. I thought on it for about a day, maybe less than, and her and I went back and forth shortly. Shortly after, I was signing a contract. This was all in 2015, the book to be released the following year.
Holding the book when my copies arrived was wild. We'd created this thing that didn't exist before, and it wasn't just another idea of mine or another unfinished project sitting around; it was real, physical. It probably sounds stupid to gush over but, after struggling to even be read, it was like water in the desert.
https://supposedcrimes.com/products/gun-control-for-polar-bears
Reflections at Various Speeds (2017) was my second volume of poetry and third book to be released from Supposed Crimes. While writing my first novel, and addicted to that feeling after getting my first book, I remembered that I had another poetry book. This one was older, scrappier. In my younger days, film and music was the goal. I wrote a lot of lyrics and saved them. I had always intended on releasing the lyrics with art pieces and make more of an art/poetry book out of it. Well, like a lot of my stuff, it sat there. I had, at different times, artists attached to the project but they all had bailed on it.
I asked Christy if she'd be interested in another poetry book, and she said yes. I polished up the stack of lyrics and random poetry pieces, and added a few new pieces here and there. Again, this stuff is older than Gun Control for Polar Bears. It's rough and there's not a set style in the pieces. While I've had input in all my covers, I actually did this cover myself. Minimalist and scrappy, like the book. Reflections at Various Speeds was another title that'd just come to me. Other poetry book titles I had were things like Freebasing Sugar at High Velocities, and Green Lollipops Give You Special Powers. Wil they ever be used? Doubt it, but it's nice to dream.
The release of this book felt like closure in a lot of ways. I love it, and it was one of the last books my dad read before his passing, expressing his love for the piece "Crowded House of Sin." It was released a month after my novel Last Rites of the Capacitance.
https://supposedcrimes.com/products/reflections-at-various-speeds
Loose Lipped Secrets and Twinkling Lights (2019) was an interesting collection, my third volume of poetry. This had a few old pieces but was comprised of mainly new stuff. A lot of it was experimentation of the craft, stretching, seeing what I can do with words here and there. Before actually starting this book, I looked over some old pieces and gave them a quick rewrite before starting more.
Upon starting it, I was working on Agent Phoenix and various other little projects. As Agent Phoenix was giving me trouble, I needed something else to put myself into, and thought I could do a poetry book rather quickly. I couldn't. I couldn't pull a poetry book out of my ass. I did one piece in the style that I work in and realized I couldn't do it. I still left that piece in, if you can name it there should probably be a prize. This became a difficult write as I dug deep and poured myself out on the page.
See, just before starting this book, my dad passed away. There aren't a whole lot of pieces about him in this book, but dealing with his death opened me up to more that I was going through. Like my other poetry, there are story-type bits, emotional outcries, and things about life and humanity in general. I can honestly say this is my best poetry work. I love them all but as far as craft goes, with this book, I'm getting closer to something I see in my head.
https://supposedcrimes.com/products/loosed-lipped-secrets-and-twinkling-lights
/The Novels/
Last Rites of the Capacitance (2017) was my first novel. I couldn't be more proud of this book. While we were working things out for the release of Gun Control for Polar Bears, I'd seen on the Supposed Crimes website a call for submissions "Sci-fi as hard as ice." I love me some hard science fiction but A) I didn't think I was good enough or SMART enough to write hard sci-fi, and B) I'd never written a novel before, that's crazy. I figured, if I was horrible, I'd just hang it up.
I had a couple of ideas that interested me so I put them together and began shaping my sci-fi book. I'd throw ideas at Christy as I was working on it. She was nothing but encouraging. To say I was green is an understatement, but she never made me feel like I was out of my element, and pushed me to explore my potential as a writer. You don't write your first novel once, you write it many times until it's right, and this book was no exception. It went through multiple drafts, working through different styles until finally settling on all of them. It's a smorgasbord of science fiction, horror, and drama with bits of humor and action.
The amount of horror in it wasn't intentional, I just grew up a horror kid and it was ingrained in me. Starting to write a novel for the first time was exciting, scary, and even a bit overwhelming. I didn't really know how to go about it, so I used the writing skills I had and started, so it has a film-like feel to it. I wasn't used to writing in the literary fiction format, but writing scripts so that was used as my base. From there, Christy Case and I shaped that book into what it is today. She was patient with me and I eventually came out of my shell. I still remember the process and all that went involved and someday I'll go into it in full detail for anyone who might be interested.
https://supposedcrimes.com/products/last-rites-of-the-capacitance
Agent Phoenix (2020) was my third novel, second with Supposed Crimes. Unlike other projects, I didn't actually tell Christy or anyone about this. I was going through a tough time. My second novel (self-published) opened to crickets and I couldn't get anyone to read it. I stopped pumping out self-published works and started work on new stuff, stuff that surely someone would want to read. I was working on two science fiction novels together. They were both heavy with lots of moving parts. I grew more and more depressed every time I sat down to work on them.
I finally needed to put them away for the time being. I wanted to write something light and fun, but more importantly I wanted to write something fast. I'd always heard stories of authors cranking out a fast piece of work and I wanted to do that. I don't know if it was just to write something and get it out of my system or what. I needed a cleanser project from the heaviness I'd been working on. So I came up with a pulpy adventure story called Agent Phoenix. The idea was simple, putting the focus on visuals and action. I didn't want anything heavy, keeping it light and fast-paced.
I found out early on in Agent Phoenix that I could not write something fast. Like the poetry book Loose Lipped Secrets and Twinkling Lights I tried to rush, I found I couldn't 'crank' anything out. The more I tried to hurry it along, the more the book made me slow down and look at everything - how the sentences were constructed, how I wanted it to come across. Agent Phoenix changed how I wrote and made me pay closer attention. The things I've been writing since completing it are much different but it's because of this book in a weird way. Agent Phoenix is a 180 from Last Rites of the Capacitance. Instead of darkness, everything's lit with bright flashy neon; and instead of heavy issues and horror, it's light and positive.
To write it, I pulled inspiration from comic books and TV shows such as The Flash. Agent Phoenix is basically a superhero book without stating as much. I turned it in and she really dug it so it was off to the races. Agent Phoenix is my 3rd novel, 5th book with Supposed Crimes, and my 10th book to be released. It was mainly written in 2018 and finished and turned in 2019. The writing of it was frustrating but it was in the middle of writing this one that dad had died and that complicated things further, but I eventually, using work to cope with grief, went back to it.
https://supposedcrimes.com/products/agent-phoenix
I have a lot of great things lined up with Supposed Crimes and hope to continue to work with them in the future. I love working with them. There's so much freedom and encouragement. The moment we were done with the edits for Last Rites of the Capacitance, it was like my mind exploded with so many ideas to write for them. The only real issue was, I wasn't good enough for those ideas yet. I had great ideas but I wasn't at the level to give them what they needed. As I've been working on more, and varied, projects, I've been getting better and feeling better and more confident in my craft. The first ten have been a great learning experience. The stuff beyond Agent Phoenix is on another level. I'm not bragging, not at all, I'm just happy to be seeing growth. Of course, I also hope to see growth in the number of readers, but as with most things, time will tell.
Well this has been the first part of The First 10, the Supposed Crimes 5. Tomorrow, I'll go over my self-published works. I hope you check out my work with Supposed Crimes and I hope you check out the other amazing authors they have on their roster. I see and read the titles and honestly wonder why more people haven't heard of the company or given their works a chance. It's great, I assure you, start reading!
www.SupposedCrimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment