Wrapping Up '08

I don't post often, but it seems like the day to do a little catch-up. And what better way than to share a few highlights and lowlights, as well as a few hopes for next year. I'm going to start with the lowlights, and then finish with the good stuff. Years ago, in my first writing workshop in college, I learned the rule that if you're going to criticize, end on the positive as it helps temper the negative. But before I get to specific lows and highs, I want to talk about the one thing that is a little of both.

Chasing Smoke
Now, you might think the publication of my second novel is a highlight, and you'd be right. But it's not all rainbows and unicorns. I'm not sure how other writers feel about their work, but my relationship to my writing is probably too emotional, too tied up in existential angst. I am not a fast writer, and as the process drags out, my feelings about my work bounce all over the place. I know I'm not alone in the feeling that work-in-progress is terrible, unreadable, embarrassing. Many (if not all) writers share that feeling at some point in the process. I take it to the next level, where the work-in-progress gets bound up in my sense of who I am. This probably not a good thing, but there it is.

The writing of Chasing Smoke was different from my previous work, too, in that it came after my first book contract. My agent wanted it as quickly as possible, because she very sensibly wants to maintain forward momentum, without too big a delay between books. Of course, the assumption there was that I could write a second book, something I wasn't at all sure of during the writing of Chasing Smoke. As it was, however, I was able to do something I have never done before: keep track of how much time it took to write the book.

And here you go. Chasing Smoke took me twenty months to write from start to final submission draft that Alison and Ben at Bleak House took it on. But I can get more specific than that. Time in front of the keyboard came out somewhere between 1,450-1,500 hours. Of course it was even more than that, since I can't count how much time I spend in ruminations or making notes on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes.

In one sense, that is too long, arguably way too long. It just happens to be how long it took me. I know plenty of writers work much faster, and produce cleaner, more engaging work. For myself, Chasing Smoke serves as the best work I've ever done. Some people will say that for all the time it took, it should have been better. I wish it was better, but it's done, it's in print, and so be it.

And yet, in a way, I wish I was still working on it. As satisfying as seeing my work in print is, there is something anti-climactic about it as well. While the writing is in progress, its potential outstrips its actuality. In draft, it can still be anything. In draft, I still have a chance to create something truly special. Once it is frozen in print, it is what it is, and all the nits and issues that remain stand out in sharp relief against the fading gleam of lost potential.

But I can't wallow in past work. If I'm going to make a go of this whole writing career thing, I have to keep moving forward, slow as that may be. I'm currently at work on my third novel, tentatively titled Blood Trail, and have reached about 80,000 words of the first draft. The completion date continues to be unknown, but I have to be honest and admit that I haven't come close to any date yet. First it was going to be last June. Then September. Then today. Now it might be next month, next summer, or even 2010. The book is, frankly, a mess right now, and I don't have any sense of when I will sort it all out. But, itis at that point where it is all bright potential, and that's what keeps me moving forward. There are moments which are among the best writing I've ever done. There are other moments which are so awful I can't see how they can be salvaged. But the potential, the fluid, shifting, just-beyond-my-reach potential remains.

Now on to 2008...

Lowlights
The economic world imploded. Every industry got hit, and publishing won't soon forget its own Black Wednesday. In my day job field, graphic design and its bastard child web development, the opportunities shrank as in every other field (except, perhaps, the field of bankruptcy law). Personally, it's hard to know exactly how hard I will be hit, both in the day job and in publishing my work. At least I know that whatever happens, I won't be alone.

Sales of Lost Dog have been very disappointing. The nature of the royalty report being what it is, it's very difficult to tell what's really going on, but when I got the last report and noodled the numbers, it looks like the book has sold under 1,000 copies. Ouch. My hope is I'm misinterpreting something and it's not that bad, but any way you look at it, it ain't great.

Chasing Smoke was released. Yes, this is a lowlight, as intimated above, but also see below, in Highlights.

Chasing Smoke takes it in the 'nads in Publishers Weekly. A bad review is part of the deal when you have a book out in the wild, and Lost Dog got its share. But the Publishers Weekly review really hurt, not the least because when you go to the various online book seller sites, it's the review that gets displayed. No need to rehash the details, but the PW reviewer hated Chasing Smoke with the fire of a thousand suns. And now anyone considering buying it online (go to your favorite local indie bookseller instead) will see, first thing, a review that can be summarized thus: "Chasing Smoke sucks the windy boner and Bill Cameron should be immediately killed for writing it." Oy vey.

Portland Wordstock Festival. Okay, for the record, Wordstock is far more a highlight than a lowlight, and I get into that in detail below. But there was one big disappointment, which was that the book booth didn't carry my books. Now, that happens, but the attitude of those working at the booth was particularly galling, expressing no interest in working with me to get books and offering the perfunctory apology of someone who doesn't feel sorry at all. Because of that I was left with such a bad taste in my mouth about the event that I probably won't do it again.

Highlights
I got to become friends with Alison Jannsen and Ben LeRoy of Bleak House. Win.

Chasing Smoke was released. Natch.

Starred review in Library Journal, and doubleplusgood review in Book List. As much as the PW review hurt, the reviews in Library Journal and Book List filled me with glee. The starred review in LJ was particularly wonderful, and one of the great side effects of that seems to be really nice library sales. Last time I checked Worldcat.org, the library count for Chasing Smoke was up to almost 200, as compared to only 50 or so for Lost Dog. That's moving in the right direction.

Got right with Sandra.

Lost Dog was a finalist for two different awards, the Rocky at Left Coast Crime 2008 and the 2008 Spotted Owl. Sweet.

Chasing Smoke inspired a number of sales of Lost Dog. Double sweet. (Of note was the library count in Worldcat.org for Lost Dog, which was stalled at 50 for about a year, but then started to rise again after the release of Chasing Smoke.)

"Slice of Pie," my contribution to the Killer Year anthology, is described as "an irony-filled gem" in the Chicago Tribune. My first mention in a major newspaper.

My story, "Coffee, Black," is accepted for Portland Noir, one of the Akashic Noir series anthologies. It's a story about Skin Kadash. The anthology will be out in June 2009.

My story, "Counterflow," took second place in the Press 53 2008 short short fiction contest, and was subsequently read by Alan Vogel on Lit 103.3: Fiction For the Ears.

Hanging out at Book Expo America with all kinds of fun people and good friends, not the least of whom are Brett Battles, Rob Browne, agent extraordinaire Janet Reid, the aforementioned Ben and Alison, and so many others.

Traveling the countryside with friends for my book tour, including Eric Stone, marvelous writer and great road companion, and Kelli Stanley and Tana Hall, wonderful hosts. Wonderful friends too, all of them.

Powell's at Cedar Hills Crossing. In Portland, Powell's is an institution, and its reach is far beyond the city. The main store downtown is so large you can spend a week inside and not see all the books. It also features nice satellite stores throughout greater Portland. My favorite by far is the store in Beaverton, where I have had the great good fortune to be hosted by Renee James and Ananda Yorty for not only a signing event for Chasing Smoke, but also at two marvelous group events called "Murder With Friends." Powell's is a destination for any book lover, but for my money, mystery and thriller readers need to go to Beaverton.

Wordstock Festival. I told you I'd get back to this one. And my experience in the book booth notwithstanding, this is a great event for readers. I had the marvelous opportunity to sit on a panel with Phillip Margolin and Robert Clark, as well as to do a reading and Q&A alongside Ed Goldberg. The best part was the chance to lead a workshop on character-driven mystery. My hope is the workshop attendees had as much fun as I did, and more importantly, that I was able to offer something of value to them.

My friends at various independent bookstores, both in Portland and around the country. I know I will forget some, but the list certainly must start with the fine folks at Portland's Murder by the Book. Jean, Barb, Carolyn, and Nick are my heroes. But that's not all. Kindness and support has been heaped on me by L.A.'s The Mystery Bookstore, M is for Mystery in San Mateo, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, Mystery Mike's, Tea Party Bookshop in Salem, Oregon, Steve Lee at Heirloom Bookshop, and probably many, many more that I am neglecting.

Next Year
If you've gotten this far, thank you. This post does natter on, doesn't it? Almost done!

It's hard to know what to expect for 2009. Blood Trail has a long way to go, and so an uncertain future. We're all wondering which part of the economy will collapse next, and which of us will go with it. I can't decide whether to be hopeful or to quake in terror. Probably a little of both. Either way, I know I will keep chipping away at the novel, keep chatting with my friends on Twitter, keep gabbing in IMs with my pals from around the world, and hopefully, keep a little day job income flowing. Hell, I might even blog every now and then.

Whatever happens, I hope 2009 offers us all more than our fair share of bright spots.