Noble Cause

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Twinkle: new Dan McGirt mini-novel coming soon!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I’ve had little chance to update the Update in the new year.  For the last few weeks I’ve been feverisly penning–well, keyboarding–a new mini-novel.  It is not a Jason Cosmo tale, but what one might loosely call an urban (although not in an urban setting) fantasy vampire thriller mini-novel.  It is set in a rainy town in the Pacific Northwest, though not one named for an eating utensil. I call this little epic “Twinkle” — and I can assure you it’s not what you expect. At all. ((Or maybe it is. My opinion on kissy-kissy vampire stories is a matter of public record. So set your expectations accordingly.))

Twinkle will be released as a free ebook on Smashwords on March 1 — one week from today.

I suspended work on NOBLE CAUSE to write Twinkle. Why in the name of Rae would I do that? Well, the original idea for Twinkle came to my during a walk in the woods last fall. I’ve been noodling the notion ever since and when everything finally clicked in my head I decided I had to write it right away. Being a creative sort, I’m entitled to make these kinds of erratic, impulsive decisions from time to time. I believe the result will entertain you–so I hope you’ll indulge me this narrative detour. As soon as Twinkle hit the virtual stands I’ll be right back to work on NOBLE CAUSE–promise!

In the meantime, if you haven’t read the Jason Cosmo mini-novel Rainy Daze, it is also available on Smashwords. Please check it out!

Okay, back to work for me–I’ve got a deadline to meet! See you March 1 for the debut of Twinkle.

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

 

 

 

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Jason Cosmo and NaNoWriMo

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

It’s National Novel Writing Month. I know that NaNoWriMo has been around for about a decade. I only became vaguely aware of it a couple of years ago and have never participated. Nor will I be participating this year, at least officially. I will, however, be writing a novel in November: Jason Cosmo #2: Noble Cause. Since I’ve already written a good bit of it and will mainly be filling in gaps and revising, it doesn’t fit the NaNoWriMo model, but I’ll be playing along in spirit.

Incidentally, my friends at Smashwords have an interesting National Novel Writing Month promotion underway:

Participants can upload daily updates to Smashwords. Their works-in-progress will be made available as multi-format ebooks, readable on any e-reading device, personal computers and many mobile devices.

All participating writers will receive promotion at Smashwords.com within a special NaNo catalog, as well as distribution of their works-in-progress to Stanza, the e-reading app used by over 2.5 million people on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and to Aldiko, the e-reading app for Android smart phones.

If you want to share your NaNo novel in progress as an e-book, check that out. I am, as Loyal Readers can probably tell, a huge fan of Smashwords. (Where you can read Hero Wanted as a free, full-length e-book right now.)

Meanwhile, best wishes and godspeed to all the NaNo writers starting your project today! I hope you have fun with your story and stick with it for the next 30 days. If you want, leave a comment and let me know what you’re working on. And write! Write like the wind!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo Podcast Audiobook to Come

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Just a quick update. Despite my best intentions, the conclusion of Rainy Daze remains unwritten. I have been sidetracked by other obligations and continue to be. I hope to see daylight and finish the story soon. I don’t think I’ll have time to squeeze in a Halloween story before Halloween either.

Once I do wrap up Rainy Daze it will be time for the final push on the manuscript of the next Jason Cosmo novel, Noble Cause. I pretty much suspended work on Noble Cause at the beginning of 2009 to focus on getting Hero Wanted finished, edited, produced and on sale now wherever fine fantasy novels are sold.  That doesn’t mean the story hasn’t been percolating in my head. I will probably do some significant revising once I get back to it. I’ll have to see how the existing text has aged these last few months.  My back of envelope calculation is to be ready for editing and proofreading by early next year (January/February) and looking at a summer release. I’ll keep you updated as those plans gel. This is, after all, the Jason Cosmo Update.

In the meantime, I’ve decided it is long past time I got on the podcast audiobook train. After studying the examples of podiobook pioneers like Scott Sigler and Seth Harwood, I’m convinced this is something I need to do. My plan will be to record the full text of Hero Wanted, as read by me, and release it in a series of free weekly podcasts. I am persuaded that this will help me connect with many more potential new Loyal Readers (or, Loyal Listeners, I guess they’ll be), perk up my print book sales, and have fun doing it.

Obviously that is two major projects on the horizon: write and publish Noble Cause, record and produce Hero Wanted. I do not know yet what the time frame for the podiobook will be. I just bought a pro-quality microphone and a copy of Podcasting For Dummies and I’ve got a good bit of learning to do before I launch that project in earnest.  For now, writing Noble Cause will be the first priority, but stay tuned!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

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Jason Cosmo HERO WANTED launches today!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Today is the day! The official launch date of Hero Wanted!

It is also — by design, not coincidence — the 20th anniversary of the release of my first book, Jason Cosmo. I was going to write a lengthy retrospective, but forget that. The future is now!

Thank you to all the Loyal Readers who have emailed and commented and otherwise contacted me over the years. Without your support, Hero Wanted would not have been published. This was a big project to both revise the text and handle the publishing aspects. I did it because so many Loyal Readers have been in touch to say they enjoyed my books and to ask when or if I would ever have another book out. Well, the answer to those question are “yes” and “today” and thanks for asking!

What next? Well, I’ve got two big tasks on my to-do list. One is to spread the word about Hero Wanted. I appreciate my Loyal Readers, but I don’t think there a quite enough of you! Getting Hero Wanted ready for publication was a bigger job than I expected. As a result I did not have time or mental bandwidth to do much advance promotion for the book. Ideally, you start getting the word out through reviews, media, guest blogging, etc. several months ahead of the release date. Faced with a choice of pushing back the release date so I could do more pre-launch promotion or doing what amounts to a soft launch, I decided to stick with the August release. ((My last book, Dirty Work, came out in January 1993. I think that is a long enough hiatus!))

Putting on my publisher hat for a moment, while the Jason Cosmo series is a labor of love, I do need to sell some books to keep it going. The good news is I don’t need to sell millions of copies. Not that I would mind that! But just a few thousand sales will be enough to get us to book two.

Every book counts — so I would appreciate your help in finding new Loyal Readers. Nothing is more valuable in getting readers to try a new author than a friend’s recommendation, so if you know someone who might enjoy Hero Wanted, please tell them about it.

You can also recommend the book on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace or other online spaces. (And please friend or follow me on any of the above!) Once you’ve read the book, you can also post a review on Amazon, Smashwords, or other retail sites if you care to. Rave reviews are welcome, but honest reviews are more important. ((I’ll post on this another time, but I’ve actually made notes for future revisions based on critical, but thoughtful reviews of my books. I’m under no illusion that my prose is flawless or my writing can’t be improved.))

That brings me to my second main task: getting Noble Cause ready for publication. Having learned much from the process of publishing Hero Wanted, I hope the next project will proceed more smoothly, but just to be safe I’m not going to announce a launch date until I’m sure I can meet it and get all the necessary advance work done.

Bottom line — I loved writing Hero Wanted and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt