Note: I apologize for the lateness of this (now last) month’s newsletter! Life has been a bit chaotic the last few weeks. I will always do my best to send these out before the end of each month. Onward!

The end of the beginning

Unbelievably, May is over, and in a few short weeks, I’ll be wrapping up my Masters in Publishing at Western Colorado University. I’ve previously extolled the virtues of the program before in this newsletter and in other spaces, but can’t say enough how grateful I am for both the opportunity and journey of the last year. And I’m equally excited to shift my focus to the craft of writing itself. As you may know, I’ve decided to complete my Publishing degree and I’m staying in the program to get my MFA in Genre Fiction.

Publishing as an industry is grounded in pragmatism and data, as well as things like strategy and marketing—things I’ve been learning about and working with for the better part of my life. I could lean on my love of books and my MBA to help me absorb the intricacies of the trade. My identity as an author was more in the background. Those days are over.

As I mentioned, my MFA will be in Genre Fiction, and from what I’ve seen of MFA programs around the country, its unlike anything I’ve ever heard of. There may be others, perhaps, but most MFA programs take a dim view on stories featuring space ships, vampires, or dragons. This is quite the opposite, where we will study genre in depth, pulling each one apart and putting it back together again. The program is built around community and support, and it will force me to reckon with myself as a writer in way that I don’t think I’ve fully allowed myself to do. I’m immensely privileged to be able to do this, and I’m going to get everything out of it that I can. I can’t wait to meet the author, publisher, and teacher I’ve become on the other side of this program.

The novel is…noveling?

In terms of active projects, my entire focus remains bent upon climbing Mt. Novel. And after a bit of reworking, good progress is being made. My goal is to complete the draft by late Summer, before my MFA coursework begins to dominate my creative bandwidth.

The act of writing your first novel is also the act of figuring out how you write a novel. And I’m learning a great deal, even if there are starts and stops along the way. One tool I’ve finally begun to get some traction with is dictation. I’ve used it to capture some re-planning notes for the book and taking tentative first steps to begin drafting. I’ll share more on how its going next month!

A note about creative mental health

Which is a good segue into the ups and downs of the creative life. We creative types tend quite sensitive to the world and people around us. We pick up on things others might miss, like dragons in the clouds or an air of tension in a conference room. The price of that enhanced perception is enhanced reception. We feel the feedback of the world, of people, or events deeply, sometimes so much so that its hard to contain it.

The work of a creative often requires us to be vulnerable. Sharing our work drawn from our inner most thoughts and ideas with people on the internet can be…challenging(to put it lightly). Add to that the pressures introduced by things like AI (more on that in a future dispatch), AND the eternal dumpster fire that the world remains trapped in of late, and its easy to understand why many creatives struggle with their well-being both as it relates to their work and thier identity as creatives.

There’s no panacea or silver bullet I can offer. I struggle with my mental health as much as the next guy, and some days much more so.

All I can say is this:

Remember that you matter. And your art matters because you made it and you made it for you. Your worth is not dependent upon your art or what other people think of you. You matter because you are here. And when times are hard, remember that other creatives are here for you too. Drink water, get sleep, and reach out when you need help. Your community has got you and will not let you fall.

RIP Peter David

We lost the great Peter David in May. A true giant of comic books and genre fiction, Peter was a massive influence on me through his groundbreaking run on Hulk, Spider-Man 2099, and X-Factor. And that’s really just scratching the surface of his work. Most will remember him for his comics, but he was a formidable novelist also.

He was a fixture at Dragon Con for decades. His wit and huge personality was a key fixture of so many tracks of programming. He and George Perez were MCs of the Dragon Con Masquerade for many years, without them the show has never been quite as funny (sorry DC fam). The notion we’ll never again see him for our seminal family reunion of southern fandom is hard to take.

At a Dragon Con a few years ago, before his health decline, he gave me some of the best writing advice I’d ever received: ignore the critics, especially the inner one (his emphasis), and write the story, then do it again and again. A simple article of faith I still find myself struggling with some days, but hearing that from him at the moment gave me one more push along my path.

His wit was rapier sharp in person and on the page. He was endlessly passionate about comics, art, and movies. And he genuinely appreciated his fans. Above all, he was kind.

He did not deserve the pain of these last few years. That’s over now, and I hope he’s hanging out with George Perez again, in the great comic shop in the sky. I like to imagine they’ll be watching the Masquerade, still giving commentary from their perch in the cosmic firmament.

May his memory be a blessing, and may peace and light find those who loved him. We’ll not see his like again. Thank you, Peter.

Signal boost: Quills and Cosmos Press’ The Ice Moves for No One by Arlo Z. Graves

By this point you may suspect I’m sponsored by Kickstarter (I’m not but I’m open to the idea) given how much time I’ve spent talking about various campaigns, but it really is a fantastic way for authors, publishers, and creatives of all stripes to get their product directly to you, dear readers.

Case in point, this month’s signal boost goes out to Quills and Cosmos Press and their Kickstarter for The Ice Moves for No One by Arlo Z. Graves. The tag line for their campaign is “A limited edition hardcover of the lesbian selkie warrior book you didn't know you needed”, and if that doesn’t sell it for you, I don’t know what will.

Their campaign has a few days left and definitely go check it out. With Pride month in full swing by the time this newsletter hits your inbox, now is a great time to support a press that brings LGBTQIA+ authors and stories to market in a time when we need them more than ever.

That’s all for this month. See you again in a few weeks!