I have one complete novel, and by this time my excitement has devolved into nostalgia. Nostalgia is just another brand of brain crack. It’s sweet, comforting but it wears off fast and leaves you with a bitter aftertaste like Splenda. It wastes lean tissue on building temples to the past and your feet fixed to the ground.

To move forward, you’ve got to go all Sampson on the Temple of Nostalgia and their false idols called Pride and Delusion. Obliterate this temple so it’s not even worthy of a historical landmark.

To move forward, I have begun a second book, whose premise and plot I will reveal once the gut draft is done. This adventure involves dyslexia, a little-known glam-rock subgenre, conspiracy theories, Ayn Rand, and spelling bee’s.

Rapture Express is being proposed to agents and publishers. So far, I’ve gotten one rejection consisting of two words, “No, Thanks.” I appreciate the terseness but wouldn’t have minded at least a reason why they dropped my proposal like wet turd. So, I pressed on with the other proposals, in hopes someone will ask for the complete novel. Every writer says this is the most excruciating part of your career – finding that one publisher or agent who is willing to risk their reputation on you.

The reason I abandoned epublishing Rapture Express is because I am faced a few hard realities of epublishing. There’s a concept in marketing called ‘low hanging fruit.’ That is, people want what is easily accessible, packageable and recognizable. In this case, my work doesn’t adhere to a defined genre. Amanda Hocking writes supernatural fiction, which has eager readership. Also, the hard part of building my readership is that few genre-readers will consume little else. They may have read some classics and a smidge of current novels, but the majority of the Kindles are bursting with ripped bodices, swoony vampires and badass spook killers. Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes I love a good Stake with a side of Ripped Bodice.

I’ve known a few print writers who are doing well ebooking, but they had established their reputation in print along with decades of building their careers. Neither a Hocking nor print published I be.

For now, I’d rather build my reputation in print, then work on the epublishing angle later. Terrestrial printing isn’t dying, but the marketing vectors are changing and I believe future schemes will favor ebooks and audiobooks. You still can’t beat hardbound proof that someone out there thinks you’re publishable.

So, the quest continues. I will submit and query while continuing to produce work. That is job #1 – keep the words flowing like a burst aorta.