It has been way too long since my last post, but in my defense I am pretty lazy.

Ha, just kidding, a little bit.

Truth be told, I’ve been really busy with business over at Rooster Republic and its little game-development offshoot, Nodacoy Games. Heckpoint (our video game) has been in active development on Steam’s “Early Access” platform since October 31st, 2017. The game is a helluva lot different than when we started kicking the idea around over a year and change ago. And for the better. We’ve even had a website put up a cracked, early version of the thing, so you know we’re legit, now.

When people start stealing from you, that’s when you know you’ve made it.

Woo-hoo, indeed.

But Heckpoint has done well enough, and we have an end in our collective sights for the game. I imagine we will have a completed version that’s ready for official release within the next four months. And, of course, that’ll be swell but then there’s the next game and the next. Gotta keep pushing that rock up the hill.

At Rooster, we had some titles that were originally meant for release in 2017 that just didn’t come together in time (Daulton Dickey’s excellent book, Flesh Made World, was one of those titles and I implore you to pick up a copy), so in addition to finishing up those titles we are also juggling production of all the new titles coming out in 2018. This isn’t so bad, as we aren’t releasing nearly as many titles as we did last year (15-20 releases in 2017?).

Last year was tough for the world of publishing, well, indie publishing anyway. Lots of publishers closing shop and lots of magazines calling it quits. The market is flooded, I suppose, and people simply aren’t buying material quite like they were at the beginning of the decade. C’est la vie. In all honesty, Rooster works because it is mostly a two-man operation. We occasionally farm out work when we are really busy, but otherwise it is Don Noble and myself. We don’t really make any money off the endeavor, but we don’t owe anyone any money, either.

That aside, 2018 looks to be coming together rather nicely. Lots of work has all ready been done, and all the titles are coming together. We’ll be releasing the remainder of 2017’s titles over the next month or two, but the first official 2018 title won’t come out until May. Two titles, actually. A crime-horror hybrid from John Bruni titled Blood and a riff on superheroes and the music scene, Rock and Roll Death Patrol, from Michael Allen Rose. In July, we should have Andrew James Stone’s newest novella, All Hail the House Gods, and a book of poetry from Christoph Paul, At Least I Get You In My Art. Rounding out the year is a book of short stories from Charles Muir, Bodybuilding Spider Rangers and Other Stories, and a as-yet-untitled book of poetry from Sara Tantlinger.

And so, where does that leave my own writing?

LOL

In fits and starts, really, until I can square away some of these projects. If all goes according to plan (which it never does) then a bulk of my duties to Rooster will be done sometime during February or March, and I can get back to really hammering out some of my own work. I’m OK with this scenario.

In the meantime, I’ve more or less left Facebook, as the site does nothing but eat up valuable time and offers far too many distractions. I’ve taken up painting again, after many years away from it. Fine art, in general, really. Reading much more, too. I limit myself to ~50 pages a day. And I’ve lost almost 20 pounds since Christmas.

All said, I think I am doing just fine.