Welcome to this episode of Sonitotum, in which I observe the sixteenth anniversary of the completion of my first novel, the indie publishing landmark Brave Men Run, and reflect on what’s happened since, including in the four months since I last spoke to you.
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode
- First things first! You can find Brave Men Run on Amazon in e-book and paperback formats and, by the end of September, 2021, pretty much anywhere books are sold online.
- My latest work of fiction is “The Perfumed Air at Kwaanantag Bay,” a Shaper’s World novelette. It’s the second Shaper’s World story. The first is…
- Light of the Outsider, my latest novel, a stand-alone fantasy thriller and the first book in the Shaper’s World Cycle and the Outsider Trilogy. You should read it.
- I mention my day job — I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters, and other creators (and the occasional small business or non-profit) bring their works to fruition, to market, and to an audience. I can probably help you! Check it out.
- Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights: “How It All Got Started” is my free serial fiction offering to subscribers of my mailing list.
- Getting a sound sleep has been a challenge for me lately, and that exacerbates some of the other issues I mention in the episode. Here’s one of many articles explaining why it’s not sufficient to simply get enough sleep — that sleep also has to be across an unbroken period, and of good quality.
- Here’s one of many articles on how existential stressors bring us down, and what to do about it.
- Here’s the Big Plan.
- I finished Brave Men Run in a Starbucks (that’s not there any more) in Hesperia, California, a “bedroom community” of Los Angeles just past the Cajon Pass on the 15 freeway. I lived there for nine years and I will never go back.
- Scribtotum is my blog, where you’ll find periodic, often-long form, in-depth articles and essays on living a healthy and successful creative writing life.
- I boldly proclaimed that I’ve written things that are better than that book of mine everyone loves, Brave Men Run. This happens when you keep writing and getting older and stuff. So… like what?
- How about its sequel, the more complex and layered Pilgrimage?
- How about the aforementioned fantasy thriller Light of the Outsider, and its follow-up, “The Perfumed Air at Kwaanantag Bay?”
- In this episode, I mentioned my mother’s illness and death. Here’s a tribute I wrote shortly after her death, if you’d like to read something more positive.
- David Lynch on the suffering artist… and why suffering is not good for creativity!
- Disassociative identity disorder. Believe me, by referring to it, I am in no way diminishing the seriousness of this rare mental illness, or the awful trauma from which it typically springs.
- What it means to be an introvert.
- I mention that my stepfather and I had been estranged about thirty years. What I meant was that we became estranged (my choice) when I was around thirty years old.
- For some reason, I say “storage bin” when I mean “storage unit.”
- The last time I released an episode of Sonitotum was in May of 2021, not March like I say in this episode.
- Next episode will feature an in-depth interview with writer and storytelling coach Jarod Cerf! Check his stuff out at his site, and dig his interview of my on his Here Be Tygers podcast (part one / part two)!
What Did You Think About This Episode?
What are your thoughts? Let’s hear from you in the comments!