New Release Announcement: "In Our Own image"

Let's not bury the lede: In addition to my traditionally-published books, I've decided to branch out into indie publishing as well!!

As of today, right now, you can buy my essay, "In Our Own Image: Radical Empathy, Trickster Gods, and the Importance of Being Irritating" from all major ebook distributors: Click here for Kindle, here for Nook, and here for everything else.

In the Beginning, humans created the heavens and the gods. In cultures and religions throughout the world, trickster gods occupy a specific and unique place in their pantheon. This article, originally published in the May 2021 issue of The Stellar Beacon, explores the gifts of the trickster archetype: Not just fire stolen from the gods, but an empathetic cultural understanding of the reality of human imperfection... and, of course, the absolute necessity of those who flout the established social order in pursuit of making society better.

If you're not a subscriber to The Stellar Beacon, you will have missed this essay! Go check it out!

This isn't the only thing I have in the pipeline for you -- I'm going to be releasing several more pieces from my backlog in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled! I'll be making announcements of all new releases both here on the blog, through my newsletter, and on Patreon.

I'm really excited about the prospect of branching out to a hybrid model (ie: both traditional and indie publishing), and I've been mulling over this decision for some time. I love so many things about traditional publishing -- getting to work with a team, the kind of magic a really great editor can bring to a book, the thrill of finally getting to see the finished cover, the feeling of knowing my agent is confident in and supportive of my work... I could go on! I've had some wonderful experiences with tradpub, and I definitely plan to continue with it for as long as they'll have me. :)

But I write fast. I write really fast, and I have the capabilities to write faster. Traditional publishing, alas, only has the capacity for so many works per author per year (unless you start branching out into other genres or use pen-names, neither of which I really want to do at this point), and I can produce way more than that.

Thus: Indie publishing!

The other big benefit, of course, is being able to write whatever I want without worrying about whether it's something that traditional publishing would consider marketable... For example, the sequel to A Choir of Lies, so that we can all find out what happens next to Ylfing!

But that isn't even written yet, so don't get too excited about it yet -- let it be a gentle candle of hope and anticipation in your heart for now. The next couple things you'll see from me in the next week or two will likely be a pair of short stories, "Wander Mazily Over All the Earth" and "The King is Dead, Long Live The King", but there is a... shall we say, bigger project that is nearing completion, as in: The manuscript is written, the cover has been commissioned, and the beta-reading is currently in-process. That will probably come next month, and I'll have a proper announcement for it when I reveal the cover and open it up for pre-orders. Hm, what's that you say? You want a little hint? Well alright, if you insist: "Dapper theater lesbians." ;)