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Archive for July 2017

5

Toldja I'd be back

Hey, look at that! Another new post and it’s only been a few days. Geez, this fresh air must agree with me . . . I’m in beautiful Victoria, on Vancouver Island, enjoying a few days away and visiting friends and family. Basically taking the summer to recharge creatively and tentatively begin to write again. Still experiencing some fatigue and mental fogginess, but it’s not too bad. I’ve started the ball rolling on a few projects and we’ll see what happens. First, I contacted my agent, to see about getting a few of my older books released as e-books. Once that happens, I’ll be doing some giveaways--either of entire book or possibly just posting a few chapters for free. What do you think? The other project is a screenplay I did a while back; the director and I are kicking it around and seeing how we can make it better. I’ll let you know how it goes. Anybody out there know a good producer in LA who might want to make a film about a murder at Burning Man? Also, I refuse to let my webcomic project, CROSSOVER, die. Once launched, it’ll promote not just my older stuff but artistic projects from my readers themselves: if you do something creative, I’ll try to find a way to collaborate with you and promote your stuff. And it won’t cost you a cent, I promise—this isn’t one of those “do a bunch of work and get paid in exposure” scams. I want to take cool stuff people have already done and drive traffic to their website—but really, if you want to know more about the project, go check out collaborativecomics.com for my latest post. It even has some news about a certain FBI profiler . . . Anyway, I don’t just want to blather on about what I’m doing—I’m interested in feedback. So go ahead, ask me anything—EXCEPT THAT ONE QUESTION. You know which one. First person to ask will get personally berated by JV herself. You have been warned.
20

HEY, IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

So. I haven’t posted much of anything since 2014. Three years. Three, frankly, of the worst years of my life. Let’s see if I can break ‘em down (Lord knows they did their best to break me down) to a few bullet points: 1) I got sick. Fibromyalgia. Drained of all energy and unable to concentrate, I spent most of my time in bed. I was forced to stop writing. 2) My dad got cancer. He died earlier this year. I sorted through every paper he ever owned, decided to what to keep and what to throw away, and helped my mom move to a new place. 3) At the height of my illness and just before my dad died, my wife left me. There was no big drama, no cheating or drug abuse or anything like that—she just thought we had nothing in common any more. Or maybe she just got tired of living with someone who was sick all the time. 4) So, I lost my wife, my work, my dad and my home. But wait, there’s more! (Those of you who are becoming depressed, feel free to skip ahead.) Turns out that fibromyalgia is triggered by many different foods and substances, so I had to give up caffeine, alcohol, and so many different foods that I basically stopped eating in restaurants. My wife and son are vegetarian, and I could no longer eat soy or beans or most nuts, so I stopped eating with them. I was pretty low. But I refused to give up--I came up with a plan, and I followed through. My health has improved to the point where I can function again. I’m living in a new place. I’m ready, finally, to get back to writing. And I thought I’d start here. Telling my readers where I’ve been and why I’ve been gone. Documenting some of my journey as a way of getting back to the writing life, and telling people what I’m planning on working on. Hopefully, I’ll even get a little encouragement—though I’ve been away for so long I don’t know if any of my fans are still out there. Maybe I’ll just wind up writing for myself . . . which is fine. It’s how I started out, after all. This is my first post, but I’ll do my best not to make it my last. How’s everyone doing out there?