I’m a member of the IASFA (International Association of Science Fiction Authors). We’re focused on helping readers find other great Science Fiction and Fantasy writers. In the spirit of 20 Books, we recognize our only competition is our last book. Anyway, they asked me to write about Space Opera for the December newsletter.

Over the next year, I would like to not only read more fiction, but offer reviews of books or series I’m reading about once per month. I thought I would kick this off with the book Salvage Title by Kevin Steverson. I had the good pleasure to meet Kevin at the 20 Books Vegas conference. He’s a super decent fellow.

Since I am writing a Gaslamp Fantasy, I thought it was worth a short description of what the genre is, and why the Stranded Series fits the description. My basis for the description comes from the TV Trope website.

Another 20 Books conference is in the can. The 20 Books concept is simple: a rising tide lifts all boats. Authors help authors improve as writers and in building their business. Only about twenty percent of what authors do focuses on content creation. The balance is running the business, including fan service, marketing, bookkeeping, etc.

Some people have asked how I create point-perfect PDF compiles in Scrivener. Simply put, I use Scrivomatic. This capability allows me to use LaTeX to format my books. I started using LaTeX in law school back in 2006. At some point, I will make the underlying LaTeX file available to a wider audience. In the meantime, look at Scrivomatic and see if it might be right for you.

I’m taking a break from my planned six-week updates, and my regular writing, to mention an awesome new font. Years ago, I started a program in my organization to improve the Accessibility of our internally developed software. It warms my heart when something comes out that promotes Accessibility.

Welcome to the seventh heartbeat of 2022. In the next couple of weeks, Scintilla, the fourth book of the Postal Marines, will be re-released. This caps my prior year’s writing effort. I don’t know about you, but I am super excited about getting these books out of my mind and into print. I know y’all don’t have a lot of time to read, so I will be brief.

Eighteen years in the making, the first four novels of the Postal Marines are coming soon to an Amazon near you. The idea for the Postal Marines started in 2004, and I started plotting and writing in 2006. That includes rough plots for sixteen novels, grouped into four quartets.

Welcome to the fifth heartbeat of 2022. As promised, every six weeks I update you on my progress. This one is a few days later as I lost track of my schedule.

Later than promised, this is the fourth heartbeat. Every six weeks, I’ll send another update as I finish and release the first Postal Marines quartet by 3 November 2022. Why later? I skipped the May heartbeat. This should be the fifth heartbeat.

There are five pillars to being a successful writer: cover, description, storytelling, promotion, productivity. Of these pillars, a lot of authors focus on storytelling…at least in the beginning. Eventually, the good ones learn to focus on all five. The good thing is authors do not need to master all of them.

As promised, this is the third heartbeat. Every six weeks, I’ll send another update as I finish and release the first Postal Marines quartet by 3 November 2022.