So I’m finally moved into the new house and internet has been restored. However, there are still a ton of boxes to unpack (how did I accumulate this much crap?!) and bookshelves to purchase. I literally had over 20 good sized boxes packed with books and even putting paperbacks behind one another to save space on the tall bookshelf, I still ran out of room. I also want to get a futon for the office, in case someone comes over and wants to hang out.

I was really excited about what possibilities 2015 were going to bring, but then I got word that my editor, John Manning, passed away early in the morning on January 6th. It came as a surprise, though not a terrible one, because John had been battling cancer for almost two years. I signed up to be a donor with him but unfortunately I was not a match.

I’ll be frank; I don’t do grief well. I think the last time I truly grieved was when I found out my brother Shawn committed suicide in 2001. I’m saddened, true, but I’m very closed off when it comes to grief. It sounds shallow as hell, I know, but that’s just the way I cope. Some would say it’s very unhealthy to do this, but we all deal with difficult things in varying ways.

But the news of John’s death made the good news that shortly followed bittersweet.

I received two contracts in the mail for books. The first was for The Hand of God, a novel I wrote with Eric S. Brown about a year and a half ago. It was actually the first time we worked together on anything, and it’s a solid military science fiction novel and sequel to his novel Homeworld. There are some recurring characters but this book really expands on what Eric and his coauthor worked on in the first one. I’m quite happy with this one, since it delves into the arena of dealing with your enemies after they’re defeated and even using them in your own war. It also explores the difference between genetically enhanced humans and regular humans, and their mindsets and such. It also has a lot of explosions and body parts, so don’t think this is a message book. Oh no. I don’t think I could write one of those if I tried.

The second contract was for a military science fiction book I pitched to my Kaiju Apocalypse and Murder World series publisher, Severed Press. We’d been going back and forth about me writing a stand alone novel for them and we ended up coming to terms over Kraken Mare. It’s going to be fast-paced, action packed with lots of explosions and more explosions (and did I mention EXPLOSIONS) and I should have it done by, oh, end of March. A Special Operations Group (the term having come back into vogue) must reconnoiter a military research station that had mysteriously gone quiet on Saturn’s moon Titan. Let’s just say that this is in the same vein as Doom, the classic first-person shooter computer game. Except, you know, without Hitler at the end.

I got a bunch of books to read but due to our policy about reviews while a book is in consideration with a publisher, I can’t review them yet over at SBR. Which bites, because I have about 13 books to review. I could review The High T Shebang by Mark Phillip Alger but… well, I just wrote a bad review and I don’t want to write another one. I want to like the books you people send me, but my God do I get some bad novels.

I also fixed my big desktop finally. Turns out that not only was the video card shot, the monitor itself was toast. So I spent about $300 to fix it all and I finally have it working again. Now I can write books and keep my deadlines intact.

Guess this year is definitely starting off with a bang.