Alex Ulbrich, In Memoriam

My father passed away very early Tuesday morning. He was eighty-two. He's fourth from the left in this picture, which was taken about six years ago.

I will be taking the rest of January off from blogging. Although I was supposed to sell books at the Elgin Literary Festival next week, I cancelled that appearance, since my father's memorial service will be that day.

Take care, and I'll see you in February.

Short Story "Rob's Choice" Now Available!

I may have finished the Season Avatars series, but that doesn't mean I'm done with the characters or Challen. I've long planned to write a spin-off series set a generation after the Season Avatars series, mixing old characters and new, putting my own twist on a Victorian country moving into a modern age. I'm not quite ready to write that series yet--I'm still not sure what the series title should be, for one thing--but I'm starting to explore it with some short stories set in the interim.

"Rob's Choice" is the story of Robert, Jenna's son. I plan for him to be one of the protagonists of the first spinoff book, and this story sets up his situation. Maria Zannini of Book Cover Diva did a great job with the cover. Here's the blurb:

All his life, Rob has wanted to dedicate himself to the God of Summer. But when he tries to do so, he discovers the Four Gods and Goddesses of Challen have different plans for him. How can he serve Them and his own wishes at the same time? And what does his strange vision have to do with the barren country of Selath?

Although this story is meant to be a stand-alone, it does contain some spoilers for Summon the Seasons. Naturally, I recommend reading the other books in the Season Avatars series first. I currently have it listed as book 5.5 (6 on Amazon) in the series.

This short story is available for $0.99 at the major ebook retailers. You can access your favorite store through this universal book link.

IWSG: Questions and 2018 Reading Summary

Happy 2019! I wish you all the best in the coming year.

We're starting off the new year with The Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about this group on their website, Facebook, and Twitter. Our co-hosts this month are Patricia Lynne, Lisa Blue-Collard, Kim Lajevardi, and Fundy Blue.

Our question this month is about questions: What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing?

I don't get a lot of questions about my writing, but I always enjoy it when someone genuinely wants to know what I'm working on and is interested in the plot or character. On the other hand, it's annoying when someone asks me if I'm published in the sense of being traditionally published or having my books on display at Barnes and Noble. It can be complicated to explain why I chose (and continue to choose) to publish my novels myself.

I normally summarize the previous year's reading in my first post of the year. I managed to achieve my goal of 150 books. (Goodreads says I read 151, though I must have missed one in my genre count.) Here's the breakdown by genre:

Fantasy: 72
Science Fiction: 21
Other Fiction: 15
Non-Fiction: 42 (includes six books on writing, but doesn't include my Audible lecture series on writing great fiction)

According to Goodreads, I read over 41,000 pages. The shortest work was "The Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway at four pages; the longest was 1,182 pages for The Tale of Genji. (The average length was a more manageable 272 pages.) Some of the books I'd recommend include A Clash of Eagles, Eagle in Exile, and Witchmark.

Have any questions of your own or thoughts on your reading of 2018? Feel free to share them in the comments.