Frequently Asked Questions
People ask me questions. A lot of questions. We could even say that some questions are asked frequently. So here’s answers to a lot of them (updated as of August 2024). Now when folks ask said questions, I can just point at this page. The answers are all here.
Or in the books. You’d be amazed how many answers about the books are in the books. No, seriously.
When are we going to see something new?
Okay, at this moment I think the next thing you’re going to see from me is “The Night Crew,” a new Carter & Kraft story in the Combat Monsters anthology edited by Henry Herz. That should be out early next year, as I understand it. If you’ve read other Carter & Kraft stories, this one’s set more or less right after “The Banner of the Bent Cross” and is hinted at in “Projekt: Maria.”
Probably not too long after that will be God’s Junk Drawer. As I’m writing this, I still don’t have an exact date for it, sorry. But going off previous experience I’d put it in… late spring 2025?
After that… well, my agent may be taking TOS around before the end of the year, so we’ll see what happens with that. And there’s also that series I want to try pitching again.
Oh, and I’m still hoping to put out my short story collection, Dead Men Can’t Complain + Other Stories, as an ebook. It’s been an audio collection for a while, but it needs to get out more. I know I’ve said this a couple times now. I just have some (I hope) clever plans for it and I don’t want to do this half-assed.
Are there ever going to be paper version of Terminus
or Dead Moon?
No, sorry. There’s a couple of reasons for it that involve a bunch of different business things. If you’re interested, I went over a lot of it a while back. There’s still a chance these books could become available in print if there’s a big demand for them (feel free to tell Crown Publishing you want to read them and would buy half a dozen copies), but for the moment Terminus, Dead Moon, ~14~, and a few of my other older books are only going to be ebook and audio. Again, sorry.
Is Ex-Isle the end of the Ex books?
Yeah, most likely. Simple truth is pretty much every series has a limited life. Book one usually sells the best, not as many folks are interested in book two, a few less show up for book three, and so on. Not a lot of people decide to start a series on book four, y’know? Sure, something can always happen to give that first book a boost (and then all the other books after it) but the series will still be on the same downward slope, heading for the red line where things aren’t profitable for the publisher. None of the Ex-Heroes books ever lost money (thank you all), but when the folks at Broadway Paperbacks looked ahead to book six (tentatively titled Ex-Tension), well, the math on the walls was pretty clear.
But there may be something else. Too early to say just yet. Have hopes, but don’t get them too high.
Have you ever thought about a Kickstarter or a GoFundMe for any of this?
Look, I love the Ex books. I had tons of fun writing them. I’m still amazed there are so many fans who love them so much. But the math is pretty simple—if enough people were willing to pay for another book, the publisher would be more than willing to put out another book. But all the numbers say that’s just not the case. Yeah, I know some of you might be willing to pay twice as much to see one more book, but I think we can all agree there’s at least as many people (probably more) who wouldn’t pay anything. And that’s the math again—it just doesn’t work out for this.
Plus, doing a crowdfunded project means I have to schedule my time under the assumption it’s going to succeed. Which means telling any publishers those other projects I mentioned above need to be put off and scheduled accordingly. And that leaves a six or seven month hole in my schedule when the Kickstarter flops. Which—again—all the math says is what’ll happen.
And look, Kickstarters are a ton of work to run. They’re even more work if they succeed. It essentially means I have to be the writer and publisher and distributor and publicist and more. And to be horribly honest… I don’t want to do any of that. Some folks do well with it, but me… I just want to tell stories. That’s all.
TL;DR—I have and the answer’s no. Sorry.
Do you get more money if I buy books in one format rather than another?
This sounds like a simple question, I know, but any answer I give is going to have a bunch of conditionals attached to it. A huge chunk of each and every book contract is just all the different terms and conditions for when and if and how people get paid. Lots of “ifs” and “excepts” and “unlesses.”
For example… format matters, sure, but so does where you bought the book. And when. And how many people bought it before you (seriously). And if it was on sale. And who actually had the sale (publisher or distributor). And all of this changes in every contract. What’s true for, say, The Broken Room isn’t true for Terminus. Sometimes.
Again, TL;DR—just buy the format you like.
When are we going to see a movie/ TV series/ graphic novel/ video game of your books?
Well, first off, I hope you understand I have pretty much zero say in Paramount+ deciding to do a Broken Room movie or Amazon making a ~14~ series. When we see a film or television or streaming adaptation, it means the filmmakers went to the writer, not the other way around. If it was just about me pounding on someone’s desk and saying “make this into a movie!” then everything would be a movie now. And there’d be a toy line, too.
Now there is something quietly going on right now (a new thing, not the thing I mentioned here before), and if this happens I think we’re all going to shriek and cheer a lot. But I tend not to talk about these things as much because after years of working in Hollywood and reporting on Hollywood, I’m very aware of what a lot of these terms really mean and how much weight they actually have. I don’t want to toss things out there that’ll get misunderstood or give everyone (including me) a lot of false hope. Believe me, once there’s something worth telling you, I’ll tell you. You won’t get me to shut up about it.
Well, is there anything we can do to help?
Buying books is always the best step. Talking about them is a close second. Hollywood likes to see big sales numbers and interest. Producers/ directors/ actors all hear about this stuff the same way you do—bestseller lists, word of mouth, and online reviews. If #TheBrokenRoom started trending tomorrow, there’d probably be a film in pre-production by the end of the year. No, seriously.
So talk about books you like (anybody’s books, not just mine). Mention them to people online, write reviews, make TikTok videos, tag your streaming network-of-choice if you want to talk about how “this should be a movie.” Word of mouth is the best (and easiest) thing to do.
Wait, I thought you don’t like people talking about your books. Which is it?
I’m seriously thrilled and amazed when people talk about anything I wrote. I think most writers are. What I can’t stand, personally, are people who blurt out spoilers that ruin these stories for other people. It’s why I avoid those questions in interviews and on social media, and why—where I can—I delete (or block) posts that reveal things from a book.
And not just my stories! You shouldn’t mess up other stories, either. Books, movies, TV—I’m just saying, if you enjoyed it spoiler-free, why not try to give other people a chance to enjoy it the same way? Especially these days when release dates/air dates aren’t the ironclad things they used to be.
Do you have any plans to attend #####-Con?
I’m hoping to do a lot of cons next year to coincide with the release of God’s Junk Drawer. I still have a lot of health and safety concerns about cons, though, and my brief, informal visit to SDCC this year (and the gift of covid it gave me) didn’t do a lot to reduce those concerns. Hopefully by next year some of those cool nasal vaccines on the horizon will actually be in our hands. Or in our noses.
So hey–if you’d like to see me at your local con next year, please start letting them know. Email them, tweet at them, post on their Instagram account, let your voice be heard. There’s a good chance they’re already looking at next year, so this is usually a sooner-is-better type thing. Let them know, let me know, let everyone know!
Will you read my story and tell me what you think?
Short answer… no.
Long answer… look, I don’t mean to sound mercenary, but writing is how I pay for electricity and food and booze. And I really like food and booze. So when someone asks me to read stuff, they’re asking me to give up a few hours of work. Would you want to give up a few hours of work? Plus, I do have this ranty writing blog sitting right here with almost (gasp) two decades of advice and tips.
Also, some folks are not too bright and lawsuit-crazy and they ruin it for everyone. Somebody shows me a piece of bland, generic genre story, then a few years from now they sue me for stealing their completely original idea of… dinosaurs. Yeah, I know how stupid that sounds, believe me, but I’ve actually been subpoenaed and deposed for lawsuits with less behind them than that. No, really! It’s why I’m verrrry leery when I get a long message from someone along the lines of “You know what you should really do next with the people from ~14~…” Heck, some writers respond with cease & desist orders when they get sent stuff like this.
So really the long answer also boils down to “no.” And if you send stuff without asking, I’ll delete it unread, just like spam mail. And probably block you.
Where are you on social media? Are you more on one than another?
Ahhhhh, social media. Everyone’s favorite digital drug.
I’m mostly posting on Bluesky and Instagram these days. Those are your two best places to find me. Bluesky’s a little low-key and I’m okay with that. To be honest, I think the age of social media as any sort of sales tool are ending, so it’s mostly just me talking about things I like with people I like.
Instagram’s long been the geekiest of my social medias. Lots of toys, model robots, gardening, and cats. Can’t have an Instagram account without cats. Yeah, I know Instagram’s owned by FaceMetabook, but (for the moment) they’re not quite so reprehensible and algorithm-manipulative as their parent site.
I also started doing a newsletter–The Uncanny Cosmic Horror Zombie Almanac. If I was really clever, I would’ve gone with “almanack.” Once a month, totally free, updates on works-in-progress, new releases, film projects, cool toys, random other things of interest. Please sign up if you’re so interested—these days it’s probably the nest way to make sure you hear about things.
I’m still posting on Mastodon, but not much. Mostly just little updates once a week or so. Not a lot of response or interaction there.
As far as others go… I locked down my Twitter account and haven’t posted there in a year. Maybe more. I know I should just delete it. At this point everyone on Twitter’s suffering from phantom limb syndrome and convinced they’re still reaching the same number of people they used to and that hah hah hah it’s not really a Nazi bar, it’s just where I tell folks they can find me. Sooner we all accept that and move on the better.
I deleted my Facebook account over three years ago. There’s still a fan page there, but it’s just a dead page with no administrator. If you’re on Facebook, feel free to tell people they can find me other place. Better places.
Tumbr—I’ve had an account for ages, but it never really took off for me for some reason. I lost the password a while back and haven’t come up with a reason to request a new one yet.
CounterSocial—have an account but haven’t posted there in ages.
Are the Hive and Spoutible even still around? I made accounts for both and also gave up both in less than a month (for different reasons).