As some of you might remember, a while back I was interviewed by Darrell Pitt for his blog, Writing and Life. Well, after compiling many an interview, Darrell decided that it would be a good idea to compile an eBook of what he considered his best interviews. The good news is: I made the cut, and am included in the eBook. The even better news? The eBook is free!

The book contains talk with a whole batch of really interesting folks talking about both the business and the craft of writing, from people like me who are just starting to be recognized to people who are pretty famous in their respective areas. It’s a great collection of information if you’re an aspiring author or just interested in the world of writing.

Check it out: Secrets of Succesful Authors by Darrel Pitt on Smashwords

The last time I sat down in front of a microphone to be interviewed, the term “podcast” hadn’t been invented yet, I was still working in the video game industry, and I was covering the nightmarish hellscape that some people know as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka: E3.

I don’t do a whole lot of video game journalism or development these days, so opportunities to get in front of the mic at major trade shows are less frequent (particularly since I try to avoid major trade shows). The good folks over at The Online Guys, though, gave me an opportunity to stand up and speak out. Or rather, to hang out on my cell phone and chat with them for about twenty minutes on what it’s like to be an author making his way through the brave new world of electronic self-publishing. We talk about my work, the way I’ve used social media to connect with my fans, and dive for a bit into how the process of producing an eBook actually works.

You can check the interview out over at their website. Many thanks to Nils, Rob and Samantha (not the one from TBTB!) for having me as a guest. It was a good time!

Darrell Pitt maintains a blog where he chronicles the ups and downs of writing in the modern era, including lots of advice, news and info. He also does the occasional author interview, and recently got in touch to find out if I’d mind answering a few questions. I, of course, never mind answering a few questions, so I went ahead and did so. He’s posted the interview over at 1001 Secrets of Successful Writers and you should go check it out. Here’s a sample:

You’ve just published your first novel “The Blood that Bonds” on Amazon and via Createspace. As a first timer, how would you describe this experience of uploading your book and preparing it for publication?

Well, there were two separate publications – the eBook first came out in late 2009, and then I released the print edition in early 2011. Both processes were fairly complex, and I think it helped a lot that I’ve spent most of my professional life developing web-pages. The type-setting, graphic design, and scripting skills necessary to create print and eBooks are quite similar to the things I was already doing on the web.

Of the two, I found the print publication more difficult, just because it required exacting attention to margins and bleed areas, page size, type-formatting (I spent hours just making sure none of the fleurons in the book were left hanging at the top of a new page) and so forth. Also, the feedback process on a print book is much slower – you have to upload your stuff to Createspace, order a proof, wait a week for it to show up, and then comb it for errors. With the eBook, you upload a file and can view it instantly.

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Check out the full interview! Many thanks to Darrell for giving me the opportunity. I thought his questions were pretty solid — hopefully my responses hold up.

This was posted a few days ago, but I didn’t get a notification that it had gone up, so I just realized it. A while back I did an interview with Susan over at MyVampFiction. She really enjoyed The Blood That Bonds and asked me a bunch of questions about it, and about writing in general. So if you’re interested, head on over and give it a read.

A couple of notes: I actually answered the interview questions before the new year, so some of the answers are a bit out of date. For example, I’m not “just about” to launch the print edition of TBTB … I’ve actually done it!

I am nearly done with the polish draft of the sequel to TBTB, Blood Hunt. I expect to send out my first agent query this weekend. Very exciting times ahead.