Why?
Because of this:
http://www.amazon.com/Path-Night-Beast-Dirk-Flinthart-ebook/dp/B00G0PI82G/
That would be the link to my first published novel, as yet only through Kindle on Amazon. (Forgive me... but it works.)
I think I can put a shinier picture here, if I try.
Oh, yep. There it is.
I like the cover. (If you happen to like the cover, by the way, you might wanna talk to this chap: https://www.facebook.com/BranchyDesign -- he was very co-operative and good to work with.)
Oh, you wanna know about the book?
Uhhh -- first in a series of... several. Looks like urban fantasy/horror/thriller, but there are layers not yet revealed. The most important thing about it is that it is fun. It was fun to write, and with any luck, I've managed to make it fun to read.
That might not seem like much of a goal, but I realised that over the last few years, in the course of trying to refine my craft to the point of impressing publishers, I'd lost sight of the sheer fun of a good story. And I looked at the way the marketplace is changing, and the number of successful and effective ebooks and self-published books, and small-press books, and I thought: I'm doing this wrong.
So, ladies and gentlemen and others of all variety -- here it is. And at this point, things have to change.
I'll keep this blog, but it will be personal, family, political, etc. I'll probably run a link to it from a dedicated Flinthart/Writer website. And I will make the effort to write about writing and being a writer and all that good shit on the dedicated site.
That's the plan, anyhow. In the meantime, I'm hard at work on the next book in the series above. I'm also carving my way through the master's degree, and trying to rustle up a couple of short stories.
Thanks and kudos to Tehani the amazing editor/publisher of Fablecroft, and to Adam for his very fine cover. And thanks to everybody around here who has offered kind and encouraging words over the years. I don't have any copies of this thing to give away yet, but when I do, I'll find a way to make sure I can pass a few over.
(Oh -- and in other news, wearing two pairs of underpants at once has helped a lot. I can walk again, and standing up doesn't even hurt for the first fifteen minutes or so. Most of the colours have faded from my less mentionable bits, but the swelling is still a little alarming. How long does it take a scrotum to come back down to a reasonable size, anyway?)
