Monday, October 21, 2013

Bad news - Under Steel Skies CANCELED

  I have some bad news guys... A few days ago, I got an email from Sean Wallace at Masque Books, which began:

Part of being a publisher is making decisions that one does not really want to make. We are re-evaluating and re-aligning our direction with Masque Books. Unfortunately, this means we are dropping a number of titles we had already acquired. Your Under Steel Skies is one of them.

  I have no idea what's going on over at Masque, but suspect that other authors may be in the same boat. Obviously this is incredibly disappointing - I've been just about killing myself trying to get the final manuscript into shape on top of trying to get a software startup off the ground at the same time. At this point, Under Steel Skies has no publisher and no prospects, unfortunately, and with the startup sucking down so many mental processing cycles the idea of starting a new search for a publisher or an agent is, quite frankly, overwhelming.  For now, I plan to finish the final work on the manuscript of course - I'm a writer and that's just what I do, and then.... I don't know. Probably start from scratch with an agent search. Maybe make a few calls around to my contacts.

Thank you very much to everyone who's supported me by being a first reader. I'm sorry you'll have to wait to see the stories in print or on your e-reader, but please know that your efforts are not in vain; the work is truly much, much better for your involvement. Keep an eye on this space, as well as my Facebook page, for updates.