Tuesday, January 15, 2008

THE DARKER MASK

A couple of days ago I got to see the cover for the short story anthology The Darker Mask. It was designed by Jamie Stafford-Hill and the art was done by Tomer Hanuka.

I thought it was a wonderful, eye catching cover design and loved Tomer's illustration.

Then I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that they put my name on the cover as one of the contributors. There was my name with Walter Mosley, Lorenzo Carcaterra, L.A. Banks, Tananarive Due...bestselling and critically acclaimed authors.

Wow. The Newbie gets a major break. I am truly honored.

Been a long time

Haven't done a post in way too long. I know I'm supposed to keep up with this blog more frequently but I was seriously ill and just didn't have the energy. Besides, I always looked at this as an author's diary, anyway. Meaning that I expect people to go back and read it after discovering my work, not real time readers who check it out every day.

I just finished going over my "page proofs" for Revenge Tango. This the last time anybody gets to proof and review the novel before it goes on to production. My sister Sylvia was a great help and did the first read through. Between us we found plenty of typos which would've ended up in the final book. Thanks hermana!

I also did the copyedit for my story Dred, which will appear in the short story collection The Darker Mask. All of this was during the holidays. I guess new authors don't get time off.

I'm halfway through the third Nicholas Esperanza novel. It's tentatively titled Rumba for the Dead. It was originally supposed be a big thriller, influenced by my favorite show 24. Didn't end up that way. During the illness I was in a pretty dark place, so it's going to end up being pure noir. I guess when I suffer, Esperanza has to suffer even more. 
Since it's the final novel I wanted to go out with a bang, so it's going to be a pretty shocking read.