Friday Status Post: Brain Jar Turns 1

I released The Birdcage Heart and Other Strange Tales on November 30th last year, which makes this the official first birthday of Brain Jar Press. Over the last twelve months I’ve put out two short story collections, one essay collection, and a pair of short stories in the new Short Fiction Lab series.

For those who would like to catch up on everything we’ve done real fast, I’ve put together a discounted mega-volume of everything Brain Jar released over the last twelve months: The Brain Jar Press Year One Box Set (Amazon US | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK). 

It’s an Amazon-only release for the moment, courtesy of the fact that some of the content is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited and can’t be uploaded elsewhere until the exclusivity period is done. I’d overlooked that while putting it together, and I’m kicking myself a little.

Still, one year in, and it’s the first really irritating mis-step in my process, which isn’t bad.

This first year was all about the learning curve, getting used to the tools and techniques I’ll be using as we roll into year two. I achieved about 80% of what I’d hoped for, largely because I’m bringing the print editions online a little later than intended and one book I intended to get out didn’t make it. That’s still a pretty good hit rate, given some of the distractions that hit throughout the year. 

This week has seen me bear down on the redraft of Warhol Sleeping, and I’m now into the final quarter of the book. I’m learning not to think about release dates until a book is well into the marketing and proofing stage, but this one is developing into a short novel as I type.

I’ve done a lot of shuffling in the final quarter–the laws of narrative says that when you put a huge cyberpunk ziggurat into a your book, it’s probably a good idea to send the protagonist there at some point and shoot at them. 

The next Short Fiction Lab projects I’m drafting are a pair of ghost stories, both of which have been kicking around my to-do list for years. There’s a really interesting post that Kristine Rusch where she talks about writers becoming reactive in their thinking, editing their ideas into something marketable due to experience with the industry.

These two ghost stories are both projects that I’d written and loved and set aside, convinced they were unlikely to find a home without pushing them in different directions. 

They won’t, however, be the next Short Fiction Lab release–it finally dawned on me that while the bulk of my work is fiction, the free book I offer my newsletter subscribers is primarily non-fiction. There’s a disconnect there, so I’m putting together a mini-collection of stories that will join You Don’t Want To Be Published as part of the download pack when people subscribe to Notes from the Brain Jar.

The early proofing sweep is currently in progress.

CURRENT LISTENING: Alanis Morisette, You Oughta Know
CURRENT READING: The Clock Strikes, Sean Cunningham
EMAIL INBOX STATUS: 24
INTERESTING THINGS ON THE TO-DO LIST: Expanding the free offerings for Brain Jar Press and re-blurbing a bunch of earlier books.