Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie discussion

Hi everyone!

I recently joined this group and figured I should post an intro. I'm a software developer of long experience, an amateur astronomer, a bonsai artist (well, sort of--I have a lot to learn still), and obviously a writer.

I've been writing since childhood, mostly fiction, but since I'm more of a numbers person than a words person it's been a long haul to reach publishability. I have had a few technical articles published in print and online programming journals, and I've sold two essays to "Sky & Telescope."

In late 1999 I was selected to develop web content on my religion, the Baha'i Faith, for About.com, which I did for almost two years before they ran into financial trouble and dumped about a third of their sites. I built a new site and continued writing articles more or less weekly for ten years. My wife and I published a collection of those articles through Publish America, but that didn't work out entirely well. When we wanted to do a second collection, we started thinking about other options.

That led to us starting our own small religious publishing company, One Voice Press, in 2010. Since that time, we've published about 25 books, mostly written by other people. The vast majority of the content is from a Baha'i perspective, but we've always wanted to branch out into other religions (my wife is a Catholic), and are looking for ways to do that. We also have a fiction imprint, Serpent Cliff, that deals with fiction which has a religious/spiritual component.

The first two novels in my Howard County mystery series, The Fibonacci Murders and True Death were published through Serpent Cliff. The third, Ice on the Bay, should be out by the end of this year. I've begun work on HCM #4.

I'm also working on an SF/Humor novel called Space Operatic about a ne'er-do-well opera company trying to eke out a living on the fringes of the solar system. That's in the hands of a couple of beta readers now. I plan to go agent-hunting for that one, as it doesn't fit our own publishing program. And last but not least, I've started a new crime novel based on a couple of characters who debuted in some of my flash fiction stories for Indies Unlimited, Bernard and Melody Earls, he a guy who loves elegance and the good life (but doesn't have it) and she an airhead kleptomaniac who everybody loves. I'm having a lot of fun with those two.

I have more ambition than free time, though, so a lot of this is slow going. And I'm trying to figure out how to build some buzz ahead of the release of Ice on the Bay. I'm not very good at the marketing stuff yet...

I like the way you have combined your 'numbers person' with your 'words person'! (Fibonacci) Fascinating.

Interesting life!! Welcome to the group.

Dale wrote: "Hi everyone!

I recently joined this group and figured I should post an intro. I'm a software developer of long experience, an amateur astronomer, a bonsai artist (well, sort of--I have a lot to le..."

Welcome, Dale!

Thank you, all!

Céad míle fáilte which literally means ‘a hundred thousand welcomes’ where I come from :)

Thank you!