DEAD HARVEST is Now Available!

I suspect my launch day's anything but typical. In fact, I expect I'll be quite scarce for much of it. No interviews or guest posts that I'm aware of (though God knows I've banked enough of them of late, I could be wrong). No scanning the internet for reviews. No biting my nails to the quick as I watch the stock-market rise-and-fall of my Amazon rank. In fact, I don't really have much in the way of plans; my official launch party is scheduled for a week from Thursday (y'all are welcome to come, by the by), and my wife and I aren't planning more than a pizza and a bottle of wine (the celebration dinner's gonna be next weekend). And the reason why's the Day Job.

I don't talk much about the Day Job, except in passing. But this week, the Day Job's full-on nuts. See, when I'm not writing, or reading, or annoying the neighbors with my spirited-if-artless renditions of cheesy '90s indie songs on my guitar, I'm a researcher at a biotech company that specializes in diagnostic testing for animal and human health. Our tests have helped diagnose cholera in Haiti, and treat rescue dogs at Ground Zero. I hear-tell our water-testing technology's used aboard the international space station. And when you take your pets in for their checkups, chances are, it's our tests your vet is running.

This week, we're working on a big project. Nothing earth-shattering or anything, just a potential tweak to one of our current products. The upshot, however, is that everyone in my group is buckling down to get it done, and yours truly is gonna be in the lab testing a whole bunch of canine fecal samples come release day.

Or, to put it another way, on the day I realize my lifelong dream of becoming a published novelist, I'll be elbow-deep in dog shit.

It's okay to laugh. It's pretty funny. I guess the universe wants to keep me humble. If so, it's working.

Anyways, I tell you this for a few reasons. One, if you don't hear much from me till after work-hours Eastern Standard, you'll know why. Two, Day Jobs ain't exactly oft-discussed amongst writers, but chances are, unless your favorite author's a bestseller, they have one. The fact that my silly stories pay some of my bills is astonishing to me, but I'm still a ways off from even considering writing them full-time. And three, I'm telling you because, for me, release day ain't about champagne, sales numbers, or celebrations. It ain't about a victory lap. What it is about is finally getting to say (and believe you me, it's something I've been dying to say for long before I had a title to slot in):

DEAD HARVEST is now available wherever books are sold.

Everything that happens after's simply gravy.