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I will be interviewed today once again by Wayne Clingman on the Milwaukee Mob podcast.  If you’d like to listen live, I’ll be interviewed at 11am MST, after which I’ll add a link in the press section here to the archived show.  We’ll be talking about the Unseen Things series, Cindy’s Story, my next book Retribution, and about writing in general.

Here’s the link if you’d like to listen in: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/themilwaukeemob/2017/01/26/duane-l-martin-a-writers-story

So…this is how my last month and a half has gone.  I was sick as hell for a month while trying to keep up with the work I had to do for my day job, and then the skies opened up a great big can of winter whoop ass on us and dumped more snow than we’ve had since the 80s.  Oh, and did I mention that my ISP is ending their DSL service?  I had to switch to CenturyLink, and that’s been a great big ol’ pain in the ass too.

The long and the short of it is, I haven’t had my head in writing at all lately.  A big part of it is all the work I have to do for my job, which leaves me pretty much drained mentally.  Another part is that I was sick for so long that I lost the feeling for what I was writing.  I managed to finish three chapters, but I just can’t find the motivation to work on it.  That said, I’m super happy with how the story’s gone so far, so when I finally do bury myself in it again and get it finished, I’m sure it’ll have been worth the wait.  There’s already some pretty nasty stuff going on in it, and there’s a lot more to come.

I just wanted to post a little update.  I’ve just been beaten down and tired, so right now I’m trying to get caught up on both work and sleep so I can get my head back into my writing.  Hopefully that’ll happen soon.

There is some seriously nasty cold going around here that everyone seems to be getting, including me.  I’ve been sick as hell for a week and a half now.  Whatever this is, it’s really bad, and it seems to have three stages.  The first day and a half or so it’s pretty mild.  You may even think you’re getting over it.  Then near the end of the second day, it hits you like a damn freight train and turns into a severe head cold.  The following day you lose your voice.  For three days you’ll barely be able to talk, and then for ages after your voice will slowly start to recover, but only very slowly.  Then about a week into it, it changes into something else entirely.  You start feeling completely dried out, and you get a dry cough that often leads to serious coughing fits that’ll make you wish you were dead.  There’s something going on in the throat too that makes it feel like you tried to swallow a pill that got stuck in there and won’t shift, even though there’s nothing there.

Oh, and on top of all that, I got a flare up of gout in my left foot as well. 😛

Despite it all, I somehow managed to finish chapter 2 in my next book today.  Progress on it has been extremely slow for a variety of reasons, including work, illness, and general life issues that I’ve had to deal with.  Don’t worry though, I’ll never give up on it.  It may be slow going, but I’m going to try to be more on top of working on it now.

Anyway, I haven’t posted an update in a while.  That’s what’s been going on here.  Oh, and on the 23 / 24th of this month, the site will be down for a while.  I’m changing internet providers and getting new static IPs, so things will be down until the new ones propagate.

I finally finished the first chapter of Retribution.  It’s been really tough for me finding the mental energy to work on it because of all the editing and other work I’ve been doing for my job, but we had a writing sprint workshop at my writers group tonight, and I managed to blow through most of the rest of the first chapter.  I just finished it up now.  It’s always slow going with new stories because you’re creating an entirely new cast of characters from scratch, which also entails a whole lot of character development that has to take place.

This is also the first time I’ve written horror / suspense, so I want to make sure I do a good job with it.  This isn’t a genre I’ll write often I don’t think, but it is one that I wanted to explore.  I’m pretty sure my next book will be a paranormal novel of some sort, but I’m not sure what form it’ll take.  I’ll think more about it as I get closer to finishing this one.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a little update.  I’m pretty excited about this one.  I just need to find the time and the energy to keep myself in the cycle of working on it daily.

My job has been draining away most of my mental energy, and I’ve been really busy with it lately, so I don’t have a lot left for working on the next book.  I have started it though.  I’ve written the first scene and most of the second.  I’m going to get back to work on it today, and then I’m going to try to divide my time better so I can get back to a daily schedule on it.  It’s just going to take some balancing of things on my part, but I’ll figure it all out soon enough.

I’m very happy to announce that Genesis, the final book of the Unseen Things series is now available!  It’s currently published or in the process of publishing on the following sites: Amazon, Amazon UK, Smashwords, Google Play, OmniLit, Official Site

It will appear on other retail sites like Barnes & Noble and Kobo within the week.

Synopsis: When you have the literal power of gods, the ultimate accomplishment would be to use that power to create a living world out of a lifeless hunk of rock.  This was the idea behind the Genesis project.  There’s just one catch.  They need to find a lifeless hunk of rock to use for the project before they can set their plans in motion.  When a stranger named Gerald shows up in the village however, the source of their god-like powers soon becomes all too clear.

Not trusting this amiable stranger in the slightest, Jarrod opens a time portal and travels far into the future.  When he returns a few seconds later however, he refuses to tell anyone where he went, or when for that matter.  Their concern for him grows even deeper when he starts suffering from debilitating headaches that only seem to get worse as time goes on.

Also, during the search for a suitable planet to use for the Genesis project, not one, but two old enemies are discovered and must be dealt with.

Sadly, all great things must come to an end.  Genesis is the final book of the Unseen Things series, and a fitting send off for the characters we’ve all grown to know and love.

Genesis is book 21 of the Unseen Things series.

I’ll begin work on my next novel at some point in the next week or so.  It’s called Retribution, and it’ll be my first horror/suspense novel.