First a little housekeeping. LA ComicCon, back in September 2025, was an amazing experience. Four days of book selling, meeting vendors on the con circuit, cosplay, and very long days on my feet. The winner of the drawing for the bookshelf-sized demon claws was Billie Orr of Anaheim, CA. As a mechanism for expanding my newsletter’s numbers, it seems to have been a success. I think I’ll continue to do it with book fairs and cons going forward. It’s been a minute… Can’t believe it has been almost nine months since my last newsletter. I sit down to start a…
Rick Shaw Posts
The long silence It has been a minute since my last update. The reasons for the silence are many. And each unto itself could have provided a major challenge to writing. Combined… well. My bout with COVID and its treatment cycle resulted in health issues that became a distraction in our little corner of the world. That lead to a surgical procedure to correct the issue, only to exacerbate things further. It is now being managed by medication, but it was a difficult few months. Couple that, with the demands of my most recent consulting engagement — originally projected to…
I just dropped a note to the incumbent Trustee Harvey, congratulating her on her re-election. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Incumbents are hard to beat. I wish her well, and the college much success, with the challenges it will be facing in the next few years.
RAVE 2024 I’ll be at RAVE, again this year, on November 15th in Las Vegas, with 200 of the biggest indie authors in the business. I’ll be sharing a table with Stan C. Smith, author of the Across Horizons, Bridgers, Resonant Dust series, and many others. I just got word the conference, Author Nation, is offering free tickets to the signing event. The ticket will get you: Access to the Book Signing Exposition with 200 incredible authors 12 Author Panels featuring 50 star-studded authors sharing their insights and stories The chance to meet, mingle, and discover your next favorite book…
And just like that… …there goes September. When last we left our intrepid writer he was laboring away… in his lonely writers garret. At the end of August, I reported I was twenty chapters into Genesis Alone. Alas, with the end of September in our collective rearview mirror, I’m just five chapters further along. Going into this project I had anticipated it being easier that past stories. I had a short story, that had expanded nicely into a screenplay. That screenplay should provide a solid outline from which to build a richer world… should. I’m not sure if it is…
How can it possibly be September 1st? I’ve been playing with the idea of rewriting the Don Williams song, covered by Clapton a few years later — Living on Tulsa Time… … living on COVID time, living on COVID time gonna set my watch back to it ‘cuz you know that I’ve been through it, living on COVID time… Apologies to Danny Flowers, the songwriter, but it seems to fit my circumstance. That’s called foreshadowing folks! You all know Oaths and Odysseys dropped in late July, as you got a quick note of the launch with a promise of more…
Book Two in the Genesis Renewed Saga went live July 22nd. Life doing what life does, coupled with about of COVID, and I’m way behind on posting and promoting. Early feedback is that book 2 provides a nice, page turning, follow on to Genesis Renewed. Book 2 picks up where Book 1 leaves off and finds Dave Sharp and his small community leveraging the remnants of their now lost civilization, and challenged by how to move forward. Looking for answers to several questions, the source of their immunity, what may remain of their lost government, and the mysterious loss in…
Last week I completed my filings. I am on the ballot for November 5, 2024’s election as a candidate for the Antelope Valley Community College District’s Board of Trustees – specifically Trustee Area 1. If you’re in the AV, or its surrounding communities and wonder who on the board represents your area, check out this interactive map. Trustee Area 1 is the big pink one that spans the southern portion of the district, from one county line to another. I’m not going to leave a manifesto here, but just a couple of thoughts driving my interest to continue to serve…
When you hit publish on Amazon it pops up a notice that says it could take three days for the publication is live in the store – or something to that effect. I hit publish last night, and both the kindle and paperback versions are live today. So much for getting a note out to my subscribers before it dropped. I’ll write more about the process that lead to the delays and finally hitting publish soon, but I wanted to let you all know that Book 2 in the Genesis Renewed Saga is available in Kindle, Paperback, and on Kindle…
First, The Good My annual pilgrimage to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, which took place from June 9th to the 16th, was a great week. Being among fellow lunatics is always restorative. The sessions where I was on a panel had engaged audiences and great questions. The three panels I was on, discussing my path in Indy publishing and self-promotion, were video recorded. Once I have copies, I’ll put them up on a YouTube channel and share the slide deck I prepped—should you be interested. I was asked to sign a book (always a thrill), and the evening keynotes were…