I mentioned a while ago that I was going to take a shot at Castalia House for publishing either Sad Puppies Bite Back and / or Set to Kill. It's a long shot, but I'll happily take it. If you don't ask, you don't get.
If you remember from last time, Castalia desires "a one-page author bio describing who the author is and what the author stands for rather than the author’s credentials."
If you remember last time, you might recall that it was a little scattershot, and all over the place. I've refined it, and you can see it, well, here.
I started writing at sixteen, turning out a 4,000 page series of novels in 15 months. I majored in history in college because I saw it as nothing but endless possibilities for stories. When researching Pope Pius XII as a graduate student in history, I was so angered by the lies told about “Hitler's Pope,” I proceeded to write an epic trilogy dedicated to the truth around Pius XII. (Making Dan Brown look like the pompous lying idiot that he is was an added bonus.) The only reason I don't have a PhD is that I assumed the university in question cared more about truth than about politics. I prefer writing fiction because it is sometimes easier to write truth that way.
I write because fiction should support the truth. Evil is real, and cannot be negotiated with, sated, or reasoned with. The Prince of this World may triumph, but said Prince can have it over my smoldering corpse. There are only two paths for evil. Either evil should be redeemed, or evil should be ended at the point of a sword. More often than not, the cliché that “a villain does not see a villain in the mirror” is merely an excuse to justify evil; it also presupposes that the villain believes in villainy, or heroes, or good, or evil, as moral equivalency and subjectivity are the first refuge of villains. Though, every time I have a fully developed, three dimensional villain that lasts for any length of time, they are either killed off as soon as possible, or eventually redeemed.
As an ultramontane Catholic and as a realist, I believe in the Nicene creed and in Murphy's Law, usually in that order. My beliefs can be summed up by the Baltimore Catechism, the Summa Theologica, sprinkled lightly with the Demotivators of Despair, Inc. As Thomist by training, I have no problem taking reductions to absurdity and making them a punchline. (See “Sad Puppies Bite Back” at my blog for prime examples).
In the 2016 years Roman Catholics have been around, we have discussed everything from Just War and regicide (“Yes, you may take Hitler or Putin out back and shoot him in the head”), to hating the sin, but loving the sinner. At heart, any good Catholic is a happy warrior, and the culture wars are a battlefield that can always use more people.
As of now, I'm still proceeding as though they are going to reject me. I'm going to have someone working on a cover, I'm going to have another reader take a gander at Set to Kill. I'm going to have an alternate version of Sad Puppies Bite Back called Tearful Puppies Bite Back, and it will tie in with Set to Kill.... because if I'm self publishing, I'm going to cover my behind something fierce. Because lawyers are a thing. And annoying at times.
However, if I'm going with Castalia, I'm going to dedicate the majority of my energies to promotion, and working on any edits they want me to make.
If I'm not going with Castalia, I'm going to have to have a version filled with aliases at the ready.
As for those people who are editing my vampire novels ... don't worry, my fans, you'll learn about it when I do.
Well, *I* think you sound like an interesting person, which is why I've been visiting your blog lately. But I'm not a publisher--just somebody trying to read the Hugo recommendations, if not, at this point, nominations. In any case, your work will speak louder than your bio.
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