Author and Book Pages up on SMP Author Group!

Yeah, I’m still floating from the news that Son of Thunder will be published, and it just keeps getting better. Today my Author Page and Book Page went live on the Soul Mate Author Group site. Check them out:

Author Page: http://smpauthors.wordpress.com/meet-steven-mitchell/

Son of Thunder book page: http://smpauthors.wordpress.com/meet-steven-mitchell/son-of-thunder-by-steven-mitchell/

While you’re there, check down the sidebar for the incredible group of authors I’ll be joining at Soul Mate.

Also, I will be blogging there on a regular basis, but I will also be keeping this blog alive. So much to do, and it’s all good stuff. No wonder my head is spinning.

Until next time,

Steve

This is it!

Paperwork signed…T’s crossed…i’s dotted. It’s now official:

Son of Thunder will be published by Soul Mate Publishing. I’m so excited to be joining Soul Mate’s incredible bullpen of writers.

It’s still so hard to believe it’s finally happening. I received a laundry list of things to do from my publisher (yeah, MY publisher…boy, that sounds good) and I couldn’t wait to dive into it. A bio, a back cover blurb, how do I envision the cover looking…FUN STUFF!!!

Anyway, if you have some time, stop over to Soul Mate Publishing at: http://www.soulmatepublishing.com/

Tell ’em S. C. Mitchell sent ya…you know, the new kid on the block…

Until next time,

Steve

Son of Thunder!!!

One of the interesting things I’ve found about my writing is how easily I’ve come to expect rejection.

Early on, you need to develop a thick skin while trying to sell yourself and your writing to an agent or a publisher, or you just won’t survive the sea of rejection. Just a week ago I received one of the nicest rejections I’ve ever gotten from an agent. She said I was doing everything right, but it just wasn’t right for her, and I said “Yeah, okay.” and filed it away in my mounting pile of rejection letters. I have just come to expect rejection. There are days I’ve wondered why I keep banging my head against that wall. I mean, I’ve got the self-pub thing going. maybe that’s all I can do.

Then last night happened. I check my email and see one from a publisher that I had submitted Son of Thunder to. So I open the email and start to read, looking for the “but” or “however” that usually precedes the bad news and instead read:

“I read your story this weekend and I have great news! I enjoyed Son of Thunder so much we’d like to publish your book.”

Whoa! I had to back up and start reading from the beginning, and then I notice that there’s a contract attached to the email. This is so cool, and I was in shock most of the night. It’s still settling in that I’ve taken that next big step – gotten over that next big hurdle.

I love all my books, but Son of Thunder has always been special to me. I’ve resisted self-publishing it because I really did believe it would sell to a publisher. Now that it has, I’m in heaven.

I’m not mentioning the publisher here, because I haven’t signed the contract yet, but rest assured that announcement is coming, along with all the details.

Stay tuned,

Steve

The Best Little Whorehouse…in central Wisconsin

Life takes some strange turns on occasion. A friend of mine is directing the Wausau Community Theater production of The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, and ended up a little short of male actors who could sing. Thus I have been offered the role of Senator Wingwoah (with various other bit parts). It’s been a while since I’ve been on stage, singing and acting in front of an audience, but I’m really looking forward to it. The script is quite risque, and looks to be a lot of fun, but at it’s heart, Whorehouse is a love story, and that’s what I’m all about these days.

So, for the next few weeks I’ll be cavorting with prostitutes and getting into all manor of trouble. Just business as usual for a romance author…

Until next time,

Steve

 

Gardening and the coming Zombie Apocalypse

Today is my day to dig potatoes in my garden. I garden mostly in raised beds (saves a lot of back strain) and I had an interesting phenomenon this year. I have one bed completely devoted to potatoes, and that’s all I planted here, yet somehow I had a tomato invasion of this bed. Not just one, or a few plants, but probably a dozen. And they are producing tomatoes.

Thus my quandary. Do I take the chance of the potatoes rotting and wait until the tomatoes ripen, or do I pull the invading plants (I have plenty of tomatoes in another bed) and dig my potatoes today?

Then it hit me. The tomatoes were like an invasion force of zombies, rising from the dead and pushing themselves out of the ground to try and claim my potato bed for their own. Left to their own devices these Zombie tomatoes would suck the brains from my potatoes if I didn’t intercede. I am the ZOMBIE HUNTER!

[Yes, this is the way my brain works.]

I have selected a few tomatoes, who will live on as research subjects. Notice in the picture below that they survive on the edges of society, and thus can be contained:

Okay, so here’s where things get even stranger. As I’m digging I start to wonder why I garden at all. When I think about the cost of potatoes in the grocery store and compare that with the amount of work it takes to actually produce them myself, I can’t see the trade off.

Then it hits me!

I garden because of the coming ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!!

You see…I don’t own a gun, and have little experience shooting one. As society breaks down I will need skills to survive. The guys with the guns will be way ahead of the game. We’re going to need them to shoot the zombies and hunt stray cows and deer for food. My place in the new society will be a humble one. I will have this one skill that makes me somewhat valuable. I can provide the potatoes (also some beans and carrots).

As we fight back the zombie scourge I will be fearlessly watering and weeding. A humble hero in a dark, dangerous world.

So, as you’re boarding up the Walmart while the parking lot fills with Zombies, don’t be looking for me to help. I’ll be the guy up on the roof…planting potatoes. It’s my job!

Until next time…if there IS a next time…

Steve