Blog

11-3-17:

Hi all! I haven't updated in a full month because I haven't seen any sales on Amazon in that whole month, which bummed me out a bit, BUT a week from tomorrow I'll be selling and signing copies of Undergrad Elementalist at TridentCon in Parkville, MD, so please come by and support me!

The weekend after that I'll be in Philadelphia for PAX Unplugged, which I'm super excited about!

I also just got chosen as the new online play Venture Captain for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game organized play program, which is really awesome. I'm sure that'll take up some of my free time, but hopefully I can still continue working at a decent pace on book 2 of the Emma Dawes saga!

Tyler

9-29-17:

Wow, no updates for three weeks! I'll try not to slack again. It's been a busy few weeks, though.

This past weekend I was at the annual meeting in San Diego for the nonprofit that I work for, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). I enjoyed some excellent meals and some excellent local beer in my scant time away from the meeting, but there was one place I found that was extremely exciting: a quaint little bookstore right on the water called Upstart Crow. It's a lovely little place with many local books and items, as well as a coffeeshop. I was thrilled to be able to speak to the manager about consignment, and am in the process of getting a few copies of my book on the shelves there!

I'm also going to go on a little tangent here about myself and my life. While I was at the meeting, there was a keynote from a young widow who had lost her husband to cancer. Both she and her husband were trained physicians, and hearing her talk about the transition from doctor to caregiver made me take a moment to reflect on my own life.

There have been several major transitions in my life recently, the most important of which has been becoming a father of both a beautiful three-year-old daughter and a perfect three-month-old son. I've found myself shedding tears much more often than I used to, my heart-strings more easily pulled by tales of family tragedy or of the love of parents for their children and vice-versa. I find that I have more depth to my emotions since becoming a father in general, and it's both fantastic and terrifying that these little creatures have had such an influence over my emotional state.

Another major shift in my life over the past couple of years has been my transition from bench science to more policy-focused work. Our most recent election caused a huge shift in my motivations, including a thirst for more personal action in the political arena. I've been attending meetings of the local Young Democrats, have taken on some responsibilities therein, will be helping out with several political campaigns in the 2018 cycle, and have been thinking about long-term plans to run for office myself. As scientists, we're generally told to stick to science during our careers, to be apolitical and not take sides, but I've found that recent developments have changed my mind, and are changing the mind of many other scientists, on our role in society in general. It's no longer enough for us to just use evidence to back up scientific theories and educate the public passively, through publications that might lead to small sections of textbooks years later. It's increasingly becoming our job as scientists to bring not only scientific breakthroughs into the public eye, but try to teach the public how to think. In our world of 'fake news' on social media and political pundits and newscasters alike spewing opinions as if they were fact, it's more and more important to CHECK YOUR SOURCES and THINK CRITICALLY about whether a story makes sense or might be an exaggeration, or an outright lie. This is one reason why I'm thinking of running for office in a few years... we need political leaders who can think clearly and use the scientific method to enact policy, not just "shoot from the hip" and use their "gut feelings" to determine what their constituents might need.

Anyway, rant over for now, I just wanted to give you all a glimpse into myself outside of just reading about Emma and her struggles with magic and sex and angst. Hopefully I'll continue to give updates like this as I think of them, and hopefully you all enjoyed it!

Tyler

9-8-17:

Not a lot of news this week. I am applying to hopefully be a featured author at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 19, 2018. I really hope I get chosen! I'm also looking into several other local book fairs.

Sales have stagnated a bit this past week, so if you know friends who might like Undergrad Elementalist, please mention it to them!

Thanks for following!

Tyler

9-1-17:

This week was very exciting for me, as I've continued to sell copies of both Undergrad Elementalist and Brenda and the Forest Nymph. I've started working on the next book in the series, and I really hope to have it finished by mid-2018... we shall see!

Undergrad Elementalist was featured as part of the kboards.com Book Discovery Day this week, which was very exciting! Check that out here: http://blog.kboards.com/2017/08/29/book-discovery-day-tuesday-august-29/

I also found a performer to record the audiobook version of Undergrad Elementalist, which should be finished some time in January. Hopefully that will sell well on its own, as well as giving me a sales boost on the other versions in the spring as well!

Finally, I'm going to be doing some book sales/signings at TridentCon in Parkville, MD on November 11th and 12th! Tickets are available here: https://tabletop.events/conventions/tridentcon-2017

That's it for this week, thanks for checking out my blog!

Tyler

8-25-17:

Welcome to my blog! This blog will be updated AT LEAST weekly with news about my writing projects, my life, and just general things happening in the world.

First off, I want to ask all my old friends from the Houston area to be safe in the hurricane that's about to hit the area. I had just moved to Houston when hurricane Ike hit in 2008, and my friends and I foolishly decided to stay in the city. It was scary, but it also was the event that precipitated my relationship with my lovely wife Brandi, so I can't complain!

The sales of Undergrad Elementalist and Brenda and the Forest Nymph have been good so far, holding steady at a few copies per day on average. I'd like to thank those who have written reviews of them on Amazon, and implore those of you who haven't yet to go write a review! The more reviews I get, the more likely it is that new people will discover my books!

I'm also currently in the process of auditioning voices for the audiobook version, which I'm planning to make using the ACX service (https://www.acx.com/). If you happen to be a voice actor who has recorded audiobooks in the past you can check out the project and submit an audition here: https://www.acx.com/titleview/A207IQK14K96XK.

I have set up an email list, where I will be sending blog updates and other useful messages to, over the coming months. If you haven't done so yet, subscribe to the email list here: http://eepurl.com/cZ-TVr

That's it for now, thanks for reading and if you have any questions, feel free to email me at cartmanbeck@gmail.com!

Tyler