• Setting long-term goals and short-term objectives to reach them!
• Doing it every day!
• Getting better every day!
• Learning more about my craft every day!
• Being grateful ... every day!
• The people who enjoy my art!
• What I'm trying to say with my art!
• Enjoying the journey!
• The great writers and other folks who've been conscientious enough to edify poor wretches like me - Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Rusch, Passive Guy, Joe Konrath (they continue to teach me, motivate me, spank me, lift me up from the many pits into which I fall continually on my career path, and remind me that my success as a writer has nothing to do with the list below and everything to do with writing my next book!)  Thank you!
  

• Sales after publishing only a few works
• Marketing instead of writing
• Reviews - I'm grateful to the One Above whenever someone enjoys my art but I don't create for reviews. Mr. Kipling has it right: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same."
• Rankings, Lists, social networking, formats ... for their own sake

Back to writing ... It's what I was meant to do. It's what I have to do now.

I love it!

The last 72 hours have been ... PHENOMENAL!!!

I'll hit you with some AWESOME (my sons' word for it) stats at the end of this - but I want to tell you a story first. I'm a fiction writer but this one's true. It started early on December 24th, just four days ago. I have a normal routine every morning, check my emails - then check my rankings (I keep a worksheet) - I do a bunch of other stuff, but I'll save that for a post for another day.

So, I'm checking my rankings ... and I always keep an eye out for the rankings of other writer-friends of mine on the same lists  ... Joe Konrath  ... Scott Nicholson ... Jeff Bennington and a few others. Every day I check and record both of my novels' rankings on a dozen different lists (I only check Amazon lists). Well, the largest list I check is Amazon's general "Thriller" popularity list. I call it the "EPIC" list (another of my sons' words) 'cause there's over 136,000 novels in the genre. Now, before December 25th, neither of my novels ever even made it onto the list ... and the list contains the top 1,200 titles.

Here's what happened ... I click on the list and page one comes up ... that's the top 12 books ...

Let's see ... Joe Konrath number friggin' one ... how kewl is that ... God Bless, Joe!

#2 Jeff Bennington - Reunion ... #3--

#2 Jeff Bennington - Reunion?!?!?!?!

My heart stopped!!! My extremities actually got numb!!! I had to remember how to breath ... inhale ... exhale ...

Now, let me explain - I consider Jeff a dear writer-friend of mine. No, we never met, but then again, I never met Dean Wesley Smith, Joe Konrath, or Scott Nicholson either and I consider them ALL close friends. One - I don't get out much and two - every one of them has helped me in my pursuit of my ultimate objective and joy, to become a successful professional writer. Jeff Bennington has also helped me a great deal. He reached out to me when I first published _THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM_ with a kind word and friendship and he's mentored me on everything from how to perform a blog tour to how to get reviews to how to market and price my novels.

Also, as for his writing - I recently mentioned to him that my wife (and main editor) Lisa had started reading _REUNION_ and considered him one of her favorite writers. This after I had her download a dozen other authors - some big legacy-published authors along with some big Selfpubbers. I won't mention who she didn't like but I will say that Lisa is VERY discerning when it comes to authors - she likes who she likes and the rest get deleted (I told Jeff, I don't even ask Lisa if I'm one of her favorite authors ... why break up a beautiful friendship!  c",))

So, my shock wasn't from disbelief that _REUNION_ wasn't a great book, it was because it was friggin #2 out of over 136,000 books!!! Jeff told me he's writing a blog about his whole experience, so be sure to look it up and check it out!

When I got the inhale-exhale thing under control, I immediately shot Jeff a CONGRATS email, explaining to him that I thought I totally missed the boat by not enrolling in Amazon's lending program. In any case, it was awesome to see my brutha-from-anotha behind only the legendary (and my other brutha-from-anotha) Joe Konrath IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!

I was frantic though ... so happy for the success of my friends ... but wanting to kick myself in my head for what was obviously turning out to be a bad decision on my part. Hey, I make my share ... but my attitude since my cancer has always been "I'm healthy, I love my wife, my sons, and God's allowing me to do what I always wanted to do ... write - so it's all good!"

My wife and sons can testify that my manic depression can be a bit of a ... pain in the butt for them as well as for me, but life goes on and I'll just learn from the experience.

That's when I received a reply to my email from Jeff. He thanked me for the congrats but also told me that it wasn't too late and suggested I jump in ASAP. He also gave me a few pointers on how to take advantage of the other main perk of the Kindle Lending program - that is, to place my novels for free for a limited time.

I listened to him - a point I would urge other neo-pros like me to do - listen to people who have proven themselves to be successful. There's a number of successful writers but only a relative few who are kind enough to share that knowledge. Joe Konrath was the first I know of ... Dean Wesley Smith had the greatest impact on me, personally - but there are others out there. Well, like I said ... the last 72 hours have been out of this world for my writing career. Both _THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM_ and _SIGNS OF WAR_ are now BESTSELLERS on Kindle and not just in the U.S. They're also BESTSELLERS in the U.K., GERMANY, and FRANCE!!

Before I share my latest stats, I want to thank God, Amazon, and Jeff Bennington ... all praise to Him!

Here's some of the stats so far, and keep in mind, the free programs are still in effect:

_THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM_: (Currently)

• RANKED 1,218th in ALL of Kindle store! (Was ranked 253,512 before the program started)
  
• RANKED #5 on Amazon's WAR THRILLER BESTSELLERS List! (US)
• RANKED #1 on Amazon's Geopolitical Thriller popularity ranking! (27th day - 1st time #1 since August)
• RANKED #1 on Amazon's Counter-terrorism Thriller popularity ranking! (Was never higher than #5 before)
• RANKED #2 on Amazon's 9/11 Thriller popularity ranking! (Avg. ranking before program was 370th)
• RANKED #8 on Amazon's Terrorism Thriller popularity ranking! (Avg. prior was 310th)
• RANKED #11 on Amazon's Political Thriller popularity ranking! (out of 4,007 on the list)
• RANKED #207 on the coveted Amazon's Thriller popularity ranking!!! (out of 136,863 on the list!!! Never made this list before!)

If those stats weren't awesome enough (my sons' way of putting it), I immediately made EUROPEAN BESTSELLERS LISTS!!

• RANKED #3 on Amazon-Germany's WAR THRILLER BESTSELLERS LIST!
• RANKED #88 on Amazon-Germany's THRILLER BESTSELLERS LIST!
• RANKED #11 on Amazon-UK's WAR THRILLER BESTSELLERS LIST!
• RANKED #4 on Amazon-France's WAR THRILLER BESTSELLERS LIST!
• RANKED #87 on Amazon-France's THRILLER BESTSELLERS LIST!

As for _SIGNS OF WAR_:

• RANKED 1,345th in ALL of Kindle store! (Was ranked 160,908th before the program started)
  
• RANKED #59 on Amazon's ACTION & ADVENTURE THRILLER BESTSELLERS List! (US)
• RANKED #2 on Amazon's Geopolitical Thriller popularity ranking!
  
• RANKED #2 on Amazon's Counter-terrorism Thriller popularity ranking! (Was never higher than #5 before)
• RANKED #8 on Amazon's Techno Thriller popularity ranking! (Avg. ranking before program was 84th)
• RANKED #68 on Amazon's Political Thriller popularity ranking! (out of 4,007 on the list)

In Europe:

• RANKED #20 on Amazon-Germany's ACTION & ADVENTURE THRILLER BESTSELLERS LIST!
• RANKED #66 on Amazon-Germany's THRILLER BESTSELLERS LIST!

I've already 'sold' thousands of copies of both books in less than 72 hours ... and I almost missed the opportunity.

My sincere thanks to everyone around the world who are now reading my novels ... I'm humbled and as always to all of my mentors - Dean Wesley Smith, Passive Guy, Joe Konrath, Scott Nicholson, and Jeff Bennington!

And to them and everyone else - Blessings, Peace, Joy, and Health in 2012!

Love,
g

_ Those who know me, know I like to bend an arm with friends. Nothing like finding a nice pub, buying the first round, tellin’ a few lies and havin’ a few laughs. Hey, I used to be a heavy metal guitarist, that’s what we did for a living (I really think the music took 2nd place). 

Well, now, in the words of my loving wife, I’m a friggin’ author, so I really look forward to getting together with writer/friends of mine, but let me tell you … the conversations we have border on ones lunatics would have with each other, who’ve escaped from the local nut house. 

Pour a few pints into each and here’s a sample of my last meet-up with three other authors – one writes vampire/zombie novels; one writes erotica; and one writes fantasy. I made the mistake of asking them for help with a sub-plot …

For sake of anonymity, I’ll call them “Vamp" (vampire/zombie), "Eros" (erotica), and "Fanny" (fantasy):

Me: <sigh> “I screwed up … one of my characters is in Europe at the end of chapter 10 and I need him to be in the U.S. an hour later, in chapter 11.”

Fanny: “That’s easy … he could sprout wings and fly there.”

Eros: “Sprout … I like that. How about … out-jut or stimulate to full length?”

Vamp: “Why not kill him in Europe? Or even better, have him kill someone?”

Me: “Wha—“

Fanny: “You don’t ‘out-jut’ wings, they sprout, trust me, I know about such things. I’m just not sure he could fly from Europe to the U.S. in an hour with just wings sprouting from his back … wait, I got it … time needs to stop too!”

Eros: “You’re the expert, huh? Then what else can you do with wings ... stroke ... caress ... pinch?"

Vamp: “Let me rethink this … if he kills someone, he still needs to get to the U.S. in an hour. <tapping her chin> yeah … probably better to kill him, then you can take your time flying his body home."

Eros: "Wibble ... bounce ... spank ...?"

Me: “Wait a second, the character is a former delta forces officer and my novel has to be as … realistic as possible—”

Fanny: “That’s why I think stopping time is a better idea – at least that’s possible.”

Me: “Huh?”

Eros: “Do you know it’s a proven fact that at the height of sexual satisfaction, time really does stop!”

Vamp: “Time also stops when you’re dead!”

Me: “LADIES!” <Exhaling audibly> “Hasn’t any of you even read my novels?”

Fanny: “We have g … just my opinion … you lost me with all that r-e-a-l-i-t-y—”

Eros: “Yeah, and no one so much as undressed … I mean totally—”

Vamp: “And all your dead people stayed dead … b-o-r-i-n-g!”

Me: “Bartender … <sigh> another round for my friends.”

I finally did finish that novel … it’s titled, _Signs of War_ and I’d really appreciate it if you’d check it out and if you feel the urge … buy a copy … at least, so I can continue to afford buying rounds for my friends.  c”,)

Peace all! (I really would appreciate it if you checked _Signs of War_ out. You can, here at Amazon, where it’s available in Kindle and paper editions. Barnes & Noble and Smashwords too for other eBook formats!)

p.s. Please hit the "Tweet' and 'Like' buttons below this and help me spread the word about _Signs of War_ ... Thanks! g

The will to go on … when calamity comes upon us, where do we find it?

When we think of the term, many think of warriors engaged in battle or we often hear it applied to athletes competing against one another. Yet, there are times in all of our lives where we each have to find the will to go on …

You’re diagnosed with a terminal illness.

A loved one dies or becomes very ill, your dad or mom, or husband or wife … or the worst of all, your child.

You lose your job with little hope of finding another one soon. The bills quickly pile up. Your phone never stops ringing from bill collectors and law offices. You can feel the stress building inside of you.

You lose your house. The shame from it affects your marriage and your relationships with family and friends.

People lose confidence in you. You lose confidence in yourself.

Some decisions you make inevitably affect the course of your life and the lives of others. As humans, we know we can’t go back and change the decisions that turned out badly. All we can do is go on from here, but finding the will to do so can be the greatest challenge.

In my new novel, Signs of War, Cris De Niro starts out wondering if he should continue to go on with his mandate to protect American citizens. In Book I, The Watchman of Ephraim, after losing his wife and unborn son in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 - from an epiphany of faith, De Niro decides to focus all of his energies into protecting Americans from enemies domestic and abroad. He and his team are successful and his cause seemed righteous and honorable, until he lost men in his employ, one in the line of duty, another sacrificing himself to save the city of Las Vegas.

Now he must make a decision, but first he must find the will to go on.

We each have our reasons for being. Mine is my Faith, my family, and my friends. I’d be willing to sacrifice my own life for all three, but would I be willing to sacrifice the lives of others?

De Niro is convinced that he must go on with his mission and with the mandate of The Watchman Agency, if the deaths of his men are to have any purpose.

De Niro discovers something that I believe is a universal truth. Sometimes our will to go on has less to do with ourselves and more to do with our love for others.

I’d like you to take a free look at my new novel, Signs of War. Here’s the link, I hope you’ll pick up a copy: Signs of War. I dedicated the book to Seal Team Six, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)