On The Road Again…

I’m off on vacation, where I’ve sworn to stay away from computers, which I’ve facilitated by going to areas where there’s no internet. This will be a remarkable test for me, as I’ve pretty much been glued to a screen for the last 29 months.

Which brings me to an important milestone. I just finished my 27th novel. Looking back, that’s one every month or so. Which is an insane pace I plan to stop, beginning 2014. Mainly because my wrists and my back won’t tolerate it, not to mention my significant other, as I like to refer to my inflatable doll.

Be that as it may, since I’m being hounded relentlessly by my three fans, I’ll be releasing BLACK 3 in late November, and JET VI in December, probably around or just after Xmas.

So what will 2014 look like? Probably 4 releases. That’s it. I swear. Other than some collaborative efforts I’m really looking forward to. But those are more as time permits than rigidly scheduled. These people are wildly popular indie authors in their own right, and the stars need to align in order for everyone to have time to work on em. I can say you’re going to see a NA action romance, a dystopian novel, and a contemporary romance from some huge indie names along with yours truly, probably using the abbreviated name RE Blake for the romances so I don’t scare all the cat ladies away with my gruff demeanor and manly six pack abs. Which I so totally have. Chiseled. I’m considering modeling for romance covers next. But only at least partially nude ones.

So what will I be doing with all my spare time? Reading. A lot. I haven’t had nearly enough time to read, and I miss it. I have Lawrence Block, James Lee Burke and a host of others on my kindle for my vacation, and I forgot how much I love reading. But I’m getting reacquainted with having spare time, which is really what vacations are for – I mean, other than the problem drinking, gorging yourself on fatty foods, and questionable liaisons. Although this time I am not going to wake up after a three day binge on a freighter bound for Jakarta spooning a 300 pound Samoan cook named Peaches. I mean it. I’ve changed.

I’ll probably also be hitting the gym more regularly (note the committed sound of the ‘probably’, as though I might have to join a group of super heroes and fight crime or something that could take me away from that resolution). I have to say that the treadmill desk is now a permanent fixture in my worklife, and I’m averaging two to three hours a day, or expressed in miles, am walking 5-6 miles a day while I write, which is probably the only thing keeping my heart and lungs functioning, such as they are, these days.

What I will not be doing in 2014 is what I did this year, where I swore I would write only six books, and then found myself having penned, well, lets just say a few more. And this time I totally mean it. I intend to become a slacker – one of those effete writers who’s annoyingly lounging around the pool for an hour considering the weight of a sentence, or swearing that I’m working even as I watch comedy on YouTube, or penning polemics about the looming dollar crash and reset of the global economy that’s going to wipe out 80% of the world’s middle class and result in widespread social unrest in virtually every country on the planet.

But until November 20th, when I return, I will be sipping elixir out of coconuts or whatever the hell they drink around here, and doing little but staring at my navel, which sounds pretty good right about now.

Be nice to each other in my absence. Our time on this watery sphere is all too short, and this time is never different, and the only things that really matter are happiness and relationships. And tequila. Of course. Now go buy my crap so I don’t have to worry about how to pay for that next steak.