I’ve threatened this for a while, at one point, dropping the idea because too many people suggested a clean break with the past. But as of tomorrow, I will have posted as Jim Winter over at Sleuthsayers for the first time in three years. I was a regular there before I dropped the Winter name to focus solely on science fiction. So am I giving up on SF?
Oh, hell, no. While revising The Amortals, the first of the final arc in the Compact Universe series, I came up with a plot twist at the end that will open new doors should I carry this storyline forward. But It was strongly suggested I revive the Jim Winter name (as in someone in New York) if I hope to get Holland Bay published.
To that end, I asked Clayborn Press to fire off the first three Nick Keplers and Road Rules in a four-month volley starting this month. Some logistical issues have come up that may postpone Northcoast Shakedown‘s relaunch until November, but otherwise, the plan is on and coincides with some plans to widen distribution, at least in print.
Of course, this also consists of rebuilding the web presence: New Jim Winter site, Twitter account, Facebook page. This blog will get a little lighter, but it frees me up to talk about topics I used to talk about as Jim, like music. It’s kind of odd, but science fiction fans really aren’t interested in my screeds about Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, Jimmy Page… Maybe Rush in their early days.
I used to rant about politics but if hindsight has taught us anything, it’s that politics is fleeting. Even the current narratives of our highly polarized world won’t really matter in a couple of years. If anything, I often found myself not liking much that I wrote of things political beyond a “Your Politics Suck” post. In an era when social media demands everything be political, we might want to consider maybe being less political. Demagoguery is what got us in the situation we are in now. Repeating it over and over to get a different result is the very definition of insanity.
I’ll probably withhold much of my personal life here and as Jim Winter. I’ve been divorced and remarried since I was last Jim, and frankly, I don’t feel like acclimating a new family to my weird ways. Never mind that my wife was a published author back in the day.
For now, I have the Sleuthsayers post. The rest I’ll have to work on by the end of the year.
And this time, try not to kill myself being two people. The secret is open now. I don’t have worry about keeping things separate. They’ll separate themselves nicely on their own.
And then I’ll start a Twitter war with myself.