This week President Obama and my-special-self, we both turn 48. Wow. Sucks, huh . . . Possible trends spotted were realistic military action in space, steampunk (look it up for yourself), and men’s urban fantasy. Think the Dresden Files. Add to those trends vamps and zombies. So, children, stupid yourselves down for the most part. Wonderfully written prose not wanted anymore. Learn updated Buffy-speak, all the modern cultural references you can shove into your head, and pepper with modern slang. Thinly plot your modern epic fantasy series, hoping you can come up with the big encompassing idea needed to actually make it a series. Now go for it. Some of you might make it.

Or you can imagine, if you will, someone asking you for a TV series. 22 episodes per year for five years. What is the core idea behind the series? Before any network will touch you, you have to have it all mapped out for them, and they have the money, but also the collective IQ of a pile of cashews. Spell it out for them. Keep the level of the series either adult or younger, but be consistent. Since you need to turn the above into five novels you have to pound out in a year or two, this is your guide. Characters, action, humor, mayhem. Lay it all out. Think as if these novels were to become movies. The money is already in your pocket. See the circular logic? How it might work? I do, and so should you. I’m wholeheartedly embracing the future, but not lowering my ideals. I have to think the readers out there actually want real substance within their genre fiction. Also, by continuing to see the world as I want to see it, perhaps I can find a way to shape it. I even figured out how to give myself a platform within the growing graphic novel segment.

Also, I’ve been noticing who has been dabbling in Young Adult (YA). James Patterson, and now Robert Parker. Who would have thought . . . See you next week.