So, You’ve Spoken (and I’m Listening… Mostly)

From SRP Author Mark Posey:

Well, my friends, the ballots have been counted, the hanging chads examined, and unlike certain political elections, there were no lawsuits filed, and no recount demanded. (Although I did get one impassioned email that could have doubled as a campaign speech. Respect.)

By majority rule, the order of business for my keyboard is now set:

1. Fall From Grace goes first. Apparently, you’re all eager to watch me shove Thomas Billings off an emotional cliff. Don’t worry—there will be plenty of sharp rocks and jagged edges waiting at the bottom.
2. Sister Jacobine #7 follows close behind, because really, you couldn’t let her rest for even one book, could you? Poor woman. Six books of dodging bullets, assassins, conspiracies, and bad coffee, and you still want more.
3. Credible Threat, Season 2 brings up the rear. Which makes sense, because if Billings and Jacobine are still alive by then, they’ll need a stiff drink and I’ll need one, too.

Now, I won’t lie—part of me wanted to ignore your votes and just go off and write a cookbook instead. (“101 Ways to Kill a Man With Kitchen Utensils” has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?) But I asked, you answered, and I’ll play fair.

The real truth? I’m kind of relieved. It means I don’t have to sit here staring at my screen wondering which story to wrestle next. You made the call, so if you end up cursing me for the heartbreak, the cliffhangers, or the general emotional wreckage, you’ve only yourselves to blame.

So, thank you for steering this ship. I’ll start wrestling with Fall From Grace immediately. Fair warning: writing this one might just wreck me as much as it does Billings—but if you’ve been around here long enough, you know I’m a masochist that way.

Stay tuned. Blood, betrayal, and probably bad jokes are coming your way soon.

–Mark

Mark Posey

SRP Author and thriller writer.

Mark Posey is the author of the award-losing Nun With A Gun thrillers*, a series featuring Sister Jacobine, a nun with a habit of making bad people pay. Readers have called the stories “sharp,” “darkly funny,” and “alarmingly satisfying.” The author calls them “therapy with a body count.”  (*No awards were harmed in the writing of this series.)

Mark writes thrillers for readers who don’t mind a little dirt under the nails — stories with emotional weight, lean prose, and characters who rarely do the right thing for the right reason. His work lives somewhere between noir, revenge fantasy, and literary grit, though he avoids calling it any of those because that sounds like marketing.

When he’s not writing fiction, Mark also works as a professional editor and story consultant. His editing blog offers straight talk for indie and traditionally published authors alike — especially the ones who are tired of being told to “find their voice” by people who can’t define what voice is.
He believes in clarity over cleverness, clean narrative over trend-chasing, and that semicolons are fine, but you probably don’t need as many as you think.

He lives in Canada, which explains the politeness, but not the sarcasm.

You can find him online at MarkPoseyAuthor.com, where he blogs about writing, editing, story structure, and whatever else is on fire this week. His books are published through Stories Rule Press, an independent publisher of genre fiction with strong characters and sharp writing.