Happy Birthday To Me!

For years, I refused to give writing advice beyond some very basic general statements like “Write the story only you can tell”, “Get a good editor” and “Find your own voice”. The reason was that I felt I hadn’t been writing long enough to give advice. I viewed my writing career in terms of human growth years. Ten years of writing, to me, is equivalent to being a ten-year-old. 15 years of writing is equivalent to being a fifteen-year-old. And who the hell wants to take advice from a ten or fifteen-year-old? But now I have been actively pursuing my writing career and publishing for a solid 27 years.

I wrote my first novel, Yaccub’s Curse, in 1994, though it wasn’t published until 2010. I rewrote that novel nearly every year from ‘94 until it was accepted for publication and, in the meantime, I wrote 2 other novels, 2 novellas, and dozens of short stories and poems. It would probably be fair to say my writing career began in 1994, which would make me a thirty-two-year veteran of the game. But I count the start of my career from when I discovered the HWA and the now-defunct Horrorauthors.net. That’s when I really began to learn what I was doing and got serious about submitting my work for publication. That year was 1999. That was also the same year I had my last fight in Japan, a loss, and my fighting career began a slow 10-year decline.

I do believe those two things are coincidental, but no longer being a hot prospect as a fighter allowed me to really focus on my writing. You could certainly argue that had I focused more on getting back into the win column, I might have saved my fighting career, maybe even finally won that elusive world title, but I’m happy with how things turned out.

Between 1999 and when I finally retired for the final time in 2009, I won two fights, lost five, and retired twice, ending with a professional record of 17 wins, 6 losses, and 15 KOs. But, during that same period, I wrote Succulent Prey and The Resurrectionist as well as His Pain, Population Zero, and The Book Of A Thousand Sins. I ended 2009 with my first mass market novel, Succulent Prey, being published by Leisure Books/ Dorchester Publishing. It was my worst and best year simultaneously.

Not going to lie, making the switch from fighter to writer wasn’t easy. It was actually pretty damn devastating, though I think I hid it well. Switching identities isn’t painless, and “fighter” had been my identity for 16 years, even though I was writing the entire time. Giving up fighting felt like losing half of myself. There are still moments when I look back on those six losses and cringe. But what I did as an author more than made up for it. I don’t think fighting would have brought me to where I am today.

Today, I am a full-time writer, which has been my dream since I was a Creative Writing major at Philadelphia’s High School for the Creative & Performing Arts. And now I get to live that dream. I live in Thailand in a beautiful luxury condo and get to wake up every morning with the love of my life. I have another beloved partner in the US whom I speak to every day and who “loves my yesterday drawls” as my mother would say. I workout every day and still look and feel strong and healthy. I write every day and have even begun doing voiceovers and audiobook narration. I am living a better life than I could have imagined. At 56, I feel like I am in my prime as a writer and as a man.

So, now I feel like I am finally mature enough as a writer to give some real and genuine advice, and I will. Just not today. Today, I am going to go to the gym, go to the barber to get my head shaved and my beard lined up, go thrift shopping, then go out to a fancy restaurant for dinner with my fiancée to celebrate another revolution around the sun. But I will begin providing advice on the business and craft of writing at least once a month right here on Substack to my paid subscribers. I think I am finally old enough.

Happy Birthday To Me.