The authors at Vintage City Publishing get lots of questions like, “Where do you get your ideas?” and “How do you come up with such interesting characters?” and “When are you guys going to pay your bar tab?”
But the most common question is, “What are you working on now?”
We thought we would put the question to our current stable of writers and see what they’ve accomplished in 2021, and maybe a sneak peek at what they have planned for 2022 and beyond. So without further ado…
Timothy Johnson:
Tim has had his nose buried in books as he works through the final year in his MFA program. While he’s largely been out of the publishing game as he seeks to improve his writing chops, he did publish two stories last year:
“I Am Emergent” in What Remains, an anthology from Inked in Gray Press , which nominated his story for a Pushcart Prize; and
“The Only Memorial You Can Ever Have” in Deracine Magazine.
Tim also has been working as the editor-in-chief at phoebe journal, and he’s currently shopping around a handful of stories and working on two novels, one a post-apocalyptic reverse-migration story with giant monsters, and the other a reality-bending sci-fi story that’s one half The Matrix and one half Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a dash of 50 First Dates. He hopes to share more writing soon.
Slade Grayson:
2021 saw the release of Kill Your Heroes, Slade’s love letter to the comic books of his youth, but mixed with his own twisted sense of humor. And this past November saw the release of the audiobook of Kill Your Heroes from Tantor Media.
For 2022, Slade is doing something he’s never done before: He’s simultaneously working on two books. You read that right. TWO books!
The first book is Save Your Enemies, the sequel to KYH, which Slade promises will have just as much superhero action and laugh out loud jokes as the first book. And possibly a bit more.
His second untitled book is geared towards middle-school age readers. Slade describes it as, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid crossed with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Not sure what that means, but Slade is hoping one of the books (or possibly both!) see print in 2022.
Nick DeWolf:
Nick DeWolf is, well, in a bit of a slump.
The last couple of years have been pretty hellish for everyone, and he is no exception. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have things brewing! Yes, it’s mostly beer that he makes so he can drink it and try and escape for just a little bit, but that’s another discussion all together.
Nick is currently working on a sequel to his superhero novel, Villains Never Die, which is tentatively titled, Heroes Never Win.
He’s fighting to find his author’s voice. It was stolen from him like so many things were stolen from us. He writes something good, knows it’s good, but just can’t feel his own heart there. It doesn’t beat, beat, beat in his chest like it needs to. If he’s going to put something out there he wants it to be great.
But he promises to keep working when he can, and if you’ve enjoyed anything he’s written so far, let him know. Mostly to guilt him. Guilt is great. It would totally work on him and he needs someone to kick him in the ass.