Eyes on Bull—An Interview with Warren Bull

This all started several weeks ago when I got nosy about my fellow blogger’s WIPS. Check out my last three blogs about the WIPs of our other bloggers. This week, I’m interviewing Warren Bull, who is an accomplished story teller with many works in publication. I’ll let Warren tell you about them in his own way.

Please tell me about your work in progress: the title, blurb, cover, and where you are in the process of writing it.

Thanks for asking, Elaine. Since I have four books published, part of my work as a writer involves promoting sales and increasing readers’ awareness of those works. I would include  promoting those works as part of works in progress since promotion is part of being an author.

I have one talk/reading scheduled for Abraham Lincoln for the Defense on Valentine’s Day. It was published in 2003, and I am down to the last few author copies of the paperback first edition. I am considering self-publishing a second edition because I still sell a few copies from time to time. It is available on Smashwords, Amazon and Kindle.

The publisher of Murder Manhattan Style has decided to go out of business. I am trying to get a business license so I can sell through my website http://WarrenBull.com. I have not done that before so as it goes along I’ll be able to blog about it. I am in negotiation for two additional potential signing/speaking events. Murder Manhattan Style is available at I Love a Mystery Bookstore, on Untreed Reads, Smashwords, Amazon and Kindle.

Hmm, I guess I’ve been neglecting Death in the Moonlight. It is a second mystery involving Abraham Lincoln. It deals with the Lincoln-Douglas debates and his most famous murder trial. It’s up on Smashwords, and Kindle, but I don’t have anything scheduled on its behalf. I hesitate to bring it out in paperback since no publisher has expressed an interest. It would be a lot of work to do it entirely on my own.

With my newest published work, Heartland, I am seeking reviews, applying to for it to become a Kansas Notable Book, and I have scheduled two talks/readings in March. I Love a Mystery bookstore sold out of the first batch of books (Yah) so I have taken more in. It is available at Avignon Press, on Smashwords, Amazon and Kindle. I have a few guest blog scheduled where I will give away free copies.

As for works in progress, I am having an editor look over a small noir short story collection, tentatively titled SALVAGE.. Once I get it in shape so that I’m willing to have it published, I will send it around to see if I can get blurbs from other authors. I have to decide if I want to self-publish or to offer it to a publisher. I have to decide if I want it to be a small paperback or an e-book. It’s the sort of book that Snub Nose Press might consider, but they are not open to submissions right now. There seems to be a market for dark fiction. Both Untreed Read and Trestle Press are possible markets. They have published my work in the past and done a good job with editing and promotion. This is very different from most of my published work.

I am also working on an untitled novel trying to do more planning than “pantsing.”The hero is a psychologist working in a small town, which I know something about but which has never interested me enough to devote the years it can take me to write a novel. I may have a new take. I’m trying to use Story Engineering by Larry Brooks and How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Hart as guides.

How many hours per week do you work at writing?

At present, I had a cataract removed from one eye so I cannot read for more than a few minutes without getting a headache. I can barely type; I close one eye or the other and make lots of mistakes. So I am  not able to write much at the moment.(You should have seen the first few drafts of this blog.)

What are your aspirations for your work?

I want to continue to publish work I’m proud to have written. I want to entertain and to express my opinions and values through my work. I may never have a  “major” publisher. I haven’t been required to write a novel per year and I honestly don’t know if I could.

Where do you want to be a year from now in terms of your writing?

My immediate goal is to get surgery on my other eye so I can work. My general goal is to continue to write and publish and  gradually build up a “presence” in the writing and reading community. I don’t have a particular writing goal for the calendar year.

When I was in New Zealand for four months, where the phone did not ring, and I had few social responsibilities, I was able to sit at the computer and make mistakes, try again, make different mistakes, try again, make new mistakes and repeat the process getting closer and closer to what I wanted to achieve. I need to develop a different rhythm now that I’m home, and I would like to accomplish that as soon as possible.