A love letter to urban fantasy

Hey! Dear god, Urban Fantasy, back off! This is a love *letter* which means you won't be receiving this for at least a month or so, depending on your area's postal service. So stop humping my leg.

Okay. Phew. Onward.

UF, why is it that you continue to fascinate me? Is it your hardened heroes and heroines that never take "No" for an answer and always rise to impossible challenges? Is it the fact that you show us how a normal day at your local grocery store can turn into a hunt for a demon-infested soccer mom? Is it your ability to flip fantasy tropes on their heads, shock me, and tug me along by my nostril-hairs?

Yes. It is all those things and more.

Urban Fantasy...you take so much of my time. I'm a writer, I'm an author, and yet you don't care. You don't think about my priorities, do you? All you care about is entertaining me. About dragging me away from my current manuscripts and getting me invested in the plights of wizard detectives, magical moms, fantasy families, and more.

FU, UF.

Ahem.

Will I stop reading urban fantasy? Hell no. (Okay, hoping no demons are summoned by my passionate use of "Hell")

Urban fantasy inspires us all to think beyond our normal routine. To consider that homeless guy you pass by every day in  new light. To always doubt our interpretation of reality and imagine what's left to discover. To hope that the kitchen salt shaker can be used to banish a supernatural stalker. It takes the mundane and makes it magical.

And I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Space to breathe, think, and do finger push-ups

Some exciting new developments have been going on behind the scenes here, recently--one of the reasons this blog has been dormant for a bit, alongside Write-Strong.com. For several years now, I've been slowly building up my freelance work in the hopes of eventually cutting loose from the day job and making a go on my own as a writer/editor.

Over the past year, I've felt an increasing desire to make this a reality and, thanks to a hugely supportive wife, I've taken that leap into the unknown. If you drop by Write-Strong.com, you might notice a new Hire Me! section. Yeah, not exactly subtle, eh?

So, I'm into my second week of making a break for it, and so far, it's been going strong. I've been brought on by a handful of clients who have been great to work with, and been able to devote more time to the work I already had going on. If all goes well, this will continue to flesh out into a sustainable career path for me (even if I do have to the occasional part-time job).

Taking this step has given me renewed energy and breathing space to focus on my writing, both in copywriting and fiction. They really complement one another, as far as building good writing habits, such as just getting my butt in the chair and doing the finger push-ups on the keyboard. It's satisfying to know that every bit of work I'm producing, while for other clients, contributes to my growth as a writer.

Alongside all this, I've also been adding some fresher book reviews on my Speculative Fiction Examiner column, and also will begin contributing some monthly posts to SFSignal.com, which I'm excited about.

What's been going on with everyone else? I try to keep an eye on things through G+ and my Twitter/Facebook feeds there, but I know I've likely missed some fun news on your end. Catch me up!