By Joe Torosian
I’ve been asked questions about my latest release. So this seems to be a perfect time to answer.
At the end of January, I released Till The Cows Come Home: Part 1—“Pastor Sheldon May Gets Canned”…Earlier this week, I put out, Till The Cows Come Home: Part 2—”Jerry Knight: Troubled Teen.”
Both got off to nice starts, and I’m pleased with the response. So I’ll start answering questions now:
1.) Till The Cows Come Home is a novel I’ve written but have not had time to go back and edit. It’s been sitting on my “to-do shelf” for a long time. And it still is as I finish editing my current novel, Sin Virus.
Sin Virus is going to be sent out to a traditional publisher. Still, in the meantime, I need to keep churning out other work to make sure I stay in the black regarding my website and future projects.
So I’ve begun editing Till The Cows Come Home down into 5,000-word installments. I can see there being as many as 15 of them.
2.) I’ve published five books. FaithViews For Storm Riders is a devotional and non-fiction. Tangent Dreams and Temple City & The Company of The Ages are part of the same football series. The rough draft to the third book in the football series, Arroyo & One Night in Burbank, is currently resting on my “to-do shelf.”
3.) And to answer the question regarding The Dead Bug Tales. The Dark Norm, Joy To The Langes, Breeze, and Till the Cows Come Home—Yes! They are all connected. Characters will appear in different stories at different times in their fictional lives.
The Dead Bug Tales is set in 1991. The Dark Norm is set in 1979. Till The Cows Come Home is set in 1974. The short stories—Joy To The Langes & Breeze are set in the 21st. Century…As is Sin Virus.
4.) Each work can be read as a stand-alone…so they are not direct sequels. But as they are read, characters from the other stories are going to pop up like old friends.
5.) Why? I created so many characters for The Dead Bug Tales, I couldn’t bear to leave their futures unfinished or their backstories untold.
6.) It’s a lot of work…and it’s one of the main reasons I no longer write sports. I don’t have the time. Since I have to treat my writing like a business—one building to ever-better success in the future—these books and stories put me in the black. Sportswriting no longer makes me a dime.
7.) My favorite part of doing things this way is…If you’ve read The Dead Bug Tales—
(I agree it’s long but wonderfully fast and as different as anything you’ll absorb with your eyes.)
–you’ll run into its characters again while reading The Dark Norm, Till The Cows Come Home, Joy to The Langes, & Breeze. Characters you’ll have an acquaintance with. (Some might say, a character you have a friendship with–but that could be a little creepy.) It gives a larger epic sense to everything. It also drives home the concept that even the small moments in our life play into something bigger.
That’s it for now…I just felt like I owed a few of you–you loyal readers–that update.
Part Three of Till The Cows Come Home—“The Football Game” is coming soon.
God Bless,
Joe T.
E-Mail: jtbank1964@yahoo.com
Twitter: @joet13b
Instagram: joet13b
