Today is a big day for me.  Partially because my ebook short-story collection, 10 Bits of My Brain, is now officially, 100% available, but also for another important reason.  It's my 40th birthday.

Now, I'm not one to get all maudlin about these things nor will I spiral into an embarrassing case of mid-life crisis.  But it does amaze me that forty years have swept by.  I'm nowhere near where I thought I would be, and I'm far beyond what I ever thought I would become.

It actually got me thinking about my book.  The stories are all over the genre spectrum.  There are dark stories, quirky stories, dragon stories, pirate stories — it's one of the things I love about short story writing.  I can go anywhere.  In my novels — you'll start seeing more and more about those in the coming months — there are more expectations put on me by the readers and the publishers.  I do sub-genre hop, but there are limits.  I have a UF series that's coming next, and a post-apocalyptic fantasy series that'll be appearing in the next year or so.  Both are being reviewed by different publishers and both will come with specific audience expectations.  Even more, those audiences may not want to cross from one series to the other.

But I like to do that.  There's a reason the podcast I started is called The Eclectic Review.  Look at my bookcase — fantasy and sf, of course, but also historical fiction, classic literature, Japanese fiction, graphic novels, autobiographies, non-fiction.  It's all there.  And I know from my GoodReads friends that I'm not alone.  Many readers like to sample from all over the place.  Yet when it comes to writing, authors are shoved into little boxes and told to write within those confines.  No straying unless you change your name.

Well, ebooks is changing a lot of the way the book business is run, and I'm hoping this is another angle of that.  I'm telling you fine folks right now that, just like the wide-range of stories you'll find in my collection, I intend to write a wide-range of novels.  Within a series, you'll know what to expect.  But not everything I write will be UF, fantasy, sf, or whatever.  I sincerely hope you'll join me for the ride.  It's so much more fun together.

And, since it's my birthday, go get a taste of what you're in for on this journey with 10 Bits of My Brain.