Not so long ago one of my Friends (we’ll call her Amy), who had just read my contemporary fantasy novel Fight The Gods, pointed something out to me that I hadn’t really thought about: Fight The Gods is a romance.

Amy, you see, isn’t the world’s biggest fan of fantasy adventure. It was only because her fiance–we’ll call him Blair–dragged her to the Farpoint con in Timonium, Maryland that she saw Fight The Gods sitting on my table and got interested enough to secure a copy. Her hopes for it weren’t very high, I think. But she liked it. And she did so purely because she had discovered a thread that, for her, made the experience worthwhile. “It’s a romance,” she told Blair when she was done. Told him unequivocally, I might add, because Amy is pretty firm in her opinions.

To be honest, I had never thought of Fight The Gods in that light before. I was all focused on the protagonist’s journey of self-discovery, on the conflicts that shape him, on the deepening mystery, on the whiplash-inducing, roller coaster action of the plot. I wasn’t really thinking about true love.

But it happened. Pretty much the way real love does, now that I think about. It comes out of nowhere, when you least expect it.

Mind you, the protagonist’s girlfriend, a New York City cop, is no freakin’ Disney princess. She’s tough, no-nonsense, even caustic at times. But she’s deeply in love with our hero and he’s deeply in love with her. And if not for that love, there’s no adventure, no mystery, no self-discovery, no roller coaster.

Of course, all the good stories are romances. Not just in the modern boy-meets-girl (or some variation thereon) sense of the word, but in the original epic-striving-for-a-higher-ideal sense of the word. They involve putting someone or something on a plane higher than oneself.

Except Amy wasn’t talking about the latter meaning. She meant the hugging-and-kissing thing, the emotional attachment so intense that someone would risk everything–life and more–for his or her significant other. And in the case of Fight The Gods, she was absolutely right. It was a romance.

It was about a guy who loved high and far and a gal who returned that love, and the way in which they redeem each other across barriers mortals seldom cross. And in the end…well, in the end, you find out what the beginning was about. Because the end and the beginning of a book have a love affair all their own, now don’t they?

So…Fight The Gods? A love story. Go figure. It just goes to show: You Learn something new every day.

Who doesn’t love a good love story? It’s become a running joke between me and my wife that almost invariably, every movie we watch is really a love story. Sometimes it stretches credulity but it’s there if you look for it.

That being said, I don’t write a lot of love stories. I’ve done some sub-plots, some flirtations but no, nothing you could call an out and out love story. The closest I suppose I’ve come to that would be the sub-plot in A Time to Love and A Time to Hate resulting in William Riker (finally) proposing to Deanna Troi.

Love and romance is incredibly intimate and subtle, tricky to pull off. Maybe that’s one reason I’ve never really tackled it as a theme, lacking faith in my skill as a writer to successfully convey those emotions to the reader. Not that I don’t want to try but the opportunity has yet to really present itself.

With that said, I love women. I find myself drawn to writing female characters, hence my as-yet incomplete young adult novel featuring a teen girl lead. Or that my POV character in the ReDeus series is Gabriella Trotter, a woman searching for…something. Gabriella is like me, not quite believing in gods and searching for proof there is something worth believing in. In her story in ReDeus: Native Lands she wound up leaving Seattle, going on the road to see what’s out there.

I hope among the things she will discover will be some form of love. Over the last few months I’ve been mulling over where she should go first and what she should do since her story will form my first ReDeus novel, lightly pencilled in for next year, after solo outings by Paul Kupperberg and Aaron Rosenberg. She is opening herself up to absorb new experiences; her journalist’s mind a sponge, seeking information. How she processes those details and what she does with her newly acquired knowledge will certainly be interesting, especially with Coyote never far from her.

Does he love her? Of course not. She’s a trifle, a brief amusement in his larger game. But Gabriella is certainly worthy of love and being loved. I need to give this one some more thought, perhaps finally challenging myself to try my hand at an honest romance set against a reforming America, under the watchful eyes of the gods.

While I ponder this, stick around and see what my fellow inmates in the C8 asylum have to say on the subject of romance.

Back in 1981, I made a New Year’s resolution to write a book. More specifically, a fantasy novel. It would be my first. If it was also to be my last, I would nonetheless die a happy man. That was what I told anyone who would listen: Gimme one, just one, and I’ll be content. After all, I’ll be a writer.

Four years later, that book was published. It was called The Hammer and The Horn. Four months after that I delivered the sequel to my editor at Warner Books. I was on my way.

But I had a new goal, one that seemed unattainable but was all the more appealing for its unattain-ability. I was going to write 100 books in all. Sounds greedy, considering I’d been willing to settle for one back in ’81. And prideful, definitely prideful. But then, a man’s reach should always exceed his grasp…or, I mean really, what’s a heaven for?

100 books. Certainly, I wouldn’t be the first. But it would take a lifetime. And so it began…

After my first four books came out, my agent hooked me up with editor Dave Stern at Pocket Books, who almost derailed my life’s plan when he turned down my first outline. But he liked the second one, so I was back on track.

In the years that followed, I wrote some 35 Star Trek books. Not just novels, either. The nifty, compact, and eminently useful Star Trek Federation Travel Guide? That was me (though, to be fair, the idea came from editor Margaret Clark). The beautiful and impressive coffee table book New Worlds, New Civilizations? Me again (as before, with a helping hand from Margaret).

I also wrote the adaptation of Batman & Robin, the autobiography of Hulk Hogan, sequels to The Wolf Man movie and the Aliens franchise, a bunch of Lois & Clark novels, and a whole lot more. A few years ago, I co-founded Crazy 8 Press, which published my last two original novels and is currently re-releasing The Hammer and The Horn.

The total to date? 71 books. So just 29 to go–including I Am The Salamander, the book I’m working on now. The unattainable now seems strangely possible. Not a slam dunk, certainly, but it could happen.

And it all goes back to a New Year’s resolution 32 years ago.

To me, the weird thing about New Year’s resolutions isn’t when we make them–though picking an arbitrary date like January 1st rather than March 12th or September 29th is undeniably weird. It’s that we give ourselves a year to carry them out.

Some resolutions can’t be carried out in twelve months. Some of them take a lifetime.

The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions is traced, I’m told, back to the Babylonians who seemed to know what they were doing. Far be it from the seven of us at Crazy 8 Press not to follow such a time-honored practice.

Personally, I would love to see myself writing more work for this site. At present, I have one story for an anthology promised for this summer. Beyond that, there’s a ReDeus novel that needs plotting but realistically won’t be out until 2015.

The ReDeus universe shows tremendous promise now that we’ve seen three anthologies exploring the first two decades after all the gods have returned. It has gotten good notices form those who have read the books and that encourages Aaron Rosenberg, Paul Kupperberg, and myself. But there are other stories to tell, including my young adult fantasy and an urban fantasy. Of late, though, my imagination has been captured by a Civil War event, one I want to research and explore before deciding what to do with this incredible love story. I chanced across the tale while touring Manassas during the winter break and to my surprise I can’t find any books on this incident requiring some further digging.

(In the meantime, I continue to do reviews and the occasional other story over at ComicMix and write my twice-monthly column at Westfield Comics, so I’m not entirely idle.)

As a site that allows us total creative freedom and expression, there’s more I want to do but time, thanks to the teaching gig, is preciously limited.

But beyond that, I resolve to work harder to help C8’s third year be its best yet, building off the things discussed in our New Year’s post. I want to help raise our visibility and broaden our outreach through school and public libraries. I want to be one of the people at public events, beyond conventions.

I also promise to continue to eat fruits and vegetables, take my vitamin D and try to lose weight.

It’s been seemingly quiet on the publishing front here at Crazy 8 Press. We had a flurry of books released around Shore Leave and our second anniversary.

Looking back, 2013 was a solid year for this outfit. We welcomed Russ Colchamiro and Paul Kupperberg to our family, each bringing some incredibly fun stories with them, from space fare to a murder mystery. We also released Rob Kelley’s Hey Kids, Comics, our first attempt at publishing a title not directly produced by one of us. We learned a lot from the experience and look forward to what may come next.

Peter David and Aaron Rosenberg both released new novels while Mike finally brought his very first novel back to print after several decades. Aaron, Paul, and I produced two volumes in our ReDeus world and had tremendous fun in the process.

Since then, we haven’t released much. But we haven’t exactly been idle.

First of all, Mike Friedman launched and succeeded with his Kickstarter campaign to fund his writing I am the Salamander, a brand new novel that will roll out early this year.

Behind the scenes, we’ve been talking and planning. We have definitely rededicated ourselves to getting the word out as far and as wide as possible, improving our sales and exposure. There are some incredible books available here but it feels like a well-kept secret and we want to change that.

So, in the coming months you will hear more about us and from us. Incrementally, you should start seeing changes to the website as we grow and evolve. Navigation should be easier and it’ll be more obvious when something new is here to read or buy. We’ve started adding in our personal appearances so you can find us and say hello.

Our publishing lineup is packed and everyone is at work on stories. Out-of-print titles by some of our writers will return, which is one of the benefits of self-publishing. All seven of us will have at least one new thing to offer before this year becomes a memory. We’re very excited about 2014 and our third year, as we grow in experience, only matched by our enthusiasm.

We hope you will enjoy the ride alongside us.

I watch too much television and these days, that means keeping up with what I like is difficult. Especially when people keep telling I have to try a series. My wife and I have begun to get a little draconian, dropping shows we’ve lost interest in or have outlasted their premise. But, here we are in December and most prime time shows are about to take a mid-season hiatus, letting us catching our breaths so it’s not a bad time to look back at the genre shows.

This month the C8 team will be taking a look at the newer shows and offering you our thoughts. First, let it be said that science fiction and fantasy television is alive and well, thriving across the cable box, showing up on many different channels from the major networks to the premium channels. That’s a major positive and with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon all joining the fray with original content, it won’t be long before genre shows start popping up. As it is, Netflix already has four Marvel Universe shows announced and in the works.

CBS’ Person of Interest has moved from speculative fiction closer to reality based on the revelations from Eric Snowden. While The Machine does not yet exist, data mining and drawing conclusions are alive and well. The series’ third season is stronger and keeps surprising us, especially with Carter’s long-planned death.

Over on NBC, J.J Abrams and Jon Favreau’s Revolution got off to a fine start, meandered for a bit and had a fine cliffhanger. The second season, though, feels as if it is spinning its wheels and the new pyrokinetic talents Aaron has demonstrated has the show veer far from its original premise., My biggest issue is that things blow up and people fight but every single cast member is devoid of character and the show never lets the characters actually talk to one another. Grimm’s third season is also stronger than its second although I could do without the entire European thread. It’s lightweight entertainment with an attractive and varied cast. I am not even going near Dracula since it has nothing to do with Bram Stoker’s character.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived with high expectations and we expected perfection right out of the gate but it’s taken the show five or six episodes to truly warm up. I think its biggest failing is its lack of sharp dialogue and strongly drawn characters, but they seem to be fixing it. It could use a little tighter connection to the cinematic universe and the Big Bad is lackluster but it has all the elements of a good show so I’m sticking with it. Similarly, Once Upon a Time drifted into aimlessness last season but this year it’s much better with some very surprising twists. But I do have my limits and haven’t gone near Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.

On the other hand, I arrived with low expectations for the CW’s Arrow and was pleasantly surprised last season. Its second season is stronger, tighter, and smarter giving the CW demographic incredibly adorable men and women to ogle while delivering strong stories and evolving characters. I’m surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying it. On the other hand, much as I adore Payton List, I can’t bring myself to even try The Tomorrow People and won’t go near the mess that is Beauty and the Beast.

I’m late to Lost Girl on SyFy but am a quick convert. It’s also somewhat lightweight but damn is it sexy and has some interesting mythology to play with. That being said, it’s the only show I’m watching on the channel which a shame is considering its once great pedigree for compelling shows.  BBC America, though, seems to be where the action is at, letting us have Doctor Who, with its most excellent 560^th anniversary celebration. The one show I need to delve into is the well-regarded Orphan Black, a crowning achievement for the British company and, I gather, pleasant present for fans.

On the premium side, Game of Thrones continues to take its time showing us the perils of politics and remains a textbook example of how to adapt a book series to television. It and True Blood (admittedly, I’m two seasons behind here) continue to shine with good writing, strong casting, and taking advantage of the pay wall.