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My name is Ross Winn and I write. When I first started writing I wrote for myself, and for my roleplaying games. Then I wrote for other people’s roleplaying games. Then I wrote a column about RPGs. Then I was going to write and publish my own RPG. Then in 2008 things went south. My business was failing, my attention was too many places, and my options were limited. I had never thought seriously about making a living in RPGs. It was, as my friend called it a self-supporting hobby. When my primary business went south I had to focus, drop all of my side projects, and that included even taking time for playing any RPGs. I was sad, but I had to eat, and so did my son.

In 2011 things were getting better. I had written a Livejournal (http://ross-winn.livejournal.com/) for some time. I had a Blogger account (http://reformedcyberpunk.blogspot.com/), and I had the urge to write, but the urge to play was gone. I decided to try my hand at fiction, and so one day I started writing down an outline for a book. This outline was cumbersome, and being someone who moved constantly I needed to do something different. Instead of an outline I started carrying one of Merlin Mann’s hipster PDAs (http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda) and an awesome metal Sharpie (http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Stainless-Permanent-Marker-1747388/dp/B001V9LQLG) and I wrote down the most screwed up stuff.

There were names, some eventually became chapters. There were esoteric ideas like ‘drug use as a metaphor for sex’. There were book titles, and songs, and artists’ names. Basically everything you could think of. My favorite became a theme. “What if you were so tired, so heartbroken, and so jaded that you couldn’t decide to fuck or die?” Then there was the Jane’s Addiction lyric “Sex Is Violent”. Then there was this idea that kept ricocheting in my head but I was afraid to write it down. So I didn’t.

Then I took a stack of those two hundredish index cards from my hipster PDA and I started arranging them. I made seven different configurations, then I made three, then I found one I was happiest with. It wasn’t exactly linear but I was tired of outlining so one day I just started writing. My worst day was 211 words, my best day was 10,600. I wrote each of the ideas on each of the index cards and strung the ideas into scenes, the scenes into chapters, and then 29 days later I was finished. Well, I was finished with the first draft. I eventually wrote three more.

I had help. My two editors were primarily Shannon O’Connor and Kelly Caleb. Two very talented writers in their own right. I am honored they took interest and fortunate that they had the time to help. It was almost six months before I started to submit. I got a response from BookLocker. I wrote an introduction and a dedication. I corralled Robert Posada to help with the cover design. He did, and here we are.

So thanks for coming to my page.

I hope you like my book

I hope you friend me on Google+ 

or Facebook 

and I hope you read this blog.

I’m sure it’ll be fun for all of us.