The Official Website of Steven Maus

Madeline City is published!

True, big retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble won't have it completely in their systems for another few weeks or so, but that's hardly the point! The title is partially up on Amazon, and soon to be available through bookstores and online sellers, just as Branchwater is. Not bad timing either, since last night I finished addressing fifteen envelopes to newspapers arou...

The last week or so I've been going through the manuscript proofs for Madeline City and Other Tales, making notes on things to edit and such. The cover proof looks iffy, as do many pages of the manuscript, and my general concensus is that it's not ready for publication, that it's horrible, that I must be a total waste if I really do write that bad, and so on. But then that wonderful voice of my ego perks back and reminds me that I'm badass. "Oh yeah..." I say quietly, my eye...

Once upon a time I was riding in the family van, a white and teal chevy with two bucket seats in the middle and a bench seat in back. I was sitting in the bucket seat behind the driver's seat, and I was scrawling on paper, a line or two here and there, because if I focus on words for too long while in a moving vehicle, that good ole nerdy affliction acts up; carsickness. I was working on the control scheme for a video game that I was thinking up, and along with the name...

The semester is over half-gone, and I'm checking the journalism syllabus for which days I can ditch out on without incurring severe loss of learning. The tests are nothing but memorization, and so as long as I pick up a copy of the study guide at some point, I can go over the questions in the book at home and in about five hours learn the equivalent of several weeks of class, thus acing the final. Not the easiest way to spend the weeks before Christmas, but one tha...

This past Friday I began that which I'd been looking forward to for so long; the start of Madeline City's publication process. I'm working with Outskirts Press to get the book out, and based on my most current info, the book will be out around late January or early February. Already Outskirts has been much more helpful than iUniverse was, and that coupled with the significantly lower price makes me more than happy. I'll be putting up an excerpt of Madeline City on my websi...

This week marks a few things, some of them important, and some of them not. Let's just focus on the imporant things, shall we?

First off, on Friday the 24th Saw V will be in theaters. This series - though it has consistently challenged the viewers ability to take it 100% seriously (and not in a good way) - is one of my all-time favorites. Not only are the "holy shit, I did NOT see that coming!" moments at the end of each film really cool, but the main actors and ac...

Last week, partly from boredom and partly to keep from going crazy, I started writing Edgewood, the next part of the Branchwater story. A month or so ago, after I finished Children of Cramburg (the last of the material to be published along with Madeline City), I sat back and relaxed, which is good to do if you've just finished writing a book. But trying to force myself to relax eventually resulted in a streak of subtle bordom that grew until I adopted an attitude of "why the fuck a...

On Wednesday, Michael Jaime-Becerra (author of Every Night is Ladies' Night) will be visitng the CGCC Pecos campus, and it will be my pleasure to meet and greet him, hear his views, opinions, and beliefs on writing, and of course, to get my book signed.

In my own news, on the 24th of this month the publishing journey for Madeline City will get under way, and the anticipation will grow to the next frenzied level. Today and tomorrow there is a job fair at the Val Vista and ...

One more month, and the publication process for Madeline City should begin. After that, it'll only be a matter of months until the finished product is ready for purchase. At the latest, I anticipate that one might be able to celebrate St. Patrick's Day by going on amazon and ordering a copy, but ideally you'll be able to make use of the book as a Valentine's Day gift to that special someone. Or should I say, that perfect someone - a girl that keeps fantasy worlds at the front of her mind.

A second job? Those make life really hard to coordinate. Not only do I need to find one that I like (that's not too hard since there is a new Barnes and Noble opening near my house in November), but I also have to find one that is satisfied only giving me twelve to fifteen hours a week. At the CGCC bookstore, my lack of hours is only temporary, but then, so is the rush of hours that I'll be getting at the beginning of next semester, and every semester, for that matter. For Barnes and Nob...