Vince Veselosky: Author, Publisher, Software Developer on Vince Veselosky

Summoning Courage

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 08:53:27 -0400

A corrupt oligarchy. An ancient relic of power. A handful of seers stand between them.

Mack may be a dedicated member of the Order, but he’s always been a loner. Bad things happen to people who get too close to him. Case in point, Recca has been imprisoned by the Seers Guild for helping him protect the Piero Codex. Not to mention this week’s funeral. Mack is tempted crawl into a bottle of bourbon to hide.

Shifting Loyalties

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 08:53:03 -0400

When it’s a matter of life and death, how do you know who to trust?

Mack was never good at trusting people, even before he went underground hiding from the Seers Guild. But when the former love of Mack’s life (Marina) goes missing, and an unknown organization makes dramatic moves against the Protectors of the Piero Codex, he needs help.

Maybe he can trust Recca, but she still seems to have a hidden agenda of her own. Maybe he can trust Lilly, but will involving her just get her killed? Maybe he can trust Marina’s husband Richard, but how is he supposed to work with the guy who stole his girlfriend?

Cursing Fate

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:25:50 -0400

Just because you can see the future coming, doesn’t mean it won’t run you over.

Mack is a sorcerer, a Fate-bender, who has spent his entire adult life dodging the Seers Guild authorities. Keeping tabs on their Fates helps him choose the best places to hide. Lately, he’s been hiding at the bottom of a bottle of bourbon. He’s content to stay there. Then one day another mysterious sorcerer casts a big, noisy, illegal curse into Mack’s neighborhood. Suddenly the Seers Guild has thrown a dragnet over the city to nab the rogue sorcerer, and Mack is about to get caught in it.

Summoning Courage Is Available Today!

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 10:00:00 +0000

According to Hofstadter's Law, every project takes longer than you expect it to (even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law), and my latest book project is no exception. But, as of today, Summoning Courage: The Piero Codex Book Three is available at ebook retailers everywhere!

I am delighted to announce the release of this conclusion to The Piero Codex trilogy. These were my first novels, and it has been an incredible learning experience for me to produce them. Those lessons learned will make my next series even better.

How I Write a Novel: My Creative Process as of 2019

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 11:00:00 +0000

Two years ago I wrote a post about Creating a Creative Process. Since then, I have completed three novels and am in production on a fourth, with many more in the pipeline. I have learned a lot of lessons through trial and error. I still have a lot more to learn. But after two years, I figured it was time for an update.

Note that this post is not titled "How To Write a Novel". This is a snapshot of my own process at a specific time in my writing journey. Maybe it will be helpful to other writers, but it's not a prescription nor a recommendation. I'm just sharing my experience.

2018 NaNoWriMo After-Action Report and Annual Review

Sun, 16 Dec 2018 11:00:00 +0000

So much can change in a year!

This has been a year of massive change for me, and we'll discuss that below. But first, I participated in National Novel Writing Month again this year, and as last year, this is my report on how I performed. Short story: I didn't "win" by writing fifty thousand words, but I did make a very good showing. Here's my word count graph for 2018.

As you can see, my NaNoWriMo project capped out at 31,168 words. Not bad. I drafted twenty-one days in November, so my average was below the required "winning" pace. Still, I averaged a thousand words per calendar day, and I feel pretty good about that.

Where the heck is book three?

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 10:00:00 +0000

I know what you're thinking. Didn't Vince say he was going to give me the conclusion to The Piero Codex trilogy in July? Where is it already?

Well, have you ever heard that quote about where the best laid plans often go? Yeah. Summoning Courage WAS planned to ship in July, but as it stands today, the draft is only about half complete. I'm working on it and making steady progress, but the muse and I are having disagreements that have slowed things down. Give me another couple of months to iron out the kinks, m'kay?

Shifting Loyalties Is Available Today!

Thu, 14 Jun 2018 10:00:00 +0000

You can stop holding your breath! Shifting Loyalties: The Piero Codex Book Two has been released! (Okay, I know you weren't really holding your breath, but I was!) This is my second novel, as well as being the second book in The Piero Codex series.

Dramatica: My Take-Aways

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 10:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: There is some genius in this theory, and possibly some madness. Every writer should at least understand Dramatica's four through-lines, its definition of character archetypes, and the two helpful concepts of character resolve and story limit. If you go deeper, prepare to be confused.

Shifting Loyalties: Cover Art and Pre-order

Wed, 09 May 2018 10:00:00 +0000

Big announcement! Shifting Loyalties: The Piero Codex Book Two is now available for pre-order on most major ebook retailers!

Barb from CoverInked really stepped up her game on this cover, don't you think?

When it’s a matter of life and death, how do you know who to trust?

Cursing Fate Cover Art! And a FREE offer!

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 10:00:00 +0000

Cursing Fate: The Piero Codex Book One, is now available for pre-order on most major ebook retailers! This is the first book in my urban fantasy thriller series, The Piero Codex. Books two and three will follow quickly in a rapid release schedule, so don't worry, you won't have to wait long to read the whole trilogy.

NaNoWriMo 2017 After Action Report

Mon, 11 Dec 2017 11:00:00 +0000

I wanted to record for posterity my first experience of "winning" National Novel Writing Month. As you may know, NaNoWriMo is a self-challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Throughout 2017, I have been tracking my writing statistics (screenshot provided). As you may see from the screenshot, before November, I never got anywhere near 50k words in a single month. So I took NaNoWriMo 2017 as a true challenge to get my word counts up and make some real progress, to prove to myself that I could truly improve both speed and quality.

Creating a Creative Process

Sun, 19 Feb 2017 11:00:00 +0000

I always aspired to being an author. In my teens and early twenties, I probably started a half-dozen "first novels" that never got finished (and that was probably for the best). When I started writing software, though, that became my creative outlet, and I stopped writing fiction. I even stopped reading fiction for many years.

In 2015, I decided to pick up that dream once again, and I determined to set myself to finishing a first novel. I dusted off some old ideas, tossed in some new twists, and began putting words down.

And I quickly realized that it wasn’t going to work.

The Thing About Life Is...

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Most people like to post on the Internet about their successes. I want to talk about failure. I can assure you, I am fully qualified to talk about failure. I’m an expert with thirty years of experience.

You see, the past few months I have been thinking pretty hard about where I am in my life, especially in relation to the dreams and aspirations I had as a teenager. I’m forty six years old now. Thirty years ago, I was sixteen, and I had big ambitions. I wanted to publish books. I wanted to make money in real estate. I wanted to find love.

The Worst Book I Will Ever Write

Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:00:00 +0000

Something I have been struggling with during the work on my (current) first novel is this: I am very likely producing the worst book I will ever write.

The Tale of the Tail

Sat, 04 Jul 2015 10:00:00 +0000

For nearly twenty years, the most concise description of me was "the guy with the really long pony tail.” That’s no longer the case, and I am frequently asked why. I find it curious that there is such a widespread assumption that a person needs a reason to change their hairstyle, but as it happens, I do have one. This is the story of how it came to be, and why it is no more.

A New Mission for Media

Wed, 15 Apr 2015 10:00:00 +0000

Facilitate the flow of information to the point of its highest value.

The media industry at large has lost its path. Most media companies are heavily tilted toward media as entertainment, rather than media as information. As a result, they are engaged in a digital race to the bottom, where falling ad CPM drives them to seek higher page view numbers on thinner margins, focusing on quantity rather than quality, on usage rather than utility. This has left a huge, blue ocean of market opportunities in focused information services open to software and technology companies, who are growing at exponential rates while traditional media companies struggle to slow the rate at which their business is shrinking. Media businesses can stop drowning and start growing again if they recognize and adopt the mission statement above, the mission that media organizations have always had.

How I Get 152 Miles per Gallon in the City

Mon, 09 Feb 2015 11:00:00 +0000

How good is the mileage on your car? I just did the math, and I travelled 2,288 miles in the past 4 months on 15 gallons of gas, so I’m getting 152 mpg. And I don’t even drive a hybrid!

How is that even possible? Here’s how I did it.

My last fuel purchase, according to my financial records, was on October 17th 2014. Today is February 7th 2015. I put 15 gallons of gas in my car today. Every time I fuel up, I set my trip counter so I can calculate my mileage at the next fuel up. I have driven 245 miles since my last fuel purchase 113 days ago.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:00:00 +0000

As I write this, I sit in an apartment in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, just a few blocks from where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached to his congregation. I cannot express in words the gratitude I feel toward Dr. King and all the thousands of people who marched with him to demand equal rights for all Americans. Since its birth, America has been a nation that aspired to high ideals of equality, and since its birth, America has struggled and failed to live up to those ideals. People like Dr. King are the most important people in America, people who serve as a national conscience, who remind us of the ideals we aspire to, and insist that we try harder to live up to them. Dr. King made us better as a nation.

Take heed, managers: your 'best practices' are killing your company

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:00:00 +0000

If you are a manager, you need to understand the ideas of W. Edwards Deming. Deming wrote several books about management, in which he chastised American business schools and American corporate management for perpetuating a failed philosophy and failed management techniques.

Deming proposed a new philosophy of management motivated by quality and grounded in systems theory. The Deming philosophy is too deep, too broad, and too rich to be explained in a mere blog post. Volumes have been written about it, and as I read those volumes I am sharing my thoughts through this venue (with apologies to Mr. Deming if I misrepresent anything, I am still learning.)

Systems vs Habits: Why GTD Often Fails

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:00:00 +0000

In my previous post, I wrote about David Allen's Getting Things Done book and productivity system. If GTD has a weakness, it is that, although the book describes the system very well, it does a poor job of describing the change of daily habits you'll have to perform if you really want to implement the system. The major reason people fail at implementing a GTD-style productivity system in their lives is that, no matter how simple the system may be, it's a big change from what they are used to.

Getting Things Done -- Productivity System

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 11:00:00 +0000

David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity is a phenomenon in the tech community. If you're reading this blog, you've probably already read the book, or at least know something about the productivity system that it defines. I read it years ago, but like many readers never put into practice more than a tiny portion of the system.

As 2012 drew to a close and I looked back on all the things I meant to accomplish, I decided that I should give this productivity bible another look, in the hopes of getting more things done in 2013. I won't bother to summarize the system that David Allen defines. The book is very readable and does a much better job than I could. Instead, I'm just going to note how I decided to apply the principles of his system in my own life, especially given the changes in technology and lifestyle since the book was originally published a dozen years ago.

How to set up a new PC in 12 Steps, or How I spent my evening renewing my disgust with Windows

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Step 1: Spend 30 minutes unpacking boxes, peeling plastic, and connecting cables.

Step 2: In breathless anticipation, press the power button.

Step 3: Spend another 30 minutes hunting for the Windows Product Key so you can access the computer you just bought. Find it, finally, on an indelible sticker on the far side of the computer's case.

Step 4: Enlist an assistant to type the Windows Product Key while you hang upside down under the desk using a flashlight to read it out.

A Framework for Innovation

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

How does a large company create an environment that encourages and leverages internal innovation? Here is my checklist of prerequisites for "enterprise" innovation:

Great people. You may think this goes without saying, but it cannot be emphasized enough. You cannot hire drones who put in 8 hours for a paycheck and then head out the door. You need passionate, creative people, people who love their work, people who are impatient with "getting by" and want to be the best at what they do. These are the Innovators. Without them, innovation does not happen.

Systems and Mental Deficiencies

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I was surprised when I read some of the things writer Terry Pratchett wrote or said about developing PCA, a form of dementia. I cannot now find the original source that I read, but there are several similar articles. He described some symptoms of the disease slowly robbing him of his own mind. The inability to see certain objects when they are right in front of you. Walking into a room but having no memory of why you went there in the first place. Difficulty comprehending written text despite recognizing every letter and word. Difficulty recognizing people's faces.

Natural Laws

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I figure any phrase that people deem to be a "law" and find important enough to attribute to a specific person (even if incorrectly) probably contains some real wisdom. Here's a collection of Eponymous Laws from Wikipedia, all of which I have found to be true in my own experience.

Amara's Law: We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

Efficiency: Enemy of Innovation?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

The science of management in the industrial age was all about efficiency. It had to be. The whole concept of capitalism is based on efficiency. An entrepreneur acquires capital at a cost, and that capital must be made to produce profit at a rate higher than the cost of capital. If you borrowed money at 10% to start your business, you had to make it earn 11% at least. That meant controlling costs ruthlessly and milking every bit of productivity from every penny's worth of capital.

Journalism is too important to be locked behind a paywall

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:00:00 +0000

When I hear newspaper industry veterans talk about getting paid for content, it makes me want to cry. Case in point, this speech from Bill Monroe to the Midwest Newspaper Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, given Feb. 4, 2010.

What’s missing in today’s marketplace is a way to enable newspapers to protect that content and to profit when others reuse it. – Bill Monroe

I’m sorry Mr. Monroe, but I must disagree quite strongly. The reason journalism should be free is that journalism is extremely valuable. Sound counter-intuitive? Not at all.

Content Is Not Your Product: Why Newspapers Fail

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Your newspaper is Seth Godin's Meatball Sundae — full of valuable stuff, but not a product anyone wants to buy.

I hear the same sentiment from executives all over the media industry, and especially from newspapers. “We deserve to get paid for our content.”

Dear Media Executives: You’re doing it wrong!

The reason so many newspapers are sinking, shrinking, or stinking is that they have totally forgotten what the source of value for their business really is. Somehow they got confused by the 20th century mass production model and deluded themselves into thinking of content as a product that they package and sell.

NYT’s Freemium Paywall Plan is (maybe) Good Business

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Last week, the New York Times announced plans to start charging certain readers for access to their web site. Reaction was predictable: Jeff Jarvis complained, TechCrunch ran some numbers, and Mashable used it as an excuse to talk about a rumored but still unannounced Apple product (seriously Mashable? come on).

The first thing to understand about the announced pay model is that it is misnamed. The NYT press release refers to it as a “metered model” and most reporters are using that language. However, this phrase gives entirely the wrong impression. Most people think of “metered” as the power utility model: you pay for it all, and the more you use, the more you pay.

Why News Archived Behind Paywall Fails

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

One business model for online news that has been suggested, tried, and failed, is to make the news free for some short time, and then archive it behind a pay-wall. There is more than one reason why this doesn’t work as a business model, but the most obvious one is an old adage that should have been well known in the newspaper industry: yesterday’s news wraps today’s fish.

It should not come as a surprise that it is hard to find people willing to pay good money for yesterday’s news, especially in the age of 24 hour TV news and instant digital dissemination over the Internet. Old news does have value to historians and researchers, but only after it has faded from the collective memory, decades after the fact. In the space between breaking news and historical research, the value of that content becomes nearly impossible to extract.

The Tablet Fallacy (or, Old Media is Screwed)

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

"Help me, Obi-wan Tablet. You're my only hope!" says old media. But these are not the droids they are looking for.

There has been so much hand waving in the last month about 2010 being “the year of the tablet”, it boggles the mind. Much of the buzz has centered around the anticipated announcement of a tablet device by Apple, makers of the much-admired iPhone. However, media industry wonks are all abuzz about how the new platform will redefine newspapers, magazines, and other print products.

The Three C's of New Media: Creation, Curation, and Compilation

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Every media business is built around at least one of three key content activities: creation of content, curation of content, and compilation of data into content. Many media businesses, especially the large ones, make all three of these activities core competencies. Which sounds most like your business?

Creation of Content

This is what most people think of when they think about media: writing articles or features, shooting video, recording audio. In the Internet world it also includes blogging, micro-blogging, and podcasting. The creation (and publication) of original content is often a major focus (and a major expense) for media businesses, both traditional and digital, but it’s only one piece of a larger value proposition.

The Real Value of Social Media is its Weakness

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Many still doubt the utility of social media. I myself was among the doubters until I was forced onto Twitter and Facebook to test the social media integration for a web site I was developing. That’s when I discovered that, although Sturgeon’s Law applies to social media as much as anything else, the small percentage of “good stuff” is exceedingly valuable.

Case in point is this article: In a pinch, Twitter found a long shot source | By Daniel Victor. Stuck playing catch up on a story on a Sunday evening, with deadline looming, journalist Daniel Victor turned to Twitter in a last ditch search for sources. Long story short, Twitter came through for him.

How Newspapers Lost the Classifieds Business (and how to get it back)

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Time was, newspapers owned the local classified ads business, and it was their cash cow. Many people bought the paper just for the classifieds, and it was by far the most valuable real estate of the paper. In recent years, free Internet- based alternatives like Craig’s List decimated their business and contributed greatly to the decline of newspapers.

In this November 2009 interview, Craig Donato, CEO of Oodle, an online classifieds startup, explains that “If You’re The Challenger, You Have To Play A Different Game”. He tells Andrew Warner how he was able to build a successful online classifieds business despite free competition, and become the classifieds provider for many local newspapers.