Today, my first book, [Kiss Me, Genius Boy](http://j.mp/q1dUzv), is out on Amazon. It’s still waiting on its official cover, coming from the wonderful [Rebecca Cochrane](http://bexieboo.com/), art director. Thanks to my impatience (and the promise I made to a girl I met in a bar that I’d gift her a free copy), it’s up with a temporary cover for the moment.
Here’s the blurb:
> Joshua Rivers was born to expect great things. A former child prodigy and the son of a lottery winner, he also believes himself blessed with a vision of his perfect destiny and his perfect love.
> Now in his early twenties, Joshua already feels left behind by life. His long-time lover Lilian Lau is well on her way to becoming a famous artist, and his former classmates are also racing toward their success. Meanwhile, he waits for the moment, and the girl, that will show him his time has finally arrived. And when it does, he resolves to take what is his, whatever it costs him or anyone.
> _Kiss Me, Genius Boy_ is the first part of the _No More Dreams_ series: an unusual story about love, ambition, and the problems of being privileged.
I’ve wanted to write books–in the sense of something I seriously imagined I would do someday–since I was about eight years old. Getting here has been a long road: it takes years to learn the skills and discipline you need to get even to this point, and until I was about twenty-five (now thirty), I was an incorrigible procrastinator and ruled by fear in many parts of my life.
Why mention fear, above? One of the things that besets many writers is the feeling that they may labor in vain for years, and then be denied the opportunity to put their work into the hands of even a single reader. This kind of uncertainty stops many potentially creative people before they even begin their work, especially if they have yet failed to realize the truth communicated by the _Daodejing_, by the _Bhagavad Gita_, and even by the contemporary seduction community: that the way to live is to abandon hope of reward and to perform the action that one is compelled to.
The emergence of ebooks and indie publishing in the last few years has changed the game for writers. Publishing is no longer an uncertainty. I got my first Kindle back in 2008 and it changed my reading habits and ignited my passion for literature in a way that surprised even me. The stigma of self-publishing is disappearing: we now have excellent, entertaining writers like [Amanda Hocking](http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/) and [J. A. Konrath](http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/) who’ve made their success as indies.
I decided to go indie so I’d be responsible for my own destiny. I’m still interested in print publishing, and a novelist friend of mine recently extended the very generous offer of introducing my work to his agent. I’ll be taking him up on that. But I must confess–I don’t read books in print anymore, unless there’s no other way I can get them.
Ebooks are a medium I believe in, and I expect to see the certainty of publication that they offer authors, and the closer interaction with readers that they afford, to produce a great flowering of literature in the years to come. I’m confident that today, at least, this is the right medium for my work.
For now, enjoy [Kiss Me, Genius Boy](http://j.mp/q1dUzv), and stay tuned for the follow-up, due in 2012.
