As promised, that new short story from Havok Publishing is online and available for your reading pleasure and it's 100% FREE! That's the good news. The less good news? It's only available to the general public for one day: 23 July 2026. After that, it'll be available on the member-only site. So, hop on over to the Havok to feast your eyeballs before this wee beauty disappears:

https://gohavok.com/
Oh! And if you like it, or hate it, or don't understand it, or whatever, drop a comment for my to cry over or swear or at or respond to--good, bad or indifferent, it'll be great to know someone is actually reading my words.

Hey there! It's been a minute!

I know, I know,  It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've had any writing news worth sharing. I have been writing--I swear!--but mostly focused on novels for the last couple of years, and anyone who's at all familiar with the book publishing biz knows that the wheels of publication are slooowwww.

The good news? I've got 3 bright and shiny new books written--yay! The bad news? I'm back in the query trenches searching for a new agent so it will likely be a while before any of those 3 three books see the light of day.

But, fear not, loyal readers! I have a brand new short story getting published soon for your eyeholes to devour. The fine and feisty peeps at Havok recently accepted my weird fantasy story, The Walrus and the Carpenters--a very much Lewis Carroll inspired tale of colonial New England sailors and their encounter with the dread beast Walbertie.

The story will go live on the Havok site on 23 July 2026 and free to read for that one day only so don't miss out! To help you find it, I'll post the link once it's live and, of course, will shamelessly shill the story throughout the day on X/Twitter and BlueSky for maximum exposure. So, please swing by on the 23rd and drop a comment to let myself and the publisher know what you think!

Hot on the heels of last month's short story publication, I'm pleased as punch to announce another! Scrimshaw, my dark sea tale of 19th century New England in Seaside Gothic Issue 7: Coastal Blur alongside stories from many other talented authors. You can grab a copy of this smaller but gorgeous volume on the Seaside Gothic website. 

In a few words, she found me in the slush pile. But...before that, came a lot of pain and anguish. I mean, a lot, a lot. The plus years of a lot. So let me tell you about that to hopefully encourage some of you to keep going.

Firstly, how about some big picture statistics:

• Started writing: 2012
• First book published: 2014 (small press)
• Total books written: 15
• Total books published: 7 (all small press)
• Total queries sent: Many hundreds
• Average request rate per book queried: +/-5%

Not great numbers but not terrible either. Still, there were times I strongly considered just chucking it all in and many more times when an agent request convinced to keep on plugging. I actually thought I'd finally made it when an agent signed me in 2015, but that all unravelled disappointingly quickly. Short-lived though it was, I learned a ton from that relationship, including red flags and what I both wanted and should realistically expect from an agent.

So, that happened and I moved on, and eventually I started querying the weird western that got me my agent. Ya want a few stats for that? Sure ya do, so let's hit it:

• First query sent: January 2021
• Total queries sent: 122
• Major revisions: 2 (based on agent R&Rs—both agents ultimately declined)
• Manuscript requests (full and partial): 8 (including Kimberly's)
• Initial query to Kimberly: 7 March 2023
• Full request received: 8 March 2023
• ‘The Call’ with Kimberly: 29 March 2023
• Accepted Offer of Representation: 12 April 2023

A few things worth noting in those statistics:

• Those R&Rs from other agents were invaluable--I’d actually never received a R&R  before (much less 2!) so that’s when I knew Little Weird Western was something special. I took all of their input to heart and  implemented as much as could without changing the core of the novel and what it meant.
• When I queried Kimberly, it was with that twice-revised manuscript--by far the best version of the novel I'd queried to that point. 
• I have never, ever gotten a full request within a day of querying, much less a response to said full request within 3 weeks of submission. Again, I credit those R&R revisions. They helped me polish the concept and make it shine.
• The ~2 week delay between Kimberly’s Offer of Representation and my acceptance was for professional courtesy: there were other agents who had requested the manuscript and I wanted to notify them of the offer on the table and give them a chance to respond before I accepted.

So, with all the agents out there, how did I end up querying Kimberly? Simple: while scouring the MSWishList site for leads, I stumbled across her post. From there, I checked out Kimberly's website to learn more about her agenting preferences and spotted this little nugget of pure gold: 

Sometimes you get lucky and all that patience and rejection pay off. We've all see the posts from authors racking up double digit agent requests and signing after just a few months (or weeks) of querying. That happens, but this also happens--there are a lot of authors out there querying for years to try and make it. If you're one of those (one like me), I hope this post offers enough encouragement to keep you going.

​To all the authors out there reading this, I hope you find your Kimberly, too. 

That's right! After 10+ years of writing and querying, I've finally found an agent who appreciates the weirdness of my scribbled words. I couldn't be happier to announce that I've joined forces with the most wonderful Kimberly Fernando and Olswanger Literary. Kimberly's the kismet fit for my wee weird western, Far Yonders, and I honestly couldn't ask for a more passionate and enthusiastic supporter for my dark novel of dust and grit. 

Do you like FREE READS? Of course you do! Everyone likes free! And lucky for you, I've got a whole bunch.

A few months back, the lovely people at Rooster Republic tried something a little different: an online anthology of bite-sized horror doled out of the course of several weeks. And all of them--ALL OF THEM--absolutely, positively, 100% free to read.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you: Two-Thousand Word Terrors, and my particular contribution to this science experiment, Ravenous:

Recently the wonderful people at Mannison Press invited me to submit a piece for one of their Mannison Triplets: 3 linked stories from 3 different authors centered on a common theme. Writing to a pre-defined theme is always an interesting challenge, but I'm quite proud of the piece that resulted.

So, mark your calendars: Belongings and Possessions featuring my short story, We Always Belonged Here, releases February 28, 2023. Or better yet, hit the 'buy' link below and reserve your copy now!

 Crimson King recently featured on topical internet site, The Big Smoke and I'm both flattered and extremely grateful for Jospeh Edwin Haeger's thorough and thoughtful review. 

It's come, it's come, Release Day has finally come! Thanks to the lovely people at Journalstone Publishing, I can finally unleash my cute and cuddly Murder Bull on the world