Hello, hello, hello!
I know I've been quiet for a while but I'm back just in time for the spooky season with some (exciting for me, at least) news!

Crimson King, my Halloween creature feature novella, releases 29 October 2021 and is now officially available for pre-order. So, if you want to skippity-skip to the front of the queue and make sure you don't miss it, head on over to JournalStone's website and place a marker for the book's release. Interested in the best deal possible? Grab the paperback--that gets you a physical copy with Nick Day's absolutely gorgeous artwork on the cover AND a free e-copy for your e-reader's tummy.  WIN-WIN!

Say hello to my creepy-weird baby!

Crimson King is a fun little supernatural/weird novella I wrote a few years ago that came so close to publication a few times but never quite made it through to the final cut. Fortunately, Bizarro Pulp Press had a brief 'pitch yer shit' window  last fall (in conjunction with Rooster Republic Press) and my Cujo meets The Thing concept won them over.

You can feast your eyes on the absolutely gorgeous cover art for Crimson King below, and head on over to Rooster Republic to get a little sneak excerpt of the story.  Crimson King drops October 29, 2021.

Hey, hey! I'd hoped to be back with updates earlier, but I just got the news that Severed Press will be releasing  Forgotten Stars just in time for Christmas. In fact, the book releases on 9 December 2020 so make sure to treat yourself and grab a copy! In the meantime, how's about you check out this cover reveal exclusive courtesy of that most wonderful indie review site SciFi & Scary.

Wow. So, uhh...hi! 

I know, I know, it's been a loooonngggg time since I last put out a new book. BELIEVE ME, it's felt like ages to me as well. I have been writing all this time--I swear!--but wanting to get something published and actually getting something published aren't always the same thing.

Thanks to the most wonderful peeps at Severed Press, I will soon have a new shiny to offer up to all you fine folks. If you've stuck with me through this (unexpectedly) long hiatus, thank you! If you haven't and you're reading this now, hello! Welcome back!

Ok, so brass tacks time: WHAT IS THIS BOOK AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Well... I don't have a ton to share as yet. For those who were hoping for another Serengeti book, I'm gonna burst your bubble right now so you can work through the disappointment. I adored that series and its characters but, for now at least, the story of Serengeti and her crew is done. The new book is set in that same universe, but at a different time and with a different ship and crew. Hopefully, once you start turning pages, you'll come to love these characters as well. I'll have cover art once that's complete and a blurb on the plot to share once Severed Press approves the back cover copy--for now, all I can really offer you is the title (which may also change, because that's how publishing works):

Forgotten Stars & Distant Seas is coming soon.

Yes, yes, yes! After a long, long wait, the Little Girl Lost anthology from Mannison Press is finally available, and includes my original short story: The Child Thief.

WHOO-HOO!

Eager to get your hot little hands on a copy? WELL HIT THE LINK AND DOWNLOAD THE PRETTY! 

With 2017 just about in the can, I figured it was time for some retrospection--in this case, a look back on the happenings (and not-quite-happenings) as it relates to my writing career. 2017 wasn't the worst year for me, nor the best either, more of a mixed bag of 'Yay, I did a thing!' followed by 'Ugh, I'm getting nowhere'. A few opportunities appeared in November and December, though, that leave me hopefully that 2018 will be The Year of a Really Big Thing! or, at least more encouraging than 2017 turned out.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, a few data points about the good, the bad, and the...well, not ugly but less-than-thrilling highlights of my 2017 writing career. Because I like to end on a high note, I'm going to run through the Debbie Downer stuff first to get that out of the way.

The Bad & Not-So-Thrilling
In June, our mischievous little cat, Ludo, pounced across the Rainbow Bridge to chase mice and bask in the always-warm sunshine of Kitty Heaven. That's him in the pic below, looking cute as always. Ludo was a sweet cat and mischievous, even for a feline. At times he could be annoying, at others entertaining, but what cat isn't--to share a home with a cat (or three in our case, luckily Oliver and Blink are both doing well) is to be annoyed and entertained at all hours of the day or night...usually when you're trying to sleep, because that's when cats universally decide to party.
​
RIP Ludo (AKA, Mugsy, AKA Busy Feet, AKA, Pants). We miss you terribly and will love you forever. *sniffle-sniffle*

Alright, so that cat detour wasn't exactly directly related to writing, but I spend a lot of time tapping away at keys with a cat on my lap, or beside it, or sprawled out on a couch nearby, and losing Ludo after 15 years together was definitely a blow. The second blow--one I really wasn't expecting, one that caught me completely off guard--was when I lost my agent in October. After roughly two years of partnership, my agent unfortunately decided that he couldn't do anything more for me and my career, so that was the end of that. Now I'm back in the trenches doing the Sending Out Queries Rhumba.

Ouch. That hurts the old ego. Ah well, onward and upward as they say and no looking back. I'm a firm believer in a brighter future and that good things come from adversity and all that, which means it's time to transition to the 2017 good stuff.

The Good Stuff
First and foremost, I released a book! Hecate  (the third book in the Serengeti series from Severed Press and a prequel to the original) stormed into the world in June (yes, the same month I lost little Mugsy) and so far has received good reviews. An audiobook version followed in October which also seems to be popular, leaving me feeling pretty darn good about the way the Serengeti series turned out.

Oh, and I also sold a short story called The Salt Debt  to Luna Station Quarterly. If you're interested, you can read it here. 

So, that's my publication news--not as much as I'd like, but a novel and short story I'm quite proud of. In between, I've been busy writing new books and short stories and ferreting out avenues for publication, and more recently, querying agents to represent me and my works. Nothing so far--a few partial requests and at least one full--but hopefully I'll be reporting back in 2018 with some news.

*fingers crossed*

In the meantime, I'm laying down new words. I don't have an exact count for what I wrote in 2017 and I never know whether to include words edited as well as completed manuscript length, but here are the major projects I completed this year

(Note: I decided to not include words edited. This is a straight count of the length of each completed project):

Creepy/weird novella: 23,000
SF space opera novel: 115,000 (plus another 15,000 I wrote when a friend suggested I split the original into two books)
YA fantasy novel (partial): 66,000
Short stories: 21,000
---------------------
Grand Total for 2017: 240,000 words written

Not bad overall, though certainly less than many of the other writers I know managed to lay down. If I add in all the Bad Movie Review blog posts I wrote for SciFiAndScary (a gig I conned site host Lilyn G into and thoroughly enjoy), I can probably add another 20,000 words to that tally because I do love to go on and on about the bad-bad movies that I love-love-love.

And speaking of SciFiAndScary, I'm proud to say Dark and Stars (Serengeti Book 2) was named one of 2017's Best Indie Novels by this seriously entertaining site.

*puffs up proud*
 
As to the rest of the year, well, as always, I met new and amazing writers, enjoyed a raft of good books, and shared the joy, tears, frustration and elation that is authordom with my lovely and loyal Inkblot writer friends.

*hugs all the Inkblots, loves them forever and ever*

So, that's 2017 in a nutshell. There were  a few other hits and misses, and a near publication that spawned another opportunity that has yet to play out, so I'm looking ahead to 2018 and feeling delightfully hopeful after a stretch where I feared my writing career had stalled.

New year, new opportunities, right? 'Course I'm right. Now get out there and read a book!

SFF Reviews--a new website highlighting the best in SFF short stories across the web and print-a-verse--recently launched and chose my little short story, THE SALT DEBT, as its very first review! And as an added bonus, I got a mention File 770--multiple Hugo award winner for Best Fanzine. Go here to see the SFF Reviews write-up and here for the File 770 shout-out.

Ladies and gentlemen, as promised,  the cover for Hecate, the upcoming Serengeti prequel. Whaddaya think? Seriously, whaddaya think??!!