Tag Archives: adventure

By the time you read this…

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…to quote the immortal words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. It’s nothing alarming, but it is an attention-getter, isn’t it?

Then again, maybe it is alarming – if your understanding of the world is based on certain elements of the universe behaving just-so. In that case, you probably shouldn’t have based your status quo on me. That was bad form. But I digress…

By the time you read this, I’ll have ventured forward on one of the last great adventures any being can have. By my calculation, there are only two or three great adventures left in this lifetime – lots of lesser adventures to be sure, and all completely worthwhile – but this is an adventure long overdue.

And even though I’m running out of great adventures, I’m a long way from the end. In fact, this is a brand new… chapter? Book? Whatever your analogy, today is the day that new part begins.

Today is the day that I say “I do” to my first-thing-every-morning, my last-thing-every-night, my ever-vigilant editor… my pretty-much-everything.

Today is the first day of possibly the best chapter of my life. Maybe because it’s no longer my life, but our life, officially. And no, this isn’t where we stop being solitary entities and become one of those congealed couples that cannot separate from one another. She has her solo missions, and I have my own. But we have many more together – because we like each other and want to have these adventures together. It’s part of the reason for the whole marriage thing getting done.

Anyway, sometime in your running around today – maybe even right now because it’ll be easiest, do me a favor:

Take three seconds out of your day, raise a glass, and wish us luck. It’s not that we need it, but I really want this to be an amazing adventure, so I’ll take all the luck we can get.

Thanks.

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Photo by Watership Photography

The Next Page on the Calendar…

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Around this time last year, I was one-third of the way into At Calendar’s End. April was newly published and I was hard at work at the keyboard working on May. At that point, I cannot say that I knew I would finish. It was an intimidating, dare I say daunting, task to look ahead to.

And yet, here we are a year later, come through the other side not only successful, but surprisingly better for the experience. I think I’d like to do another serial in the future, but I have other projects I’d like to accomplish before that.

First on the docket is to bring At Calendar’s End to print. All twelve installments of Calendar are currently available in serialized format, both ebook and now print. Relatively soon, I’ll also be producing an omnibus that collects all twelve episodes into a single binding – which will also be made available to both digital and physical realms.

If you haven’t started reading At Calendar’s End yet, and aren’t sure why you should, maybe this wonderfully insightful review by friend and author Parker J. Cole will help.

Also (and probably most excitingly) Brian Ritson, the brilliant and creative mind behind all of the art that graces my books, has taken the line art from the Calendar series (as well as some new beautiful designs) and incorporated them into a coloring book!

Coloring Book Cover

This is truly a must-have for any fan of the Calendar series – and coloring books!

And finally, I will be showing off the newly-printed books in person at Leon & Lulu on April 30! I’m looking forward to being part of Books & Authors again, and am excited to be able to show off some spectacular art, as well as my newest accomplishment. I’ll be sharing a space with a number of friendly authors – including friend and event companion J. Thomas-Like! I hope to see you there!

In the meantime, you can find all of my books here.

Happy reading!

 

A lot can happen in 48 hours…

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Just ask Las Vegas.

Oh, nothing so drastic is happening in my life, I assure you. But I have managed to (almost blindly) stumble onto a writing competition, write a short story inside of 48 hours, and submit it for judgment.

The skinny: The NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge 2016 is a competition to create a 1000 word (or less, but certainly not more) story  in 48 hours – based on 3 thematic criteria submitted to contestants at the beginning of the competition. Contestants are divided into groups, each group having their own criteria. After two challenges, the top 5 in each group will move on. I’m hoping to be part of that Top 5, but I have no idea who I am competing against.

Well, that’s not completely true… I’m competing against a lot of people from around the world.

My group represents 20 different states and 5 countries… of which, I am one of 35. Stiff odds already, but then consider that my group is one of 60. My chances of success are diminishing the more I think about numbers, but what can I do?

I can stop thinking about the numbers.

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The fact of the matter is this:

Someone handed me a list of requirements and said, “Hey. Write a story with this stuff in it. Oh, and it’s due in 48 hours.” And I did exactly that. I reached into my brain and pulled out what I think is a pretty good story – especially for the circumstances. I can control nothing else in the situation, so I’m not going to stress about it. I’m going to wait, and I’m going to see what my score is when it comes back.

The optimist in me says, “Hey, you wrote another story. You’ve already won!” I’m going to run with that.

Another Page Torn from the Calendar…

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Happy Indie Authors Day!

And happy July!

Well, happy for everyone but the Intercalary. Their ranks have been cut in half now. As if that wasn’t bad enough, not only are they dealing with a supernatural killer, they have a traitor in their midst only making things worse. But it couldn’t possibly get any worse for them, could it?

Maybe not. Maybe everything will be okay. Maybe, for once, things won’t fall apart and the lines between good and bad won’t blur to the point of confusion. Maybe just this once, friends won’t be revealed as monsters, hiding behind kind eyes and warm smiles.

Maybe somewhere else, that could totally happen. But if you’ve been reading At Calendar’s End up to this point, I’m sure you have a decent idea of what’s coming.

Click the picture to visit July on Amazon.July_Final

It’s about time… no, really.

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Originally, I wanted to release this as I was getting it: in stages. But I realized that some people out there might not want to wait for the full reveal. I understand. I am impatient as well. So, I thought it best not to say anything until it was time. It has been very hard to think about anything else since NaNoWriMo concluded this year.

And not only is it time, but it’s about time. The story, I mean.

At Calendar’s End is the story of time – or the end of it. The beings that control the passage of time find themselves dealing with an adversary both powerful and unpredictable. They have no defenses against it and worse – if they fail to stop it, all time will cease to be.

The story is a serial delivered in twelve parts over the course of 2016. Each episode (except January) will be released on the first of the month, and feature an approximate 10000 words of suspense.

Because so many people have told me how they cannot wait for the next book in the House of Thirteen series to come, I decided (at least once) I would not force anyone to wait in suspense when they finished with part one. Both January and February will be available on February 1, 2016.

The serial will be available in Kindle format for the time being, with a future release in paperback. And in the event that anyone wants to wait for the end of the series before picking it up, the omnibus will be available at the end of 2016.

Pre-orders will begin very soon. In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful artwork by Brian Ritson.

January

Six long days away…

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The premiere for House of Thirteen is this Saturday, Nov. 7. I am looking very forward to this. The Book Cottage is kind enough to host me, and I’d like to make it as wonderful as possible. Please consider sharing the image around to let others in the area know about it. Thanks, and I hope to see you there.

Shout it to the rafters.

Shout it to the rafters.

So happy about this post, I forgot a title…

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House of Thirteen

House of Thirteen, coming very very soon.

House of Thirteen is in the hands of the beta readers. This is both a milestone of success and a stomach of butterflies for me.

Getting this book to a point of release this book has been harrowing, arduous, and – at times – almost not worth the effort. But here it is, and I am very (terrified) excited to see what the beta readers have to say about it.

Depending on how much work they think I still have, I may be able to push up my release date – which would be a first, really. 😉

But right now, I can say with confidence that House of Thirteen will be out in the universe by Halloween. What happens to it then is anyone’s guess.

There is no way to fully communicate the sensations I am feeling about this. It is my second novel, and the start of a monumental adventure in itself. It is exactly what I set out to write when I started, yet nothing I expected and so much more than I could have hoped for.

I hope it will live up to expectations, because it has already exceeded my own. 

Mayday, mayday!

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No, sorry. No emergencies here. I meant May Day… as in the first of May. So many good things are ramping up around here, that there needed to be some exclamation in the title, even if it was a little misleading. Continue reading →

It’s a new year, but they’re the same old tricks…

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13 days into the new year, I thought I might finally weigh in. It’s been a while and I’m painfully conscious of that. I’m a bad blogger. Well, not bad, just inconsistent. And just like last year (heh) one of my numerous resolutions is to try to improve on that failing. Continue reading →

Rinse and Repeat.

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After much delay, pain and struggle with characters that had no desire to follow an attractive story arc (seriously, I think only two groups understand the burden of fictional beings that don’t listen to their creators: writers and the insane… I really hope I’m a writer) House of 13 is back on a very optimistic track and progressing toward a wonderful finish. I have decided to stop at the end of the current section and unwind the rest of the night with 51,000 words down on the page. Continue reading →