I have found the voice of the “Lucky Evan’s Life” franchise! He’s got a Facebook page and apparently, this isn’t his first rodeo. Which works for me just fine as this is my first time doing anything like this. I’m going to get a fifteen minute sample of his reading The Dreaded Day Job sometime this week and I’ll let you know how things go. If things go extraordinarily well, I might get some more books done as audiobooks for giggles. This has also spurred me on to write The Agonizing Alibi Day and get it out there by the beginning of April, with paperback, hardback and audio versions coming out at the same time if I can work it.

It’s rare that it feels like everything is coming together for me, but it’s true. I didn’t think I would find the voice of Evan literally in the first round of auditions. I didn’t think that getting everything together would be this easy. All I had to do was approve him, tender him an offer (royalties, which means he’s going to advertise if he wants to get anywhere) and upload the manuscript. Bip bam boom. All of this has really lit a fire under me to get the next novel done. I was just going to poke along on the outline for The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show and not really do any Evan stories under later this year. Now that I am (somewhat) responsible for someone else’s work, I can’t slack off. Medicine Show, the long-suffering book that it is, might be put off for a while as I work on more immediate things.

And Evan is a good series. There are positive aspects to it that I think the world could use, and certainly Evan’s notions that what we put out into the Universe we get back onto us has wormed its way into my personal philosophy. Am I going to turn into a Guru Joe like character and go about telling people to contemplate their navel? No, because I can barely see mine to be honest. I am, however, being more mindful of what I do and what I put out.

That’s all for now. Please feel free to look at my other books, as well as books put out be good friends on the right-hand side of this page. Be good to each other and I’ll see you next time.

Hopefully, by the time this comes out, I will be working with someone on getting The Catastrophic Christmas Party and The Dreaded Day Job on getting it into audiobook format through acx.com, which means it will be through Amazon, iTunes and Audible.com – the big three audiobook publishers.

I’m hoping that this will be the push to get my stuff out there more. I know a couple of people (Hi!) that listen to audiobooks, and I am sure there are solely audiobook listeners. I even listen to audiobooks when I get the chance. I’m trying to get more serious about getting everything out there and getting the word out.

When it comes to marketing – I am horrible. I am spotty and limited to either Facebook or Amazon’s advertising service…which I have to admit has gotten me a couple of sales.  Should probably renew that sometime soon. Maybe when I get the audiobook published and released, I’ll do a full-court press. Whatever I can do to get it pushed out there.

Honestly, the more I do this, the more I am considering trying traditional publishing with a horror novel. I’m just not sure as to what to do in terms of advertising beyond talk about what I am doing on this blog, advertise with Facebook and Amazon and look into other ways of publishing. Add in the need to grind out another book – which I am doing right now with the next Evan book called The Agonizing Alibi Day – and I really feel like I have bitten off far more than I can chew at times.

But I still love it. I am here at home with a cold, and I have written 3,000 words. I have never felt happier, or more like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing in my life. It gets a little frustrating at times to be this close to what I feel is my purpose, but I have a dreaded day job to do to support it. I know that it doesn’t make me any different than any other creative person out there.

Oh, well. Maybe I just need more coffee. Could be both.

I just put in an ad on Amazon for The Dreaded Day Job. I think that it got me the most sales for one book, and they’re the most able to get my work out there.

At least it beats putting up a billboard.

Hmm…

Well – I hope you’re having a good day wherever you are and with whatever you’re doing. Hope to see you again at the next installment.

I know this was going to be the year of epic fantasy. This was going to be the year I finished The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show and Unbound and maybe even write a Lamia-centric tale called Lambs and Ivy for Nanowrimo. This was going to be the year I really let myself go, as it were.

So – February I am going to write the next Evan novel The Agonizing Alibi Day and finish it in 28 days. It’s not epic fantasy, but I have some momentum going with sales of The Catastrophic Christmas Party and I feel that I have to strike while the iron is hot. Besides, the out lining for Medicine Show is coming along in fits and starts, so I should do something with the time I’m staring at the blank page, right?

The book is going to be about Evan undergoing what’s called Alibi Day – a time in which he has to attend a phone and tell people lies about where his work mates have been employed so that they will have a better chance of infiltrating into a company and sabotage it. While this is going on, he’s not going to have access to things to inflict his whammy upon. He’s stuck in an office while his whammy builds and builds to disastrous consequences.

I think it’s a good reaction to the feel-good(ish) sentiment of Christmas Party. I wrote Christmas Party partly because I wanted to have something out for the holidays, and I wanted something good for Evan given his position in life. Agonizing Alibi Day is back to work for everyone. I’m slightly stoked to write it now. Maybe I can get it done in the month of February and have it out for March and see how it sells.

Well, that’s all for now. I needed to get writing, but I didn’t want to rush the outline or anything. So – updates as they happen and hopefully this time in March, I’ll have news that it’s ready to be sold. Have fun and stay safe.

Amazon doesn’t make it easy to publish a physical book. It took me several hours of cursing to get the cover right – on the upside, I am learning quite a bit about Photoshop, but man…I remember when all I had to do was size up a picture and make a front cover, then make the back cover and check to see it was the right size. Now I have to measure the picture, put it on a blank canvas in Photoshop – and I stumbled onto doing that by accident. I think that I might hire out someone to do all of this.

On the upside – all the DYI means that both The Dreaded Day Job and The Catastrophic Christmas Party are making small profits. Very small. It’s the little things like that that keep me going.

I’m still outlining The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show. It’s a super detailed outline for me. I am finding that if I don’t outline, my story simultaneously meanders and quickens. It is weird, but with the outline, I am putting in everything that happens so I don’t forget. This is going to be my first “epic fantasy” novel. This is the genre that I am looking to make my name in. Don’t get me wrong. I love writing about Evan and his issues, but I want to be up there with Sanderson and Tolkien…or that’s where my ambition lies. Skill? Well…we’ll see.

Well, that’s it for now – the thrilling life of a self-published author isn’t as glamorous as one wishes it were. I do need to update the site to show that I have new books out there. *sigh* Technology is a fickle, moody dominatrix. Have fun everyone – talk to you later.

There isn’t much positive news beyond I’ve sold some copies of The Catastrophic Christmas Party and The Dreaded Day Job. I feel like such a hot-house orchid when it comes to writing sometimes. I’ll have something for next week.

I am beyond thrilled right now. I just sold two books today. Sure – it’s not the millions I want, but this month is starting out better than last month. I hope to keep this momentum going – perhaps I can get some more sales for February of some of my other works.

I am almost done with Voices Abroad. I know I’ve said that a lot, but this time I really mean it. I am on the last chapter and there are no other chapters I need to go back and re-do. When I am done, I am done with this book and will let it sit for editing purposes. I might get back to it in a couple of months. Maybe I’ll let Nancy read it to see what she thinks. I might also go on ahead and print up The Show Must Go On first and have her read it. I’m hoping to get it done and ready for primetime by Hallowe’en.

This year is going to be the year of epic fantasy, but next year, I think I am going to focus solely on Evan’s books. Try to pump out a book a month – which is completely doable (where have I heard that before?) because they’re not supposed to be over 50,000 words. I’m basically going to be doing Nanowrimo once a month, every month. I can get them read and edited quickly – might even be able to release the same month I write. So far, Evan’s books are the big sellers, so it makes sense for me to try to pump those out. Epic fantasy books are being written with the goal of larger publication in mind, but the Evan books might end up being my bread and butter. I can live with that.

I am still pumped up to write Medicine Show – I’ve been getting some inspiration from The Last Podcast on the Left. Listening to their episodes about the Black Death has been giving me ideas concerning scenes that I would want to see in the book. I should consider getting a couple more books for research’s sake. I’ll put off the Gothic Trailer Park story for a little while – I have a book to read on the poetics of Gothic literature and that’s going to take a while.

This year is looking up for me! I hope I can get more stuff out there, and I keep on selling the things I have. I hope this year goes as well for you, too, Dear Reader.

Well…it looked really good flying overhead…

I missed the deadline, but on the upside I’m under 10,000 (8,167 words to be exact – a chapter and a half) words remaining. Now, if it’s going to be finished under ten thousand words is another question. One I can’t really answer right now. I know what the ending is going to be, but I don’t know how to get there. Y’know – typical author things.

I am going to stick with the schedule I have in my head and start outlining The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show during my lunch period. In the morning and evening I am going to put down my seven hundred words to keep going. I will be somewhat optimistic and say that this first draft will be finished by the end of the month.

No, really.

This year is going to be the year of Epic Fantasy. I am only work on two books: the aforementioned Medicine Show and Unbound – my really epic ‘Frankenstein Meets Lord of the Rings while cosplaying a Larry McMurtry novel’ series. These two books are definitely going to sent out to publishers. These are too good to risk self-publishing. Wish me luck!

I am really excited about starting these two books. Well, starting is not the right word. “Concluding” would be more accurate. I’ve have Unbound in my head since the middle to late nineties and Medicine Show is at least five years old. Yes, I take my time in putting books together, but the ones I do get together are really good.

Speaking of putting books together: Catastrophic Christmas Party is out on Kindle right now and will be put into paperback by the end of next week. I just need to re-format the manuscript for paperback printing. There’s a lot to get straight and it’s going to take a full day. I’ve done it before and let me tell you – it’s a pain in the butt, but I can at least tell someone “you don’t read e-books? That’s okay – it’s in paperback.”

So – this year is going to be super-productive, I’m sure. I got books finished, and I even got a book out there for sale. I can carry this momentum over to this year and get these two big books finished. Wish me luck.

“The Catastrophic Christmas Party” is now out for Kindle!

Well – Catastrophic Christmas Party is going to be released in December, but it might be closer to Christmas as I get the last little things lined up. Amazon does not make it easy to format your work for print – should I even do print? It’s about 40K words, barely a novel. I haven’t sold enough copies in either format to really give it a good study. Part of me is about to say that I should make it Kindle exclusive, but then I’ve run into people that say “I don’t buy Kindle books, only real books”. I might still do the paperback option this one time, but start going to only Kindle with another book or series.

Speaking of looming deadlines, I apologize for missing last Thursday. It was a hectic day and I never really got around to typing the blog, and honestly it would have just been me saying I’m writing the novel, about a third of the way finished and I’ve started outlining my next super big project. Just like what I’ve done today. At the very least, I am consistent.

As the year winds down, I’m going to go dark for a couple of weeks while I try to finish up the book, wrap gifts without losing fingers and watch a horror movie at Christmas (this year the movie is ‘Suitable Flesh’ with Heather Graham). I might even get lucky and watch more than one if the wife lets me.

This is a short post, I know – but there isn’t anything really new on the horizon until the beginning of the year. So, be safe this holiday season have some egg nog and leave out some cookies for Santa.

Well, as I am writing this blog post, I’ve done about 60,000 words on the novel Voices Abroad. I can’t tell you how giddy I am for not only getting this far in the novel, but for getting to 50,000 words in about nineteen days. I kept to my schedule, and now I’m one day away from meeting the goal of 50,000 words in thirty days and writing more than I have ever written before for a novel. Is it finished? Nope. I still have about 35,000 more words to do, but now I can slack off on the work count a little bit. Maybe either do 450 three times a day or do 650 twice a day and reclaim either the mornings or lunch time for reading and research. I really want to make sure I get the Gothic setting right for the novel – not my next one. That’s going to be The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show. That one is going to get started in January.

It’s been a hard time, but somewhat fun this November. I’m aiming for next year to hit par – 1,700 words a day – everyday in a self-contained novel. I don’t think there are enough of those out there in fantasy, especially. Everything must be a three or five or seven novel series. I don’t mind it if the series is finished. I would like to have a novel that’s a self-contained, one-shot story. Something I can read one time, and possibly pick up again if I’m bored. Of course, I’m saying this as I try to stretch out one character’s story from three to five books. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Next year is going to be the Year of Fantasy. I am only going to focus on finishing up two projects: The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show and The Ushabit Series. I might do a small novel for Nanowrimo next year, but most of my energy is going to finishing these long standing, longer suffering books. I might end up just restarting The Ushabit series from scratch with the outline and all that. I seem to write better when I have everything planned out in advance. Medicine Show is too far into itself to be re-done, so I’m going to muddle through it as best as I can and get it edited down after I get The Show Must Go On edited…which I may get that started next year. I know I’ve brought Serve Me Now to my writer’s group…but it doesn’t feel good to me. I think I rushed it to get done and out. Might just rip the whole thing down and restart it.

Thank you all for bearing with me this November while I engage in temporary madness. I’ll get back to the regular blogging schedule in time to take a week off for Christmas. Stay safe, have fun and I’ll see you in the next.