Category Archives: Shattered

Fragments, Grim Repo Files, Minders, Shattered, The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Zombies Ate My Mom

Fragments Delay, Future Releases, and Other Notes

First, I want to say that I am very sorry that Fragments is not out, yet. It’s the longest book I’ve written so far, twenty-eight percent longer than Shattered, and it’s taking me time to work through it. Back in May, I started formatting the paper edition, and quickly decided that I needed to do another edit of the book, which took longer than I thought. The book is better for it.

I submitted the files for the print edition last week, and I had planned to release it next week, assuming all went well. Unfortunately, all is not well. I discovered that the font I planned to use on the cover and some of the interior, while listed as public domain, may not have been stolen by the “author” of the font, and thus not public domain at all. There seems to be some question, but if there’s a question, I’m not going to risk infringing on someone else’s copyrights. So, I’ve had to redo the lettering with a font that I DO own a license to, which means I will have to order another proof, and that will delay the book by at least another week. I am going to wait and check the proof that’s already on it’s way before ordering the new one, so that I can catch all the other issues that might have cropped up. That said, the target date for Fragments is now August first, give or take a few days.

This latest delay won’t have a huge effect on future releases. I expect Zombies Bought the Farm to be released around the third week of August, and Minders to release around the middle of September, with the sequel to Grim Repo in October. I’m not placing a date on Reworked, yet, because it’s not finished, and it will need a lot of time to edit. It looks to be about thirty percent longer than Fragments, despite what the word meter says.

Finally, I’m looking for a new tile for The Sacrifice of Mendleson Moony. My wife and I talked about it, and we’ve both concluded that, as cool as the title is, it doesn’t fit the book. The book is a fantasy romance book, and nothing about the title indicates that the romance between the characters is a significant driver of the story. If you’ve read the book, help me out. I can’t, for the life of me, come up with a title that fits. Please send me your suggestions. If you suggest a title and I use it, I’ll send you a free book of mine (your choice).

Fragments, Shattered, StoryBox

What’s Up With StoryBox 2 and Fragments?

Fragments CoverIt’s May 31st. Yes. I was planning to release StoryBox 2 today. I planned to release Fragments today, too. Neither of them are happening.

StoryBox 2 will go out of beta sometime next week. I had to do some updates to TrackerBox that were not planned due to Barnes & Nobles change over from PubIt to NOOK Press. Now, the only thing holding StoryBox 2 up is fixing up the help file. I’ve already done a bit of work on it, but it needs more, especially with all the additions and changes, including changes that occurred after version 1.0 that never got included in the help. I will work on that this weekend.

Fragments has a different story. I started the formatting (which occurs after editing) last Friday and quickly discovered there were things I didn’t like. These things were there despite having been read by four other people, not including myself. The book was written last summer, and I’ve written a lot since then, so perhaps it’s just me growing as a writer, but I couldn’t let the book go out with things I hated in it. So I’m running through it one more time in an attempt to clean out those things that just bug the crap out of me. I’m sure, if I read it again six months from now, there will be more writing in it that I don’t like, but I feel I owe it to you to at least like everything in it at the time I release it.

So you can probably add two or three weeks to the release date for Fragments. I’m going through it as fast as I can, but I’m not rushing it, and it’s a long book. I think I’ve said it before, but it’s nearly 30% longer than Shattered. Reworked is coming along, but it’s probably going to be another 20-30% longer than Fragments. And, though I had planned it as a trilogy (planned is a loose term, here – imagined is probably better), I have an inkling there will be a fourth book.

This also means Zombies Bought the Farm will be delayed, but since it’s far shorter than Fragments, I’m hoping it won’t be much more than a week later than my original plan.

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Today  (May 31, 2013) is the last intentional day to get Shattered for $2.99. It’s $2.99 at pretty much all of the retailers listed on the Shattered page.

Shattered, Writing

Art Matters

Shattered Cover UpdateI just watched a video of Amanda Palmer speaking. Again, like her commencement address and her TED talk, it’s a powerful, unique speech. She think deeper about art than I ever have, but at times, the way she talks about it nearly makes me tear up. I feel like an idiot.

But I shouldn’t.  Art matters. ART matters in a way that I think we all take for granted. We take it for granted because there’s so much of it that we can’t avoid it. And, frankly, ninety percent of what exists doesn’t have a chance of resonating with you, or with me. The beautiful thing, though, is that the ten percent that does resonate with me is likely to be a different ten percent than the ten percent that resonates with you, or your neighbor, or your grandmother. We all have a different ten percent.

Am I making art when I write? Certainly. Good art? I can’t answer that. I write what comes to me. I don’t construct it. I try to tell the stories I have inside me while trying to avoid rehashing my influences. Do I succeed? I think so, but I do not know for sure.

And that’s where you come in. If my work is in your ten percent, please help me. Tell the world, or at least, tell your friends. If my work is not in your ten percent, then help another artist and tell everyone about the work that is.

“Connecting The Dots” – Amanda Palmer @ Grub Muse conference

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All this week (through the 31st of May), Shattered is on sale for $2.99 as part of a group promotion with a lot of other awesome fantasy works. Pick up Shattered on the cheap and get it read before Fragments comes out in early June (I’m aiming for the 6th, but with the vagaries of the US Postal Service and the speed of bits on the internet at the various retailers, it might be an extra day or two).

Epic Fantasy Sale Party!

Fragments, Shattered, Zombies Ate My Mom

New Projects In The Fire

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To the right, you can probably see that I’ve added a couple new projects. One is a storyline sequel to Zombies Ate My Mom, and the other is a sort of fairy tale fantasy romance in the same vein as The Sacrifice of Mendleson Moony.

The plan is to finish the first draft of both of these this month, but if you know me, plans are meant to be ignored. I’m concerned that ZAMM 2 will go over my projected word count, and if that happens, it won’t get done. They’ll both get done eventually (this month or next), but getting them both done this month will be a challenge considering I still have to do edits on Fragments this month.

It’s going to be a busy month.

Oh, did I mention, I’m working on StoryBox 2, too?

Bookstore, Fragments, Grim Repo Files, Questioner's Shadow, Shattered, Short Fiction, The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Zombies Ate My Mom

Bookstore

I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while, but for various reasons, I never did it. However, over the last couple weeks, I discovered Ecwid, decided to change web hosts, and decided to get rid of some dead weight.

In the bookstore, you’ll find everything I have available—electronic editions and signed paperbacks.

Every electronic edition comes in DRM free ePub, mobi, and PDF formats. You get them all, so if you ever change devices, you’ll still be able to read the books.

Every paperback comes signed. You also get the electronic editions for free with a paperback purchase.

Right now, I’m only shipping paper books to the US. If you are outside of the US, and you really want the paperbacks, email me and I’ll see what we can come up with.

Questioner's Shadow, Shattered, Website, Writing

Website Changes and Questioner’s Shadow Trivia

I’ve made some changes to the site in anticipation of the release of Questioner’s Shadow, the first book in the Lords of Genova series.

What?! Another series?! Why don’t you finish A Wizard’s Work, first?!

That was my original plan. But if you know me at all, plans never work out the way I want them to. Here’s what happened.

I finished the draft of Shattered in the middle of September, 2010. I didn’t want to go right into the second book, because I didn’t want to have to make changes to the second book because I made changes to the first.

However, I needed something to work on at a workshop I had registered to attend. I spent weeks trying different things. First, it was a space opera type story (that I will write someday, it just wasn’t the time for it). Then, I came up with a story that I’m planning on writing, but I needed to do a lot of research to even get it off the ground, and I just didn’t have time.

One night, with about four weeks to go, I challenged myself to write the most provocative first sentence I could. I was pretty happy with it, but it didn’t have a story.

And then, with about a week and a half to go, I realized I could put that first line together with this other story idea of mixing Jack the Ripper and Beowulf together, and that’s what ultimately kicked off Questioner’s Shadow.

At this time, Questioner’s Shadow was only a single story, and I was really excited to write it. However, as I started to get into the first scene, and started to learn about my main character, I discovered that he was in real trouble that extended beyond the arc of this single story.

Thus, I ended up starting another series before Shattered had even seen the light of day.