Domitianus's book is coming along well. I have a couple people reading what I have (about 10k words) to make sure it's solid. This first chunk of book is the hardest to write, so I want to make sure it's entertaining. If you have any interest in checking out a non-edited, clearly work in progress piece, hit me up and I'll send you a copy. Otherwise, I'm almost over the hump and the writing will pick up afterwards.

I don't remember if I mentioned it last update, or if I had picked up the work at that point, but I wrote another 8 page story for Planetscape. It's called Mar-mar of Tar-tar. It's effectively a ghostwriting gig that was developed by an artist and his two kids. It's a super fun story about a monster who is dragon relocator. I don't want to say too much, but I'll post some pics once I get them. It won't be published until the next issue of Planetscape, so it'll be a while. Suffice it to say, the script has a first draft and sometime next week I'll look it over. I don't like sitting on a project, so that's why I completed it so early.

I've also started taking paid lettering/writing gigs as of last night. I haven't had any offers yet, but it's only been...6 hours since I posted it, so I'm not terribly concerned. Besides, it costs me nothing but a moment to write up an ad and post it on Facebook. So, even if I don' get any offers, I'm not out anything.

Last thing of note: there still isn't a cover for Dom's book, or a real title. I should probably get on that.

Dom, in case you're unaware, is a character that came along in the 4th book to show the flip side/worst case scenario of Uhler's condition. In short, he's a zombie. In the long...you'll just have to read one of my books! Again, for the uninitiated, CoM book 1 has a couple chapters on this zombie thing I speak of, and then Dom's story is how/what happened to him. Trust me, it's not the typical zombie story, so stop rolling your eyes. I wanted to try to make sense of the strange evolution of the zombie genre - these stories are my answer. Will Dom's story be a standalone, yes. Do you need to read CoM first, not at all. The whole point of this CoM universe was to allow me the freedom to branch into different genres (Hitori - historical fantasy, Death Squad -steampunk and mythology, Dom - horror) and to allow those books to be new entrances to the world as a whole. Sure, there will be some overlap at the end of Dom's book with CoM, but that's only because his story ends with the characters in that series. 

And if you haven't noticed, I do not have a proper name for Dom's book yet. I think Domitianus as a book title isn't going to sell. I need something more catchy.

The book on Dom is slowly coming along. It's a very challenging topic to write for a number of reasons, but mostly because of his current status in the book. At the moment I'm telling the story from a 3rd person perspective, of a man who can not hear, speak, taste, feel, or has any control over his own body. In short, all he can do is see a few feet in front of him and play audience to his body's every monstrous whim. It sounds awesome, and it should be a good read, but it's not an easy thing to write and keep interesting. So I'm taking my time and trying to do it right. I'm into this book about 8-9000 words, and my pace will pick up soon enough.

I'm also writing another short comic for Planetscape. I was asked to take some basic ideas for the characters and run with it. I'm about half way done with this and it's been a load of fun. It's a nice change of pace from zombie rampages. This story won't show up in the upcoming issue of Planetscape, but the following. Meaning, it'll be a bit before I can post any pics, or anything real updates on it. Also, with as much time as there is between now and then, things may change and this whole comic may not come to fruition. It's probably best I leave it at that - at least, for the time being.

After a week of being sick AND taking care of my wife after her eye surgery (with a huge amount of assistance from my mother in-law) Book 6 is finally done and off for "review" with Amazon. It'll be the same price as books 2 - 5, $3.99. I'll let you know when that is up and ready to go as soon I hear back from Amazon. Additionally, I've done most of the grunt work for the paperback edition, so I'll hopefully have that ready for purchase in the next week or two. I almost always have issues getting them to accept things on the first try, so we'll see how this book fares.

In other news, I may have two stories published in Planetscape (that's one of the anthologies I'm part of). I haven't heard back on the second story, but it may also get published in the next issue. I also lettered a comic for Planetscape, but I can't remember if I mentioned that in the previous blog post or not. Either way it's called "Space Monkey Sprocket". I'll post a pic of it at the end of this. It's a fun story and I'm glad I got to be involved in it.

In stranger news, and I highly doubt this has to do with my writing ability so much as it has to do with them looking for more people, I was recently asked to submit some short stories to Haunted Waters Press for their contest. Winner gets some money and published in their book. As rare as this is to hear, I honestly am more concerned about being published, thereby increasing my exposure, than I am the winnings. Don't get me wrong, I will take the prize money, but it's not the goal.

My editor sent back the final corrections for book 6, I'm going through them right now. Once that is done I'll submit it to Amazon and start working on the paper book side. Hopefully, that won't take too long, but I can't promise anything.

Domitianus is coming along. It's a little slow moving (to me) because I'm trying to write this in a third person, past tense perspective for a person who can barely see more than a few feet in front of him. If you have been following the CoM series at all, then you'll understand how the re-evolving works for zombies. If not, then I suggest you do so! Honestly, I'm writing this book so that anyone can pick it up and read it. It's just that writing a third person view of a character trying to understand his world with little sensory input is a challenge. One that I'm enjoying, but one that doesn't come easily.

On the comic side of things, everything has slowed down to a crawl. There hasn't been a lot of lettering requests lately and I haven't been looking for more. Planetscape and The Fear Collective are coming along and are not within my control, so as soon as I get an update you'll get an update. I'm thinking about taking up book cover creation for a little extra cash. If anyone has an opinion on that bring it on. Bear in mind that I have done all my own covers, as well as a handful of them for other people - so I'm not entirely inept.