Editing is done, book is formated and ready to go, and now all I need is a cover. The artist is diligently working his arse off on another project so it'll be a little bit before he can get to this. As much as I'd like to wail and moan that I should come first - me, me, me, me - that's not how business works. It's first come, first serve. Until then, I'm weighing my options.

Kindle Scout is out of the question, they don't do horror. I could go the route of an agent, but some quick research leads me to believe that horror is not a huge seller these days, and I'd probably better off publishing it myself. If you're an agent and I'm wrong in my assessment, please let me know.

​Kickstarter is an option, but only as an avenue to get books out there and build up a little advertising money. I'll have to think about Kickstarter for a while, because I can pretty easily add some silly tiers to it. A poster of the cover, bookmarks, buttons, etc. Given it's a book about a human eating madman, I was thinking a small book of recipes might be fun. I'll just take some of my personal recipes, as well as some family ones and change the wording to something more horrific. At least then if someone tries to eat them they'll be in for a treat, rather than a plate full of wasted ingredients.

First round of edits on Domitianus are completed. I'm aiming to do one more round of them before the end of the month, after which it will go off to my friend for editing. I struck a deal with her to make some book covers in trade, so I can use the money I had put aside for editing to pay for paperbacks and the cover for this bad boy. I only tell you this because not a lot of people like to share these sorts of things and I've always found these behind-the-scenes details interesting ,so I thought I would share. Don't worry, she's a legitimate editor, so the quality of the book shouldn't change from the previous ones.

I started working on notes for Damsals and Dinos, that book should be a ton of fun write and read. I unfortunately don't have a lot to share for that one just yet. The ideas are still pretty broad and not concrete. I can say that it'll take place during the Maastrichtian Age, and for those of you with the Googles and them interwebs I'm sure you can figure out why.

I know, I know, there hasn't been an update in a few weeks. :P

The last chapter I needed to write went longer than I had initially expected. Right now the novel is sitting at 69k words, but between editing, and the fact that I plan to rewrite the end, that could change quite a bit. Otherwise, I'm thrilled with the way this book came out and I think it'll be a fun ride for anyone willing to dip into a sea of blood, carnage, and madness. It's horror at its finest, so I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it will be awesome for anyone who cares to give it a shot.

Outside of that, I'm working on 2 comic scripts about 2 vastly different things, and collaborating with another author on another novel. We're still in the discovery/brainstorming phase, but it's already panning out to be a fun science fiction piece. The 2 comic scripts should be completed in the next week, or two. As soon as I start seeing some art from those I'll share more on them.

Once I rewrite the end of Domitianus, and start the editing process, I'm going to start jotting notes on "Damsels and Dinosaurs". It's going to be a full on, high fantasy novel, with dinosaurs, centered around M and Iris. It'll be nice to be writing from their ridiculous perspectives again. Of the crazy characters I've come up with over the years, their personalities and exchanges are my favorites.

I'm somewhere around 1/2 way done with this final chapter, and then it'll be editing time. I think that process will be fairly quickly this time around, as my writing has cleaned and tightened up over the years. Practice does make perfect, or at least better. That being said, and as the title suggest, there will be a delay in getting this out.

This time of the year is when lit agents are looking for horror. From my understanding it takes 6 months to a year to get an unpublished book in the right hands, get it looking pretty, and get it out to the masses. So, for the next week or so, I'm going to be pitching to anyone I come across. I figure it'll take a couple months to get rejected by everyone, in which case I'll try Amazon Scout. That process takes 45 days, if memory serves, and once it gets rejected there I'll publish it myself. Yes, it sounds like I'm planning for disaster, and in a way I am. But, I need to try.

No matter what happens, I'll be chugging along on the next CoM book. It'll be a pre-historic fantasy this go around. Meaning it'll have dwarves, elves, magic, and all that high fantasy jazz, but also dinosaurs. It'll be a standalone just like all the spinoffs, but it'll treat books 1-6 as backstory. From that, I expect it to be longer than the previous books, but we shall see. Either way it should be super fun. How can high fantasy, dinosaurs, and M not be?

It's been darn near a month since I posted on here, and it's not for a lack of desire. Between solo packing up my rental in Baltimore, driving back to Kansas City (a two day drive), painting/cleaning my house, unpacking, and then having a table at the Kansas City Comic Con it has been one hell of a month. But, I survived and I'm ready to get back to killing people....on paper...for this book.

Kristofor Harris will be making a brand new cover for this one. I wasn't too keen on my attempt, so I'm bringing in the pro. I know I mentioned that in the last post, but I felt it was worth putting his name out there again. He does great work and I try to give him all the free press I can.

I really only have a chapter left to write on this one, but it'll probably be a long chapter. Plus, I still am not 100% moved in to this house and I still have 1 more room to paint, so it's not going to be a fast write. Additionally, there's that whole job hunt mess to tend to. Currently, I'd love to see this out in October. It's the perfect month to publish a horror book, plus it gives me time to finish and have it edited.

Dom's book is coming along and growing beyond it's original design. This is both a good thing, and a bad thing. Clearly, it's bad because that means it isn't coming out when I had originally wanted it to. On the other hand, it'll be a more complete piece with more content that what was expected. I use the word content, rather than pages, for a reason. This book is not dialogue heavy like the Chronicles of M books, so the word count will be closer to books 3, or 4 of the series, but it'll be contained in less pages. Dialogue just takes up more page space.

Because it's taking longer, it's given me some opportunities that I wouldn't normally have. For example, Kristofor Harris (I'll post a FB link to him below) will be designing the cover for me based on his reading of the book. He does some fantastic work, so I'm sure what he comes up with will be glorious. I've also had a moment to decide what to write next.

Chronicles of M will be getting a seventh book. This, of course, will follow the story where I left it in The Purge (no, not the movies), but this time around I'm going to write it as a beginning point for new people to the story. For one, it's time to give another starting point and turn the previous plot into backstory. Secondly, this is going to be semi-high fantasy in its scope, so....what happens in modern day, stays in modern day? I saw semi-high fantasy because it won't just be elves, magic, dwarves and all the usual high-fantasy stuff, but there will be other elements in play that should play well with the theme, but I really have no idea if it declassifies the book as high fantasy. Don't know, don't care. It'll be a very fun, action packed story, and that's all I really care about.

After that, unless something else comes to mind, I'll probably add in another Death Squad book. Since this is at least a year out I haven't put any real thought into it, so who know's what direction it'll take. I may decide to postpone it for another Hitori book, but we shall see.

​

I wish I had more news than I do, but it's been a rough month. Between trying to prepare for our journey back to Kansas City at the end of July, my son's various activities, illness, and an assortment of other reasons, there hasn't been much of an advancement on Dom's book. However, since I won't be able to afford the editing until after the Kansas City Comic Con ( http://www.kansascity-comiccon.com/ ) in mid August I have plenty of time to finish this up.

There's also two major challenges with this book that are equally fantastic, and downright annoying. One is the vocabulary. I generally don't get too graphic, gory, or otherwise descriptive about attacks in my other books. They are action/mystery/fantasy pieces, not horror. So, where I would normally type like a madman, I'm having to stop and consider every word. Fun, but stressful and slow going.

The other hurdle I'm facing is information gathering. Unlike the rest of the books in the CoM universe, this book takes place over a huge span of time and a lot of that history is not easy to find. Specifics on the Germanic tribes during the 300's AD is a good example. The tribes who were still dealing with Rome, not the ones who moved into France. It does make a difference.

Technically, I should have made this into a series of its own, but I didn't think itwas the best option. Classic horror novels rarely have sequels. Their movie counterparts tend to and they are almost always worse than the original. A lot of times, it's not the acting, or the plot that kills a horror sequel, it's repetition. You can only watch the same guy chase the same girl so many times through a forest before you just don't care any more. That right there is what I'm afraid of doing with a horror series and why this is a solitary book. Dom ripping people to shreds is going to be jaw dropping badassary, but only for a while.

​Dom's book is at about 49k words, so technically I could be done with it soon. I'll probably add a fair amount more to it, as I think the meat of the story requires it. No matter what, It'll be published and ready by August. At least, that is my goal.

The first book of Chronicles of M (link on the right margin, or below this) is now permanently free everywhere. That is to say, the e-book is free, not the paperback. That I have no control over. 

I do have some other stuff on the horizon, but some of it I can't talk about for the time being. But, if it happens it'll be awesome, and a whole new avenue for me to venture into. We shall see. Either way, thanks for continuing this ride with me, your support is the reason I continue on.

​

Dom's book is at about 37k words right now, putting it well beyond the half way mark. It's going well so far and due to some unforeseen hurdles (not even worth mentioning) I've decided to go for more of a "greatest hits" feel with Dom's life. I have about 1800 years to cover in this book and writing it any other way would require a large series of its own. I just don't see the life of a genocidal maniac remaining fresh and interesting for more than a couple of books. If you want proof watch of the long running horror movies from the 80's. It gets old after a bit.

In addition to only writing about the highlights, I'll keep with the Q&A style that occurred in the Death Squad book. It'll help to transition between each story of Dom's life, as well as keep a certain amount of consistency within the CoM world. Afterall, Uhler is writing this book for Dom, much like he did for the Death Squad. Is anyone going to notice, much less appreciate that little tidbit? Probably not, but you'll know and I'll know - that's enough for me.

Behind the Eyes of Death is coming along decently. I started working on the end, because I knew it was going to be trouble. The issue isn't so much what the ending will be, as that's already been handled in CoM book 6, it's how to present it. Normally, I would just wrap it out as I would any other book and move on, but this is different. This is a horror book. I don't think it's right (to the reader) to have all this blood, guts, and death ended on a note of super powered mutants, magic and the general weirdness that is CoM. However, that is the ending. So, I'm deciding if I should end it prior to that, or think of some way to horrify that ending a bit. Maybe bring on the CoM weirdness in  a slow burn, rather than a quick slap across the face.

I've also started working on a short, sci-fi story. It's completely unrelated to any of the CoM stuff, but maybe not necessarily outside the world of it. After all, Catch and Release is set in the CoM world, so why not this?