It's been almost a year since I did one of these, and for those of you who were reading these I apologize. The last year has been a little nuts and I'm finally starting to get a grip on all of it. Firstly, I started a new position at work that requires a lot more thought and time than my previous position. Because of that, I was coming home feeling like I had been in an all-day test and I was mentally drained. Now, add the usual adulting items of wife, kids, house maintenance, you get the picture. I'm not complaining, just explaining my absence. I seem to have gotten use it, so here we are. On to brighter things. What is new?

​Well, I'm currently lettering a comic called Enigma Inc. It's a fun read. Think Scooby Doo, but years later and psychologically broken on a few levels. The artist is still inking and coloring the comic, so I do not have an ETA on this one. Before the end of the year would be my guess. You can find his work here: https://www.facebook.com/417thecomic/ and https://www.instagram.com/seanfolly7/ 

The same Artist, Eric Wright, and I also put out the first issue of One Flag. This one I wrote and lettered. It's about a group of desperate people that rob a train and set a chain of events in motion. Lot of humor and action, set in a world that asks the question: what would happen if a Superman like character ruled the world?

I am working on Damsals and Dinos, the newest book in the Chronicles of M. This is going very slowly, because there's something bugging me about it, but I can't quite figure out what it is. Overall, it's about 90% written, but I want to be 100% happy with the story before I go forward. It's about M and Iris going back in time to visit the dinosaurs and end up in a fantasy based kingdom....with dinosaurs. It'll be a very fun story that can be read solo, or after book 6. Something about injecting a superhero(ish) character, and an android into a world of elves and orcs amuses me, especially when a triceratops can come out of nowhere and kill someone!

I am working on a board game called "Maniacs Stole My Biscuits!" It's in the playtest phase, and so far has gone quite well. The game is for 2-5 players, ages 8+. It's a survival based game where a group of survivors are trapped in a house where monsters are attacking. All characters and creatures have special abilities that should greatly change the overall tactics of the game. The objective: survive the attack and not let the baddies steal your biscuits. Just think of the biscuits as your high score. There's a lot more going on here than I'm stating, but this will do for now. I'll eventually start doing playthroughs via live streams and recordings, I did set up a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/ManiacsWantMyBiscuits  It's the bare minimum right now, but it'll be updated soon. You can also see a few pics of my prototype set on Instagram.

There are a couple other things in the pipeline, but neither is concrete at the moment. Thanks for reading!

A week in New Orleans and I still have a lot to cover. Let's do this!

Domitianus comes out on 7/1, so get your pre-orders in on Amazon. The paperback is ready to go, I just have to hit the accept button and it'll start assaulting the world like Godzilla. Okay, maybe more like a paperback on the interwebs, shhhh, let me pretend.

The Five Man Midget Death Squad comic, "The Giant Problem" is steadily coming along. I've been lettering it as the artist is inking it, so that we can finish this up quicker. If you haven't joined the Facebook page I'll have it at the bottom of this blog post. I don't have a release date as of yet, but I'm also not rushing the artist into something. He does fantastic work and I'm not about to jeopardize that with unnecessary goals. I will say that 9 out of the 22 pages are inked and lettered. I believe we still have a grayscale mode to go through, and Kris Harris (artist of Dom's book cover) is coloring the cover for this comic - who is also the artist for Char13. A great comic you should check out. Who doesn't like post-apocalyptic westerns with robots?

Last bit of current news, and I apologize for not being very specific here. Domitianus is being picked up by a podcast! At least a chapter will be done, possibly the entire book. It's entirely up to the person in charge, I'm just here for the ride. Again, no specific details at this time, as it's still very early in the talks. You now most of what I know. Once this is more set in stone, I'll pass it along.

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I really need to set a bi-weekly, or weekly reminder for these blog posts. Lately, with everything going on, I haven't remembered that I need to keep up on these. It's not that they aren't important to me, they are, it's just that I've got so much going on already that I forget about these. Let's get started.

First up, the Domitianus e-book is on pre-order while I work out the kinks on the paperback. The kinks are probably already done, but until I get my physical proof to double check, I really don't know. Unfortunately, the proof takes a while to show up in the mail. The book is set to come out July 1st, so please go snag a copy. The button below will take you to the Amazon that handles your region. Canada, Germany, Japan, USA, doesn't matter. It's just an auto-forward, no popups or anything else. Once the pre-order is over, I'll list the book everywhere else that I can (I-tunes, B&N, etc) Remember, if you like the cover, there's a t-shirt on Amazon as well. That appears to be US only, but if you happen to see it out there in your area, please let me know.

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Next up: Five Man Midget Death Squad. The comic is sketched and is in the process of being inked. I don't have a release date as of now, but it'll be soon. Also, a Facebook page has been added so that we have somewhere specific to show off the art and everything going on. Please like the page and share it with your friends.

Phew! Tons of things going on these days. Where to begin....newest projects.

I am currently working on a graphic novel. It's 3, possibly 4 comics about entirely different things, but loosely held together with a common thread. If you've seen the old episodes of Upright Citizen's Brigade, you'll understand what I mean. I'll get into further detail with this at a later date.

I have been asked to write a short horror story for an anthology. I can't go into anymore detail because there isn't any to be had, and it's not really my project, so I should be a little hush hush about it right now.

Damsels and Dinosaurs has been put on hold. I wrote about half the book and realized I wasn't happy with its direction. I'm hoping these other projects will give me some ideas that I can bring to it. It's not dead, just put aside for the moment.

The big deal going on right now is my Kickstarter for Domitianus. Even if you can't help out financially (trust me, I understand), please share the Kickstarter page and help me get the word out.

I swear, I didn't skip a post because I got lazy. I didn't realize it had been over a month since I posted. I apologize.We should get right to it then, let's ride.

I'm sitting at about 27k words on this first draft for Damsels and Dinos, which would normally mark the halfway point, or close to it. I don't think that'll be the case with this book. I have a feeling this one is going to go on for a while. For one, the plot is not really coming into play. Secondly, there's a lot of world building to still do. It's a fantasy book and with something that isn't set in modern times there is a lot of description that needs to be made. With that comes more pages and more time, which I have. There's no point in me churning out a full draft as fast as possible when the previous book still isn't published. It'll be soon on both accounts, so hold your horses! That being said, there is some good news.

The script for the full length Death Squad comic is in the hands of the artist, Eric Wright, who is thumbnailing it like a speed addicted madman. If you don't know, thumbnails are basically an artist's version of a rough draft. It's done to lay out the images on a page so that they have a good idea of how it'll look when it comes to sketching/inking/coloring. This will most likely be Kickstarted, as I want to make sure this man gets paid for his time.

I will be attending LACE in March, that is the Little Apple Comic Expo. I am sharing a table with artist Kristopher Harris (he's making the Dom cover). As soon as I know exactly where I will be I'll post it here. What I do know is it's on March 18th (Saturday) in the Kansas State University Union, 2nd floor. Should be a great show and I hope to see some of you there.

A few things to talk about today. Fun, exciting things, with big, nasty, pointy teeth.

Not a lot of writing was done this week. I ended up having a head cold and slept later than usual. I'm trying to catch up on it right now, but we shall see. This book will move at a slightly slower pace than the others have. It's mostly due to the genre. Fantasy, and really anything not set in a modern day setting, requires a lot more description and set up than what I normally do. But, it's a book centered around Iris and M, so you know there's a lot of silliness going on.

Mr. Harris is busily working on the cover and a few other things, so it'll come soon enough. I've seen some concept sketches and had some talks about direction - it's going to be a fantastic cover. I can't wait to see it and show it to you.

The comic adaption of Five Man Midget Death Squad, rather a chapter of it, is out and available for 99 cents. All profits (the website takes a cut) go directly to the artist, so make sure to get a copy - it's amazing. Eric Wright is the artist and I'll post links to him on Facebook, as well as to the comic. It's only in e-book form through Comixology, but that will probably change in the near future. I know for sure we'll have printed copies at conventions and I'm sure we can get some if the demand is there. So, if you want one, let us know!

He really does, but he's young and that's what his cartoons focus on: collecting rare things.

Welcome to all the peeps on the mailing list. There was a huge surge of members this week, so thanks for hopping aboard. I promise not to spam you to death. I try to do this bi-weekly, but it tends to be more monthly. Okay, on to book type things.

Damsalsand Dragons is coming along well, I'm starting to introduce the main plot, and spinkling in some things that I can reference for future books. The plan is to make this part of a trilogy down the road, but loosely so. This way I don't have to stick with it all at one time. It's a timetravel piece, there's zero reason M and Iris can't continue this adventure whenever they feel like.

Mr. Kris Harris finished up the art and lettering for Char13 (it's a comic). As such, he will have a cover for me fairly soon. I don't expect it until the beginning of next year - holidays and such. Speaking of which...

Starting Monday, and hopefully everywhere, The CoM series, as well as the spinoffs will be 99 cents each. That's books 2-6, Five Man Midget Death Squad, and Hitori for less than a plate of food at a medium priced restaraunt. CoM #1 is still free (for now) so snag it up! For sure they'll be 99 cents on Amazon, and I'll make sure it is on Smashwords - at least then you download whatever format you need.

A real quick head's up for anyone interested, there's a new mailing list on the right margin of this blog (maybe the bottom if you're on a mobile phone, idk). Sign up for it if you want these posts emailed to you. Apparently, burnfeeder died off a while back and there was no notification of it - in fact, it looked like it was still working on my end. Either way, the new one is through MailChimp. Okay, on to the good stuff.

I am just a hair over 10k words on Damsals and Dinos, the writing of this has been going fast because of it being a lot of fun to write. I really enjoy M and Iris's goofy banter. The book is taking place in the New Mexico area. This is where I tell you it's because my mother is from there and it's beautiful countryside, etc. Honestly, it's because New Mexico is where a ton of dinosaur fossils are found, so for the sake of semi-realism I felt that was a good place to have it.

Not much else going on at this point. The first book of CoM is still free wherever ebooks are sold (Amazon, itunes, smashwords, etc), I'm still getting up at 5am to write these things, and my son is still a goofball.

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.