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.

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.