Fifty-Five is the New...?

So where the hell did FIVE years go? Seriously? I usually don't make a big thing about birthdays (I mean, who really does as you get older) and as my 55th quickly approached, I remembered when I turned 50. I posted about it here, which you can scroll back and read if you're really, REALLY bored. 

Back then, I'd just started out on my indie self publishing venture, put out a couple ebook shorts that my friend and editor Erin Al-Mehairi had so kindly helped me with. And that started our wonderful professional relationship as editor and client (along with her partner Tim, who's awesome to work with). I'd been working on the first draft of my scifi horror novel The Ravening five years ago, and had been close to completing it. Mister Jack, my Halloween horror novelette, would come next and then Roseblood. And because Mister Jack had been my most popular work to date, I wrote Night of the Pumpkin God, my first full length horror novel and followup to Mister Jack. 

Again, if you're really bored or just mildly curious, my last blog post back at the beginning of the year was to promote my latest horror novel, the 2nd book in the Roseblood trilogy called Bloodletting. In my usual rambling on style, I explain how my first-ever published horror story called "Roseblood" became the horror novella Rose Blood. Do check it out, but more importantly, stay tuned because the 3rd and final Rose Blood novel Bloodlust will be out later this year!

In five years, I've produced and self published two full length horror novels and three novellas, not to mention several short stories and two more books that need to be edited/revised. One is Island of Devils, the followup to The Ravening, which in its first draft form is my longest book to date (even edited, I suspect it still will be) and two, is of course Bloodlust, which will be a full length horror novel. 

I also broke into horror anthologies with a story in each three volumes of the Books of Horror Community Horror Anthology, part of the hugely popular Books of Horror FB group.

Not too shabby for five years worth of hard work. 

One of my biggest challenges is standing out to some degree amongst all the other extremely talented newer crop of Horror authors and growing my readership. I'll probably be launching an email newsletter in the coming year to help with that. Moreover it's not so much book sales as it is getting book reviews, which in turn helps the former. At the end of the day, I just want folks to enjoy my work, post an honest review, and hopefully buy my next book (or other books of mine). That's not too much to ask, right? 

As for the next five years, who knows? I'd like to eventually do much less self publishing and focus more of getting my work in with an indie horror publisher. Five years ago, it was all about getting my name and work out there, but doing it myself (with the help of an editor and professional cover artist and book designer) is an expense that I can afford. But it is an expense. Besides the forthcoming and future novels mentioned above, I also want to self publish two short story collections, The Nightmare Season, and another centered around my demonic entity (featured in my ebook shorts Clowning Around and The Last Chord) entitled No Laughing Matter. There's also a horror novella called Rebirth that I'm toying with, sort of a fun side project that may get written by the end of 2022, but we'll see. 

As always, you can find my ebooks and trade paperbacks on BN here. And my Kindle ebooks here. Book reviewers that are interested can always reach out to me for a digital ARC of any of my books. Thanks so much for showing an interest in my books and of course for reading them!

No Ordinary Rose!

 Back in the mid-90s, I wrote a short story called "Roseblood." A year or so later it became my first published horror story, appearing in a little rag of horror zine called Impaler. Yeah, that Impaler. Apparently they liked my story enough with its loosely vampiric overtones to want it in their zine. I was proud of achieving this first step, and added a few more small press horror publication sales over the years since then. After a long drought in writing for a variety of reasons (honestly, I never stopped writing, but for a variety of reasons, I'd not submitted any short stories for publication anywhere for a while), I took a step into the self-publishing world about a decade ago and haven't looked back. In recent years, I've had a couple short story appearances in the popular Facebook group Books of Horror Community Horror Anthology, Vol. 1 thru 3. I'm quite proud of that. Still have work to do, getting more of my books in reader's hands, more reviews, and breaking into the indie horror small press market instead of self-publishing my books.

But honestly, it all started with this seductively deadly serial killer named Rose Valentine aka Roseblood. I revisited that short story several years ago, found it lacking in some ways like many early efforts, and considered rebooting it. Since "Roseblood" took place in the late 80s, I decided I wanted to write a more recent tale and alas, "A Rose's Prick on a Bleeding Heart" was born. I shared it with my editor and friend, Erin Al-Mehairi, who liked it but as always with her deft editorial eye, told me there could be more of even longer story here if fleshed out. She wanted to know more about Rose. I gave that serious consideration and it didn't take long for me to write the short novel Roseblood. 

So for me, while not nearly as popular or bestselling as Mister Jack, Night of the Pumpkin God, or The Ravening, Roseblood has always been one of my favorite stories because Roseblood was the first. And Rose Valentine had more stories to tell, too.

When I began writing Bloodletting, the 2nd Roseblood novel, I already knew I'd probably write one more Roseblood book. Shortly after finishing Bloodletting, I'd already come up with a title and some story notes. The 3rd and final Roseblood novel will be called Bloodlust. I expect that to be finished sometime later this year and most likely see publication late 2022 or early 2023. 

Book bloggers or reviewers, please do hit me up for digital ARCs as I'm happy to do so. Or if you've read any of my books, I'd appreciate a honest review posted on any of the usual venues. Thanks for reading my work as it means the world to me! 

My ebooks and trade paperbacks are available here on bn.com! Signed copies can be purchased directly from me and payable via PayPal, too.

My ebooks for Kindle can be found here!