Weekly Update – April 23, 2019

Cover model: Kateri Chambers. Photography: Lauren Dubois. Graphic design and logo: Patricia Lupien.

This has turned into a very busy month! First I released Action Figures – Issue Eight: Crawling From The Wreckage, and now I’m a week away from dropping Well-Behaved Women: Transition! You can go pre-order the Kindle edition right now!

Important note here: the e-book version of book two is going to be available exclusively on Amazon, and will be available through Kindle Unlimited. You’ll be able to grab print editions through other retailers and, eventually, directly through me, but the e-book edition is not going to be available through Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or this website.

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Book three is getting its final beta-read, and will be heading into final editing soon.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: Got a little work in last week. Slow going, but it’s moving forward.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • The Connecticut Renaissance Faire – Saturday, October 5, Lebanon County Fairgrounds, Lebanon, CT: I’ll be back again to sell and sign books as part of CTRF’s Local Authors Series!

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

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Weekly Update – April 16, 2019

Where to begin?!

All right, I’ll start by announcing that the print edition of Action Figures – Issue Eight: Crawling From The Wreckage is now available on Amazon. I’ll be adding direct print edition sales on the website in the coming weeks. Of course, you can also get the e-book version at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo – for now. More on that in a minute.

Next, on the audiobook front, you might recall that I lost my Well-Behaved Women – Awakening narrator Darci Cole and had to find someone to step in for the rest of the trilogy. Well, that’s done and Heather Auden, who did the killer narration on The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich, will be taking over on WBW.

Trisha Wooldridge, me, and Steve Van Samson, being dorky for the camera. Photo by Steve.

Next, the New England Speculative Writers Conference was this past weekend, and what a great event it was! The conference (or “convergence,” as it was re-branded in the eleventh hour) offered a full day of presentations about the business of being an independent author interspersed with networking and general shenanigans (as seen at right).

It was an extremely informative day, and it’s led me to make some decisions about my own indie author business (and yes, being an independent author is absolutely a business).

For starters, I’m going to scale back my newsletter releases to biweekly so readers don’t feel quite as inundated — and I will be asking subscribers if they want to keep getting this newsletter to trim any dead wood from my mailing list.

The more notable change will be my withdrawal from Barnes & Noble and Kobo. I “went wide” — expanded beyond Amazon exclusivity — over a year ago in the hopes of expanding my exposure and capture new customers. Not everyone likes Amazon, after all.

In giving up perks like Kindle Unlimited, which allows users to “borrow” e-books, and the ability to do sales and giveaways, I sold all of three books each at B&N and Kobo. From a business perspective, that’s not a decent trade-off.

So I will be phasing out B&N and Kobo by the end of the month. If you want to grab the e-book versions of anything before I put all my eggs back into the Amazon basket, now’s the time to do it.

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Book two, Transition, is fully edited and formatted and is now awaiting its cover art.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: Still cranking away. I am hoping to have it out this fall but I’m treating that as a soft deadline. Life too often gets in my way, and in the ways of my editor and cover artist, so I’m not going to force it.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • The Connecticut Renaissance Faire – Saturday, October 5, Lebanon County Fairgrounds, Lebanon, CT: I’ll be back again to sell and sign books as part of CTRF’s Local Authors Series!

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – April 9, 2019

Action Figures – Issue Eight: Crawling From The Wreckage is here!

You can get the e-book version today for $3.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, and the print edition is coming soon! Please remember to leave a review on your retail site of choice and/or on Goodreads!

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Book two, Transition, is fully edited and formatted and is now awaiting its cover art!

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: Still cranking away. I am hoping to have it out this fall but I’m treating that as a soft deadline. Life too often gets in my way, and in the ways of my editor and cover artist, so I’m not going to force it.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • The Connecticut Renaissance Faire – Saturday, October 5, Lebanon County Fairgrounds, Lebanon, CT: I’ll be back again to sell and sign books as part of CTRF’s Local Authors Series!

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – October 30, 2018

Happy Halloween Eve, everyone!

This week I’m thrilled to announce that The Final Summons, the New England Speculative Writers group’s first anthology, is officially available for pre-sale at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iTunes, with Amazon pre-sales to begin next month.

Visit the official website for more info on the anthology and its contributors, and to place your pre-order. The collection is scheduled for a February 5, 2019 release.

This is one bandwagon you’ll want to jump onto, because the book is already hitting the charts. Within hours of pre-orders going live on Kobo, The Final Summons was the #1 title on three lists. Check it out!

Now, on a much more serious note…

Last week I came very close to withdrawing from Arisia 2019. I won’t go deep into the details, because it’s a very ugly account, but it became public knowledge that a past Arisia participant was allegedly raped by the president of Arisia’s board of directors. After looking into the allegations (which I personally believe are credible), the board returned this man to his position, which happened to put him in place as the man ostensibly in charge of safety and security at the event.

I viewed this outcome as grossly unacceptable on many levels. I wrote directly to Arisia, shared the situation on social media, and encouraged others to do the same. I also announced that if the president remained in his position, I wouldn’t do the show as a merchant or panel participant. I just couldn’t support an event that so badly mishandled such an incident.

Late Friday, Arisia announced it had removed the president and would take steps to prevent a re-occurrence of the situation. I think a lot more has to be done here, but I do believe this is a good first step for the organization.

However, I don’t want to go back and pretend it’s business as usual. I’d like to try and do some good here, so at Arisia I will be selling all full-length novels for $15, with $5 from every sale going to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC).

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Audiobook version of Well-Behaved Women – Awakening in production.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich: Audiobook in production.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue EightCrawling from the Wreckage: Fourth draft written. Tentatively scheduled for a February/March 2019 release.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2019 – I’ve been accepted into the dealers’ room, so I’ll be there selling books once again, and I hope to hear about any panel assignments soon.

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group if offering not one but two free books to new newsletter subscribers. Simply click on this link and sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll receive e-book versions of the two collections pictured here, featuring novel samples from NESW members. The fantasy collection includes the first two chapters of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – October 23, 2018

The Final Summons, the New England Speculative Writers group’s first anthology, is gearing up for its big pre-release publicity push! The website is about to launch and we’re going to be hitting the media hard in the hopes of landing the collection on the USA Today best-seller list.

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Audiobook version of Well-Behaved Women – Awakening in production. I should be getting the raw audio files soon for initial review! Meanwhile, the first draft of book three is almost done! I’m hoping to finish it up by the end of the month.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich: Audiobook in production.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue EightCrawling from the Wreckage: Fourth draft written. Tentatively scheduled for a February/March 2019 release.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2019 – I’ve been accepted into the dealers’ room, so I’ll be there selling books once again, and I hope to hear about any panel assignments soon.

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group if offering not one but two free books to new newsletter subscribers. Simply click on this link and sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll receive e-book versions of the two collections pictured here, featuring novel samples from NESW members. The fantasy collection includes the first two chapters of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – October 16, 2018

Let me tell you a story.

Last week I was working on draft two of Well-Behaved Women – Transition. I hit save after finishing a passage — when I write I save obsessively — and MS Word locked up, which it sometimes does. It usually clears up after a few minutes but this time MS Word totally crashed.

I restarted the program and tried to reopen the document. MS Word said (paraphrasing), “I can’t find that file.”

That’s because MS Word deleted the whole thing.

Let me make this clear: it didn’t delete all the work I’d done that day; it deleted the file entirely. I lost two weeks’ worth of work.

I have never come so close to actually flipping a table in rage.

Fortunately, I kept my shit together long enough to think to look for an auto-saved copy, which I found. All my work was there and I was able to salvage the file.

So how was your week?

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Audiobook version of Well-Behaved Women – Awakening in production. The current draft of book two is almost done and ready for test readers.

The Going Rate for Penance – Editing phase complete, on-track for a February 2019 release.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich: Audiobook in production.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue EightCrawling from the Wreckage: Fourth draft written. Tentatively scheduled for a February/March 2019 release.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2019 – I’ve been accepted into the dealers’ room, so I’ll be there selling books once again, and I hope to hear about any panel assignments soon.

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group if offering not one but two free books to new newsletter subscribers. Simply click on this link and sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll receive e-book versions of the two collections pictured here, featuring novel samples from NESW members. The fantasy collection includes the first two chapters of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – October 9, 2018

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Audiobook version of Well-Behaved Women – Awakening in production. I’ve jumped back to work on book two after FINALLY figuring out how to patch a nagging plot hole.

The Going Rate for Penance – Editing phase complete, on-track for a February 2019 release.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich: Audiobook in production.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue EightCrawling from the Wreckage: Fourth draft written. Tentatively scheduled for a February/March 2019 release.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2019 – I’ve been accepted into the dealers’ room, so I’ll be there selling books once again, and I hope to hear about any panel assignments soon.

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group if offering not one but two free books to new newsletter subscribers. Simply click on this link and sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll receive e-book versions of the two collections pictured here, featuring novel samples from NESW members. The fantasy collection includes the first two chapters of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – October 2, 2018

Well-Behaved Women – Awakening has been nominated for this week’s Cover Wars over at Author Shout!

Until 8 AM Sunday, you can go vote for your favorite cover, and the winner will be named Author Shout’s Book of the Week, and that book will be featured heavily in AS’s newsletters and social media. Please take a minute to vote for WBW, and share your vote to let others know — and then go vote again, because you can vote once every 24 hours!

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Audiobook version of Well-Behaved Women – Awakening in production. I’m still picking away at draft one of book three, but a bad cold killed my productivity last week but good.

The Going Rate for Penance – Editing phase complete, on-track for a February 2019 release.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich: Audiobook in production.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue EightCrawling from the Wreckage: Fourth draft written. Tentatively scheduled for a February/March 2019 release.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2019 – I’ve been accepted into the dealers’ room, so I’ll be there selling books once again, and I hope to hear about any panel assignments soon.

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group if offering not one but two free books to new newsletter subscribers. Simply click on this link and sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll receive e-book versions of the two collections pictured here, featuring novel samples from NESW members. The fantasy collection includes the first two chapters of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – September 25, 2018

Thank you everyone who bought the Heroes & Villains box set!

As of September 22, when the set de-listed, more than 1,000 people picked it up, and I know I’ve seen a lot of spillover since then, with sales of the rest of the Action Figures series much brisker than usual. If you’re a new fan who discovered the series through the box set, welcome aboard!

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Work on books two and three continues, and Darci Cole has begun work on the audiobook version of Well-Behaved Women – Awakening.

The Going Rate for Penance – Editing phase complete, on-track for a February 2019 release.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich: I got Heather S. Auden’s sample audition last week, and wow, did she kill it right out of the gate. My wife was in the room when I was listening to the audition, and she was laughing out loud throughout — and she knows the book.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue EightCrawling from the Wreckage: Fourth draft written. Tentatively scheduled for a February/March 2019 release.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2019 – I’ve been accepted into the dealers’ room, so I’ll be there selling books once again, and I hope to hear about any panel assignments soon.

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group if offering not one but two free books to new newsletter subscribers. Simply click on this link and sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll receive e-book versions of the two collections pictured here, featuring novel samples from NESW members. The fantasy collection includes the first two chapters of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – September 18, 2018

You only have until Friday to grab the Heroes & Villains superhero novel box set!

The e-book set includes Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins and will be available through September. This collection also includes Hero Status by Kristen Brand, Super by Karen Diem, Morning Sun by Jeremy Flagg, Supervillain High by Gerhard Gehrke, Wearing the Cape by Marion G. Harmon, Serpent’s Sacrifice by Trish Heinrich, Fuse – Origin by David Neth, The Kota by Sunshine Somerville, and Sidekick – The Red Raptor Files Part One by Christopher J. Valin.

Buy it now for just $2.99 on AmazonBarnes & Noble, or Kobo!

WRITING PROJECTS

Well-Behaved Women: Big announcement! Darci Cole has signed on to be the narrator for the audiobook version of Well-Behaved Women – Awakening. Darci has narrated the audiobook version of Coldness of Marek by Rachel O’Laughlin and she’s agreed to tackle the entire WBW trilogy.

The Going Rate for Penance – Editing phase complete, on-track for a February 2019 release.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a LichHeather S. Auden: And guess what? has agreed to narrate an audiobook version of the first S&L book! She auditioned for WBW but, after lengthy self-debate, didn’t feel like quite the right fit for that project, but having worked with her before at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire and witnessing her flair for ace comedic delivery, I thought she’d be a great fit for an S&L audiobook.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue EightCrawling from the Wreckage: Fourth draft written. Tentatively scheduled for a February/March 2019 release.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2019 – I’ve been accepted into the dealers’ room, so I’ll be there selling books once again, and I hope to hear about any panel assignments soon.

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group if offering not one but two free books to new newsletter subscribers. Simply click on this link and sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll receive e-book versions of the two collections pictured here, featuring novel samples from NESW members. The fantasy collection includes the first two chapters of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Scratching a Lich.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.