December is upon us, which means that, for a lot of us, Christmas is around the corner. Don’t forget to get your shopping done early; and if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to give Amazon or GoodReads (or whatever your preferred online bookstore is) your two cents’ worth of thoughts on "A Gentleman’s Murder". Other readers will want to know about your experience. We’re currently at 39 reviews on Amazon -- not too far off from the 50 review mark, which is when Amazon supposedly begins to take a book seriously.

December also means that we have just two weeks before the end of the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest: two weeks to try for that magic 250 reader mark for "Cat’s Paw". We’re still a good distance off, but, well, ’tis the season of hope. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I urge you to do so. Every little bit counts.

And of course, don’t forget to have a great weekend! I know I will: I’ve got a carton of eggnog waiting for me.

Happy December everyone!  Long time no chat!

Well during that long time, I sure have been busy! So busy that More Fun and Games, the sequel to the novel you preordered back in 2016 is just about ready!  How just about? Like within 2 weeks just about!  

And here’s the cover!

 More Fun and Games is clocking in at about 62,000 words, or about 20% longer than It’s All Fun and Games, and is chock full of adventure, intrigue and humor! Allison and the gang, having come to terms with their new world, continue eastward toward the Arcanum and their quest to defeat Magnus, the Arcanum’s wizard king.

But like any good adventure, things don’t exactly work out the way they expect. They make some new friends, make some new enemies, and discover that the longer they spend within the game the more they become their game characters. Early readers have gushed over it, so I know that you’ll like it too!

 I’m so excited!

Current plans are for the ebook will retail for 4.99, and the paperback 9.99 (I hope…stay tuned...).

 So, how do you go about getting the next installment? As you may remember, the Inkshares crowdfunding program didn’t work out, so I’m self-publishing it. It will be available on all ebook platforms, at your favorite online retailer, but also available at your friendly local bookstore - ask them to include it on their next order from Ingram! Support those independent bookstores if you can! 

Even better, through a partnership with my own friendly neighborhood bookstore, The Briar Patch, if you live somewhere far away and would like to get an autographed copy, we’ll ship em to you! And of course, if you’re local, I’ll hopefully have a release party scheduled soonish. Check out my Facebook page if you want to stay in the know.

 Now, I’ve got a secret to share with you

 Oh yes I do

On release day (TBD, 2nd week of December at some point), the ebook will be available on amazon for only 99 cents. That’s right!  Only 99 cents! Early purchases and early reviews make a huge impact, so if you were planning on buying the ebook, there’s a 4 dollar savings for you by getting it on release day. 

If you were planning on buying the physical book, please consider spending the extra 99 cents on release day. If you do, I’ll knock a dollar off your physical book purchase at the Briar Patch (either online orders or local shoppers). There’s a little tag you get for #1 new releases and #1 best sellers in your book categories, and I’d love to get one or both! 

To all of you who have poked and prodded and pestered me to release book two, thank you so much for your encouragement, faith, and patience. I just wrapped up Endgame during National Novel Writing Month, and I think you’re going to like that one too. Hopefully it won’t be another 2 years!

Thanks!
Dave

PS - you may get this message more than once, since I’ll be sending it out to a couple mailing lists, and there’s some overlap. I apologize for the spam.

 Happy December!
I’m still working on the prologue. I’ve now tried approaching it from three different character’s points of view and added period-appropriate dialogue and description. I’m dialing back the flowery language from the version I have posted to make the poetic bits more emotionally impactful. We’re getting there, I think.

In the meantime, I have exciting news! The Writing Bloc short story anthology, 
ESCAPE!, is available for pre-order NOW! I have a sneak peek of my story, "Aspirant," about a young aspiring nun at a Zen monastary, up on my blog! The whole anthology is only $2.99 until January 1, when it will increase to $5.99. You’ll get the book delivered to your device of choice automatically on January 1 and will have something to hold you over until Rock of Ages is ready! I’m really proud of my story and of all the hard work the cooperative has put into making this collection happen.  

I’ll keep chugging along with this rewrite and I’ll keep updating you! Please keep sending the encouraging words! :)

Thank you so much for your support, as always! 

Today is the 20th of November. In the original scheme of things, the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest would have ended on the 24th of November, four days from now; however, the deadline was extended some time back to the 14th of December, which means we have a little more breathing room.

Or, it means other people have the breathing room to catch up to us....

Well, we passed the Hundred Reader mark a few days ago, and just yesterday, we received the backing of the Staff Syndicate. That’s great news. If we can reach 250 readers by the 14th of December, it’s publication and no questions asked. It seems like a big hurdle, but hope springs eternal, and an honest effort could still count for much.

Remember to check your online Inkshares bookshelf, especially if you’ve not received a personal thank you email from me. It would be terrible to miss out on things simply due to "technical difficulties".

For now, though, I have a novel to write. You’re going to love it.

Hello everyone!

I realize it’s been a long time since my last update, and I have reasons ranging from a back injury that’s been plaguing me for months (that seems to finally be resolved) and of course, just putting my head down and trying to move The Tide of Madness closer to completion.

I won’t lie, the finish line is still a way off. The first draft had more problems with it than I had hoped. But with so many different points of view, continuity issues are to be expected. The majority of the characters in The Bones of the Past were separate enough that I didn’t have to worry so much about a day here or there. But Tide will see a lot more interaction between the various characters, so I have to be a lot more careful. I’m writing shorter chapters (splitting up each point of view) and tightening up the timeline as much as possible. Still, I’ve been hard at work and I’ve finalized the order for the 57 chapters and made the tough decision to cut a side story out of the book (hopefully just moved to book three but that’s a problem for another day).

The three notebooks in the picture hold – among elements for the following book – the last sections of the Tide of Madness that I need to integrate into the version on my computer. The majority of my creative writing still happens with pen and paper and is one of the ways I make the commute for my day job part of my writing day. This guarantees that I have at least 45 minutes once or twice a day set aside to dig further into my world and fill in the insane puzzle I created for myself.

Most recently, I’ve been getting into the backstory of some of the side characters. Min’s story is about done and was rather refreshing to write – just one point of view and a nice simple story arc. I may or may not put it out there for people to read as a novella in the future, though my focus remains on The Tide of Madness and the as-yet-unnamed book 3 for now. If there are any minor characters you’re curious about, let me know! I’ll be looking for a new side project in a month or so for those days when I’m not able to spend enough time at my computer to make significant headway on the rewrite.

Thank you all yet again for your patience and support!