Hello everyone! It’s time for our February update, and I have so much exciting news to share with you all! 

First up, I’d like to say welcome to all the new followers! For any who don’t know, Audible featured Tantalus Depths as their special deal of the day, which led to an absolutely tremendous influx of people discovering Tantalus Depths, literally overnight. I don’t have exact sales figures for the audiobook, so I’m not sure exactly how many new people downloaded it, but I do know this: before the sale, Tantalus Depths was holding steady at around 40 ratings on Audible. As of the time I’m writing this, though? 238 and still steadily rising! That’s right; in the span of about two weeks, Tantalus Depths’ ratings on Audible have multiplied nearly sixfold, and it’s still holding steady at a highly respectable 4.1 out of five. Nearly half the ratings are five stars! 

These new fans of the audiobook have already trickled onto other platforms as well, and our ratings on Goodreads have also climbed a fair bit in that time. We’re still not up to my goal of 50 reviews on Amazon, but I’m really encouraged by the growth we’ve had over the past few weeks. 

But enough about ratings and statistics. It’s time for the announcement you guys are all REALLY going to be interested in… 

I’m formally announcing my 2023 book tour! I’ve been working hard to get this ready over the past few weeks, and I couldn’t be more stoked to make this announcement. I’m aiming to make a lot of public appearances all over Ohio to promote Tantalus Depths this year, and we are off to a very strong start. Here are the conventions I’m confirmed to appear this year so far! 

 Akron Book Fest: March 11 at Akron Main Public Library, 60 South High St, Akron OH, 44326 

 Cleveland ConCoction: March 17-19 at Bertram Inn Hotel and Conference Center, 600 N Aurora Rd, Aurora, OH 44202 

 The Cleveland Fan Expo: March 24-26 at Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, 300 Lakeside Ave E, Cleveland, OH 44113  

 Ratha Con: April 1st at Athens Community Center, 701 E. State St, Athens OH 45701 

 Pulp Fiction Convention: June 4 Doubletree by Hilton, 1100 Crocker rd. Westlake, OH 44145  

 Con on the Cob: October 5-8,Quality Inn and Suites, 4742 Brecksville Rd, Richfield, OH 44286 

 Ohio Authors Kickback: October 21 5441 Westerville Rd., Westerville, OH 43081 

 Believe it or not, that’s not going to be all. I have several other convention appearances I’m working on scheduling right now, so this list is going to keep growing. But since some of them are coming up in less than a month, I figured now is the time to make an announcement of some of the awesome places you’ll find me this year! 

Really looking forward to seeing some of you out there and having all kinds of exciting new experiences this year as I keep building my audience and preparing for the future. 2023 is looking to be quite a wild ride! 

Well friends, it’s time to wrap up my first year as a published author. Considering Tantalus Depths only came out a bit over three months ago, we sure crammed a lot into the tail end of this year.

We began this month with GalaxyCon in Columbus, which was an absolutely magical experience from beginning to end. I met so many amazing people, and was able to introduce Tantalus Depths to a whole new audience. I’d never been to a convention before, even as an attendee, but I always knew it would be something I’d love, and I was not mistaken. I made some new friends there, learned a lot about the business end of things, got to socialize with other authors, and even had one person recognize my book from an Audible recommendation after listening to Project Hail Mary! That’s right. Someone recognized my book in the wild because an algorithm compared it to Andy Weir’s writing. You could have knocked me over with a neutrino after that one.

I’ve spent the rest of the month making plans for the new year, and let me tell you, I have some big ones. I’m going to do a LOT more conventions next year, along with some other events. I’ve already lined some of them up, so expect a proper event schedule announcement for my 2023 Book Tour very soon.

With New Years being a time for resolutions, I want to share with you my goals as an author for 2023. I’m famously bad at adhering to timelines, but I’m hoping some public accountability will help keep me on track. I have three main goals for the year; all three ambitious as well as important.

1: Get Tantalus Depths up to 50 reviews on Amazon (if y’all want to help out with that one I sure wouldn’t mind)

2: Attend at least ten promotional events (hopefully many more than that)

3: Write and submit Proteus to my publisher. Tantalus Depths took eight years from writing the first word to publication day. I don’t want Proteus to take longer than three at the most.

Those are most of my big plans for the year, but I also have a bunch of other surprises coming up. My fifth short story, Neurophage, will be coming out this year in Writing Bloc’s next anthology collection, Passageways: Mythos. I also have a guest appearance coming up on a wonderful authors’ podcast later this year, which I’ll tell you more about when it gets closer.

All in all, 2023 is looking to be a really big year, and I cannot wait to share my experiences with you all. Have a happy New Year, everyone, and get ready for a wild ride!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you’re all having a great time filled with all the best kinds of dread.

It’s been a full month since Tantalus Depths launched, so an update is definitely warranted. Things have been a bit chaotic on my end, with some pretty drastic unexpected shakeups in my personal life that really threw me for a loop. But if Mary can keep getting up again every time she gets knocked down, so can I. I’m finally bouncing back, and things should reach a new level of normality soon (fingers crossed).

Unfortunately this obstacle has definitely disrupted my post-launch plans for Tantalus Depths. I had hoped to have multiple signings and events booked by now, but so far Galaxycon is all I have on the agenda. Hopefully I’ll be able to line up some more opportunities soon, but I’m definitely not where I’d hoped I’d be at this stage.

But one area where we have made pretty solid progress is our reviews. At the time of writing this, we have 22 reviews on Amazon and 26 on Audible, which is not shabby at all. The algorithm starts to notice and promote books when they hit 50 reviews, so we’re nearly to that first goal! So far our reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and I am beyond thrilled to see such a strong positive response from the community.

If you haven’t left a review yet, please consider doing so soon. Even the simplest reviews are tremendously helpful, and each one serves to elevate the book’s success and increase the potential of my career as an author.

Follow this link to leave your fair and honest review on Amazon. Every review makes a difference!

That’s all I have for an update today, but hopefully there will be a lot more exciting news very soon!

It’s been a full week since the launch of Tantalus Depths, and it already feels like the whole world has changed. Our launch event was a fantastic experience; I loved the chance to spend time with so many of you and revel in this amazing experience with so many of the people who made it happen. Bookstores and libraries are beginning to carry it, glowing reviews are coming in from all over the world, and we’re right on track with where I wanted to be.

So what comes next? Well, the official launch day of a new novel is only the beginning when it comes to determining that book’s overall success. Technically, I could just forget about it and move on to the next project right now, but as far as launching a career as a published author, that would be the equivalent of sitting down to take a nap ten feet away from the finish line in a marathon. Many people have now read, and enjoyed, Tantalus Depths, but this still mostly consists of those of you who preordered it years ago. In order for this book to truly take off and become successful, it must be able to find new readers. It needs to build momentum, gather attention from outside my personal social circle, and start catching the attention of complete strangers. It’s a challenging, but necessary phase in launching a book, and right now the best way to achieve it will require your help once again.

We need reviews!

Reviews are absolutely necessary for a book to find its full potential. Amazon reviews are especially vital: it’s the primary driver of book sales in the industry, and it takes at least 50 reviews for Amazon’s automated algorithms to start recommending it to new customers. Fifty reviews just to get noticed, a hundred to be actively promoted, and at the time of writing this, Tantalus Depths has...four.

Those four reviews are incredibly valuable in their own right, but we’ll need far more to get the attention Tantalus Depths needs to find its best chances of success. With Tantalus Depths in all of your hands now, I must ask for your help one more time. If you can spare a few minutes of your time to leave a fair and honest review of Tantalus Depths on Amazon, or another site such as Goodreads, I would be eternally grateful.

Amazon can be a bit of a pain. Sometimes it takes several days for a review to go up after you’ve submitted it, and sometimes they will reject a review for no obvious reason and not tell you about it. That’s all the more reason why every review is vital and precious to Tantalus Depths’ survival, so please don’t underestimate how much of a difference your review will make.

I’m optimistic that we’ll get there eventually. Early reviews are very positive, and I suspect we’ll keep getting a lot more in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, thank you all again so very much for all your continuing support, and I hope you’re all enjoying your experiences reading Tantalus Depths after such a long wait!

To leave a review on Amazon, follow this link here: