"Gunfight at the Thornmount Colossus" - Finalist in the 2016 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award

Hey, all!

With the publication date of ALIEN ARTIFACTS right around the corner, I got a nice little surprise a few weeks ago. One of my most recent short stories, "Gunfight at the Thornmount Colossus," is a finalist in the 2016 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award! Neat-o!

This story is an indirect sequel to "The Lonesome Dark," which was published by Ragnarok Publications in the ebook version of BLACKGUARDS: TALES OF ASSASSINS, MERCENARIES, AND THIEVES. Both stories take place in a fantasy world very reminiscent of the American Old West, which pulls upon all kinds of legends, folklore, and good ol' fashioned history texts to create a magically-charged patchwork where gunslingers are the new knights-errant.

Fingers crossed "Gunfight" makes it through to the grand prize, but there are nine other (very) talented authors in the running, as well, so I'm just flat out enthused to be up there with them.

Take care!

"The Haint of Sweetwater River" - Available in ALIEN ARTIFACTS by ZNB Publications

It's official! My weird western short story, "The Haint of Sweetwater River," has been selected for publication in ALIEN ARTIFACTS, a sci-fi anthology by the good folks at Zombies Need Brains.

They're aiming for an August release date and I believe it'll be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If you're interested in supporting the publisher right just now, you can preorder the limited edition Kickstarter version HERE.

Thanks again to ZNB for the opportunity! Recently read David Farland's weird western short, "Hellfire on the High Frontier" and loved it, so I'm pretty jazzed to have a story alongside his.

For the final Table of Contents, cover art, and synopsis of ALIEN ARTIFACTS, here's the Kickstarter update.

Blackguards and Other Such Things!

Been a long time! A little over four months, which is regrettable, but I have excuses. Here's what I've been up to lately.

1. School! - Feels like one of the busiest semesters so far. Sixteen units, which isn't so bad, but throw in a statistics class and I've been stressing to the max some days. I'm hoping to transfer to a university either this year or next year, so I want to get as many classes in as I can. Hoping by next semester I'll have more room to write consistently.

2. Revising City of Blades: I'm still giving my most recent novel a lot of attention, reading and rereading it as frequently as I can while my sister finishes up her semester. Fingers crossed that she'll have time to commit to a cover, but in the meantime I haven't been sitting on my hands.

One announcement: When I titled the book City of Blades, I swear to all of you that I did the research and ensure that there were no other novels by that name. As it happens, now there are two. One by Robert Jackson Bennett (author of City of Stairs)  and another by S.M. White (an anthology buddy!). Needless to say, I'll be giving Book Two another title, and I actually like the new one better. After a couple other prospects wrap up, I'll post it here formally.

But with its old title, City of Blades has been making the rounds in the agent circuit, since I feel it's more "publishable" in its current state. Additionally, it's also been entered in Mark Lawrence's "Great Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off!" This was a great opportunity for me, and I'm hoping to have good news to share in the coming months. My novel will be read by Mihir Wanchoo of Fantasy Book Critic. Really excited to see the feedback it'll be getting!

3. Anthologies: The ebook edition of Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues is now available on Kindle (EDIT: and other places!) It contains my fantasy/Western short story, "The Lonesome Dark."

I've also entered another short story from the same universe into another anthology competition, but I haven't heard back from them yet. When I get the word, I'll post it here.

That's about it for now! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I'll be starting work on Book Three of Lore of the Reluctant this summer. Already have a lot of fun ideas for it.

Take care!

Grimdarkness and BLACKGUARDS

It's official! My short story submission to Ragnarok Publications will be included in the soon-to-be-released dark fantasy anthology: BLACKGUARDS: TALES OF ASSASSINS, MERCENARIES, AND ROGUES.



I'm very excited about this for a few reasons. For one: this will be the first time I'll receive a paycheck from a publisher, which is an awesome kind of validation all its own. Two: I'll be thrown in with a talented bunch of writers. Paul S. Kemp wrote THE OLD REPUBLIC: DECEIVED, one of my favorite Star Wars novels, and Michael J. Sullivan wrote another one of my favorites, HOLLOW WORLD. (I've also begun reading Mr. Sullivan's first Ryria novel, STORM OF SWORDS, and I'm having a blast so far.)
For tree: "The Lonesome Dark" was a story that I was/am really proud of. It's an author's hope that their next project is always, always a culmination of what they've learned and how they've improved, and this story in particular (I hope!) shows how much I've grown as a writer and where my strengths are now at this moment. Plus, I had a lot of fun writing it, so that's pretty cool.
While I didn't make the cut for one of the two slots in the main anthology, my story will be included in the companion anthology, THE BLACKGUARDS BLACKLIST, which is composed of eleven stories that were selected from open submissions exclusively. THE BLACKLIST will be rolled into the ebook release of the anthology, and will be included as a backer reward to those who kickstarted the project.
If you have an interest in pre-ordering the book/ebook, you can do so through the BLACKGUARDS BackerKit RIGHT HERE.
Otherwise, the website says Ragnarok is aiming for a February 2015 release.
See you then!

Holiday Progress!

Since the completion of City of Blades, I've been making decent progress on what'll eventually be the final, publishable draft. Still catching typos, still working in some feedback from my beta readers/friends. My sister, Alexa, will be giving the story a read herself in the days to come and will (hopefully) be able to get the cover art ready during our winter break.

Aside from that, I've been a tad inundated with school-related stuff, since this will be finals week for me. Also a lot of short story writing for contests, class, and Kindle. The Lore of the Reluctant short story, "None Shall Pass," is in progress -- as is a short story anthology of sci-fi and fantasy that I'll be publishing with my friend, fellow writer, and editor, Chris Buchanan.

Progress is a bit more steady since this becomes a kind of group project during the editing phase, but I hope to have more frequent updates over the break.

Happy Holidays to you all!

None Shall Pass

Just finished my first round of edits last night on City of Blades. Happy to report that there weren't too many things that needed to be added or changed. Basically, it wasn't the mess in the structural sense that I thought it was going to be. Whenever I break from my habit of on-the-spot editing, I keep thinking things are going to get crazy when I read through the next time.

Luckily, that wasn't the case!

While my friends are reading through the second draft, I'm going to be working on None Shall Pass, a prequel novella to The Outcasts of Vampire Flats and City of Blades. It'll pick up just after Jasper's death and follow our three adventurers as they struggle to make their way over the Backbone of the World--and on top of that, convince themselves that they should be the ones to save the world.

This story will be up on Amazon for free eventually, as an introduction to the series.

I'll also be getting a printed copy for myself pretty soon for more edits, and so the artist can read through and get some ideas for what she wants to do for the cover.

Later!

Finished!

The first draft of City of Blades is done!

Now comes the first wave of edits which shall begin after a celebratory slumber. =D