Another Short Story Accepted For Publication.

Good news, folks. My short story "Hotline Bling" has been picked up for publication for an anthology titled "Final Masquerade," coming soon from Lycan Valley Press. It's also tied for the biggest payday I've yet to receive, so plus one for that, too.

"Alex works as a volunteer at the suicide prevention hotline. He likes to think he's pretty decent at talking people down from the ledge. Soon, though, the pressures of the job get to him, and he begins to wonder what would happen if he forces his callers to take the other way down..."

Keep an eye on this one, folks. It's up there with some of my favorite stories I've written. And it's one for one, as far as publishers go. So it can't be all bad.

Until next time.

Why I Deactivated My Facebook Account, And Why It's For The Best.

I've written a lot of words in my life. Hundreds of thousands. Of course, while this might seem like a high number, it pales in comparison to what I might have written were it not for the vindication a popular online presence brought me.

I used to care more about getting a lot of likes on a status as compared to crafting the perfect sentence.

I used to care more about people commenting on my selfies, telling me how silly I am (depending on the pose and the context of the photo, of course) and how gorgeous my smile (and my eyes, let's be honest) is as compared to caring whether or not my plot lined up.

I used to follow posts pertaining to dramatic situations religiously, seeing who burned who, who wanted to fight who, who was fucking whose baby's mama rather than creating situations like this for my characters (or maybe, hopefully, something a little bit classier).

When I should have been writing, I was checking Facebook, staring at the same memes over and over.

When I should have been reading, I was checking Facebook, scrolling down my news feed mindlessly even though I'd read everything on there a few times already.

When I was dropping a deuce, I was checking Facebook instead of reading one of the many books downloaded to my Amazon Kindle app or playing my Gameboy Advanced Emulator (TMI; I know. Don't care, though!)

I didn't want to write a huge blog post about this, so I'll just end with this. Facebook is the ultimate roadblock to production. You, the reader, might disagree with me. But go back to the last couple of days. Think about how much time you've spent looking at the screen of your phone, tablet, or laptop, reading a bunch of shit that, in hindsight, you would admit to not giving a shit about. I'm not saying everyone is addicted to the self-centered vindication and the feeling of socialization (albeit falsified) apps like this can bring.

But I know I was. What can I say? I'm a born attention whore. I love the spotlight. But in order to make my writing shine, to ascertain a routine with no outside distractions, to force myself to focus on the hobby that means the most to me, I've given up the spotlight so that I could better huddle in my lonely corner, cut off from the rest of the civilization, pounding away at a book none of you will read, anyway.

Until next time, folks.

Future's cover art; I want it.

What Made Me Fall In Love With Literature?

When I was a kid, I remember reading Captain Underpants. Like, almost nothing but Captain Underpants. This was back before my fascination with Goosebumps started, and my first real love, as far literature as literature was concerned, was the Captain Underpants series. I loved them so much that I would write my own Captain Underpants adventures on loose-leaf, though those pages were less filled with great dialogue and amazing characters and focused a lot more on my shitty renditions of Captain Underpants fighting the bad guy. These drawings were not pretty, and I'm afraid that right now, given the chance to re-do them, they wouldn't look much better at all. Much as I've always tried to train myself to the craft, I could never actually draw. That part of the artistry spectrum escaped me, I guess. I can write, at least. I take some solace in that.

I always look back on my old Captain Underpants manuscripts (Not literally, because my mom has them locked away somewhere for safe keeping), and though they were abysmal, I was only about six years old, and think that if it weren't for those very books, I might not have become a writer at all.

Of course, I know that isn't true; it wasn't very long, age 8 or 9 maybe, when I stumbled across a Goosebumps book in the local used book store called Tom's Book Nook (long since gone, unfortunately). Goosebumps evolved into Mercedes Lackey, Lackey to King and many others, to Poe, Lovecraft, Blackwood. I'm a fan of many writers and even more books, but those old, comic-book style misadventures of an undercover superhero in his tighty whities who posed as a school principal during the day; those were the first books I fell in love with. Silly as it might seem now, dedicating my days to watching cartoons like Pokemon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, playing outside with my kid brother, and reading those books were some of the best days of my life.

"Stay The Course" finished!

Not that that name sounds familiar to anyone. It's a short story two days in the making. I've written it for my upcoming serial killer-themed collection, Wolves At The Door. It's not the first story I've written for this collection, but I think it might be the star. A short synopsis (fuck, I hate writing these):

When Edward came back from a hunting expedition in the Himalayas, he brought back a lot more than the experience and the memories that came along with it. An itching craving followed him back home, a hunger he tries to satisfy as often as possible. It's just a matter of how willingly he can coax the pray to come home with him.

Yeah, like I said, I hate writing those things. But you get the gist. Good deal. Now I'm going to edit my novella, Secrets To The Grave. Until next time. Have a good night.

Looking Ahead.

So, I'm still pretty deep into the Iconoclast Saga. Part three is nearly finished, and I wanna say the series so far will equal out to about 30,000 words. I'll be releasing them as Kindle singles until the whole thing is finished, in which case I'm going to shell out for super professional cover art and offer the whole saga as an enormous omnibus. That's exciting.

Secrets To The Grave, my 28,000 word novella, is still in the editing process. It's exactly 100 pages along on Google Docs, and I'm on page 10. When I'm finished with that, I'll be sending it to my beta readers (volunteer now if you're interested) and after giving it another once over myself, I'll be publishing that. Look forward to it. Personally, I love it.

Also, my editor SHOULD be getting my full-length novel, To Claim Hell (Working title) back to me before the month is out. I've got plans for that one, as well, though I've been slacking on writing the sequel. Maybe if/when a deal is in place it'll be just the right kick in the ass I need to get productive with it.

Thanks for reading, guys. Until next time.

I'm pretty excited about what the future holds.

So yeah, these are finished. In need of one hell of an edit, of course, but they're finished regardless.

And I'm nowhere near done with this story.

How Ironic For a 69th post, right?!

In some rather sad news, the anthology I wrote those two horror/erotica stories for sent me the e-mail today telling me my stories weren't quite right for their anthology.

Man, those guys really screwed me over. Just bent me over and went to town. Balls to the wall, I'm talkin'. No Vaseline, Ice Cube style. I completely understand; like I said, stiff competition. No ifs, ands, or butts about it.

All right, I'm done with the sex puns. Seriously, congrats to everyone who made it into the anthology. Salud. Meanwhile, I'm going to try selling copies of these stories to some lonely soccer moms...

March has been a good month.

I've focused a lot on projects that are built for longevity. I've got parts one and two of the Iconoclast Saga written (Forlorn Skies and Naked Among Wolves, respectfully), and after a very, very thorough edit, both of them will be available on Amazon, hopefully within the next couple months. I've also got the serial killer-themed collection coming out, tentatively titled "Wolves At The Door." I just finished the first story today, Your Name Here, with plans to start the second story, Witch's Tit, tomorrow.

And starting on April 1st, EMP Publishing is open to submissions once again, meaning I'll get to put my editing chops back to good use. And remember, authors, I'm also offering my services on Fiverr (or you could just get a hold of me through my Contact Page). I'm pretty experienced when it comes to editing, so take a fucking chance on me, why don't 'ya?

On another note, I've stuck to my 2,000 words a day goal every day in March, and as such, I've written a little over 33,000 words in March. This is really working out for me.

Until next time, fucks. I mean, folks. Here's a gif to steal your attention away from the plague of daily life.

A New, Larger Collection of Stories - Coming Soon!

The collection is (tentatively) titled "Wolves At The Door." It'll include anywhere between six and eight original tales all tailored to the same theme - serial killers. Different murderers, why they feel the need to kill, how they do it, etc. This is something I'm excited about, and nearly every story is an original tale I've penned just for it. These stories include (just titles, I know; that doesn't tell you anything, but it's nice to know these things in advance, isn't it?) Your Name Here, Witch's Tit, Stay The Course, Sweet Dreams, Hotline Bling along with two tales I've previously written, Sweet Talk and Happy Birthday. I'm really looking forward to this collection's release and I hope that all of you will love it.

Until next time, friends. Hopefully the cover art will be ready soon. That way I'm not leaving you bastards empty-handed.