The unveiling

It's finally done!

For those of you who've been seeing it on my Twitter feed, you know that this is the finished cover for Cabover Cabaret, my next short story due to be released tentatively 10 February 2016.

In this serial, we return to Arthurfield, WV, my crossroads for the preternatural. Here we have Reggy, a weretiger who's survived more than enough centuries to make him cynical, and yet he has found ways to remain jovial enough. His newest partner, Thomas, just started working for Discreet movers, a company that specializes in the needs of the preternatural community. Together, they'll be in for one hell of an evening in terms of weird and unusual events.

This one has definitely been a labour of love, with many a rewrite, many a cry, and many a "How the crap do I make this thing shorter—it's already 16,000 words!" Well, that last one didn't turn out the way I wanted, but that's okay. The pacing, according to my beta readers, is great enough that they didn't notice the length. I'd call that a win.

As to its release, Cabover Cabaret will be the fourth Appalachian Dream Tale, and will be available through multiple vendors, such as Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, Kobo, Nook, iBooks, etc. As the author, I ask that—if you can—please make your purchase through Smashwords, as they offer the best return for authors as far as royalties are concerned. I know it may not seem like much, but that kind of incentive helps self-publishing authors like myself stay committed to their craft, maintain their resources, and renew their websites. So thank you in advance, and I hope to have the pre-orders up soon for you folks!

Party on, Wayne! :)

The wonders of good music

Remember the last time I checked in, I was still fighting with the final chapters of Comedy of Rain? Well, not anymore!

One of my coworkers at my new day job is as much a classic metal fan as I am, and he pointed me in the direction of Last In Line, which is comprised of most of the original members of Dio. And just like so many times before, when I find the right song, I can write the chapter.

In this case, it was "Starmaker" by Last in Line. It got me through chapter 44, which I've been stuck on for months. Hipólito finally cooperated, and I got the plot twist and everything written down. So far the next chapter is on track, so I'm looking to keep that pace going.

Next up on my list, of course, is to start the cover art for my next short story, due to be released in early February. This'll be the next story in the Appalachian Dream Tales, and will close out the first wave of introductions to my main characters. I'm in the process of getting it polished and ready, and I hope it'll be a load of fun for anyone who's familiar with Waiting for Godot. Absurdist comedy, anyone?

Anyway, that's all for now. Back to work, and I'll see you all soon for my next update!

Comeuppance has a cover!

I finished the cover for Comeuppance! I'm excited to say it's my absolute favourite to date. I love making the coverart as much as I do the actual stories. 

Speaking of the story. I'm on my (hopefully) final round of revisions, and will have the story out to my beta readers this week. If all goes according to plan, then I'll have the definitive publishing date to provide you folks with on my next update.

Until then! :)

As NaNoWriMo 2015 draws to a close

NaNoWriMo 2015 is officially over for me. I validated last night with a whopping 61,514 words. The story is only halfway done. I'm on chapter 17 of 34 (plus a prologue and an epilogue), so I still have quite a ways to go.

On the plus side, I got the intimidating part out of the way: starting the novel. That's always where I'm the most leery. I sit and stare and wonder how on page 1, a blank page of nothing, I can ever start a work of any length. But then once I do, I go at it like a dog with a bone. I worry at the words, pouring what's in my head out onto paper, and just do my best to get it all out.

Installing drivers takes the longest time imaginable . . ..

Now that I've gotten NaNo out of the way, I can ease off the throttle some, take the rest of Comedy of Rain in swings as I work to finish final edits and revisions on "Comeuppance", and get its coverart ready to go.

Speaking of coverart: I lost my reference photos. I have no idea what I did with them. So I had to surf around this past week, finding new ones and forming a collection. On the upside, I found some better reference photos than the ones I originally had, and I'm hoping to pull off the smoke in art nouveau style. *fingers crossed*

But at least I'm getting things sorted with my new laptop. I had to update everything to do with my Intuos4 tablet to get everything to work right, and now that I've gotten it settled, the only thing left to do will be to transfer my colour pallets from my old computer to my new one. Not looking forward to that, since the last time I did such a transfer, I ended up having to go in and rename each colour individually. *sigh*

Anyway, my goal now is to get the coverart for "Comeuppance" completed by January 1st, and that's doable, or at least I think so. I still haven't set an official date for the release in February, but I'll get there eventually. Perhaps I'll have all my revisions done by January 1st, too, and I can announce everything all at once. We'll see.

Until then, I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season. I haven't exactly gotten into the full swing of things (I blame NaNo for that lol), but at least I had a four-day weekend to enjoy. Tomorrow is my return to the "real world", but at least I feel like I accomplished some things this weekend.

Cheers!

Lazy Sunday, or why I decided to opt out of NaNo and worry about what's already in progress

You're probably surprised to see that I'm here updating instead of writing in a frenzy to meet/surpass NaNoWriMo's Day 1 goal. Well, it's because I've written three books this year already, and it'd exceed my abilities to do a fourth.

'Cause really, three's already too much.

So I am doing the responsible thing today. The adult thing today. And that's settle in to use November to leisurely work on editing the novels I've already got on my plate. I'd love to publish Tragedy of Ice next year. I think it's to that point, editing-wise, where there's not much else I can do with it aside from set it free.

It'll be in publishing waters soon....

First I have to do the cover art and promotional posters for it, though. The closer I get to finishing those, the better chance I have of hammering down a solid date for you folks.

In the middle of all that, however, I have the cover art for "Comeuppance" that I need to do, so I can start doing promo work for it, too. I'm looking to keep with February for its release, since that's when I've been publishing the other Appalachian Dream Tales, and it makes sense to keep those on a steady schedule.

Scratch out that "24th". I'll have a date closer to the others, trust me.

But amidst all that, I have some friends I owe edits to, so that's my other major concern this month. I got behind on those, so this is my public apology that I'll be giving them my undivided attention.

Even if real life tries to distract me.

For now, I'll leave you with the reminder that the Bowman's Inn Autumn collection is out, and that the first two anthologies are still on sale to celebrate. :)

Laters, folks!

New cover for Thoroughbred

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to announce that the new cover for Thoroughbred is live over on Amazon.com. Please check it out and download a copy of the short story while you're there ;)