From the Publisher's Desk

Our next release will be Darkness Within. Everything isn't how it seems in the small mining town of Jonsonville. Jenny, the daughter of the mine foreman, is supposedly happily dating the boy next door. But she is neither happy nor dating him. At least, not really. When the mysterious black haired girl that had captured Jenny's attention from the moment she moved into town finally started to talk to her, Jenny thought that maybe happiness might not be as far of a stretch as she thought. But with the army having training exercises in the area and the girl's habit of disappearing on her, Jenny starts to wonder if there is more happening in her small town than she knows about.

Look for Darkness Within, coming out in July.

Did you know that we also have audiobooks? We're currently working through all our previous books, trying to include them in our current audiobook collection. But going forward, all books, including Darkness Within, will now be released with an audiobook. These are only available on Google Play at the moment, but we are still looking into other avenues as well. Check out our Audiobook page on the website for which titles are currently available.

From the Writer's Desk

Another month, another book. The first draft of Byte the Hand that Made You will be wrapping up this week. It came out better than I could have hoped for, with two twists sliding in at the end of the book (both of which I will be writing in the next few days). This book will be coming out some time next year.

After wrapping up Byte the Hand, I'll be moving on to some editing as usual, trying to get Cary Simms 4 closer to the final draft and cleaning up Offbeat. The next book that I'll be writing is Mary Two Legs, which I'm looking to start writing this month if the editing works out well enough. Think Tarzan but with mermaids.

I've revamped my writing schedule for next year. I know, it's early to be looking at next year, but... well... I'm me. I'm a bit of a dork (in case you didn't notice). Recently, I've tended towards a little more than a chapter a day most days (though I'm lucky to get more than half a chapter on Tuesdays when I have to go into the office for my day job). With new writing targets (2 chapters on weekends, 1.5 chapters on workdays, and .5 chapters on office days), I can fit in 8 books (with 3 of them being Cary Simms books). Don't worry, though. We'll still only be releasing 6 books a year, so as not to overwhelm our readers. But this way, we'll be able to have a few extra books on hand so that we release the best books, rather than just going with all of them.

If the new schedule works out, we'll be adding Starlight to the schedule for next year. Starlight was an interesting book idea that I came up with last year that is similar to Darkness Within, but different enough to be its own thing. Think Twilight, but instead of vampires it's shapeshifting aliens (or illusion aliens, aliens that only look like humans while maintaining their actual form; still working that out). I've been getting lots of ideas on the plot for this, so I wanted to shoehorn it in earlier than planned (it's currently scheduled for 2029).

From the Event Desk

Jersey Pride was this past weekend, which is why I didn't send this out last week. To those new subscribers, hello and welcome. Things went well enough at the event, with quite a lot of books sold. Not as many as I was hoping for, but that is usually the case (I always come into these events with unrealistic hopes). Each new event brings in new readers, and hopefully those that enjoy my books will look to buy more of them online between events.

Interestingly enough, I now have a fan. I met her this weekend at the event. I remembered her from the year before, when she bought Mountain Princess. According to her sibling, she had been gushing about the book for a while. I also had one reader buy Cary Simms 1, read the first 15 pages of the book at the event, then come back to buy 2 and 3 while she was there. It is always nice to see my work appreciated.

My next event will be in October, at Collingswood Book Festival. I'll have my usual display, as well as both Darkness Within and our September release Pass the Death. I look forward to seeing people there.