Wednesday, November 16, 2016

November UPDATES



OCTOBER GIVEAWAY UPDATE

Congratulations, winners!

All of the October giveaway prizes were shipped yesterday and should reach their destinations soon.  A special thanks to everyone who entered, shared, and commented during the giveaway.  During October, I had over 3,000 visitors to the blog—that's huge.

There will be more chances to win fun prizes soon.  Subscribe to the blog so you never miss a story or a giveaway.

AFTER THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER UPDATES

The kickstarter is over.

While we did not meet our goal of $5,000, we managed to end with an amazing $2,324!  It's mind blowing the amount of interest, and it's all thanks to everyone who has helped talk up the anthology and share the news about this amazing project.  The stories included are amazing, and as Alisha and I work through the final edits, I can't help but feel like a proud parent.
Even though we did not meet the monetary goal, the anthology will be released Mid-December.  Soon I will have links for pre-orders for both soft and limited edition hardcover copies.

We've been getting more of the art that will be featured in the collection.  While I cannot reveal them here, I assure you that they are something wonderful.  Images within images, sometimes frightening, sometimes whimsical—Will Jacques has done a wonderful job with his illustrations.

BROTHERS IN SOLITUDE UPDATES



As I'm #closingcircles and working on BROTHERS IN SOLITUDE, I've cleaned up a bunch of errors originally occurring in the original manuscript, both technical and conceptual.  Like most of my work, this story has evolved over many years, so there are loose threads and sloppy narrative from my younger days along with the precious gems I am trying to polish out.  I've really enjoyed coming back to Chad and Drake.  Their desolate existence stirs up so many personal things for me.  The book is, after all, a story for my brother, Steven.

If you're not reading it yet, why the hell not?

The most current version of the beginning is RIGHT HERE.

I'm posting this as I finish sections in order to giver readers a look inside my writing process.  I'm trying to get the chapters as finished as possible as I work, but there may be some changes before publication.  If you find any obvious errors in the material, please let me know in the blog comments.  Make sure to subscribe to the blog so you never miss a post.

I'd like to tell you some of the secrets of this tale:

*While Chad and Drake are loosely based on Steven and myself, I've jumbled up our characteristics so that neither one is me or him.  Each one is a composite of us growing up.  Their names come from good friends when we were young.  Chad is named after my chum Chad Killion, and Drake is named after Steven's friend Blake.  My brother was and is into dragons, so I changed the B to a D as a nod to his medieval interests.

*Originally it was set in Panama City Beach, Florida, but the town has changed so much since I started writing this ditty that I decided to alter the location to the fictional Port Wallace, named after my writing mentor and friend, Lynn Wallace.  I've also changed the brother's street name from Hilltop Avenue (our childhood home in PCB) to Lister Avenue, named for another of my major writing mentors, Michael Lister.  Most of the streets in the story are a corruption of the South Lagoon neighborhood of our youth, now cloaked with names of dear friends.

*The prologue was written last month.  I'm thinking about adding a detail concerning Mom, heightening the terror before they flee the campsite.  If I do, I'll post a new version of the prologue.

*I don't think the newest version of what I've been posting has mentioned Ambertown yet, but I've changed the original manuscript's Ambertown into Amberton, but I'm changing it back.  As I got to writing, I wanted it sound more natural, but as I dug deeper, I decided I was right the first time.  Crazy how that happens.

*Throughout the story, there are numerous nods to many other works in the zombie genre.  Keep an eye open and feel free to call me out in the blog comments when I drop one of these Easter eggs.  I'm interested in who is paying attention.  I hide a lot of things in my stories.  Those in the know…

*The Megacenter is Wal-Mart on Front Beach Road, but I am wary of branding in my work.  I try not to use any brand names if I can help it.  My writing is not a billboard for corporations, so I'd rather make up a product than try and sell it to readers.  I will, however, name drop bands, movies, books, and other artsy things I am hopelessly in love with.  More on this topic in a later post.

All right, cats.  That's a look inside the new book and all the updates I have at the moment.

More soon.

Cheers.

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