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Happy 16th to Me

Today marks the 16th anniversary of my very first book release. If you’re doing the math, that’s about a decade before AI became a thing, right as eBooks and self-publishing started to have a moment, and couple of years before individual author sales started trending down while the book market as a whole boomed. I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on all that I learned throughout my journey, because it’s been a hell of a ride so far.   When I was your age… Back in 2010 and earlier, the Internet was a very different place. It was actually useful and had a lot of good, reliable information that still showed up at the top of search results.… Read More »Happy 16th to Me

I Just Never Had The Time

Tell me if you heard this one: At a casual get-together, a group of strangers share something personal about themselves. One person says, “I’m a writer,” and immediately, someone in the group responds with, “Oh, that’s so cool! I always wanted to do that, but I just never have the time.” I can pretty much guarantee that every writer has had this interaction multiple times in their life. I am also about 95% sure that writers are the only type of creatives who experience this. No one looks at a professional ballet dancer, singer, or artist and says, “I always wanted to do that, just never have the time.” No, they might say something like, “I always wanted to learn… Read More »I Just Never Had The Time

The Story Ends on December 8th, 2025

Given that title, I now need to specify that this is a book release announcement, not a call to arms. What a world we live in… *cue me sitting in silence for a full 5 minutes, trying to get my brain back on track and figure out what I actually want to say* It’s a lot. Turns out, I have much to say today so, TL;DR: The final installment of the Blood & Shadows series, War of the Shadows, has an official release date on December 8, 2025. Mark your calendars, and click that pre-order button when you find it. The Long Of It Blood Moons was the book that first got me published in 2010. Back then, it was… Read More »The Story Ends on December 8th, 2025

Seemed Relevant…

I have this book called Wolfen. It was released in 2014, and ever since, readers have been asking me to write a sequel. I guess it’s one of those stories that resonates. I get that. And I have been wracking my brain about it for over a decade now. It’s not about writing more. It’s about writing more in a way that won’t cheapen or undermine the original story. There is a book 2 in my head. It’s dark, heavy, traumatizing in some parts. It’s the first story I ever started writing for which I knew right away I would need a very clear trigger warning in the intro. The story is half-written already. And it’s been stuck in that… Read More »Seemed Relevant…

Shadow Hound Release Date and Sneak Peek

I am so behind on all the announcements and promos for this release it’s not even funny. The timing just happened to overlap with a lot of other life priorities and I ran out of time to set up all of my marketing for release day. I want to say it bothers me but… Eh. The most important part of it for me is the book, and I am over the moon proud of how it all turned out. The story, the cover—everything. I loved these characters in Shadow Hawk, and I love them here. It occurred to me when I was formatting everything for print that I kind of threw down the gauntlet in the dedication of book 5,… Read More »Shadow Hound Release Date and Sneak Peek

Coming Winter 2024: Shadow Hound

Super excited to share the cover art for SHADOW HOUND, book 6 in the Blood & Shadows series! This is story is about the sweet and cuddly Quinn VanWarren, and Vega Ortiz, a former Shadow soldier with a knife obsession. Both of them were introduced in Shadow Hawk, and I can’t wait for you to read what they’re up to next! Keep scrolling for the cover reveal, the blurb, and a full intro to the series and reading order, if you’re new to this world. Quinn VanWarren has unexpectedly inherited his family’s massive fortune, and now they want to kill him to get their money back. They also might or might not be financing the Shadows. For the sake of… Read More »Coming Winter 2024: Shadow Hound

The Other Side of the Conversation

Boy, it’s been a while since this blog saw some love… Hello, world! How are you this fine Malthusian era? I have been terribly absent from here, but it’s all for a good cause: story magic. In between life in general kicking my ass, as I’m sure it’s done to everyone, I’ve been hard at work on multiple projects, one of which is now in the trusted hands of my editor. Shadow Hound is loosely scheduled for release in December but, due to the recent natural disasters, we’re playing this one by ear. More info and the cover reveal coming soon! Today, though, I want to talk about book reviews. More specifically, what they do, what they don’t do, and… Read More »The Other Side of the Conversation

What Is Love

I have this thing I like to say any time the topic comes up: “I like my men like I like my books—fictional.” Because, really, what avid reader out there hasn’t at one time or another fallen in love with a fictional character? If you’re one of the Lucky People whose minds are able to translate words printed on the page into vivid images and scenes in your mind’s eye, it’s almost a foregone conclusion. And if you’re a writer on top of that, well… infer from that what you will. LOL The joke is meant to be funny, but it speaks to something much deeper: the love I have for books and writing. And I know I’ve talked about… Read More »What Is Love

Coming 2023: Shadow Hawk

I come to you today with an exciting announcement I’ve been keeping under wraps for quite a while: my next book release! It’s probably not one you were expecting. I wasn’t, either. It just kind of snuck up on me while I was too busy watching the horror show the world had become when the pandemic hit. But it’s one that has been at the back of my mind for years. Now that it’s finished, I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Get ready, because later this year, the Shadows are coming back. SHADOW HAWK will be the 5th installment of the Blood & Shadows series, and will be followed by at least one more full-length novel. This one is a… Read More »Coming 2023: Shadow Hawk

It’s Not What You Think: My Epic Writer Fail

In preparation for my two book signings this year, I was forced to notify my day job that I would be gone for a few days and had to endure some obligatory small talk which quickly turned to a question I damn well should know how to answer by now but still don’t: How many books have you written? Intellectually, I know all they wanted to know was how many books I’d published. Because they don’t care about anything not published, and they shouldn’t. There’s a reason why I didn’t publish it, after all. But on an emotional level, I took that question literally and started a futile internal effort to quantify everything I’d ever written since the very first… Read More »It’s Not What You Think: My Epic Writer Fail