LESSONS III Cover Reveal (and other shenanigans)

Okay, full disclosure; I actually revealed the cover on my Facebook pages already, so it's a semi-reveal.  (Sorry, needed blog material!)

Anyways, here's the cover if you haven't seen it already:

I found/bought an image of a creepy doll on istockphoto.com, and the brilliantly talented T.M. Roy added lettering and enhancements to the image--making it even more creepy!  Once again, she outdid herself.  I think this one will give people nightmares.  One can hope anyway!

Even though I haven't blogged a lot lately, rest assured that LESSONS III is still on track to be released on August 2nd.  That's only a week away!  I'm really excited about letting you guys read it.  I hope you like it.  It was the toughest one of the series to write, but once I found a concept/theme, it was smooth sailing after that.

Will there be another LESSONS book/s in the future?  Hopefully, but for now I'm giving the series a much-needed break.  Last thing I want to do is burn out people (myself included).  I need to work on some other things anyway.  I don't think this will be the last one, but you never know.  As long as the material is there, then I'd say it's a good possibility that there will be more in the future.

The wait is almost over.  Soon enough you'll discover how deadly playtime can be...

My First Year of Being an Indie Author

Today marks the first year anniversary of my short story collection, IN DECLINE.  Even though I had published things on my own in the past, this is where I really consider the beginning of my journey as an indie author.  I remember when I first hit that "publish" button.  I wasn't sure how well I'd do.  I thought that maybe I'd sell a few copies to some friends and maybe a stranger here and there, but I really wasn't expecting a whole lot.  I just figured I had nothing to lose and it was worth giving it a shot.

I'm glad I did.

Since then, my writing life has never been the same again, and that's a very good thing.  No longer do I submit my writing to magazines and whatnot only to face certain rejection.  I've been publishing on my own and my writing has reached more people than I could ever possibly have dreamed of.  And while I know my writing will never make me rich, that was never part of the plan anyway.  All I wanted to do is get my writing out there for all to see and make a little bit of money from it.

I'm living my dream.  Before turning 30, I can honestly call myself an author.

It's been an incredible journey, and I expect it to continue to be incredible.  We live in exciting times where it's possible for people to get their stuff out there without having to play the waiting game.  Not that there's anything wrong with the waiting game... it's just not for me.

Thank you all for your wonderful support.  This achievement could not have been reached without you, and that's the honest truth.

LESSONS III update

Just a quick note to tell everybody that so far LESSONS III: DEMONIC DOLLS AND OTHER MORBID DRABBLES is right on schedule for its August 2nd release.  This past weekend I've been putting it all together.  Still making little tweaks and changes here and there, but nothing major.  I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, but as always when it comes to releasing a new book, I get that nervous feeling.  I get doubts, second-guess myself etc.

Which is why it'll be a big relief to finally release this thing!

Also, I'm happy to say that this is by far the biggest LESSONS of the series so far.  It features six bonus drabbles/shorts by the following authors: authors.  David McAfee, David Dalglish, Sean Sweeney, Daniel Arenson, Imogen Rose and Jason G. Anderson.

I'm really pysched about this.  I hope you all will enjoy LESSONS III when it's finally out.