New horror story from me on Amanda Hocking's blog!

Yes, it's been far too long since I've blogged here. I blame BREAKING BAD. Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Now that the season is over... I'll have to find another excuse sometime soon. I'm sure I'll find one. Don't you worry!

Well, some cool news worth reporting. Amanda Hocking asked me to come up with a special Halloween post, so I wrote a new short story, "Tough Love." You can read it here.

Also, it'll almost be a year since I released LESSONS AND OTHER MORBID DRABBLES. I can't thank you guys enough for your continued support of the books. I had a lot of fun writing them, and I hope to do more in the future. I love writing those drabbles, so I'm sure you'll see another LESSONS book sometime in the near future. Just needed a bit of a break to try my hand at other things. I have a few projects in mind.

Well, that about does it for now. You can always follow me on Twitter for more updates and inane ramblings!

DARK TOMORROWS, a short story collection

I'm happy to announce that three of my LESSONS drabbles are now featured in an excellent short story collection, DARK TOMORROWS. The three drabbles that you can find here are:

Fortune Teller
Hangman
S.O.L.

It's an honor to be included with a bunch of wonderfully talented writers, many who have become good friends over the past few months. If you're looking for a collection of dark stories from some awesome writers, I highly recommend checking it out!

Reviews and milestones ahoy!

I know, I know. I've been slacking again when it comes to this blog. Funny how I'm able to keep my FB and Twitter pages up to date, yet I can't seem to do the same for here. Maybe it's because I think I have to write a really long entry--which is silly. It's my blog after all. I can do whatever the hell I want!

A few things. First, LESSONS III got an excellent review from BigAl's Books and Pals. You can read the review by clicking this link.

Also, I have a pretty big milestone to announce. About a week ago or so I ended up selling my 3,000th book. I'm still in shock, as I really had no idea I would ever sell that many books in my life. When I started this, I figured I'd sell a few books here and there--would've been surprised if I even ended up selling a few hundred. Now I can't believe that I've reached 3K. I can't thank you guys enough. Without you, this wouldn't have been possible.

In other news, I am working on a possible GIGGLES novella. I'm still working on the outline. It's taking me a bit longer than I thought, but I'm glad I'm doing it this way. Once I know where I want the story to go, I should be set. I still call it a "possible novella" because nothing is ever set in stone when it comes to the world of writing. Just know that I am working hard on it and I would love to make this work.

That's it for now. Will try to post a little more than twice a month--but no promises!

Haven't checked out LESSONS III yet? Click here to go to the Amazon page!

Lil' Gabby has arrived...

Remember how I said LESSONS III was coming out on Tuesday?  Yeah?  Well, forget I said that.  It's actually out now.

Don't believe me?  See for yourself!

Why did I release it early?  Well, when you publish on Amazon it can take a day or two before the book actually shows up.  If I submitted it on Tuesday, there's a chance it wouldn't show up until Wednesday.  Most of the time, Amazon is pretty quick about it.  Still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Once it was out, I might've dropped a clue on my Twitter feed.  After that, I figured to hell with it and decided to announce that it went live.  I figure better early than late, right?

I thank you all for your patience.  The wait is over.  No need to wait until tomorrow (unless you really want to).  Hope you all enjoy it!  I had a blast writing it.

And if you enjoy the bonus stories by David Dalglish, Daniel Arenson, Sean Sweeney, Imogen Rose and Jason G. Anderson, please check out their books!

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.