And… StoneDragon is HERE!

Wow.

This feels a lot like when we had our first child. It happened late at night. It felt like the world changed, in a small way that was deeply fundamental. And with a lot of exhaustion and feeling like it should be celebrated more than with a deep nap–but that a nap would be really good…

StoneDragon is here.

My first book. My writing and creative offerings may get better from here–or this be as good as it gets. 🙂 Regardless, StoneDragon is a world that lives and breathes, with darkness and beauty and magic, and hopefully I did it justice.

So with no more ado, please enjoy…

StoneDragon-Kindle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A deadly time-shifting city draws warriors from past and future—and isn’t ready to go quietly into the night…

For the past decade, ex-gunslinger Clay Halloway has survived as a soldier-for-hire in StoneDragon, a time-shifting city where warlords from the past and future battle for power. Where monsters exist and technology doesn’t. Clay wants to leave his life of violence and obsession behind and open StoneDragon’s first detective agency. Unfortunately, his very first client will neglect to mention a couple of important details–like that powerful and angry Earth gods are hunting her and are willing to tear StoneDragon apart stone by stone to get her back. The only thing in their way is one unsuspecting cowboy…

(PS, I’ve set up a free give-away for the next few days, as a thank you to my early blog readers. So please sample and PLEASE leave a review. A new book is like a new plant. It needs some watering…)

Woot, woot!

Another honorable mention in the Writers of the Future contest, this time for ‘the Test’, the story that I mentioned I’d quite liked and been disappointed it wasn’t picked up for the anthology it was written for. Nice to get a bit of writing encouragement in a period of ‘mucky middle’ writing! (for StoneDragon)

I also just finished the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown and found myself incredibly inspired. What a great series, and a wonderful afterword in the third book where he compares writing to building a skyscraper, with all the hard work and angst involved, and then tells writers that the world needs their skyscrapers.

I don’t know if the world needs mine, but it certainly encourages me to keep building. Thanks Pierce!

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I set the image to be my brain with an uzi. Cause I haven’t seen it in a while and think it’s funny. 🙂

Cover reveal, story hints, and a Benedict Cumberbatch sketch

Melissa must be a better detective than me, because she has some clues as to the other writers’ stories. I can’t wait to read them all myself! (the sinister time device is me, though, he he). So here is a link to a fellow Improbable Truth anthology writer’s post…

COVER REVEAL! An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I’m going to copy her blurb too, cause I liked the sound of it:

In An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 14 authors of horror and mystery have come together to create a unique anthology that sets Holmes on some of his most terrifying adventures.  A pair of sisters willing to sacrifice young girls to an ancient demon for a taste of success, a sinister device that can manipulate time itself, and a madman that can raise corpses from the dead are just a few among the grisly tales that can be found within these pages.

Curl up with a warm cuppa and leave all the lights on.

This is not your grandfather’s Sherlock Holmes.

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For the record, this featured image is a rare case of the artwork not being mine. This was done by the talented Anne Rosario instead.

For fun, though, I’m playing around with doing a Benedict Cumberbatch painting for the site. I don’t think that would get me in any copyright trouble, as long as I’m not selling anything attached. And I think it would be funny. We’ll see if I have enough time to finish it. 😉 Maybe just a teaser pencil sketch???

He he… Ok, I shaded it in a bit, so that it’s a bit more than a teaser. Enjoy.

Benedict Cumberbatch

I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it, but… “Time’s Running Out, Watson” as cast by the BBC. 😉

 

Time’s Running Out, Watson (Good News!)

A month or so ago (here), I mentioned taking some time out to write a quick short story. For a little more context, I was reading a Magical Words post (here) that referenced a submissions call for “An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes”, an anthology from Mocha Memoirs Press, edited by A.C. Thompson, an author and Sherlock Holmes fan herself. The collection was intended to have a fantasy/horror flavor and be a twist on the original detective novels, spurred by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate’s decision to release copyright on the characters for public use.

I have been recently watching Sherlock Holmes (the BBC production) on Netflix, which is great, and I very much enjoyed all of Mr. Doyle’s original books, as well as obviously loving fantasy, so the idea struck me with a bit of adrenalin, even though I probably should have been editing my novel instead. 🙂 So I had some fun diversion time writing a story in that vein, then workshopping it on OWW.

And last week… it got accepted! 😀 Whoop, whoop.

I am very jazzed. This is my first fantasy-related acceptance, and I’m thrilled. It will give me something to put in my cover letters for fantasy writing as well, which never hurts!

Hopefully people enjoy both the story and the book! I’m looking forward to seeing both. I believe that the publisher is hoping for an October release, but we’ll see.

Here’s hoping you get your own great news soon!

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In an ironic twist, I actually had a Sherlock Holmes themed pencil sketch (even if it doesn’t look like the iconic figure), because it was an exercise for a SCBWI conference in Ottawa that I attended a while back. The exercise was to try and create a YA-vibe cover for a Sherlock Holmes story. I never finished it up, but you can enjoy the line work here, done in about half an hour during the conference workshop. On a side note, I learned a very important lesson about YA covers at the same time. Plan for the text BEFORE you do the piece. Luckily, in this case, no text required. 🙂

I am polishing up the first three chapters of my fantasy WIP, now called StoneDragon (previously the Broken Cowboy and a few other things) and will probably put them up on OWW for feedback. Lots of writing and polishing for that novel still required, but it will be nice to have the first few chapters done and edited, as those are the most stressful ones. If a reader gets past chapter three, you’re rocking and rolling. 🙂