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Hello again, Speculative Fiction Lovers! For the past few weeks, I ’ ve been working on the novel that will probably be my next publication. It ’ s a still-untitled dark fantasy story involving a competition between demonic beings for a position as an overseer in hell. I hope to finish it before going back to my rewrite of Mind of Goddess . I ’ ve been tempted to finish Mind of Goddess instead after reading Noami Alderman ’ s The Power , which likewise reimagines the world u

A lot of great books and movies influenced "The Last Shadow," too many to name. However, a few are definitely worth mentioning. Alfonso Cuaron's movie adaptation of P.D. James' "Children of Men" inspired the setting and backstory in "The Last Shadow." Both involve looming genocides and a single person who holds the biological key to prevent them, though the catastrophe in "Children of Men" threatens the entire human race instead of only one population. In addition, both books

In case you missed it, this is my latest ad for The Last Shadow. This image is from Chapter twenty-seven of the story, when Lucy is trying to escape from Finishers, with only seven hours left to make it to the Tranquility. (Accompanying back-cover text is below picture.) I decided to do my own imagery for my novels because I wasn't happy with the results from Fiverr artists. I continue to improve my Photoshop skills but still have a lot of learning to do. Comment below or fol

Since my last update, I've produced two new Photoshop pictures to promote The Last Shadow and Five Cats and Five Movements. My Photoshop skills are steadily improving, and I hope to reach the level to produce short videos soon. Both pictures mix AI and real-life photography. I'm becoming more comfortable with this strategy, and I've learned how to make use of features like layer cuts, mask overlays, level adjustments, color layers, image transformations, and similar options.

The Five Cats and Five Movements eBook is finally published and available in epub and pdf formats. The paperback version is at the printers and should be available next week. It’s been a long eight-year journey that I hope readers will appreciate. Numerous authors inspired me while writing the book. Books by six of the most influential are worth acknowledging. “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe was the short story that sort of jump-started Five Cats and Five Movements.

Five Cats and Five Movements is back on track for publication. I'd hoped to publish the eBook in November, but finalizing the final draft took more work than expected. I hope to get the eBook out next week and begin a serious marketing effort for both it and the Last Shadow. As an "appetizer" for Five Cats and Five Movements , the following background research is served. Notes on Kemmet and Kemmetic Characters                                      Five Cats and Five Movements

My goal for this week (October 21) and possibly the following week is to complete a final edit of Five Cats and Five Movements . This novel is another that has been a long time coming. It was first drafted in 2017 in my spare time, pretty much as an exercise in improvisation and stream of consciousness writing. It was written primarily by "pantsing," i.e., writing by the seat of my pants with very little plotting beforehand. Consequently, each chapter was as much of an advent

Personal Writing Achievements I'm making some final edits on the novel I hope to publish next month - Five Cats and Five Movements. A fair amount of ambivalence was involved in regard to whether I'm nitpicking the novel or making noticeable improvements. I decided to go through it one more time and suffice with the results (hopefully). I also completed Chapter 10 in the first draft of another yet untitled novel. The story involves an alcoholic Ethiopian's struggle to prevent

Since this is my first ever blog post, it seemed fitting to write about my first published novel. The Last Shadow was about five years in...