Category Archives: All Content

Castles & Starships is out in the world!

castles&starships-cover400x400

Damn, I am really excited to put this book out.

Smooth production from start to finish, it’s in a neat small format, with the pretty and smooth matte finish that I love. But that’s just the physical details.

I’m proud of the stories and format of this book. It’s got a way of weaving through the Astyrred that lets a reader jump in pretty much anywhere, and stop whenever they need to. It’s a great book to have on hand for little spare reading moments. It’s also been described like this:

“An improbable, non-linear romp through an imagined universe, as snappy as Kerouac’s drives with Dean Moriarty. All sci-fi should swing this much. Damn, I wish I wrote this book!” – Tara Lindsey, Author of “The Esbat Sequence”

Who wouldn’t swoon if their book was described like that. Thank you, Tara!

Here’s the more official description, for those who want to know what the book is actually about:

Pious knights protect the pilgrim road, bandits hide in deserted corners of space, creatures more than human plot the downfall of the Orders, and the ordinary people do what they must to simply survive. And then there is the dark rumor of a ghost on Uitat, in a fortress long ago abandoned.

Moving through space and across timelines, the wandering nature of this volume invites you to explore a complex galaxy at war and to see it through the eyes of those that dwell there.

So, if that all wet your whistle, then you can GO HERE and learn how to buy a copy. There’s even a sampler of stories that aren’t available in the book!

New book coming in February and I’m trying something fun…

I’m so excited to be preparing my next book. This one is kind of unique because it’s got an experimental format. Tons of tiny stories, interwoven to form a tapestry that gives a sense of depth to a larger world. I loved writing it and the packaging is going to be gorgeous.

As I’m getting ready to release it, I’m doing a fun experiment. It’s called “Pebbles of Stardust” and it’s a mailing list that will last through the release date. I’ll be sending out a little story every week to land in your inbox.

I’m excited to say there’s also a print version! I’ll be hand-binding copies of each little story and sending them via snail mail, so you can get something fun through the mail besides bills.

You can find out all the details and how to sign up here: Pebbles of Stardust, an experiment.

Did I mention there’s a coupon for the print edition, too? 🙂

New Release!

It’s been a little while since I’ve had a new release, and this one is pretty special. Though it has not been so long since it’s original release, there was just a bit more I had to say with this book and so, a second edition!

“A Stirring in the Bones” has a spiritual center, like all of the books I publish (yes, even the Wasted Series), but it also has plenty of action and adventure along side it.

This special second edition has been not only re-edited, but also includes a few bonus features. There you’ll find the origin of how our heroes met, a little more about the world they live in, plus a bonus short story about the distant past of a favorite character.

Also, the cover is kind of awesome, if I do say so myself:

final-cover copy

If you’re looking for the print version (which has a lovely back cover, too!) then you can find it on Amazon. Ebooks are on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with more options coming in the future.

Thanks for supporting me and I hope you enjoy visiting with Elys and Learza. They’re good people, errr, beings.

Here are the links:

Amazon print edition

Amazon Kindle edition

Barnes & Noble Nook edition

The ebook editions are only $3.99!

Publishing news, old and new

I’ve had a story published in a wonderful anthology and have a book forthcoming this winter!

My story “Dumb Supper” which is based on the pagan concept of a meal to honor the ancestors, can be found in The Shining Cities from Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

My next book will be coming out this winter as well. Title to be announced soon! It’s a very different concept and format than my last novel and I look forward to sharing it with the world.

Oh, a publishing we go…

In case I didn’t mention it in my last post (I think I did) I am now running a small press. I highly recommend such a course of action only for those with the ability to roll with the punches, because damn-o, this is a lot of work. It’s definitely not about getting to read books or stories, because that is only a small percentage of what goes on. Fortunately, I had no such delusions when I started, so I’m doing just fine.

However, that is not the reason I’m type, type, typing away here. No, I’m writing this because I sold a story. Yay! I have a tale called “The Dumb Supper” coming out in Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s “The Shining Cities” anthology which should be out sometime in September.

And there’s more! The lovely Rebecca Buchanan, editor of that self-same publisher and also editor of Eternal Haunted Summer, has asked for an interview! I’m humbled and honored, and yes, of course I’ll be posting a link when it goes live in her next issue.

And for now that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Whenever I next update, there will definitely be some news about my next book and you have no idea how much it thrills me to say that there will definitely be one, for certain.

Of Publications and Presses

It’s finally out there!

On June 1st, just a few days ago, I became a published author. Well, I have been published before, a few short stories have found their way from my hard drive to readers. This was a little different, though. My first novel is out in the world.

Of course, I’ll be posting links to it all and the cover art and such in a moment, but first I want to pause and talk about this experience.

I decided to start my own press after watching from the wings for a while as publishing began changing under our feet. So much is up in the air right now, just as in the music industry. The rise of the independent artist has been a boon to those of us who’s work doesn’t quite fit in with whatever the trend of the moment happens to be.

However, there is definitely a growing glut of people who are self-publishing without the quality controls that traditionally come with a gatekeeper publisher. I believe this is where the independent publishing house has a role to play.

By curating a more idiosyncratic experience combined with the low cost of ebook publishing startup, indies can take chances on work that doesn’t find a voice elsewhere, but while maintaining a more well-polished standard.

In other words, you still need to have professional, well-edited work with a slick package in order to make an impact. Then all that remains is the same dilemma every author on the planet is burdened with: you have to find the readers.

And so, I’m putting my work out there, as well as the work of others. It’s a quiet revolution, to be sure, but I’m proud to be a part of it.

So, without any further preamble, I give you “A Stirring in the Bones”:

You can find out all about it at Luna Station Press!

Everything old is new again…

Huzzah the website revamp. I simply could not let the beautiful planetary background go, but this poor old site needed a facelift. It now works quite nicely on mobile devices and is much more in line with my new goals for my writing and new directions for my life in words.

I’ve updated my bio, added links to my special personal projects, and generally freshened up the content around the site.

In the interim since my last post, I’ve had a couple of big, important things happen:

On March 1st, I published the NINTH ISSUE of Luna Station Quarterly. I’m so proud and humbled (can you be both?) to present the stories to the world.

Then, on March 2nd, I was interviewed by Katherine Tomlinson for her “Feminist Fiction Friday” feature on her blog. I had a wonderful time answering her in-depth questions about LSQ and my own writing.

And I’m so pleased to announce that I’ll be launching a new endeavor on May 1st. I don’t want to give too many details away just yet, but I will say that it’s going to expand upon my mission with Luna Station in new and exciting ways.

So, with all that news out of the way, I invite you to watch this space carefully for coming news!

she’s a rebel…


once more into the breach, my friends. yes, i’m doing NaNoWriMo again, in what is beginning to become a tradition. i call myself a ‘NaNoRebel’. i’m a participatory cheering section.

as i did last year, i’ll be working on a story that has already been started. last year it was a new work, this year it’s my 2007 NaNo-winning novel that’s been under heavy editing for the last couple of months. i’m not really setting a word count goal, though reaching the 50k would be awesome. instead, i’m just going to add as much new material as possible.

regardless of my own word count, though, i’m there to also cheer on those around me. at least one of my writer friends is digging in again, and i’m hoping to recruit a few more or find the ones that have already signed up.

i’m also taking the next ten days or so to get my house in order and clear a few decks for this. priority lies with my design portfolio, which has languished far too long in a half-completed state.

i’m hoping that next year i can do NaNo properly, but for now, i’m just happy to participate and tap into all that wonderful, crazy, creative energy.

you’ve always wanted to write that novel idea floating around your head, haven’t you? c’mon! join me! i dare you! www.nanowrimo.org

there’s a difference between hope and happiness


Meltdown™ Comics Presents: #SUPERGODS an Evening with Grant Morrison & Gerard Way

happiness is awesome and you should ride it as long as it lasts. hope will keep you going, even when things really suck.

eureka moments often come when you least expect them. sometimes they come when you go looking for them, too. the last couple of days have been spent in the wake of one of those moments. more precisely, there were about 60 of them, taken in the form of the interview linked above (the embed was disabled).

after watching that, my head was aswim with ideas on the process of self-actualization, creativity, and what it means to be a human being in this world. the next time i sat down to write, i had to take a look at what i was working on and ask myself a couple of hard questions.

“is this worthy of the idea that i had when i started?”

“where did the energy, the dangerous edge, of my initial draft go?”

“is there a way to fix it, to bring it back from the dead without it feeling like a zombie?”

i came up with answers. some of them i didn’t want to acknowledge and some i accepted readily. no, it wasn’t worthy of the original idea and i knew quite well where the energy had gone. i had strapped it down and ripped out its soul when i tried to make it into a traditional narrative. plain and simple and easy to recognize and acknowledge.

it was fixable, too, but this was the part i didn’t want to face. it meant rewriting. again. but if i wanted to keep going, to finish it and see what it can become, i had to do it. so i started from the top, pulling chunks of the original first draft back in, making the ‘danger edition’. i know what the themes are underlying this story, but when i sit to write, i don’t think about them. you can’t or the story becomes heavy-handed and the theme becomes the story itself rather than what it’s about.

anyway, there’s work ahead of me and sometimes it will make me happy and sometimes i’ll just have to go on hope. that’s okay because i know i’m digging in deep and learning about myself, my voice, my ability to tell a story, and about the world and how the pieces all fit together. that makes it worth writing, even if it never sees the light of day.