Anyone get the license plate on that month!?

Normally, I’d open up with a pithy one-liner but this month I’ve got nothin’. I haven’t any time to think of any, because July flew by so fast that August is already over halfway over!

Enough preamble, let’s get into it!

One degree ends and another begins

About a month ago now, I hopped on a plane to join my fellow rising publishers and fellow matriculating genre fiction students at Western Colorado University in beautiful, Gunnison, Colorado. I wrapped an inspiring and exciting week with a brand-new degree, overflowing with new story ideas, and a clearer vision of my career. I’ll share more about that in the weeks and months to come. For now, there’s a lot of work to do behind the scenes to bring that vision to life.

Goodbye, Orlando

After two wonderful years living near Universal Studios in Orlando, my wife and I are moving to the suburbs outside the city. We’re still in the process of unpacking, but we’re already settling in well. We’ll miss the occasional snatches of theme park sounds and music, and I will certainly miss my morning walks through USO’s beautiful resort walking paths. Universal is such an important part of our love story. We reconnected there, took our engagement photos there, and have so many fond memories over the last couple of years. As backyards go, you can do worse than having a theme park in it.

Progress Updates

Despite all of the business and travel of the last few weeks, I’ve been working away at The Gentleman Necromancer novel, as well as TWO short stories!

The Gentleman Necromancer novel is shambling along! I’ve been applying some of what I’ve been learning in my Genre Fiction program in real-time to this project and it’s really helped me step back and see the bigger picture of the novel, how the story beats should flow together and how to properly torture challenge my protagonist to make the stakes real. I’m getting really excited with how it’s going and I can’t wait to get to my favorite two words to write: THE END!

On the short story front, I’m revising an introductory story to my Noir Fae storyverse called The Cat Job! I’ve received great feedback from my Genre Fiction cohort at Residency on ways to strengthen the story. The other short story I’m working on, currently drafting in fact, is a fun historical fantasy/horror story tentatively called The Blood of New Castille, and its one I’m hoping to submit to an anthology that’s soon to open.

My writing progress and habit has definitely been a little uneven over the last month or so, but I’m proud of sticking it out and making a little time to do something each day, whether that’s drafting, outlining, or revising. I recently heard the maxim “consistency beats intensity” and I find that to ring true to how I work.

What I’ve been reading:

This month I’ve got two recommendations for you. First up is The Devils by bestselling author of the The First Law series, Joe Abercrombie. This is a “Suicide Squad meets your weekend D&D party” romp through an alternative historical version of medieval Europe. Filled with Abercrombie’s signature dark humor and muddy, bloody action, I so thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Next up is a book I’m actually currently reading, Percival Everett’s multi-award winning retelling/re-imagining of Huckleberry Finn, James: A Novel. This is a poignant and powerful reckoning of a novel that retells the classic story from the perspective of Huck’s runaway slave friend, Jim. Despite being set in the antebellum American South, its messages about race, freedom, and friendship are highly relevant to today’s society.

Signal Boost:

We’re doubling up this time with shout outs to two awesome authors and people!

The Vechnoye Saga by H.Y. Gregor

First up is H.Y. Gregor and The Vechnoye Saga, a four-part urban fantasy series steeped in Russian folklore. You can read all four books free as part of Kindle Unlimited, or if audiobooks are more your thing, you can listen to the first three books in the series on Audible!

More Than One by CL Fors

Up next is a signal boost to author and award-winning illustrator CL Fors’ freshly launched Kickstarter campaign for More Than One, a speculative biology and solarpunk sci-fi novel. I’ve heard really exciting things about this book’s premise and I can’t wait to read it. The Kickstarter campaign runs through the end of August, so be sure to jump in on this campaign while you can!

That’s all for this update! Back to writing for me!