More Best of Writing-Related Memes

Back in September I did a blog in which I shared some of the better writing-related memes I have posted on Facebook and Twitter. I thought it was time for another posting like that.

Apocalypse Monday

This week I thought I'd bring the end of the world to the southern hemisphere.

Two of the Most Important Blog Posts on Writing I Have Ever Read

There are hundreds of articles and blog postings on the Internet offering advice on how to write, publish, and market your novels. Most of it is positive and encouraging, as it should be. However, once in a while every writer needs to take a cold hard look at his/her career and run it through a sanity check (or, being writers, an insanity check). The two postings I linked below do just that.

You have to respect a blog posting titled How To Keep Writing When No One Gives a Shit. Every writer at some point in their career feels this way. Jennifer Garam sums up those self doubts perfectly, and offers some very sound advice on how to not let the negativity eat away your career.

Over the years I've done a lot of research on marketing techniques, and everyone has a magic formula that they claim made them a best seller. Over the years, I've tried variations on many of these techniques, often with only limited success. I have never read an article on marketing that rings as true to me as Delilah S. Dawson's  Please Shut Up: Why Self Promotion as an Author Doesn't Work.

I'll Be Attending Spooky Mayhem in Orlando 1-3 April 2016

I just received confirmation that my table has been reserved for Spooky Mayhem at the Wyndham Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida from 1-3 April 2016. By then I'll have The Vampire Hunter trilogy back in publication and will also be selling the Rotter World series, and will have some special surprises in store. This year promises to mayhem intensified because I'm sharing a table with Mitch Hyman, the writer of Vinnie and Mook: Hitmen in Paradise as well as the genius behind Bubba the Redneck Werewolf. Be sure to drop by. We'll have zombies and werewolves and vamps, oh my.

Apocalypse Monday

I felt this was very apropos because I'm doing the final revisions of Hell Gate 2, portions of which are set in Moscow.

Apocalypse Monday

No theme this week. Just some eerie artwork of what the coast would look like after the end of the world.

Hell Gate Scheduled for Release October 2016

Inferno by Giovanni da Modena 1379 - 1455

My editor at Burning Willow Press told me yesterday that Hell Gate, the first book in my young adult post-apocalypse series, is scheduled for publication in mid-October 2016. In the months leading up to its release, we will be undertaking a marketing campaign geared toward the young adult audience that, for me at least, promises to be new and exciting.

As a further tease, here's the preliminary jacket blurb for Hell Gate.

Sixteen year old Jason McCreary endures a double nightmare. Not only does he live in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by demons that have entered our realm through gates connected to Hell, he also carries the guilt for humanity’s fate because it was his mother's scientific experiment that created these portals. Desperate to erase his shame, he joins the team of hunters that clears the Hell Spawn from the countryside around the survivor’s camp at Mont St. Michel off the coast of France. When the hunters are tasked to travel to Paris to close the Hell Gate, Jason sees this as an opportunity to finally clear his family name. During the journey, Jason discovers frightening environments worse than anything he could imagine, and demons more terrifying than those he has encountered before. He begins the process of redemption and slowly earns the respect of his peers… until a web of lies unravels, threatening to rip apart Jason’s world and jeopardize the team’s chances of success.

Apocalypse Monday

Let's shake up 2016 with an apocalyptic earthquake scene.

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2016

I hope all my fans and friends have a Happy New Year and want to wish you best wishes for 2016. For those of you like me who experienced a lot of hardships last year, may the wind be at your back in 2016. For those who 2015 was a good year, may your happiness and success continue during 2106. Live long and prosper.