'The Twilight Lover' Blurb

My birthday gift to myself was to complete the first round of revisions and edits (yesterday), which leaves me time to work out the book blurb this morning. Since today's my last rest day for the summer, I'm going to take it easy and allow myself to be as lazy and unproductive as I can be (though reading isn't unproductive at all, is it?). 

I need to put some space between the recent revisions and the next round of edits, and it's going to be hard as hell to do with me being at home. The temptation is real, yo. Anyway, here's the book blurb:

In the fairy tale-like and colorful town of Glossop lies a small graveyard guarded by an ancient yew. Residents have long resigned themselves to its existence, with the poorer ones forced to trek through its dreary space just to get to work each day. 

For little Rowan Linville, the mysterious graveyard is both a necessary ordeal for his parents and a strange place where something in the shadows whispers after him. Something that might also be behind a number of personal items Rowan’s lost in his occasional walks through the graveyard in his mother’s company. As he grows older, those whispers follow him, and boys his age intent upon courting him suddenly fall victim to all kinds of misfortunes. Illness, broken bones, sprained limbs, and odd accidents plague hopeful suitors until Rowan is saddled with the reputation of a cursed youth.

Hope stirs at the arrival of the Akker family and their younger son, the dashing Tennyson, who is immediately drawn to Rowan. A couple of chance glimpses of the lonely boy stir Tennyson’s artistic muse and lay the foundation for a future courtship that seems to come straight out of a Shakespearean comedy—and tragedy, for that matter. 

That is because the entity that has attached itself to Rowan is not at all pleased with this new suitor, and it will do anything to keep him away. Unfortunately for the ghost of an embittered man, it appears it has met its match in a determined and ridiculously smitten Tennyson.    

I think this is close to the final version of the blurb, but don't hold me to it. I always tweak the blurb as I continue to work on edits, and this one's no exception. At any rate, I'll be sharing the final version (if any) in a future post. 

By the way, I have an update on my upcoming publishing calendar. Recently, I said I'm thinking about spacing out the release dates some more since keeping to a four-month schedule is starting to wear me down especially with my day job holding steady with its volume of work. I gotta take care of myself some more, and that involves easing up on the gas pedal where my writing's concerned. 

I'll be going back to my six-month calendar, which will be a May / November timeline. Pretty easy to remember for all, and it was the schedule I followed in the past when I was still writing full-length novels. I mean, in some places my long novellas actually count as short novels, but I'm still adhering to the label of long novellas. My chosen word count is perfect, anyway, and I love working with it.

Tangent aside, that's my plan, which means that the following will be out next year: Doppelgänger and The Shadow Groom. And in 2027, we'll have Camera Obscura and A House of Profane Gods. I'll likely finish these books well ahead of schedule, but I'll plow through the edits and revisions as I usually do and list each book accordingly. Whether or not the final listing happens a month or two months or even three months before the actual release date is neither here nor there. If my speed puts me way ahead of the game, I'm not going to change the dates. 

What I'll expect to do in that case is to work on the next book even if its release date ends up a year out. All that extra time will be spent planning upcoming books, anyway, so there's no lost time at all. Plus self-care. Can't forget about that.

My Book News Page has been updated with the new calendar. 

Oh, Look, a Holiday

Wow. I'm finally enjoying a five-day break from work, which is something I haven't done since the lockdowns. There's a really long story behind the significant lack of PTO hours accrued since 2020, and I'm not going to start. Suffice it to say, I reached a milestone at my current job and am finally (FINALLY) reaping the benefits. I'm expected back next Thursday, and this holiday-of-sorts was planned specifically to fall on my birthday, which is Tuesday (Aug. 26).

I originally requested all of next week off, but I changed it as I wanted to allow myself one last hurrah in November before the holidays come, and the company goes into black out mode till after New Year's. 

So what's been up with me? Well, writing, of course -- or more specifically, revising and editing The Twilight Lover. It's also giving me lots of room to think more and more about the book that comes after (Doppelgänger) and how best to approach it. I've been significantly enjoying writing and revising + editing The Twilight Lover that I'm again being swayed into turning Doppelgänger into a dark comedy, but I'm trying to rein my impulses in. Until I settle down on a plot since there are so many paths to take with the idea (so what else is new?), the tone can be considered afterwards. 

The Shadow Groom, which comes after Doppelgänger, is a comedy, though, while Camera Obscura and A House of Profane Gods are both drama, so at least I've got some kind of balance going by way of tone. But as always, that's looking too far ahead, and I need to zero in on one thing at a time. 

In other news, my library card's been getting a wild workout lately. I've been checking out two or even three books at a time, and then there's also Hoopla, where I can check out digital books or audio books or even films and series. That said, I'm reverting back to print books when it comes to library loans, but as for purchasing books I want to own, I'm still a heavy e-book user. This is the only "vice" I now have as I get older, and what used to excite me in my twenties or even thirties no longer raise my interest. 

My eyesight needing extra help with font size adjustments aside, a quieter and more solitary pursuit has always been my thing. As a kid, I've frustrated people by pointedly ignoring them because I'd rather read my book than be with them (Dad absolutely loved seeing me read, though, so thank you, Dad). 

I recently reset my e-book library by updating old Kindle collections and turning them into .epub files, which I then re-uploaded while removing other books that are either one-time reads or DNFs. At the moment my e-book library's reached that sweet spot of containing only my favorite books (which I do reread when the mood strikes) and new titles. And so between that and my jaunts to the public library, my reading addiction's nicely satisfied while I'm also able to keep a close tab on my spending.

So you can guess what I'll be doing through Wednesday, eh? SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME! I mean, really, that'd be the best kind of dilemma to have as far as I'm concerned.  

'Helleville' and Road Trips

And not to mention Beetlejuice. 😀 

It's been a century since I last enjoyed a road trip, and that includes my favorite destination of the Sierra Nevada mountain range -- well, specifically Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite, and all the incredible places east of the mountains. And it's this glorious mountain range and its surrounding landscape that shaped Helleville's otherworldly nature. 

One of my favorite movies (ever!), Beetlejuice, got me worked up about writing an environment and its residents that were specifically designed to frighten people back into the straight and narrow but ultimately failed. And, largely, because it was so convenient not to have to pay for anything and also so much fun living in a literal ghost town with your own house ghost. 

What I love about Beetlejuice was how much more interesting the world of the dead seemed compared to the living even though bureaucracy is just as bad as that in the world of the living. Still infinitely funnier and interesting, but you get my drift. It's echoed in another Tim Burton classic, The Corpse Bride, which I also adore. In that movie, the world of the dead is a thousand times more colorful and fun than the drab and dreary world of the living. 

Anyway, I ran with that idea while locating Helleville in a desert-like area that mirrors the Sierras. And as much as I didn't want any of the residents to leave (go me!), of course I needed to demonstrate that the punishment doled out to sinners is stupidly short-sighted (which isn't even the worst thing about the machinations behind Noah and Dot's inter-dimensional trip). I do highly regret them leaving their house ghosts behind, but that can be a plot bunny for another book entirely. 

This song helped me along not so much because of the music itself but because of the video and its celebration of untamed nature. The location chosen also accurately captures the gorgeous and awe-inspiring sights I enjoyed when I went to those road trips.

Helleville is currently 50% off through the end of this month. Go here for the book page and the links to all online stores where you can get a copy.  

'Banshee' and Classic Victorian Ghost Fiction

This book was one of three with which I started my writing journey (Icarus in Flight and Masks: Rise of Heroes -- now a part of my Masks omnibus -- were the other two), and for this, I wanted to lose myself in my favorite genre, which is ghost fiction. Not of the modern interpretation involving killings and monster-like ghosts, but traditional haunted house fiction. 

This was pretty much my first ever attempt at writing a novel-length ghost story. 

For this book as well, I wanted to keep as close as I could to more realistic historical fiction so that the gay relationships are hidden and given the coming-of-age treatment that leads Nathaniel to greater self-awareness. His falling in love with another man is one of the key experiences he has to go through as a teenager in Victorian England as well as the only child of a vicar.  

abandoned old church (image from Pinterest)

This is also one of two books in my backlist that underwent a more recent update in that the final chapter was added once the rights all reverted back to me, and I prepared the book for self-publishing in its final format. The original story ended with a vaguely represented HFN, which didn't sit well with a number of readers who were hoping to see Nathaniel find happiness after the losses he was forced to endure. 

And that thought stuck with me easily enough since I did agree with the readers and saw how unsatisfactory the ending could be for those who wanted to be reassured (me included). So I added the epilogue, which still kept to the more realistic approach to the story while clarifying Nathaniel's future. 

Since I hadn't read Susan Hill's The Woman in Black when I first wrote this book, I did find a lot of inspiration from my favorite ghost story films and horror TV anthologies from the 1970s. There was also The Turn of the Screw, which will forever be one of the stronger literary influences for me when it comes to creating and maintaining tension and atmosphere.  

Banshee is one of two books that's 50% off through the end of August. Go here for the book blurb and links to the stores where you can purchase a copy. 

August Backlist Bonanza: 'Banshee' and 'Helleville'

For August's Backlist Bonanza sale, we have

BANSHEE

Nathaniel Wakeman is the only child and son of a modest vicar, who lives in the quiet and idyllic confines of the Isle of Wight. When his maternal grandfather dies, Natty's mother reconnects with her estranged and wealthy brother and his family in hopes of raising Natty up in the world, to urge him to go beyond the humble life he's always known.

Though his cousins show no particular regard for him, one of them, at least, lures him away from his retired life and introduces him to the world—and to the son of a baron from Somerset, Miles Lovell. Natty gradually finds himself drawn toward the older and worldlier gentleman and returns to his father's vicarage a changed young man. He also seems to have attracted the attention of a ghost, one that has followed him back to the island.

Haunted by a woman in white, who seems to appear when he's at his weakest, Natty struggles with his own nature and with his family's increasing difficulties. His mother is distant, hiding things from him as she never has, and his father is aging before his eyes. Quarrels between his parents grow more and more frequent, and Natty's increasing terror of familiar and beloved footpaths add to the spiraling tension at home.

While Natty tries to find his place in the world, his childhood is crumbling around him, and he becomes more and more convinced that his persistent ghost is a harbinger of doom.

and

HELLEVILLE

All fifteen-year-old Noah Hipwell wants is to go through high school in peace. Yet he finds himself suspended after a bully pushes him too far, and Noah's forced to defend himself. His mother, fed up with the school's indifference to his plight, pulls him out completely and leaves Noah uncertain of his future while they look for a good and safe school for him.

All Dorothy "Dot" Hipwell wants is to go through single motherhood in peace. Yet she and her son are harassed by weekly phone calls from her evangelical family hell-bent on guilt-tripping them both back into the fold. Then Noah's grandparents ask strange questions about their old van after dropping cryptic references to a group called The Soul Warriors. Pushed to her limits, Dot takes Noah away for a much-needed getaway, only to find themselves suddenly transported to an alternate world, where a town called Helleville awaits them and all other condemned souls.

Along with warm-blooded, living human beings, the Hipwells rub shoulders with zombies, vampires, house ghosts, and occasional "green vomit piles" while picking up the pieces and sorting out what could very well be an eternity in a bizarre, fanciful, and humorous world of ghouls and banned books.

When residents suddenly disappear one by one with no trace and for no logical reason, however, doubts being "housed" in an alternate world for their sins are raised, and time suddenly becomes of the essence as Noah and the rest of Helleville's condemned race to find answers to what's quickly turning into a dangerous puzzle.

From today through the end of August, both books are 50% off in e-book format from online stores. Click the book titles to go to their respective pages and the links to where you can purchase them.