I'm still here!

For those of you who are new, welcome! For my loyal followers and fans, welcome back!

As you may have noticed, the "Where Man & Monster Meet" website has gone through some changes, and there has not been a blog post in quite some time. I am here to give you a brief update and assure you there is more content coming.

One of the difficult part about being a self published author is that you have to manage your own marketing. Marketing is a completely different skill set than story writing and, though I have some of those skills, it is very time consuming and I find it infinitely less interesting than working on my next book. 

So what have I been up to? 

I have taken some time to begin creating more marketing content, including previews for the audio book of "Where Man & Monster Meet", as well as, setting up the YouTube channel, and running some high-level ads. 

I have also had the privilege of working with Cameron Smith to transform "Where Man & Monster Meet" into an audio book. It has been a dream of mine for sometime to have my first book on Audible and I am happy to report, it is finally there!

Cameron is an exceptional voice artist. He is a good communicator, extremely talented and proficient with voice work, and very personable. He was easy to work with and we had a lot of fun working on this journey together. I hope to be scheduling an interview with him soon, which will be on the YouTube channel if you wish to learn more about him and this project.  

Additionally, I have been loosely involved with Hero Shack’s comic run “The Great Cyclopian” as well as the “The Cardinal Justice” project. Both are written and illustrated by ever-talented Chris Tamulevich. "The Great Cyclopian" story thus far can be read on the Hero Shack website for free! If you would like to help fund/purchase the upcoming issue, just click here. I highly recommend you check out both!

"The Cardinal of Justice" is based on a superhero that I designed when I was a kid. When Chris asked if he could add the character to his universe and re-imagine him, I was both flattered and honored. It has been truly spectacular watching him, bring a character to life and seeing him in print, as comics are very close to my heart.

As far as my own projects are concerned, I am currently working on my next two books. The working titles being: “The Sleeping King” and “Romeo”. 

I hope you have enjoyed these updates and my content thus far!

Please like, share, and comment! 

Long Time - No See

When I first began to blog I was hoping to provide you with thought provoking questions, well thought out theses, and life advice. Unfortunately, I have found that, along with not knowing as much as I thought I did about the world and life, I prefer to spend my time exploring these questions within the context of writing my books, not blogging.

In 2020, I made it a goal to post one blog per month. I believe I did 9 out of the 12 months (not bad all things considered). However, then I left you all hanging for the next year and so I wanted to reach out and let you know what is going on.

First, I would like to let you know that I released my third book Heaven Sent this past year.

This is a YA coming-of-age story about a young girl struggling with the loss of a loved one and trying to face a world that is telling her to move on. As always, you can purchase it here on Amazon. Please remember to leave a review!

Second, I had a young man reach out to me, a while back, asking for assistance with a story he was writing. He is working on a fantasy novel and was looking for some critique and advice. We would get together and discuss his work and I would try to jot down some tips, tricks, and notes. This, in turn, led me to create a new section of my website for writing advice. This section contains high level advice for story structure, character development, and even academic writing. So, feel free to check that out and pass it along to any writer friends.

Finally, I have become rather busy in the past few years and am finding it harder to make time for both reading and writing. However, I am by no means done with writing. I have three books in the works at the moment. The first, is another fantasy novel which I suspect will be the next to be completed. The second, is a contemporary fiction about a corrupt city, a missing girl, and her sister who goes there to find her. The last, is a horror anthology I have been debating finishing and releasing.

I hope all has been well with you and yours this past year! If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

How do you choose the next book you will read?

I am a writer of fiction and fantasy, and I confess I have not read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings….yet. This always catches people off guard and I admit it strikes me as a little odd as well. I have a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring sitting on my “to-read” shelf and it just continues to sit being passed over for various others.

So I ask you: How do you choose the next book you will read?

Do you look at the cover? The price? Books you already own, or do you search online?

In the world of self-publishing you are told readers choose by cover, then by the book blurb on the back. Do you agree? Shoot me an email. Let me know how you choose!

As we are coming up on the end of the year I figured I would provide you with an update.

A few months ago, I reached out to several of my friends in hopes to write an anthology of Fairy Tales, Reflections of Reality. We have made a lot of progress and, though we do not currently have an ETA, I am hoping to have it out by the end of 2020.

For those of you wondering, my third book is about half way written. It is another young adult novel about a high school girl struggling with loss. I am currently referring to as Heavensent but we will see if the title changes. You can expect that to be released in 2021.

Finally, I decided to try something new and I wrote a short horror/thriller story that is definitely geared towards adults. My plan is to submit it to several print magazines to see if anyone will take it. So wish me luck on that. I will let you know if I get published!

Other than that the year is coming to a quick close and I have a few plans for a second blog on my site specifically to teach some of the things I have learned about writing. This would be to help high school and college students as well as those who are writing for fun. I also have plans for a YouTube channel and audio books.

So stay tuned there is more to come!