Hey, everyone!  Hope you guys/gals are doing OK out there.  Just a quick update on where I’m at in my personal and writing life.

Things have been a little hectic for me over the last few months.  My wife and I have decided to move from Indiana (where I’ve lived most of my life, sans the two years I attended college in Atlanta, Georgia) to Pennsylvania (where my wife is originally from, and where the two of us met).  The plan is for her to leave and start her new job next month, and I’ll be staying behind to prep and sell the house.  I hope the process won’t take but a few months, but you never know…

I’m nervous as hell about the move.  But the writer in me is excited.  I’m not blessed with the ability to sit and hang with other writers on a regular basis, to talk shop and bounce ideas off one another, and in turn I feel it hurts my writing and my drive.  Writing is already a very solitary exercise, but to be nearly void of author kinship can be detrimental to your creativity.  Every time I’m able to visit my writer friends in PA I get a renewed sense of inspiration and desire to create and better my work.  It forces me to want to climb the hill and get to where I want to be.  I know there are better things for me out East.  I know now that I’ll have more opportunities to grow my readership and attend signings and conventions (since most of the writing-centric gatherings are out that way).

Where does that lead my writing at the moment?  Unfortunately I haven’t been able to write much at all lately.  House repairs and traveling have taken up much of my free time, and I haven’t been able to produce like I would like to.  What I can tell you is that I recently had a short story accepted for the J.F. Gonzalez tribute anthology CLICKERS FOREVER.  I’m really proud of it.  I was nervous as hell to write in someone else’s world, especially someone as influential to my own writing as Gonzalez was.  The story is titled “For You, Anything” and it’s set in the world of his 2009 novel PRIMITIVE.  It’s due out from Thunderstorm Books some time later in the year.

I’m also about five thousand words into novella I’m calling ONE FOR THE ROAD.  I’m really excited to get back to work on it soon, as it is a story I’ve been wanting to write for a very long time.  I imagine that it will be around twenty thousand words by the end.  it’s probably the closest I’ll ever come to writing in the bizarro genre.

After that?  A few more short stories and then onto novel number 2 (working title: Ocean Front View).

Alright, everyone.  Gotta go.  Katie and I are leaving for a trip to Pennsylvania tomorrow to visit friends and family, with a quick stop in Louisville to see Dave Chappelle live (another check mark on the bucket list).  Gotta recharge those creativity batteries.  And I’m also recording an interview on a very well known podcast this weekend as well, which I’m incredibly excited and nervous about.

See you soon!

Hey, everyone!  Just a reminder that I’ll be at this year’s Pop!Con in Evansville, IN signing and selling books this Friday (4-8 pm) and Saturday (10am-6pm; 9:30am for those who have VIP tickets) at the National Guard Armory.  I’ll have plenty of copies of The Betrayed and Unfit For Burial: Four Short Stories, as well as the few copies of my chapbook Arrearages (less than 10 left), and a few copies of the more recent anthologies I have short fiction in like Dark Bits, Eulogies II: Tales from the Cellar and The Book of Blasphemous Words.  If you already have any of these books you’re more than welcome to bring them to get signed.  If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, please come down and check it out.  Whether you’re a reader, into cosplay or gaming, or just looking for something unique to buy, come and check it out.  Hope to see you there!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m proud to announce my debut novel “The Betrayed” is officially on sale in trade paperback on Amazon!  If you know me personally you know I’ve been working on this novel on and off for nearly a decade (I promise the next one won’t take that long to write ). I’m really proud of the outcome and I’m excited to unleash onto the world. I hope you decide to give a try, and whether you like it or not, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Kindle edition will be available soon.

The Book of Blasphemous Words, which features my flash story “Bust To Dust”, can be purchased here.

Helloooooooooooo!  Yes, it’s been a while.  Far too long since the last time I posted anything on this site.  But I promise that will change here very shortly.  I have a very special announcement planned for next month–something nearly ten years in the making–but for now I have a new story available for purchase.  The Book of Blasphemous Words is now out in trade paperback and Kindle from A Murder of Storytellers Publications.  My flash story “Bust To Dust” is featured among twenty-eight other tales about the dark side of faith.  Admittedly, this story was not originally written for this anthology.  I wrote this over a year ago for a webzine asking for the most outrageous flash story you could write.  I enjoy writing flash and attempted to write something completely over-the-top in five hundred words or less.  I believe I succeeded.  I never did hear back from that site, but I’m very happy it was selected to be a part of this project.  I hope you check it out.

Not so long ago, human beings were cursed with fear. They clamored for hope in a world of boundless suffering and death. They called out to the heavens and summoned gods. They crafted religions that would serve as a candle against the howling night.

That which alights must also burn.

A zealot spits venomous words from his pulpit, his congregation listening and nodding, their disgust with their neighbors boiling into a riotous rage. A girl returns from Bible Camp nine-months pregnant with God’s child–images of a golden flame pressing on her chest, paralyzing her, flood her nightmares. Heaven replaces its angels with automata, dispensing salvation and damnation with callous efficiency.

Book of Blasphemous Words is a weird fiction, horror, and speculative fiction anthology about humanity’s relationship with its gods. When we answer the call for salvation from the bondage of the material–when we believe in gods–we reach a hand into the unknown and risk losing it to something peckish. When we forget the power of the hearth, we risk a conflagration that can return civilization to the dirt whence it has come.