Man, I’m tired. Slept 12 hours the other day. I began a class last week. The day job has been hectic. There’s been more snow than there’s any right to be. And I’m tired. But you’re not here to listen to me kvetch, are you?

Of course not.

What you want to know is about what’s happening right now. Well, luckily, that’s what I’m here for, too. I want to thank those who ordered Alice on the Shelf and pre-ordered Shadowed. According to this post, both are bestsellers at Horror Mall. Still, I think we can do better. So if you’ve already ordered, recommend the books to friends who might like horror/dark fantasy books. If you haven’t ordered them yet, what are you waiting for?

Now that I’m done hawking my goods, let’s talk a bit, you ‘n me. I didn’t work my ass off on this website to only sell my writing but to also have a place to communicate to readers and other people who are interested, so that’s what I’m planning on doing now.

I figured you might be interested in not just the two oft-/aforementioned books but on other projects. I have several short stories, novellas, and a novel in various states of completion. The novel is in a box at my feet right now waiting to be edited for a second draft. I think it’s good (real good) in places but it definitely needs work. My goal is to begin submitting the book this fall. Now, I’m not sure whether that will happen or not, but it’s the goal.

Right now I have a first-draft novella waiting to be edited and rewritten, but I’m not sure that one will ever see the light of day. It’s a sequel and I’m unsure of it right now.

It’s the other novella that I really want to write about (without actually saying anything about). That one is being written right now. I’m still using the term novella for it because that’s what I’m aiming for. However, I think it may have enough legs to become an actual novel, albeit a shorter one. It’s a story that came to me from a dream while writing an initial version of the aforementioned novel. I awoke with these images and a storyline in my head that I couldn’t ignore. I filed it away and continued work on the novel.

Strangely, the idea and the novel both inspired me to want to return to Shadowed, which was an abandoned novel. I realized that I wanted Shadowed to go further than it needed to. So when I was approached to submit a novella to Delirium, I decided to use that opportunity to rewrite Shadowed. Which is what led me to finally write the novella I’m working on now.

I purposely used two characters from this (at the time) unwritten idea to help populate Gina Copeland’s world in Shadowed. Both are minor characters, though one is far more important to Gina’s story than the other.

This is not to say that what I’m working on now is a sequel to Shadowed, because I’m not. It’s a completely different story set in my fictional city of Harden, Massachusetts. As has happened so often in the past thirty years (in other words, since Stephen King began having characters and locales pop up in a variety of books without ever writing sequels per se) in dark fantasy/horror literature, the characters are inhabiting the same universe.

The story I’m writing now is brutal and there have been days recently when I’ve gotten up from the computer more anxious than when I sat down at it. More anxious and sadder. I’m at the point where I’m unsure if what I’m writing is good or not, but I know it’s tough. Still, I’m compelled to write it.

My goal is to have the first draft done by the end of February (I have a vacation at the end of the month, so that’s a possible goal). It will get put aside as I work out some short stories for submission and then work on a second draft of the novel. Whether you’ll see this novella remains to be seen. But I’m thinking you will. I know it’s tough, but I think it’s good.