The Brand New Winter Goose Publishing

This past weekend my publisher, Winter Goose Publishing (www.wintergoosepublishing.com), rolled out a brand new logo and design. This comes out ahead of their call for submissions - the open submissions period will be for the month of April only. 

I love the new, stark imagery incorporated on their site and the new sleek logo. My favorite change of theirs is to the new slogan: Where words take flight

Head on over to their site, have a look around. Sign up for their newsletter to be kept up to date on new releases and authors. 

You can also find Winter Goose on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/wintergoosepublishing) and Twitter (@WinterGoosePub).

For any writers: if you've been sitting on a manuscript, why not send it to WGP!?! You've got all of April to do so. There's nothing to lose by possibly being published by a wonderful press that cares and takes pride equally in regards to their products and their authors.

Seriously, what have you got to lose? Get on that submission!

Seven Things You Didn't Know About My Writing (Expanded Edition)

Last night I was tagged in a Facebook post by friend Kevin Lucia (www.kevinlucia.com), author of THINGS SLIP THROUGH, DEVOURER OF SOULS, and the upcoming THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY (which I'll be reading and reviewing shortly), and in this post I was to list seven things about my writing that you probably didn't know. I had fun with the list and decided it made for a cool blog entry. So here we are.

And because this is also appearing here, I've gone ahead and elaborated on some of my responses.

Seven Things You Didn't Know About My Writing:

1. I wrote my first novel in a span of about three months back in the spring/summer of 2007. It was a 109,000 word mashup called SIGNAL that consisted of all things Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Stephen King, and George Romero's zombie films. To be blunt, the book sucks. I self-pubbed it because I didn't know better at the time. Don't bother looking for it or buying it. Not worth it. (I also sent a copy to Kevin Lucia to review for the Press & Sun all those years ago. Thank God he never did.) If you look it up there's a copy somewhere going for well over $100. I find that laughable.

2. Before SEEING I wrote two full manuscripts (HAUNTED, UNWRITTEN) and plotted a third (SIGHTINGS) with teenage protagonists. I knew I wanted to have a young main character because I had been working with children and loved seeing the world from their perspective - innocence and an open-minded willingness to believe.

3. It was my Creative Writing professor in college who pushed me to be a writer. She praised my work in class and said I should try to get published. She loved a story I wrote called "The Lottery Begins" that served as a prequel to my favorite short story by Shirley Jackson ("The Lottery"). It was also this same teacher who read a book of mine after I graduated and tore it to pieces. This was back in 2008 and, needless to say, because of her scathing review, I wouldn't write again for two years.

4. My wife was the one who convinced me to start writing again. When we were dating, I told her my dream had always been to be an author, so, for our anniversary that month, she bought me a green-covered notebook and some pens. This was in the fall of 2010. The first draft of the novel I hand-wrote in that notebook was titled RUN TO ME. Later, I renamed the book SEEING. I still have the notebook and the pen I wrote it with.

5. My writing is largely inspired by The Twilight Zone, mostly in the show's concept of ordinary people facing "What if..." situations.

6. I don't write long novels, yet, because my style - for the first three books anyway - is to follow one character through life-changing events and only focus on what's important in the story. In SEEING, this year's THE PAINTED LADY, and next year's AN UNEXPECTED VISIT, the action follows one character's experiences over a short period of time, never splitting off to follow another character and subplots are kept to a minimum. I have larger ideas for longer stories but want to build up to them. I don't think I've earned writing a long novel just yet. Right now I am very comfortable doing quieter, shorter stories that get in your head and live there. I also believe that many long books tend to contain a lot of filler that is unnecessary and more people tend to get bored with a story if they sense the author dragging their heels. I don't want readers to set my books down so I keep the story moving best I can with only what is most important.

7. Many times before I begin a writing/editing session I will read a few pages from my favorite book, A MONSTER CALLS. The author, Patrick Ness, crafted such a lovely, tragic novel that I can't help but be inspired by his creation. Reading his work always makes me strive to make my own work better.

And there you have it.

Author Night in Apalachin on April 7

The time of the event is still being determined (I'll update as soon as I know), but I have been asked to appear at an Author Night at the Apalachin Public Library in Apalachin, New York on Tuesday, April 7. Further details about the event are forthcoming.

Maybe I'll read a snippet from THE PAINTED LADY...

The Painted Lady arriving this August

It's both exciting and terrifying to think that in just five months my next book will be out. Currently slated for an August release, THE PAINTED LADY, published by the wonderful Winter Goose Publishing, is an adult novel that delves into many different genres. Equal parts love story, mystery, tragedy, thriller, and urban fantasy, the story is also inspirational one, full of discovering new hope for a damaged soul.

Recently I put a few hints regarding THE PAINTED LADY out via Twitter, mostly that it'll be out in August and that the story is more adult-themed. My wife thought I should've dropped some bigger clues (what can I say, 140 characters is very limiting), and so I've decided to include a full plot summary along with this blog:

Even the strangest things happen for a reason.

Miles Greene once spent his days creating beautiful works of cinematic art, all the while treasuring the deepening love for his wife, Stephanie. But now his days are filled drudging through the mundane of listening to the uneasy peace of a quiet neighborhood and flipping between mindless daytime talk shows. A recent widow, Miles's once prominent existence has been reduced to meekly hiding away in his ground floor apartment, leaving his once successful art career, and any determination to carry him beyond existing on a day to day basis, to neglect.

Then, with the sudden appearance of an unusual woman living in the upstairs apartment, Miles learns that he is no longer in control of his destiny as forces beyond his control become the catalyst, an influence acting without any choice or consent to turn his life around. Everything is about to change.

A new path unfolds in front of Miles, a path that may offer redemption at its end, but a path that also promises a confrontation with the past, including coming face to face with a previously unseen evil, as well as coming to terms with a demon hiding within Miles himself - a burden of guilt burrowed so deep it goes back years before his wife's death.

Because I love to have a hand in everything regarding my work (it's not a control thing as it is gaining knowledge and discovering what works best for representing the story), I started creating some concept book covers for LADY. While this isn't a new thing (I did this with SEEING too, and funny enough the design my publisher offered for the book was both way better than what I thought I wanted and better than anything I could design) I usually don't put these concept designs online. However, for THE PAINTED LADY, I wanted to generate some buzz and get some feedback. Up on my Instagram are three designs for the book's cover art - I've also posted them below, side by side for comparison. If you have a favorite, leave a comment or give a Like. I can't make any promises that any part of the designs featured will find their way onto the actual book's cover, that decision lies with my publisher and those on their team responsible for design, but I will say that they were impressed enough with my concepts that, well, anything is indeed possible.

Concept cover arts

More news and announcements on THE PAINTED LADY are coming! Stay tuned.