Under Cover

E arlier this year I was proud to publish my first non-fiction book in eight years. I published six books from 2008 until 2017 and had struggled to develop a new project since then. Granted, from 2023 through 2024 I did have two short stories published in anthologies as well as wrapped up a novel I had been working on before 2017 as well as create and finish my second. My shift to fiction took a bit of time but I feel the grip under my feet the more I write. Since I lost momentum after 2017’s Handbook for the Amateur UFO Investigator I feel like I’ve gained greater confidence in writing as well as ability to finish projects since finally tackling that first novel. I did feel like I had unfinished business in the non-fiction realm and felt I needed something else to hold up my most popular book, Handbook for the Amateur Cryptozoologist , that came out in 2014 with good success that led to a second edition in 2015 with a foreword from Loren Coleman and other minor updates. Eastern...

L i fe has been busy and while I had big plans for this blog it was one of many things that I have put on the back burner. My goal was to write a weekly blog post on how to become a better writer and in true writer form I became distracted and eventually abandoned this project. However, I've returned and still have several pieces for this blog in various stages of development to share. I started out by looking at some basic questions I have been asked through the years when it comes to writing. I have plenty more in the oven but also some more complicated ones and some that cover aspects of just being an author. I enjoy writing these posts as it gives me some time to reflect but also share my thoughts with the world without feeling like I am giving anyone unsolicited advice. My thoughts shared here are merely my opinion (with some facts sprinkled in) and things may work out for you in other ways. What have I been up to since July of last year? Early in 2024 I was excited about the ...

I t’s finally here! I have published six non-fiction books and had a short story published in an anthology in 2023, but nothing beats my first novel. This book has been in production for many years and was not the first book I had intended to publish. It’s been a long journey from developing the characters and plot and certainly rewriting and editing as well as editing and rewriting and then editing some more and then fomatting for release. My first book idea was about a ghost group in a fictional setting. I developed what I thought was a good story, but the plot fell apart and I got stuck nearly halfway through it. In the book I had created a character that was friends with one of my main characters. His name was Henry Malone and was a motocross rider as well as a cryptozoologist (those who study unknown and undiscovered animals like Bigfoot). My initial idea was to have a character established in this book that could be used in a forthcoming book in a series of the ghost group or eve...