'Doppelgänger' Blurb

Oooh, man, I'm so excited about this book. Now granted it started out completely different, but that version of the book hit a brick wall, and I just had to set it aside and start from square one. And let me tell you all, it was the right decision to make.

And as I continue to work on edits now (revisions are done), I guess it's time to share the book blurb:

An impoverished young teacher loses his job when the informal ragged school where he works shuts down. A much-needed stroke of luck, however, brightens Alec Herridge’s prospects when he stumbles across a frame-maker’s shop and is offered a job. This puts him squarely in the path of an enigmatic and wealthy family from France—expatriates whom gossips whisper about. Something, they say, has followed mother and son to England, and day servants complain about a heaviness in the air whenever the family is at home. 

It’s a dark energy that turns its attention to Alec now that his new job requires him to work closely with Marguerite and Théo LaSalle. It also appears to him as a silent lookalike of Théo, its presence marked by whispers in a child’s voice. Urging, pleading, desperately reaching out to Alec for help.

Folklore defines doppelgängers as heralds of ill fortune, but Alec soon discovers there’s much more to Théo’s double than a warning. That whatever horrible secrets the LaSalle family believes were left behind in France aren’t the kind so easily explained away. That something has, indeed, followed them in exile and now refuses to be ignored or forgotten.

I was originally planning to have it out in April or May when I still had the six-month calendar to work with. But with my day job schedule changing (and it starts this week), I find I'll have just the perfect amount of wiggle room to continue with the more challenging 4-month release dates.

This book's release will now be on March 1 -- not a lot of time left, but that's because of the problems I had that required me to start over. Plus I did take nearly a full month's break as well during the holidays to rest the brain cells. So it's going to be a tight final stretch, but I can do it. My energy levels and motivation are very high this month, and it's going to work out. 

And, you know, this turned out to be a book that ended up being very close to my heart. I've also said this about some of the books on my backlist before, but while I'm proud of everything I've written and published, this is one of the select few that really, truly felt good working on because everything in it means something to me.

Anyway, there's the blurb, and I'll be posting more updates on the book as we get closer to the release date.  

Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

Idioms aside, that's just me making a liar out of myself. I spent the past couple of weeks thinking -- and overthinking -- my future releases given changes taking place at the day job and other situations in the real world. And you know what? Fuck the noise. I'm doing this. Now that it's possible, yeah -- I'm doing this.

But firstly, I made a formal commitment (to myself, anyway) to move forward with the overhaul to Eidolon, which is now called Liminal Child. I'll be tackling that last, but it's officially part of my queue now. 

And I have a cover (why, yes, my name partly disappears again, but I love the image, and I'm keeping it), in which I recycle the hand print that was on the alternate cover for Valérian:

I'm going to hold on to the first five or six chapters with a lot of tweaks worked in. The PoV will shift from Emerick to his two fathers, and the setting will be some amorphous place that's similar to what I originally used in the Curiosities series. I'm going to try to keep things fairly close to the first incarnation of the book with more of a dark fairy tale aesthetic -- which was, to be fair, what the entire Curiosities series was all about. 

I'll figure out the details when I get there, but I do know how to approach the changes overall.

And secondly, bringing us back to the post title, let me repeat myself: fuck the noise. I'm doing it. And that's in reference to the calendar again now that I'm going to be getting some extra time for writing (official confirmation's been done). In brief, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to go back to the old 4-month calendar. I managed to do that for a few years with a heavy load at the day job, even shifting releases earlier here and there because things went either smoothly or badly enough for me to finish earlier or later than planned. But things are going to change starting February, and I refuse to be at loose ends on the writing front as it's one sure-fire way of driving me crazy.

So this is for 2026 (click the image for a closer look):

And this is for 2027 (ditto):

I do like to keep mentally busy on my extra days off, and that's not counting just kicking back and reading whatever book I've checked out from the library. I want to write, and I love every minute of it despite the excruciating nature of creation. I also work best with a set schedule to guide my pace, and the coming year or two will see an easing of the pressure as well in spite of the reversal to the 4-month plan.

Over the years, I was more like a steady workhorse with my writing. This year feels a little different even though we barely started the second half of the first month of 2026. I feel oddly lighter despite what I'm seeing around me (real world-wise, that is), and I want to take that energy and motivation and run with them. 

I'd like to be not so much a steady workhorse this time around, but an aggressive and steady workhorse. An odd combo, but there it is. That's my aim. I want it, and I'm going for it. Part of it has to do with my Payhip store and my second attempt at selling direct to readers. I wasn't too sure in my first attempt and was easily discouraged by it (plus I was on social media, too, which didn't help my efforts), but with all the changes I've discussed pertaining to Draft2Digital's policies, I don't want to be passive about stuff. It was good while it lasted, but if things change, I have to pivot accordingly if I want to keep doing what I'm doing and benefit from it, no matter how little.

So, yeah -- I'm going for it. God help me, I am. 😈

P.S. I'll updating my Book News page later this week to reflect this change. 

Still Playing In the Sandbox

You can tell I'm getting pretty hyped about my upcoming WiPs because I'm playing with cover art and coming up with alternates. 

So this is the same image from yesterday, only kept in its unedited format and also shifted to the right. I want to emphasize the halo behind the head since it's part of the mental trap the MC will be getting sucked into. Also you can at least see my name in this case, so that helps.

And this is the alternate cover:

This works effectively in establishing the mood and atmosphere of the book, and every element suggests something important about Valérian. It's not as subtle as the first image, which is meant to work like a ruse, but either cover art will work. I'll be making my final decision down the line, of course, as it'll be a while before I get going on this.

I'm down to the final five chapters of Doppelgänger revisions, which I'll complete next weekend. Then it'll be another round of lighter edits. THEN it'll be The Shadow Groom, which will be another nice change of pace since it's going to be another comedy-horror based on the Grimm Brothers fairy tale. If I play my cards right, it'll be in the same vein as The Twilight Lover. 

As for my Payhip store, I do intend to offer sales each quarter, and that includes BOGO (Buy One, Get One [either free or half off]) sales that'll last two months. I'm still sorting through how best to stir interest in my books in between releases, especially since my backlist is not only extensive, but old. And getting even older by the month. 

I'll certainly talk about it here as the ideas come. And they do. I can't shut my brain off.

And We Have a New One!

And this is absolutely doable at this point. It's a long story, but I'll be enjoying more time here and there for my writing, which is really, REALLY doing a massive number on my brain and how it's working around calendar updates and stuff. Anyway, here we have a new book added:

I know, my name at the top tends to disappear depending on the image I use for the cover art. But the title is what matters more, and since I self-publish, I can do whatever I want. 

This story was inspired by several images I saved from Pinterest -- my go-to space for image inspiration. Specifically, this one, which I've been holding on to for God knows how long:

Oh, and not to mention this one as well: 

 

This is NOT, by the way, the Cupid and Psyche retelling I've been playing with in my head. It isn't a ghost story, either, but more gothic horror with a heavy dose of atmosphere. To an extent, I'd say it's closer in literary influence to Rebecca than mythology. 

 

Of course, I'm still working on my revisions for Doppelganger, so I might be slightly influenced by the whole double-walker element (though in the case of the new book, there aren't any hauntings save for psychological ones).  

 

So, yeah -- I'm really excited about this. It's been a while since I last got inspired with a new book idea, so this is amazing. At any rate, it'll be added to my queue, and it'll likely be coming after A House of Profane Gods. I'm still figuring out where to plant the overhauled Eidolon book, but that's kind of low on my priority list right now. 

Just Flapping Ye Olde Gums

It's a pretty disturbing idiom, isn't it: "flapping gums"? It's like -- YIKES, I can't unsee it! But it means to talk idly, so I'll hang on to that. Damn idiom. Can't get it out of my head now.

Anyway, like the gross post title says, this is just me blabbity-blabbing away in lieu of, you know, solid updates.

So firstly -- revisions for Doppelgänger are going disturbingly well. I should be done with the first round by the end of this month. Even a weekend before, come to think of it, but a lot of the work happened during the holiday weekend, when I was forced -- yes, FORCED -- to stay home for a four-day weekend. I wanted to go to work, people, but post-Christmas work is always light, and I had to redirect my energy. At least I got that done, and I'm happy with the results so far.

And that segues into another publishing calendar update.

I'll now have the chance to work an extra day here and there on my WiP (whatever it might be), which means another adjustment on my calendar. If things continue to go down this road indefinitely, I might be back to a more frequent release schedule -- like every 4 months instead of the target 6. The sweet spot would be every 5 months for the more frequent releases, to be honest, so I'll need to re-calibrate my brain into following that slightly tweaked rhythm.

I mean, there's a big difference between 4 and 6 but not so between 4 and 5. It's common sense, so why the hell am I overthinking stuff again? 

Secondly -- I've updated this site with the appropriate links to my Payhip store but didn't take out the old ones for Books2Read. My Book List page, in particular, have individual book links to their Books2Read pages, but the general link is now for Payhip. My site's navigation bar has been updated as well, and I'll leave it like that for now. 

Essentially my Books2Read store is still up and running, and I won't be pulling my books from any of the listings there; however, I'll no longer be using that for my primary store site whenever I advertise a new release. I understand that many folks prefer to buy books from their favorite online stores, and I'm not going to force their hands, but the focus will shift elsewhere. 

Thirdly -- I tried, but I gave up on the Dresden Files novel series. I read Storm Front and enjoyed it enough to want to read the rest of the books that are available at the library, but the next book I picked up was disappointing. I guess I'm not the audience for the series even though the premise sounds fun. But having the hero spend the entire book getting his ass handed to him while lusting after every woman he sees frustrated the ever-loving hell out of me. 

I did check out a couple of ghost story novels which I look forward to reading (The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill and This House is Haunted by John Boyne). We'll see how those pan out. The great thing about the public library (one of the great things, I mean) is that there are thematic lists put together by library staff from different public libraries, and I get to check out the more obscure titles to enjoy. I bookmarked the page of recommended titles in the same vein as those two I mentioned.

There's the rub, I think. Super popular books like the Dresden Files (and I've read a good number over the years) end up disappointing me while books overlooked by the most vocal readers stick the landing. So it takes me longer to find the books I end up enjoying, hence my refusal to use Goodreads for that. Well, I deleted my account there ages ago, and I can't say I miss it.

And I guess that's it for now. I'm still tweaking my Payhip store, appearance-wise, so there may be small changes happening whenever you visit. At the moment it's simple and functional, and that's all I need for the time being.