'The Shadow Groom' Blurb

Getting there! I just finished the first round of revisions and edits, and I'm about to dive right back in for the next round. In the meantime, I submitted the book to Draft2Digital to format, so I can download my proof copy and use it for that purpose (and to have it listed ahead of time for pre-orders).

And along with that comes the book blurb. I was aiming for 250 words maximum, but it ended up blasting past and landing at around 260. At least it's not 300, eh?

All is well and perfect in the world because Errol Bricksworth and Edvin Loyola-Norikova are young (too young), in love (overly so), and betrothed at just nineteen (heaven help everyone). Their families aren’t very keen on the idea, and with the help of Errol’s beloved Uncle Sorrel, an arrangement is made meant to test the lads’ resolve to have their happily-ever-after.

It does require three months spent in an old, old gatehouse that’s not only home to mismatched furnishings, art, and miscellaneous contents spanning centuries, but a few very active ghosts as well. Errol and Edvin are to be the gatehouse’s caretakers while Uncle Sorrel, who owns the property, withdraws with his tiny staff to a cozy cottage tucked away in the wood. And for three months, both young men need to get their hands dirty, learn the rudiments of domestic life as a couple (learning how to cook helps), and get used to sharing space with lives long gone.

Errol and Edvin’s youth makes them brave and even reckless as they readily accept the terms, determined to prove those poxy adults wrong. Even those resident ghosts don’t bother them, though not all hauntings, apparently, are made the same. Equal parts irritating and unnerving, the ghosts gradually force the lads to think beyond their tiny world of two either through spectral echoes of long-forgotten lives or the quiet guidance of a gentleman known only as “the shadow groom” to former staff. 

The Shadow Groom is a humorous re-imagining of the German folktale “The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was”.

As always, there might be some tweaking still for the blurb, but at least it's one significant step forward short of pressing "publish" on my author dashboard.  

Calendar Changes and Updated Cover Art

As I work my way through The Shadow Groom, I'm already sorting out my notes and my book queue. For a while, I had Camera Obscura slated for November 1, but looking through my journal, I'm amassing a hefty amount of (very pushy) notes for Valérian. There are a number of things still needing to sort out with Camera Obscura, and I'm not going to steamroll my way through those missing patches of plot points. Done it before, and it didn't turn out well (see: Eidolon).

To that end, I'm rearranging my publishing calendar and switching dates around. Camera Obscura will be released next year while Valérian will leap frog over A House of Profane Gods (which also has way more notes going for it than Camera Obscura, by the way, but not as many as Valérian) for the November slot. 

The book also enjoyed a bit of an upgrade in its cover art now that it's been shuffled forward to an earlier date (it may still be slightly tweaked, but the elements are staying):

It's certainly much more effective than the first cover art I shared. With all that said, here's the new calendar:

2026 calendar

2027 calendar

With any luck, my notes for Camera Obscura will grow along the way. If not, it'll be switching spots once more with A House of Profane Gods. I've already updated my Book News and Book List pages.

In other news, my new book prices are all set at different online stores EXCEPT for Amazon, which is taking its damn sweet time. If you purchase any of my Grotesqueries books there, you'll still be paying 99 cents until they finally post the new price. 

Been a Week

Hard at work in the revision + editing department for The Shadow Groom. At the same time, notes are already stacking up for the next three books in my queue (Camera Obscura, A House of Profane Gods, and Valérian). In the course of which, by the way, I stumbled across a possible plot bunny for a "Pygmalion" retelling. Seeing as how that one's born from a moment of complete dejection, I'm not sure if it'll happen, but if I were to step back and stay focused and objective, I know I can do it.

If it does happen, it'll be something like a dark fairy tale of sorts. The only sticking point is the very personal nature of its source, if you will. I do have these moments on occasion whenever something triggers a specific thought that never fails to leave me depressed, and up until now, no story idea has ever come out of them. 

I've been drowning myself in books, too -- not that I've ever stopped, but up until the last few months, all of my reading's been done via e-book app. Now I'm doing a mixed bag of print (borrowed library books) and e-book (owned or borrowed), which also includes my Bucket List Reading. So far I've managed to read The War of the Worlds some months ago, and the most recent one was Logan's Run. Sadly, I DNF'd Logan's Run as I couldn't get into it, but there are still so many books out there screaming for my attention. So many books, so little time, and no room for regrets. 

I have Don Quixote somewhere in my queue, but considering the book's heft and text size, I'm going to have to finish the current pile of checked out books first before rolling up my mental sleeves and diving in.

My story ideas notebook is almost filled up, so I'm about to get a fresh one. However, I'm also getting into personal journaling as well as commonplace journaling. What I hope to do is mesh all three in one new notebook as a way of pulling myself off the internet and off my apps for longer and longer stretches of time every day. 

I've seen a number of videos on commonplace notebooks and on journaling, and a few of them seem very performative to me and less about the point of the exercise, which is something a person does privately. Anyway, that's the only beef I have about some of the content I've run across (and still run across), and since I've already dipped my toes into the pool for those two (been keeping a story ideas journal for ages now, so I be an expert on that), I already know how best to approach all three as one unit, using only one notebook. 

Hoping that'll yield dividends in the long run as being online is taxing as all hell, and I'm not getting any younger. At least the story ideas notebook has been my best friend for years, so it's just a matter of stretching my personal writing efforts a little further. 

Exclusive Store Sale Now On (and On and On...)

Just a quick post to let everyone know my store-wide perma-sale is now live. Everything -- save for the two novellas in my Dolores collection -- is marked down for all eternity (rather dramatic-sounding, but that's how it is). 

My books, including new titles, are discounted in tiers. The older the collection, the steeper the price drop. It starts with all the Grotesqueries collection at 60% off, which includes Doppelgänger that came out a couple of months ago (so still a baby). And then it goes up incrementally from there: 60%, 65%, 70%, and 75%. 

I was planning to do a BOGO, but Payhip requires an end date for that kind of sale, so I might as well tackle everything in one fell swoop and leave it be. 

When The Shadow Groom comes out, it'll be part of the perma-sale if you purchase it directly from my store. And so on and so forth. And thank you, as always, for your support.

'The Shadow Groom': Done! (Plus a Few More Things About Ye Olde D2D Drama)

Yeah, firstly, The Shadow Groom is done! First draft is complete, and I left myself a lot of room for additional material meant to clarify a bunch of events in the story. This means the revision phase will be rather hardcore, but it's necessary. 

So in celebration, here's the obligatory happy dance video:

Actually, it's a perfect fit for the story, so I'm running with it. 😁 This book is on track (obvs) for the planned July 1 release, and when it's out, I'll be doing another BOGO sale over at my Payhip store to celebrate its publication.

And speaking of Payhip, I had to re-upload the files to the store because all links and end matter material (other than the "about the author" page) needed to be taken out as they all linked back to Draft2Digital. Books still distributed by them will have those pages and links, but not those I'm selling directly.

I'm still salty about raising my prices for the Grotesqueries books, but I'm also going to balance that out by doing perma-sales at my store. I was at first planning to offer monthly specials, but with my recent pivot, it'll be permanent -- as to what the sale would be, I'm looking at a number of options and still need to decide on which.

I do treat my writing and publishing as a business, which means earnings go back into the pot and pay for stuff I need to keep the machine going. Cover art image licenses, domain name, etc. -- those are supposed to be covered by my royalties, and if D2D will be taking an even bigger chunk off that, either I pay out of pocket with my day job earnings (all of which are already accounted for, budget-wise) or via credit card, which is my last resort if things go down that road. 

Do I regret sprouting roots in niche fiction? No. Never did, never will. But this is the way of things, and I gotta roll with the punches if I wish to stick around and see to the long tail of publishing my books.

Again, a final apology for the price bump for my Grotesqueries books and Ghosts and Tea sequels. If you do prefer to own my books as opposed to borrow them from library platforms or subscription services, keep an eye out for the perma-sale I'll be posting about soon.  

In the meantime, this is the final week for the 80% off sale for my Masks and Miscellanous collections.