Oh, Hello. There I Am.

I didn't realize I've only posted twice this month. Yikes. But then it's that time of the year when I step back and ease off the gas pedal -- at least where online activity's concerned. Or blogging, anyway. This month's been surprisingly productive off-screen, if you will, with Valérian coming along pretty well, and the notes (and growing number of images for the book's future gallery page) are giving me a lot of fuel for the story's forward momentum.

Oh, hey, it's Roland! (image from Pinterest)

The story's being told from one POV this time a la Doppelgänger, and it's just as dark as said book. With any luck, I'll be able to get all of the creepy stuff out of my system by the time Camera Obscura comes around because that book's supposed to be another comedy (a complete 180 turn from the original story idea).  

I have been pretty busy scouring around for image prompts, and as mentioned before, Pinterest has been a goldmine as far as what I'm hoping to tackle after Liminal Child (in addition to other books in my queue). 

But I've also run across a few sites that have several story prompts based on genre, and I'm hoping they'll still be around once I'm ready to get started on brainstorming and note-taking. I tend to go nuts whenever inspiration strikes, and before I know it, I've got half a dozen story ideas lined up with book covers already put together. Talk about optimism, right? But those book cover images actually light the fire under me, and if I hold on to them, they're always there to remind me about whatever plotbunnies are waiting their turn to be turned into full-blown books.

As of late, I realize I've been saving images of cemetery statues -- not of angels, but something like the ones I posted previously that have gotten me going with Valérian. 

One of a dozen-plus for A House of Profane Gods (image from Pinterest)

The difference, though, is that the images (there are two) that I set aside for Valérian are strictly a solo thing, i.e., the statues represent only one person in the story. But the newer obsession I have involve multiple figures in a variety of poses that run the gamut between sad, creepy, and grotesque. And I do have the germ of a story inspired by those images; however, we're looking at a publication date that's two years from now. Will that idea stick around that long? I've already committed to the next four books on my calendar. I haven't bothered to look beyond them. In fact, I made myself stop.

But, uh... cemetery statues. They need a story.

And there's also that Cupid and Psyche retelling that I want to tackle even though I haven't gotten around to coming up with how best to do that. Too many ideas, I'm telling you, and there's only one of me.  

Next Up: Valérian

So when I said "soon", I clearly meant "in a week, yo". 😶 Yeah, life happened, alas. 

Anyway, I've just started work on Valérian, which is enjoying copious notes-spawning in my notebook. I'm really looking forward to this story as it's been getting pretty expansive in my head, and I've also got some pretty effective musical and visual inspiration for it. 

This image, which I'll be using in the gallery page for the book down the line, has been lurking in my hard drive for a good long time, and it's finally making itself "heard". I know it's most likely AI-generated, but I couldn't find anything else just as fantastical and creepy as hell that's from real-life cemeteries, so I apologize for its usage (to be honest, a lot of the images I've used for my gallery pages were AI-generated, which seems to be the thing now over at Pinterest, my go-to place for visual prompts). 

Then there's this song, which pretty much encapsulates the subject of the book:

I talked about that song as well as "Daniel" in an older post, and as with the image above, they're finally getting the story treatment. When the time comes for the gallery page to be made, it's going to be an embarrassment of riches for me regarding the images that can be used for the moodboard and other things. 

Yay, progress! 

'The Shadow Groom' Gallery Page Now Up

As I'm up to my ears in errands and chores, this'll be a short and sweet post. The gallery page for The Shadow Groom is now up, and there's quite a bit of background stuff I'm sharing with visitors there. Head on yonder for the goodies. 

And I'll be back soon. Maybe not today, no, but soon.  

'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.