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Showing posts from September, 2020

and lull

 One thing that's been interesting to watch on my self-publishing journey is the lulls and the peaks. We're in a lull right now--the first few weeks of September were crazy for sales. Crazy, of course, is by my standards, which means, I was selling at least one copy, Kindle or print, every day. Now we're in a lull. I'm sure where this comes in is when I'm putting out more books; people take a look at everything or whatever. Because at the end of August/beginning of September, I put out three books. That's a lot more than zero--right now I'm working on finishing up the revision/reformatting of The Horror at Camp New Woods , or the second book in the Aughts Boys series, but once that one's out it'll be pretty fast one-two to publish that and Spahn . So we'll see--maybe I'll even have The Crucifixion of Craig Knox done by that time. That does beg the question--what's it going to look like when I don't have just reformatting to do? After

Aurora Writes | Days 128-131 | Rewriting Book Two

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Let's Talk Horror | Bad Horror Movies

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fear and what the hell even matters anyway

 Keep in mind, that when I say "What the hell even matters, anyway?", I don't mean it negatively. For the past couple of years I've subscribed to a school of thought of none of this actually matters so you might as well do what you want--and that's done more for me doing what I want than anything else ever has.  But this morning it was foggy. I get up every morning, Monday through Friday (until, of course, we have another two people get COVID-19 and we have to go distance again for two+ weeks), at 5:45, leave the apartment at 6:30. Drive my old 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis forty-five minutes to try and raise some kids to a standard of basic literacy. Argue with the kid who's in two English classes due to failing one last year but is actually pretty gifted English-wise into maybe doing his essays.  But it was foggy. I noticed right away that I had a dense fog advisory on my phone--shit. This last January I was driving back from Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Roadshow

January Movies | 2020

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DIRT - short story

  Author's Note: This story takes place in the world of Tinon , which currently has book one out, book two currently being written. 

Aurora Writes | Days 123-127 | Rewriting Book Two

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CHARLIE HARMER AND THE LADY IN RED by Brendan Detzner | Book Review

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upcoming releases

 So, figured I'd do a little upcoming releases post here--I don't have dates for any of them, but these are the next three books I'm going to be putting out: The Horror at Camp New Woods , which is the sequel to One More Sad Song . It takes place the summer before OMSS, and it takes... an interesting turn, genre-wise. The main character is this kid named Elliot who goes to summer camp, where he does run into the character that connects it into the Aughts Boys universe. Spahn , which is the first in the Vendettic series--basically, this is the "Metallica Project" that I've been making vlogs on. Spahn follows up-and-coming heavy metal band Vendettic in the early 80s, when they go to play a festival at the newly rebuilt Spahn Ranch and maybe set loose an ancient evil? It's a fun time and the main character is so dumb.  The Crucifixion of Craig Knox --get excited, guys, because this is my WM3 project. The one I wrote for NaNo a couple years back. The one I wro

June Vlog | 2020

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keeping productivity with an actual job

 I'm not like, denigrating my former job. I loved Pizza Corner, and I got a lot of great stuff out of that job, including, but not limited to: a boyfriend, cheap pizza for ten months, an active, on-your-feet work environment, and, honestly, I did enjoy most of the people I worked with. But now I'm a teacher. And when I say productivity, I mean my creative productivity. Because that's what really matters to me, right? Like, I might not teach past this year but I will always be writing. And if you've been keeping up to date on what I've been doing, I've been self-publishing like crazy. I put out five books this year. Depending on when I get done with number six, it might be seven. It might be eight. Who even knows anymore? So, here's the thing. I've just made a deal with myself: the first three things off of my to-do list a day. If I have time, I'll work on something else, but the to-do list, minus the first item, always rotates. The first item stays s

THE STRANGER BESIDE ME by Ann Rule | Book Review

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My Favorite Series | 2020

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one more sad song playlist

 In One More Sad Song , music is a big part of it. Of course it is. Music is always a big part of like, everything I write, because getting way too into music is something that I have done . But music, more specifically pop-punk, is important. Here's a link to this playlist on Spotify , but here it is all written out if you're not a big Spotify person--playlist for Zeke, the main character.  boys of summer   - the ataris don't let it be love  - bowling for soup addicted - simple plan inside out - yellowcard what am i to say - sum41 scar tissue - red hot chili peppers loser   - beck make up your mind   - mxpx after midnight - blink182 hello hello   - sr71 up and up   - reliant k hey jealousy   - gin blossoms i feel so   - box car racer ohio is for lovers   - hawthorne heights anywhere but here   - mayday parade the anthem   - good charlotte the reckless and the brave   - all time low the bitter pill - warrant calling all cars - senses fail concert for aliens - machine gun ke

THE OUTSIDER by Stephen King | Book Review

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heyyyy, i published a novella!

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 For once, we're not starting a new series with this one--though, to be honest, if I end up putting out three more novellas, I may as well put out a bindup of them as well, but for now, we've just got the one--but I did just publish a novella! It's available on Amazon , and the Goodreads  is here, if you're interested in adding it there.  This is my attempt at a school shooting novel. Obviously, I failed, because it's a novella, and not a novel. But it's something that I've been thinking about for a while, and novella seemed to fit best for this one. It's more immediate, and it doesn't drag it out unnecessarily. As well as this, because it's a novella, the paperback is only 7$. It's only 100 pages, I'm not going to ask for fifteen dollars for that small of a book. If I end up doing a bind-up at some point, that will be the fifteen dollars.  So, below--cover, synopsis, first page. 

My Favorite Books | 2020

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THE DIRT by Motley Crue | Book Review

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slang

 It's weird; I mean, I'm not that old, I'm 23. (Though, today one of the seniors said that the only "old-school rock" he knew was stuff like Down with the Sickness by Disturbed, so maybe I am) And I know slang is different everywhere but it is just wild the amount of slang these high schoolers use. Some of it is internet stuff and that stuff I get , you know, when the kid I have sometimes three times a day says "this is so sad Alexa play despacito" I know what he's referencing because, again, 23.  But there's new stuff. When I was in high school, if something was cool, it was "legit." Now it's "mint." "What do you rip" is "what do you drive, probably fast, because these are high schoolers we're talking about here." The tenth graders love talking about how they could kill babies. Okay, that's not something that is new and surprising to me, actually.  It's interesting. And, you know, I'm d

and it's out!

 I say 'a couple of months' and then I put the bitch out the very next week, but what else is new? So, ONE MORE SAD SONG is out now, in Paperback and Kindle. Paperback is 15$, kindle is .99, kind of as per usual for my 'new books'--like always, Kindle will never be more than .99, because all you're getting is the words for that one, not the book. This is probably my favorite thing I've ever written? Or it's up there. Zeke as a main character is literally the dumbest kid in the universe, but I'm actually really proud of his character. And I do think that this one is pretty funny, too, if only because when you have a guy named Kevin and you have to say lines like, " The matrix isn't real, Kevin ," it's kind of fucking hilarious. But there's some real emotion in there, too. I dunno. I dig it. This is, again, the start of a series... though this one is more companion-novel-y--the second one is even a horror novella, actually, that take