What Am I Working On?

The cover for my next book.
Click on it to see it at a larger size.

Hey guys. I just wanted to post a little update sharing what I'm working on right now. My oldest son started to really enjoy reading this year. Since then he's turned 8. I started buying all kinds of books for him. I read some of the books too. They were fun! It made me really want to write a book for kids my son's age. These books are called chapter books. I'm setting out to make mine about 10,000 words long with nice short zippy 500 word chapters. So that's 20 chapters. I'm also going to be doing a bunch of illustrations for it. That will be really fun. So far I've only sketched out one illustration. I've written the first 7 chapters and you can actually read those here on Wattpad.

Here's what the book is about:

Barnabas and his friend Jeff made a great snowman but the next morning it was gone! From the huge round footprints in the ground it looks like something unbelievable happened. The crimes get worse and affect Barnabas's father. Now Barnabas has no choice but to solve this mystery or his innocent father will be in a lot of trouble.

This grade school chapter book is full of laughs, adventure, mystery, and magic. It's great for intermediate readers ages 7 and up but adults will love it too! A great story to read to kids or to give to children who have started reading longer books.

So that's what I'm up to! After I finish it I'm going to revise a full length Science Fiction novel I wrote a long time ago. It's been through like 5 revisions but I tucked it away for years. Recently I started re-reading it. I was surprised to see that it's really good! I think with some chapters getting erased and some tweaking to fix the flow and plot it's going to be an amazing read. I think I set the wrong expectations for myself and the beta readers about the story. I touted it as a SciFi adventure. In fact it's a family drama dealing with the theme of a recession set in space mostly about the main character learning that family is more important than work and money. The recession we went through back in 2008 inspired this novel and I'm excited to dust it off and revise it and then get it in the hands of beta readers again and eventually get it published. I hated my names for it, but first it was titled "The Trading Family." Then I named it "Recession." Now I've come up with the title I'm going to stick with. It will be called "We're Moving to Space." I can't wait to dig into it again. But first I have to finish this chapter book. Well I better get back to it! Thanks for stopping by!

Sword and Urn Flip-through Video!

Last night I made a little video of me flipping through my first novel out in paperback. I talk a little about the cover and the interior. It's hopefully the first of many videos I will make after one of my novels is published. Now on to writing the next one! Thanks for stopping by.

Purchase links for the Paperback which sells for $5.99:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Purchase links for the eBook which sells for $0.99:

Kindle

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Hometown Reads

I've signed up on the website. Here's a link for your convenience: www.hometownreads.com. I hope any other local authors will do the same. It seems like a great avenue for getting the word out about your books. Check it out and sign up! It's free. Thanks for stopping by!

Sword and Urn Out Now!

My fantasy adventure novella Sword and Urn is out! It is now published in paperback and eBook!

Purchase links for the Paperback which sells for $5.99:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Purchase links for the eBook which sells for $0.99:

Kindle

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Here's the description:

Drade is just a villager manning a merchant table with his father Aren until two mysterious swordsman come to town. They claim they are there to take Drade and every other young man with them in their caged wagon. After a brutal sword fight helped with a magic potion Drade journeys north to the farm of his grandparents to fulfill a promise. Along the way he meets some colorful characters. He helps some of them. Others help him on his quest to reach his grandparent's farm before the villains he fought get there first. There is no way he will be able to face them again without a lot of help.

It's a fun quick read and it could really use your reviews. Thanks for stopping by!

I Ran a 12K Race Called Bloomsday!

And now I can barely walk! :) I should have trained way more. My training consisted of running two to three miles once or twice a week and sometimes with many weeks between any running. I would like to run this race again after training way more. I know I could get a better time than this. That said I'm really happy with my results and today every time I get get up after sitting for a while I hobble around until my extremely sore muscles get warmed up again. Even though it was a tough race to finish I had a lot of fun and I miss pushing myself physically like that. I was a distance runner in high school and we used to do hard work outs all the time. I think it's good for you to push yourself like that every once in a while. I'd do this race again.