First, let me share today’s actual book birthday with you: Out Where the Sun Always Shines.

This noir spy love story was my first-ever published story, put up on Amazon long before Pixelvania Publishing existed! Without any magic spells, horror scenes, or sci-fi scenery, it’s become the odd man out of my body of work. I mean, maybe if you stretch, you could say it’s alternate history. But it’s really in the background.

It’s definitely refreshingly different, especially if you’re looking for something short, hardboiled, and dramatic. And, being set in Europe, reading it is kind of like going on holiday. (I also had a lot of fun illustrating its second cover.)

Get your copy of OUT WHERE THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES

 

 

 

 

Next, we have Growing Shadows in the Desert. Its book birthday was actually last Tuesday, the 6th, but my day was really busy and I didn’t get around to posting about it.

But I wanted to talk about this short story because it’s becoming another oddball in my library, starring a vampire who, in my world, has, like, over 100,000 words of a three-part origin epic completed. And it’s not just words, right? I mean, in those words, I discovered he’s got a dragon mom and sister, a bunch of magical people he must learn to lead, a crush on this pretty doctor faerie, and a really dangerous world to live in.

But to readers, he’s only been seen in a handful of scenes in Steel City, Veiled Kingdom. If you backed SCVK’s sequel The Guests of Crooked Neck, you’ve maybe seen his name once during that adventure (CN will be releasing wide in November). So that’s a big, like, perceptual gap, between what readers know about him and what I know about him. Just one of those things about being an author, I guess.

It probably needs a new cover, but that’s way down on the priority list.

Anyway, if you’re in the mood for a short, weird west one-off with a fashion-forward vampire, you might like this piece!

Get GROWING SHADOWS IN THE DESERT today

I think the long Crooked Neck Kickstarter and even longer work writing the second Fashion Frenchies novel has distorted my sense of time, because when my records showed this short story was only a year old I did a double-take.

Just a year ago(!), I published The Accuser, which is both an R-rated horror story and an uplifting Christian tale at the same time.

There’s also a kitty in it named Dozer. I based him a little off our cat, Pixel, in that they both have a history of frightening large dogs with a mere look. Dozer, however, is built like a bulldozer (hence the name), whereas Pixel (at 80-odd cat years old) looks at this point more like a furry orange basketball.

I digress.

This story hasn’t gotten much love since its release (probably because Amazon will NOT pull up this story if you use their search bar UNLESS you select the category “Kindle Store” first. Does that mean it’s shadowbanned? Heck if I know!).

If you’re a horror fan, don’t let the Christian stuff scare you, this is basically a biker dude and tough cat buddy story cranked to 11, with a little humor mixed in.

If you’re a Christian, don’t let the R-rating scare you, I promise it’s not just shock for the sake of being transgressive. It ends with warm fuzzies and might even build your testimony!

Get this short story and show a tough biker man and his little kitty buddy some love!