Brand New Newsletter
This week, I launched a newsletter for my website. If you haven’t already subscribed, you may do so by using the field at the bottom of my site. As a subscriber to the newsletter, you will receive all of my news and updates first! Information shared there will be posted to the blog a few days later. I may even decide to include Newsletter exclusive perks as well! I’ve been posting to the blog, but I am not sure how many people are seeing it because I don’t think the website sends out notifications for it. So hopefully adding this newsletter will help get some visibility. Without further ado, here are my updates!
Writing on Vocal
As always, you can find some of my existing writing on Vocal. I just posted chapter seven of “When the Lights Went Out” so make sure you check that out. This is a short chapbook that’s about Coyote, a gay college student, who gets kidnapped by a vampire and brought to another world. The vampire, London, is known as a laughingstock in this other world for always grabbing the wrong person. Together, Coyote and London must travel through each section of this world almost like an early sidescrolling video game. They must escape leprechaun debt collectors, barter with a three-tailed witch, and bribe dwarves for safe passage. I won’t tell you all of their trials and tribulations to avoid spoilers. If you’re looking for a quick, humorous read, I highly suggest checking it out. It is free for readers! You can create an account on Vocal to subscribe for updates, but it is not necessary to read the story, and I will always include updates on it here.
Reading Update
I just started reading Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire for my book club. I haven’t made it very far in, but so far I am not enjoying the writing style. I am hoping that it improves. I am still reading Inkdeath, though I have currently set it aside to take a break. I am looking forward to setting a reading challenge for 2025. Feel free to add me on Goodreads if you want realtime updates on my reading!
Second Book
Again, I probably should have led with this, but since I don’t have much information to share, it seems like less pertinent news. As I have mentioned, my second book is currently in production with the publisher! I am hoping the release date will be toward the end of December, beginning of January. To answer your first question: no, it is not a sequel to Relapse. Relapse was written as a standalone novel. I will come back to some of these characters and this world in future projects, but nothing that I would consider a direct sequel to this book. Over the coming weeks, I will provide you some teasers on my new book.
For now, I want you to know that these characters have lived in my head since I was a child. I tried to get a date on it, but the files have been moved around on too many computers to have retained their original creation date. I can tell you that it came from a time when I used placeholder titles of No Name and this one was No Name 38 (I topped out at No Name 99 in this convention before discontinuing it in 2016 or 2017). Don’t worry, this book has a real name now. Unlike Relapse, No Name 38 does have a sequel and even a prequel. They follow the style of Maurice Gee’s The Salt Trilogy in which each book follows a different generation of characters. I actually just completed the outline for the sequel and am hoping to be able to release it shortly after No Name 38 comes out. Keep your eye out for my next newsletter to get more information about this book, including its title and a hook!
Fanart Contest
I love collecting drawings for my characters. I have thousands of these drawings across all of my projects on a private Toyhou.se account. However, I have been setting up a public account to collect and display art for characters belonging to my published books. The account is definitely still a work in progress. You may even notice some characters with completely blank profiles. These are characters who don’t have an appearance to represent them. I usually get artwork through trades, commissions, or gifts.
Official artwork of Relapse main character Brian Dubisar (by Ksureme on Toyhouse)
Now, the heading says “fanart contest” because I am looking to collect fanart from you! If you’re interested of course. My sibling is an amazing artist, and I will be asking them to be the judge. That will keep the contest fair and unbiased as I am bound to love anything you create! If you have a Toyhouse account, feel free to request your fanart to be added directly to the character’s gallery. If not, I will absolutely accept your submission via email. I don’t currently have a deadline or reward in mind. Mostly, I want to check your interest in this!
Wrap Up
That feels like it was a lot of information! I hope you subscribe to my newsletter. If you’ve read Relapse, please leave me a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or wherever you browse/buy books. Keep your eye out for updates from me in the future!
