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Showing posts from September, 2012

What's in a name?

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192.6     Happy Sunday morning, folks. The past week has flown by, and it’s already time for my weekly blog post. I wish I had some more news about the release of my new novel, The Dragon of Doughton Park , but I don’t. If that’s what you came here for, I’m sorry. Don’t leave yet. I do have something cool to share with you. And then, there’s always my incredibly insightful ramblings to follow.    Since I joined the world of indie authors last year, I’ve made a number of interesting friends by way of Facebook groups, blog tours, etc. One of them is Maghon Thomas, who does a regular blog, Happy Tails and Tales Blog . She reviewed my first novel and I was lucky enough to persuade her to be a beta reader for the sequel. She’s also a Cajun lady, and has been trying to coach me in my struggles to nail that dialect for one of my characters, the werewolf (or, rougarou, I suppose would be more accurate?), Cynthia Lamelle. This week she vindicated my efforts by bringing the character to

Raising the Bar

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193.2   Wow, I flubbed my diet big time, but other than that some cool things happened this week in Red Wolf Novel Land. First of all, my favorite Aussie, Kristy Berridge, author of The Hunted and its soon-to-be released sequel, The Damned , posted her review of The Draculata Nest . She warned me it was coming several weeks ago, and I’d been waiting nervously to see what she said. I’m delighted to report she gave it 4 out of 5 “fangs”. Y’all can check it out on Goodreads or scroll down a little on her blog… to find out what she said.                                                             Kristy Berridge    Then, Ray DeLotell sent me a photo of the finished cover art for The Dragon of Doughton Park. It was worth the wait, and now I’m that much closer to getting the second Red Wolf novel published. Here it is…    It looks like things are moving ahead inexorably to the publication of my next novel. Being a glass-half-empty kind of guy, here’s the main theme of this wee

Buddy, can you spare a cigarette?

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192.0    Hey, folks. I wrote half a blog Friday night, which I intended to polish off Saturday evening for a Sunday morning post, but it’ll have to wait until next week. Something else came up, an encounter of sorts, that I feel compelled to share with you.        Saturday was one of those perfect late summer days in Charlotte - sunshine, billowy white clouds, temperature in the low eighties. It was the perfect day for a long bike ride. I had no major obligations, so I took the day off from writing, laundry, grocery shopping and paying bills and took off.    It was wonderful. I took the back roads through quiet neighborhoods and made my way over to the McMullen Creek/Four Mile Creek Greenway. I cycled a little over 30 miles, taking it easy and enjoying the day. As the afternoon was waning, I cycled out of the Four Mile Creek Greenway, heading home, when I saw a young man approaching, himself on a bike. He pedaled to a stop and flagged me down.    Ah, I thought , a f

The Green Gambit

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192.0    Hello, folks. I must apologize again to the small core of loyal followers of my blog for the lateness of this post. As I have mentioned before, I have been nursing along a sick laptop for months now, and it has been harder and harder to keep it running long enough to do much writing or blogging.   In the next few days I’ll be facing that tough decision, should I pull the plug? More will be revealed.   I am still waiting for the cover design for the re-release of The Draculata Nest and the cover art for The Dragon of Doughton Park. The text for Dragon is ready. All that remains is to format it for the various release venues, work up the acknowledgments page and submit it for copywriting. I can’t do much more until I get the artwork. Yes, I am frustrated and impatient, but I know it will be worth the wait.    So this week I want to share with you a milestone of sorts. As you may remember from a few past posts, I have a son who entered my life well into my midd

Young Women - Old Wolves, Part II

192.4   Hi, folks. This has been a surprisingly productive week for me, and the publication of the second Red Wolf novel, The Dragon of Doughton Park , is drawing inexorably near. I got some very enthusiastic responses from beta readers, the cover art should be finalized this weekend, and the final edits from beta input should be completed next week.   Along with the publication of the second book of the series, The Draculata Nest will be re-released with a new cover and both books will soon be available in other venues, not just Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I’m excited, and I hope you are, too.    The only negative feedback I’m getting from The Dragon of Doughton Park is that the ending really makes you want to read the next book, which won’t be available for maybe a year yet. I’ll apologize up front for that, but y’all will just have to deal with it. I feel your pain, but I’m currently waiting for the next books in several series, myself. In particular, I’m losing patienc