The Consequence of High Caliber

As December speeds by I find myself remembering to do all the little things I've forgotten (don't even get me started on the status of my Christmas shopping list) but here it is.  In a week (12/13/2014 to be specific) I'll be releasing my latest book, The Consequence of High Caliber.  I haven't talked much about it yet, mostly because the end of this year has been barreling towards me at an alarming rate, but to carry on tradition I wanted to do my cover release along with the high-quality (read: low-quality) drawing I made to show my far more artistically inclined photographer what I was looking for.

Ta Da!

Covers are a huge part of the publishing process for self-pubs.  We have the freedom to do what we want instead of a publisher making that decision for us, but we also have to go at it with a sense of adventure and in my case, a handful of friends.  This was a really fun experience for me since I got to be part of the splattering of fake blood (mixed up in my very own kitchen) and a really confusing experience for the employees of one hardware store and one lumber store who had to deal with me trying to explain that I needed rough plywood for an "art project."  I didn't mention the part about splattering it with blood.

As promised, here is the original drawing by yours truly.

Things to Come

Life has been a little hectic recently, but I have a new book coming out pretty soon so I suppose I should start talking about it.  The Consequence of High Caliber is a spinoff of the Chance Assassin series, but you don't necessarily need to be familiar with the other books to read (and hopefully enjoy) it.  It's about Miko, a sort of consummate underdog who tries very hard but never really gets things right.  He's a product of unfortunate circumstances, and his story is told in alternating periods of past and present.  Like Chance Assassin it's about (you guessed it) assassins, and it is M/M.


Here is the official blurb, and there will be a release date and cover reveal soon.

Miko is a devoted son.  An irresponsible brother.  A protective friend.  An anonymous lover.  An assassin, nicknamed the Mako Shark after the sheer violence of his hits.  Miko is deadly.  And damaged.

Miko is in love.

 

As far as the rest of the craziness, I was in a bit of a slump working on book three of Chance Assassin, but I just finished the first draft and things are getting exciting for those two while they return to work where they belong.

That's it for now.  Until next time, I'm back to the land of murder and mayhem. 

Pumpkin spice it

Tis the most wonderful time of the year!  No, not the holidays, FALL!  You get this:

and this:

and THIS:

It's no secret that I hate all things summer.  I'm one of the few that suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder during hot weather instead of the gloomy and delightful winter, and even sitting inside an igloo doesn't help when that sun is blazing outside.  So as the weather grows colder and coffee shops everywhere start peddling their pumpkin spice goodness, I say farewell to that horrible, hot, bug-infested season we call summer.  Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. 

Banned Books Week

It's Banned Books Week (September 21-27.)  From the American Library Association website for banned books:

Over this recent past decade, 5,099* challenges were reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom.

• 1,577 challenges due to "sexually explicit" material;
• 1,291 challenges due to "offensive language";
• 989 challenges due to materials deemed "unsuited to age group";
• 619 challenged due to "violence"' and
• 361 challenges due to "homosexuality."

Further, 274 materials were challenged due to "occult" or "Satanic" themes, an additional 291 were challenged due to their "religious viewpoint," and 119 because they were "anti-family."

As a reader, my first response when I hear about people trying to ban books is of course, go fuck yourself, you can't tell me what to do.  But as a writer, I think how nice it must be to have someone so outraged by something you've created that they take it upon themselves to try and prevent other people from reading your work.

And I'm not talking about writing a bad review because you didn't like a book, or telling your friends not to bother reading it, but actively trying to stop every other person from reading what they might enjoy specifically because you object to the content (likely without reading it in the first place.)

I'm sure that the authors whose names end up on these lists didn't set out to write something controversial, but I tip my hat to them anyway.  If you're pissing off some close-minded person, you're probably doing something right.

More death!

It's been awhile since I posted a hit, so here's a new one and now I'm back to work on book three.  I'll have more updates on the spinoff in the near future.

Bake him all the pies!

I just have to share this, and give a shoutout to supergirl (as seen here*)

who loved the Chance Assassin series so she Mailed.  Me.  A.  Pie.  Georgia peach, a la Maggie Evans.  And Snickers.  And gummy bears.

In bubble wrap so it wouldn't fall apart all over the box

Excuse me while I go run around on a massive sugar (and sheer joy) high.  Kaesha dearest, you rock.  Even if your face is half green on webcam.

*not really supergirl, it's a meme with art originally from Hyperbole and a Half, which you should totally check out.

And now for something completely different...

Okay, not completely different but it's always nice to reference Monty Python.

Anyway, I've been hard at work on this spinoff book, which I'm really excited about.  I was planning to get book three of Chance Assassin out beforehand, but things haven't turned out that way.  This character popped up out of nowhere while I was working on Les Recidivists and he did end up in the book just briefly.  Then the first draft of this spinoff was done within a few months of publishing Les Recidivists, and now it's getting a couple additional changes before it'll be off to beta readers.

There are a few minor spoilers here about Les Recidivists, so if you haven't read it you may want to turn back now.

This character appears as an anonymous sniper in Les Recidivists.  He has origins within the assassination empire that Angelo Silva helped form, but unlike Frank or Bella, he didn't start out as a criminal.   His story takes place mostly during the interim between the books of the Chance Assassin series, and it's a bit different than my usual as it's told in two mostly linear narratives.

That's all I'm giving away now, but it will almost certainly be out later this year.  I'll keep you updated once I have an official title and all the rest of it.  Until then...I must get back to killing.  Frank and Vincent have a whole book to work through.  :)