Friday, October 4, 2013

A New Alex Cheradon Book

In case you haven't heard, the new Alex Cheradon book is out!



The Messr Building is located in the heart of downtown Callahan. It’s a building of architectural wonder. It’s visible from almost anywhere in the downtown area. And its home to the Darketo Sanction, a top-secret organization that’s housing the largest collection of mad scientists anywhere in the country.

Two weeks ago, the security system in the Messr Building tried to kill every single human onsite and nobody knows why.

That’s why Alex Cheradon is on the case.

(Although, to be fair, it’s a building filled with a bunch of mad scientists. This one shouldn’t be too hard to figure out, right? Right?)


Also out is a digital omnibus collecting the first 3 Alex Cheradon novels, Fruitbasket from Hell, A is for Amnesia, B is for Bullet and Little People, Big Crimes. It's 3 complete novels, for the price of one, $2.99. Which means it's the perfect way to introduce a friend to your favorite private investigator.



And, if you'll permit me, one last little plug. This one's just in time for the holidays! My sister-in-law has launched a Kickstarter for her line of Christmas-themed aprons. Her name is Danee Mason and she runs an online store, Summer's Closet, where she specializes in high quality handmade clothes, dolls and accessories. This year she's trying something new and using Kickstarter to launch an awesome line of Christmas aprons. You can read all about here. So, after you're done reading, take a break, order a Christmas apron and maybe start baking some cookies for Santa?

Make sure you sign up to my email list to be the among the first that hear about all my new releases. Click here to sign up.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

What's Going On

So, here's what's going on right now. An update, if you will, of the various projects here at One Stray Word.

The Good News

Alex Cheradon Volume 2 is trucking along. We're on track for probably 5 total installments in this volume. There was going to be 6, but I'm making cuts so things don't seem padded out. I'm probably either just at or now approaching the halfway mark of Book 3, which still has the unfortunate title of "?????" At some point in the near future, I'll probably have to come up with a real title...

The only deadlines I have are self imposed ones and I kind of blew those. The original plan was to have the 3rd AC book out by the end of June. I was supposed to have finished writing it before my wife and I took off for our anniversary (6 years!) vacation and then do edits on it when we came back. That did not happen. So, I'm working on get back on schedule and, with any luck, I'll get it set up so that you get the last 3 AC books on a monthly-ish basis.

I had a beta reader (Thanks, Mary!) go through two of my older books, Just Dial 911 for Assistance and Explorers of the Unknown. Both books are grammatically cleaned up now. Explorers has been reissued, but I'm holding Just Dial 911 back because my wife and I really think this book could be something a lot better. So, after I'm done with the current volume of Alex Cheradon, I'm hoping to do a rewrite/expansion of Just Dial 911 into it's own volume/season. Basically, the idea would be to expand the book from a first person narrative into an ensemble cast, focusing on two or three other people from the 911 call center. I want this book to really fulfill it's original premise, which was "West Wing, but for 911 Call Centers."

My niece and I outlined the first three books of the Castle Sisters Volume 2. The plan was to start writing them in time for her birthday in November. I'm gonna try really hard to hold to that plan.

The Bad News

A couple of these you might have already guessed.

No Outlawed Love follow-up. Sorry guys, my heart's just not into it. It's probably never going to happen. Sorry.

There probably won't be anymore Cupid's Daughter, either. This book is about the closest thing to an actual bomb that I have. We had a quota, a sales threshold if you will, that we wanted to CD to reach before continuing with the series and it didn't even come close. It didn't even come into the vincity of close. We sold, like, 15 copies in 2012. And last time I checked for 2013, we'd only sold 5. Maybe it would have sold better if I had released the entire series all at once? I don't know. But it's been a horrible failure. I won't say that we'll never get anymore Cupid's Daughter books, but it's not looking good.

Reapers in Heels. Okay, this is the tough one. Again, I'm not going to say Never. I mean, I've got notes and outlines for Volumes 3 & 4 sitting on my hard drive here. I've got plans for these characters. But the series just hasn't been selling. In December 2011 when we launched RiH, One Stiletto in the Grave sold 206 copies. But then for the entirety of 2012, One Stiletto only sold 213 copies. And the numbers just went downhill from here.

Reapers in Heels 2012 Sales Numbers

And for 2013, the entire series has been in the mid to low single digits.

The point of RiH was to reach out to a larger audience. But it ain't working. I don't know what happened, but the larger audience is not picking up on it. Again, I'm not gonna say Never, but there would have to be dramatic increase in sales before we see any future volumes. This series needs to be profitable for it to continue. 

That said, if you've been following me on Facebook, though, you'll know that I've tried pitching RiH to a couple of different of comic book publishers. No luck yet, but my wife and I are definitely looking into the possibility of the series continuing in another format.

Overall, though, our book sales have taken a real dive this year. Everything's dropped into the single digits. I don't know why this is. I don't know how to fix it. It's not great. It certainly bums me out. But it is what it is.

Jon Acuff had a great post today about God's calendar vs ours, which was timely considering our frustrations over the declining book sales. Because it is very frustrating. We both work very hard on these books. But at the end of the day, you just have to leave things in God's hands. It's lesson that we need to be reminded often. My wife and I continue to pray about the books everyday and, really, that's all we can do. Which is also timely, considering our current devotional we've been studying is about praying more often. It's almost as though somebody's trying to tell me something....

So, for now, we're focusing on projects that are near and dear to me like Alex Cheradon, the Castle Sisters and Just Dial 911. Although, I do have this older sci-fi trilogy sitting on my hard drive that I've been trying to find a way to release for almost a year now. It's written, but it needs some editing and maybe the ending needs to be tweaked just ever so slightly. But otherwise, it's a complete package. I kick myself every day that goes by without it getting released. So, that's probably gonna get on the schedule somewhere.

I think that's everything. Kind of feels like I'm ending this on a downer, so, uh, here's a picture of some kittens:



Thursday, May 23, 2013

New Alex Cheradon!

Volume 2 of the Alex Cheradon series continues!


Alex Cheradon is a private investigator who’s had a string of bad luck lately, culminating in the absolute destruction of his home and office by his insane ex-partner, Devon Christian. But things are starting to look up now that Jonathon Bragan, the most powerful mobster in Clayton City has taken Alex under his wing.

Wait…WHAT?

Only mere moments after Alex discovers his brand new office/home (complete with a kitchenette and walls), thanks to the questionable generosity of Bragan, Christian blasts back into town again.

Only this time, he’s looking to destroy more than just Alex’s life. This time, Devon Christian’s got his sights set on destroying the whole world.


Also, between 05/23-05/25 One Time Only, book 1 in Alex Cheradon Volume 2, will be free for Kindle readers. It's a great jumping on point for new readers, so be sure to tell a friend or two!



Alex Cheradon is a private investigator. He used to have a partner, Devon Christian, a couple years back, but Christian went insane and Alex really doesn’t work with him anymore. These days Alex mostly works alone. Though, occasionally he'll team up with his ex-girlfriend, Angie, who's a hired gun and bounty hunter.

Since his first day on the job, Alex has found himself at the center of some very unusual cases:

-Vampires.

-Clones.

-Missing daughters.

-Time travel.

-Crazy ex-partners who find themselves plagued with voices inside his head telling him to kill people.

-Cults bent on bringing demons to Earth.

-Cults bent on controlling the planet through advance scientific means.

-Husbands who are cheating on their wives with alternate reality versions of their wives.

-Explosions.

-Lots of explosions.

-We’re really not kidding about the explosions. It’s kind of ridiculous how many there are.

-Gunfights.

-Honestly, the gunfight situation is just as bad as the explosion situation.

Today, however, Alex is going to face something very, very, very different. It will be something he has no point of reference for and no idea how to counter.

Today is going to be the first day of the rest of his life.


Remember, you don't actually need a Kindle anymore to download a Kindle book. Thanks to things like apps for your iPad or smartphone or even the Kindle cloud reader, you can download and read a Kindle book anywhere. All you really need is a Amazon account.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Rupert & Me

For those who may not know, a few years back I wrote and drew a webcomic called, "Rupert & Me."


Over the course of a year, it ended up looking like this:

One of my favorites.
It was one my favorite projects.

Unfortunately, the realities of producing a daily comic (Mon-Fri) meant that I produced nothing else. So during the year that I made Rupert & Me, my novels got pushed to the side.




When it became clear that I wasn't growing enough of an audience through the webcomic, I decided to discontinue it.

The last strip

I briefly toyed with rereleasing the strips as short books via Kindle and Nook, and even ended up releasing 2 volumes:

 
Both available for Kindle and Nook

But it was another time consuming project as I wanted to make sure the strips were as best as possible (resulting in redrawing everything) and no other collections were released.

Rupert, though, has never been far from my mind.


In the later half of 2012 I had the good fortune to spend a lot of time with my nieces before my wife and I moved to NYC, and discovered an author by the name of Mo Willems(author of the picture book series "The Pigeon" and "Elephant and Piggie.") Watching my 6 year old niece read these deceptively simple picture books, I was struck with an idea. These were picture books with simple illustrations and, many cases, the characters actually spoke to the reader, carrying on a conversation with them. The heart of these books wasn't about teaching lessons, but entertaining the children. I realized that it was a perfect medium for Rupert. Plus, it was a style that I could maintain, without it consuming all of my time and pushing my other projects to the side.

Granted, Rupert has not always been kid-friendly. In fact, if you're a parent, I would recommend that you read the two Rupert & Me collections listed above before letting your younger children read them.

But Rupert can be kid-friendly. And that's what this is:

Kobo

Rupert has a dream. 

And he needs your help to achieve his dream. 
Will you help him? 
All he really wants to do is rule the world. 
That isn't so bad, right?



Rupert & Me: Seeking a Few Good Minions is an interactive read in the style of such books as Mo Willems' Pigeon series. It's filled with humor for children and adults alike, which means it's the perfect read for kids who like to have books read to them over and over again!



This is a full color, fully illustrated book. It is compatible with all Kindle models, but on the Fire and Kindle Apps on tablets such as the iPad, the book will appear in full color.

I really enjoyed working on this book. My dream world, I think, would be one where I work on nothing but Rupert, Alex Cheradon and the Castle Sisters.

I know that the market for children's books and children's picture books in the ebook world is very small. I'm sure that's going to change over the next 5-10 years. But that's still 5-10 years away. I want this book to succeed now. I think it has that potential.

I'm looking into the possibility of running a Kickstarter to fund the printing of what would be 4 Rupert & Me books. But I'm not sure that I have the audience or the audience interest in something like that.


So, for now, I'm doing what I know I can do: releasing the book digitally. I think you'll enjoy Rupert. I think that if you have kids, they'll enjoy Rupert. I think that if you have kids that like being read to, you'll enjoying reading Rupert & Me to them.

So get a copy and start enjoying it today.






Friday, February 8, 2013

Alex Cheradon is Back!

Alex Cheradon has officially returned in an all new adventure!



About the book:

Alex Cheradon is a private investigator. He used to have a partner, Devon Christian, a couple years back, but Christian went insane and Alex really doesn’t work with him anymore. These days Alex mostly works alone. Though, occasionally he'll team up with his ex-girlfriend, Angie, who's a hired gun and bounty hunter.

Since his first day on the job, Alex has found himself at the center of some very unusual cases:

-Vampires.

-Clones.

-Missing daughters.

-Time travel.

-Crazy ex-partners who find themselves plagued with voices inside his head telling him to kill people.

-Cults bent on bringing demons to Earth.

-Cults bent on controlling the planet through advance scientific means.

-Husbands who are cheating on their wives with alternate reality versions of their wives.
-Explosions.

-Lots of explosions.

-We’re really not kidding about the explosions. It’s kind of ridiculous how many there are.
-Gunfights.

-Honestly, the gunfight situation is just as bad as the explosion situation.

Today, however, Alex is going to face something very, very, very different. It will be something he has no point of reference for and no idea how to counter.

Today is going to be the first day of the rest of his life.

NOW AVAILABLE
Kobo

Here's the promo image I put together for Facebook. Feel free to share it around the interwebs, if you'd like.