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Believe it or not, Pumpkins is best read while wearing a pumpkin. The book is available here. As for the pumpkin, you'll have to bring your own. 
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It's been a LONG summer dominated by a seemingly endless stream of editing projects. Unfortunately, that meant I had to put Quiet On Set!, book 6 in the Milligan Creek Series, on hold since mid-June. It's the longest I've gone without writing for years. It's my fault for booking myself so heavily, but I've finally managed to eke out 20 days of writing time, during which I plan to finish the novel, with hopes of releasing it by early November, just in time for Christmas. I'll keep you updated here. I've already managed to complete just over 30,000 words, and with a target word count of about 50,000 words, it seems like a short bridge to cross. But these are the hardest 20,000 words, seeing as I now have to pay off everything I've set up--and there are a LOT of plages spinning in this story--but I'm excited to finally return to the boys and their shenanigans.
Meanwhile, over the sumer I've done a lot of thinking about Brooms and Teeth, books 2 and 3 in the Uncanny Icons Series, so as soon as I complete Quiet on Set!, I'll be back into another spooky supernatural tale. For the record, I have one more book planned for the Milligan Creek Series, putting the total number of books at 7. I also have another idea for a book that will act as a postscript to the series, taking place many years later once Matt, Chad, Andrew, and Dean are all grown up, with most of them returning to Milligan Creek after a lengthy absence to pull off one last caper. If I happen to come up with an idea for another book prior to this time jump, I will gladly get moving on that. I never want to say goodbye to this world, but I also want to make sure every idea merits a stand-alone story. At any rate, I'm already procrastinating! Time to get to it.  I've always loved Halloween. In fact, I like it so much I've decided to dedicate an entire series of novels to it. The first novel in the series is Pumpkins, is now available, and it's a great story to read at this time of year. Here's a brief synopsis: If they wouldn’t have planted those pumpkins, especially in that spot, maybe none of this would have happened . . . So far the book has gotten some great reviews. Here are a few excerpts. I LOVED this book. All caps, bold it, italicize it, and all of the other funky settings you can come up with . . . It's unique, it's spooky, it has a splash of history in it, it's mysterious, and it's just all around a fun time. It had me guessing along the way, yet totally hooked at every turn. I found it really hard to put this book down, but I did because I wanted it to last a long time. It is totally binge worthy, but I was loving it too much to just throw all of the reading away in one go. - Briar's Reviews Pumpkins is now available in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle format on Amazon. I'm planning to bring out one book in the series over the next several years. Book 2, Brooms, involves witches--and curling. Book 3, Teeth, offers a completely different take on vampires in the 21st century, and it all starts with a seemingly innocent set of glow-in-the dark vampire teeth. Stay tuned for more updates on this series!
Pumpkins, book 1 in the Uncanny Icons Series, is now available in hardcover and paperback, but the Kindle version is also available at a discount until it's release on June 28. Reviews are already beginning to roll in, and so far the reaction to the book has been fantastic. Buy your digital copy now!  Pumpkins, book 1 in the Uncanny Icons Series, is now available in paperback and hardcover. You can also preorder the ebook at a discount, with the ebook releasing on June 28. I'm calling this a "light horror" series because it's spooky but not gory. Ideal for anyone ages 12-65+. Here's a brief synopsis. If they wouldn’t have planted those pumpkins, especially in that spot, maybe none of this would have happened . . . And here's a peek at the cover. I love--and hate--working on book covers. I get very excited, and very anxious. I spent too much time yesterday toying with all sorts of ideas. Here's where I began.  I liked it a lot, but I was told it felt too middle grade and not scary enough to be YA. I toyed around with different versions of this cover, as you'll see below.
But this just seemed to complicate things. So, I decided to simplify. Even though the book is called "Pumpkins," I decided to pare it down to just one. This is how it came out.  For font aficionados, the title font is from the original Halloween movie, and the series title font was used on a lot of old Stephen King novels. (Speaking of which, the font for the original cover is from the movie Scream.)
I really like this cover. It's simple and emotive, but after showing it to my kids--two of whom are in the YA market, they kiboshed it. They didn't feel it was scary enough or that it told enough of the story. They also felt it still skewed too young for my intended audience. Perhaps a scarier or different style pumpkin would help, but ultimately, I decided--woefully--to go in a completely different direction. However, I may still test a version of this at some point. I'll update you on that process as well. Right now I have an artist and a cover designer working on two separate versions of the same concept. |
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October 2021
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