April Update

As most of you have noticed, I've been away from this blog for the past couple months. It's a very long story as to why I was MIA from social media in general, but for the moment I'll simply give all of you an update on what I'm currently working on and what projects are on the horizon.

Most of my time at the moment has been spent getting settled in California. Back in August, my wife and I were called to become part of a church plant in San Francisco called Canvas. Canvas won't officially launch as a church until September, but 25+ people from Arizona are in the process of relocating to the Bay Area to make this plant happen. My wife and I just finished securing our new place in Daly City, and we'll be moving in there next Monday the 15th. Once I'm completely settled, I'll be getting back into the full swing of my blogging routine, and I'll be plugging back into my online venues such as The Crossover Alliance and my own website.

Another piece of news is that today I'll be sketching out an outline to a brand new non-fiction project - a novel that details the journey of faith my wife and I have been on over the past few years. I've been meaning to begin this project for a while now, and I figure now that I'm finally getting settled with things I have the time to dig into it. This non-fiction novel is tentatively titled "Never Forsaken" - a title based on Psalm 37:25. A release date for this book has not yet been determined. For those of you who have been waiting for the third novel in my Expired Reality series, fear not because I am going to be working on it side-by-side with my new non-fiction project.

Over the course of the next month, I will be revamping many of my online channels. I'll be using MailChimp to help me craft and manage better email newsletters, Weebly or Moonfruit to help me streamline and polish my website, and Hootsuite to help me manage my FB and Twitter feeds more productively.

That's some of what I'll be working on over the course of the next couple of months. In the next couple weeks I'll be getting back into my blogging groove, and as soon as my aforementioned channels are updated, I'll let everyone know.

April Update

I have a plethora of blog posts I want to do in the next few weeks, but for today I'll just give you all a brief synopsis of what I'll be up to in the next month or so.

The biggest project I am working on right now is, of course, the end of my Black Earth novel series. As many of you who follow my blog know, the third book in the series - Black Earth: Dark Masquerade - is already in the hands of my editor. I am also currently in the middle of penning the fourth - and final volume - in the series, and I would say I'm about a third of the way through it so far. In fact, even though the deadline for me to hand it off to my editor is May 15th, I'm going to shoot for May 1st. This will give me all of April to finish things up.

As I start to wrap the series up and hand things off to my editor, I am going to start diving into the cover design for the last two books in the series. I'll be posting exclusive sneak peeks at the cover designs, and the process that goes behind each, over  the next couple months.

While everyone waits for those two novels to come down the pipeline, there are many ways for you to keep busy.

One is to check out the blog posts I did showcasing exclusive draft work from Black Earth: Dark Masquerade. The links to those posts are listed here:

Excerpt #1: Hortus Tenebris - The Dark Garden
Excerpt #2: The President's Dark Advisor
Excerpt #3: The Westgate Plaza Mall
Excerpt #4: Pearl's Sorrow 
Excerpt #5: The Black Cathedral

(I even included an exclusive one in last month's email newsletter.)

For those who are interested in a peek at the draft work for the final book in the series - Black Earth: Bridge to Eternity - I am not going to post any draft work from it until shortly before the book's release, and that's only if I decide to post any draft work in regards to it. There is so much going on in the final book in the series, I may very well end up spoiling many a fine story line if I post anything from it, especially if Dark Masquerade hasn't even been released yet.

Starting this Wednesday, and continuing each Wednesday thereafter until they are all posted, I'm going to post some flash fiction which takes place shortly before my Black Earth series. I posted these pieces a long time ago on my website and pulled them down shortly after due to a website overhaul. Each one revolves around a specific character from the Black Earth series.

Aside from writing, I have a variety of other blog posts I'll be putting together in the near future. I've found myself taking more of an interest in certain anime series lately, and I'll be posting some reviews on series' that I find interesting, when I have time to watch them and write out reviews for them. It won't be a regular occurrence on my blog, but I'll do it when the opportunity arises. The first anime review I'll be doing is on the Gun x Sword series which I just finished. That should be up later this week or early next. (But I will say it was one of the best animated series I have seen in a long time.)

On top of all that, over the next couple weeks I'll be posting a few more glimpses into the trip to California I took week before last. More importantly, I'll be showcasing some of the old books I picked up while I was out there. (Seen in the picture at the top of this post.)

Good stuff! Just wanted to keep everyone updated. Have a great Monday!