Greetings everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. I what’s to provide you all with some updates on projects I am working on.
Next Book Release:
I am currently in the editing phase with WND Press here in Florida on my next book, which is a collection of thirteen short stories I have written over the past year and a half. They are a mixture of horror and Twilight Zone style fiction. I am really pleased with the collection, and once the editing phase ends, we are going to have some beta readers give feedback so I can assess the order of the stories.
We are also working on cover design, which is in the very early stages, but I provided some covers I liked to use as examples of the style and feel I am going for. Take a look.
WND Press said they were targeting an end of year release so I will keep you posted on when that comes out.
Night Terrors Vol. 26 From Scare Street
If you recall, I had one of my horror short stories published in Night Terrors Vol. 26 from Scare Street and the reviews on that book have been really great and recently I received a surprise email in that Scare Street recorded the book in audio book format! It was thrilling to hear my work spoken out like that. You can pick up a copy or learn more here: https://a.co/d/1HGNMxB
Grey Rooms Podcast Episodes
I mentioned a while back that two of my stories were selected to be produced as podcast episodes for The Grey Rooms podcast, and well, it seems some internal struggles have halted production on that podcast. I wish the team well and hope they can get back to producing episodes, but this left me in a tough spot.
Should I wait for the team to get going again or submit the stories elsewhere? I emailed the main contact I have over at Grey Room and asked if they had a rough timeline. If they didn’t I was going to look into submitting them elsewhere. I did not get a response after two weeks, so back in late June, I submitted them to the No Sleep Podcast for consideration.
Their submission guidelines state that it could take months for them to even read submissions, so I need to be patient for their response, if at all. I am also looking for other places to submit my podcast episodes.
I have a few new ideas for some episodes, but that have to wait for current projects to be completed.
Current Projects
Aside from the anthology I’m working on with Scare Street, I have two other projects currently. One is finishing writing episodes for this guy Carl I met on Reddit for the first season of a show he is doing. I think I mentioned this project before in another post, but the gist of the show is that three groups are seeking an object of power, each for their own reasons. Whether those reasons be protection, exploitation, or knowledge, the story revolves around the three groups colliding and challenging one another. Loyalties will be tested and blood will be shed.
It’s been a challenge to take a director’s plot points and then fill in the gaps. I have been given a decent amount of creative freedom in developing the characters, their relationships, and key elements to the plot. I rewrote the first episode and after he liked what I did, I have since written six more episodes. There are eleven, as of now, in season one and I hope to finish the next four by the end of the year.
The experience has been great because with each episode submission I get direct and blunt feedback on what the director likes and doesn’t like so I can fix it. I’m happy to see that the most we have done on any one episode so far has been three revisions, so that’s not bad.
After I hand those episodes in, I return to my next novel. I have written the first three chapters of that story and have plot points for fifteen chapters laid out. I suspect it will be about 80,000 words when done and I hope to complete it next year and ship it around. If this anthology does well with WND Press, perhaps they would put out my next novel.
Until then, I remain grateful for all of you who take the time to see what I am up to and for your support. I hope the rest of your day goes well and remember to support the arts in whatever way you can. Take care.
Literally Jesse 