Songster and Wordsmith

Looking for short reads in #horror this summer/winter. Great for fans of Dean Koontz and Stephen King. "Goosebumps" for adults. Book 1 is 99c at Smashwords till end of July. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/499345 Book 2 is 99c on pre-order at Amazon till end of August. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07438SNSJ Read these with all the lights on. From the author: I have to admit, I grew up reading fairy tales, those wonderfully dark stories about evil witches, enchanted forests, and mean dwarves who stole children. Rumplestiltskin is still my all-time favourite fairy tale. Remember the TV series "Once Upon A time"? I was a fan of the character. R. L Stine's "Goosebumps" books were something I started reading when I was much older, simply because they weren't around when I was a child. But I adore a good ghost story. So I guess it's not hard to see why I'm writing my very own "Goosebumps" for adults series of h

Since becoming a self-published author, I've published three young adult novels (two were published by a small-press publisher but dropped with their entire YA catalogue), two sci-fi books in a series, one horror novella, a short story collection, and two short stories. Planned for release are books three and four in the sci-fi series, and up to twenty more of the horror novellas. These titles have already formed part of the catalogue of my self-publishing career. But I'm not going to give up trying to secure a traditional publisher. Books that I plan to write and pitch to agents/publishers include a dystopian series, three romance novels I wrote years ago, and a thriller. Even though I'm self-published, picking up a publisher will broaden my audience and provide me with the support of a professional team that'll improve my writing, books sales, and overall career. So why am I telling you this? Because I have a plan. And because as much as perception plays a large p

I didn't start out a self-published author. I had a dream. Write a novel, get it published, sell millions, retire from reality. It was a good dream. Not that there is anything wrong with self-publishing, but I hadn't a clue how to do it. And when I started out writing, it was either traditionally publish, or vanity publish. For those who don't know what a vanity publisher is, they take your book with all its structural flaws and typos, they create a cover, they produce this book, and charge you $7,000 for it. But they'll send you 100 or more copies which you've then to distribute yourself. They do not edit the book at all. This is no lie or exaggeration. Way, way, way back in 1996 when I wrote my first horror novel, Poison in the Pond, I saw an ad in a writers magazine for a publisher, so I sent them my novel and they sent me back a lovely letter telling me that they'd gladly publish it, for $7,000. Back then!! What would the cost be now? Of course I said

I couldn't have written my sci-fi series "Welcome to the Apocalypse" if I didn't have a mild interest in the end of the world, both during and after. Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction/movies differ to Dystopian in one aspect - dystopia is typically a world that wants to revert back to an earlier version and this reversion usually involve a revolution. But for all dystopian to exist, there must first come the apocalypse, then the post-apocalypse. For me, I think the fascination for apocalyptic fiction comes from two things: A) I'm a bit of a misanthropist. When I hear about cruelty in the world, I want humanity to burn for it. Secretly, of course. I don't want to government on my doorstep accusing me of terroristic intentions. And, B) an apocalypse gives consideration to a clean slate. Mankind is being given a second chance and the opportunities to do great things are limited only by our desire to do great things.   To celebrate the release of  &