Back From Vacation, Back to Writing

The picture above is one I took with my iPhone of a beautiful beach cove looking out into the Pacific Ocean in San Diego. I was just on vacation in SanDiego for about a week. I didn't get any writing done then as we were going nonstop from morning till night. It was a lot of fun. I love my family. The other pic below is of some awesome sea lions at La Jolla Cove in San Diego. While we were in seventy-degree weather it was dumping snow back at home. It was nice to get away for a while.

Now that I'm back my novel "Ghost Hunting Realtor" is coming along. The little meter in the upper right of this website is slowly filling up as I write more chapters. If you want to be an Alpha Reader feel free to check out the first draft of the novel as I post it chapter by chapter over at Wattpad. I do go through and give each chapter an edit, but now that I've finally learned story structure I'm not needing to go back and fix the story. Just the grammar and the way I describe things here and there. I also find a lot of funny typos made from using speech to text to write. I use my iPhone to transcribe my speech into text on the fly. It works surprisingly well but sometimes makes for some interesting word mix-ups. It's an incredibly fast way to write, though! Way faster than typing. I still prefer typing but speech to text is the fastest way to write and produces great dialog I can't seem to get on the keyboard. 

We also go to visit Legoland! That was really fun. I... er uh I mean - our kids had a lot of fun seeing all the amazing stuff made out of legos :) It was a fun trip to remember. Now I'm back shoveling snow and slapping words onto the screen to get the first draft of my novel written. I hope 2017 is treating you well. Thanks for stopping by!

Book Covers

I needed to host these book cover images to get them updated on Goodreads. So check it out, some of my book covers!

Here's a new one for my short story "Stuffed Monster"

Writing Plans for 2017

Widgets! Long ago I used to have little widgets on the upper right-hand side of my website with word count tracking meters. I just put some up again! They're fun! You can see my progress on the books I'm working on. I'm hoping to consistently update them and fill them up all year!

This year I'm hoping to publish at least 3 books:

1. A supernatural drama called "Ghost Hunting Realtor"
2. A mystery chapter book called "The Case of the Missing Snowman"
3. A Sci-Fi Thriller called "Zombie Super Powers"

Right now I'm working on finishing the novel I started during NaNoWriMo. That's "Ghost Hunting Realtor," and it's super fun! I should be finishing "Zombie Super Powers," because it's over halfway done, but I haven't touched it in ages and I have a lot of momentum going on this book.

Here's the synopsis:

A realtor stumbles on some magical items that can rid a property of ghosts. He decides to use them to change his career and finally become a house flipper, but on a grander scale. He wants to flip old haunted mansions that no one else will buy. Then he plans to rid them of their ghosts, renovate them, and sell them for a hefty profit. The ghosts turn out to be demons with swords, and getting them to leave isn't as easy as he'd hoped. He also discovers there's also a man in town buying up all the haunted mansions to destroy them and put up apartment complexes in their place. 

Last year I wrote a "The Case of the Missing Snowman." The first draft of the manuscript is completed, and it's even been handed off to beta readers for feedback. So after I go through their feedback I'll make another pass at the manuscript and make changes from their feedback. Then I'll give it one last polishing pass to try and spot any typos that still made it through or clear up any sentences that don't make sense - and it will be done! So what's the holdup? Why didn't I already do that and get this book published? Well because it's a chapter book. My oldest son got excited about reading chapter books and so I bought him a ton and started reading them myself. I loved them! They're super fun! And they have awesome illustrations. My chapter book needs to have awesome illustrations too, and that's the holdup. I still have a lot of illustrations to finish for my book.

The last book, called "Zombie Super Powers," is the novel I workshopped on The Roundtable Podcast. I have no idea why I stopped writing this book. It's really fun, it really moves and has tons of exciting scenes and I think it will be the most page turn inducing book I've written to date! So after I get these other two books out the door I'm hoping to finish this one in 2017.

That's all I got. Thanks for stopping by!

Help Me Name My Book

   

I'm writing a novel. Will you help me with the title? Here's what it's about:

When a realtor, who desperately wants to become a house flipper, stumbles on some magical items that can get rid of ghosts, he uses them to try to and finally become a successful house flipper. The items include an invisible sword and the ghosts turn out to be demons with swords because they're fallen angels and angels have swords. He finds haunted houses for sale, buys them for almost nothing, duels with the demons until they are forced to leave, renovates the property, and then sells it for a hefty profit.

So, which title do you prefer?

• HAUNTED HOUSE FLIPPER
• GHOST SLAYING REALTOR

Or do you have another suggestion? Please leave your votes, new title ideas, etc. in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!

The Library

You may have noticed a new tab on the website called The Library. This is where I am going to post links to all of my stories. Most of them are available for free. There will be over a dozen stories to choose from. It's a work in progress but I'll be posting the links until they're all there in order of publication date. Thanks for stopping by!