I haven’t been updating this blog much, but it’s been for good reason. I’ve been writing a lot the past couple months and I couldn’t be more pleased—I feel like I’m officially ‘back in business’. I did put my Dirty Eden agent search on hold for a while and went back to work on The Mayfair Moon.  Well, I’m happy to say I’m about a chapter away from the end and I’m excited. Of course, I’ve mentioned before that the title will probably change, but I couldn’t be more happy about how the story has unfolded.  I’ll be putting the first chapter of The Mayfair Moon up for download soon. Book two of the trilogy has already been swimming around in my head.

{Insert Neat Photo Here to Distract from all the text}

But then there’s also a YA/children’s story I began around the same time last year I started The Mayfair Moon, which I’m anxious to get back to work on.  I guess I’ll have to go with the flow and work on whichever calls to me the most.

Back to Dirty Eden – Okay, I just need to say that I really loved writing that story. It was a strange thing because in its conception, I was in the beginning of a two-year long emotional roller-coaster ride. It’s amazing what life-altering circumstances can do for a writer’s craft. Dirty Eden wasn’t just a story, it was an experience. Now, I just need to go in an edit it again so I can get back on the agent bandwagon.

Anyway, I have recently rewritten the Dirty Eden blurb on ‘The Work’ page. After several months of not reading it over and over again, I noticed something major wrong with it that I was shocked not to have noticed before. I’m mortified that I sent that synopsis to so many agents without realizing that error. The sentences were so damn long they were like a book in themselves. My writing, the actual story, isn’t like that at all. But the synopsis was because writing a synopsis is like walking a tightrope over a volcano. If you don’t do it right the first time….

So anyway, that’s my update.

It’s been longer than usual since my last blog, but I haven’t had much to say, really. I spend most of my time working and my free time writing, which isn’t a bad thing. It just gives me little to talk about.

I’m over halfway through my 4th full-length novel, The Mayfair Moon.  So far about 48,000 words in, and writing steadily! It’s a YA werewolf novel about two sisters, Chloe and Alex Dawson, and…well, werewolves. I refuse to go all synopsis-mode in a casual blog post. I’m not in the habit of torturing myself except for when torture is necessary. Though I will put up a blurb about it on ‘The Work‘ page soon.

I’m really loving it, I have to say. Of course, just because I like it doesn’t mean everyone else will. Hopefully when I put up the first chapter, you will all let me know what you think.

In addition to The Mayfair Moon, I’ve also got a 5th  novel in the works, which is a little over 16,000 words in currently. It’s more a children’s and YA novel. I still haven’t decided on the title yet, but I’ve narrowed it down. It’s more of a magic-filled story inspired by Harry Potter, Sleepy Hollow and The Brother’s Grimm.

As far as Dirty Eden, I’m still looking for an agent, but have put off the search for a while.

That’s all I’ll say about that.

Back to writing.

So, I edited Dirty Eden again and changed the first chapter up quite a bit. There were parts that were a little flat and some that simply needed to be altered to make them more clear (thanks Mr. Ron Wolfe for all your input!). I’ve already received several agent rejections, but I’m not going to let that get me down. As I said before, I knew in advance that rejections, even a lot of them, were inevitable. I know too that I’ll get many more before I get that magical acceptance letter. In the meantime, I’m doing what I need to do to make the manuscript better.

The one thing I can say is that so far I have not received any negative feedback on Dirty Eden in general.  I even had a request to see more of it and although that did not prove beneficial, it to me is encouraging.

So, the first chapter has been revised extensively. Well, technically the whole novel has been re-edited and revised, but you can download the pdf of the first chapter on this page.

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Update 10/24/26 – I received a response from an agent yesterday that truly lifted my spirits and brought my confidence back up. He said:  “…am pleased to say it looks sharp and interesting. Really, far better than several queries that I’ve had from published writers recently.” He asked to see the full manuscript.  I know better than to get my hopes up too high. He may like the query/synopsis and hate the story! But we’ll see. I just hope this one works out, not because of the obvious, but because before I even received his response I had good vibes. He seems cool and easy to work with.

Wish me luck!

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Just a quick blog here!

As mentioned, the first chapter of Dirty Eden is now up on ‘The Work’ page for download.

I hope you enjoy! :-)

And thanks for reading!

Note: Because I don’t really have a separate home page, this post will remain ‘sticky’ (at the top) to highlight recent news that may be up for weeks or more at a time. All of my most recent blogs are below this one.
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Dirty Eden is done!  The book is now going through the editing process (well, the first edit by Brian aka Skorpius aka the Professor aka Boss with a Crowbar – one day I’ll decide which name I want to use permanently), who should probably look into editing as a career, because he’s that knowledgeable! The first chapter is available for download on ‘The Work’ page.

I’m also in the process of scoping out which publishers (and/or agents) I will submit to first. I am not at all looking forward to this. I know enough about the publishing industry to know that it feels impossible to get published because it’s not really that far from being impossible.

We’ll see, and every now and then  I’ll update my gory adventure for your reading amusement. ;-)

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Well, complete as in I typed the last sentence today. Now it’s all up to Boss with a Crowbar to break out his mad editing skills and edit the hell out of me before I take it to the next level.

Anyway, this is just a quick post to mark the day I finished. Pretty soon I’ll be adding the  book blurb on ‘The Work’ page and when I do, I’ll post a blog to let you know.

I’ve been putting this site together now for several days, quite obsessively I have to admit, and am almost done.  I used to fall asleep around 10:30 p.m. or 11:00 p.m (I know, I’m such a bore), but lately have been seeing 3:00 a.m. blurring red on the clock across the room. That’s what happens when I get a project like this. Obviously a few pages need to be completed, but that’s almost as easy as posting a message. I had issues with my favicon, which as you can see (hopefully) is a yellow sunflower, but that problem was embarrassingly easy to fix. Also, I ran into some problems with…well, let’s just say this is the first time I’ve ever used WordPress and it was almost like having to learn html all over again.

A bit of advice, to avoid most issues with putting together a web site, whether it’s basic or WordPress based, don’t make the mistake (and this one isn’t embarassing because it’s an easy mistake to make) of trying to alter or add to files inside  any folder but the ‘public_html’ folder. Yeah, those of you that already knew that can laugh at me all you want, haha, but I know I’m not the only one. Funny thing is, I remember the same thing happened to me when I created my first basic web site a few years ago. I should have remembered….

Almost done with Dirty Eden, just a few more pages and I can officially say it’s complete. I’m a bit excited, but I know the publishing process that lies ahead will not be fun and will quickly turn that excitement to frustration. But I’m going to try something different. Yep. I’ll explain that later.

Well, I’m off for now. I’ll leave you with a photo outside a trucking company not even a mile from me.

(Click the image for full view)