Blog & Updates

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

I've had some interesting feedback lately. Mostly Hezekiah has been receiving 4 or 5 star ratings with the occasional review. Since the weekend some 1 to 3 star ratings with some bad reviews came in. At least, I thought they were bad at first.

I think the biggest issue is that they aren't really understanding the concept of the book before they read it. It's about mental illness, physical and mental abuse, and the effects of a destructive religion. Don't get me wrong, by the end of the first third of the book you are solidly moved from horror to magical realism and fantasy. No, it isn't just in Hez's head. That first third though, is horror. Not supernatural in nature, it's the horror of what humans do to each other.

The negative reviews that are constructive get at how dark the story is and how it wasn't expected. So, although they left minimal star ratings, I take it as positive feedback that they found the story so dark. After all, I am a hybrid horror and fantasy writer.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Hezekiah has been out for seven days now and it's been quite a week. The same day that it released I was offered a new job which I accepted. It's difficult to juggle a career and still find time to write, which is why I can't always write as much as I'd like. Sometimes I need to get away from everything, clear my head. When I can, I go hiking around Minnesota and Wisconsin. I love solo hiking, I also love finding places I can go and not see another human the entire day.

I've been working on book 2 in the series. It will again have three parts, just like the first. Right now I'm at 31,306 words and I'm not through part one yet. This book will likely be longer than the first, but I'm still aiming to keep it under 300 pages. Hez spent his early years in very uncomfortable situations, by the end of book 1 he was getting comfortable with his new life. Book 2 is tossing him back into discomfort and confusion. Part of the story that's developing is making me sad, sadder than I was with book 1.

I've had some questions about the narration style that I use, and I get it, it can be confusing. In the first part, Hez has just been through a horrifying ordeal and he's trying to write everything down that has happened to him from his earliest memories to his current time. Starting in the second part, he's in current time and writing things down immediately as or after they happen. He also gets encouragement from someone special who recommends he experiment with a more narrative style. It all blends together to form Hez's passionate, and often confused, voice.

I guess that's all for now.