The Jesus Road- 2056 Expedition

I'm finishing up a sequel to my famous The Jesus Road- 2056 Expedition, which is due out by mid-August of this year.  Like the first, it is a sci-fi novel set in the near future, when disease and a series of senseless wars have decimated the planet.  Michigan and Ohio are radioactive zones and all parts west of there are a vicious wasteland.  Florida and parts adjacent to it are under water.

An android, a woman who lost her husband in the last nuclear explosion and a strange boy go through a portal known as the Jesus Road to the city of Jerusalem to find a supercomputer which will be the Biblical Beast.  But they don't count on the androids creator having laden the way with robotic traps along the way.

The Conspiracy Chick

I'm working on a new book, called The Conspiracy Chick.  Do you like the cover?

It's a sequel to my book Warehouse of the Dead.  It's set about seven years in the future from the time that the protagonist blew up the Detroit Salt Mines, and Dr. Estes escaped with John Hemlock's head.  Scott (the protagonist) has been kicking himself for having let him get away.  But his son gets tagged by a woman called the Conspiracy Chick because of a conspiracy blog she runs, and she says she has seen Dr. Estes, alive.

Zombies

I've written another new book, which I've entitled Zombies, which was a fun book to write!  It's about a zombie plague that begins in a secret lab beneath the city of Detroit.  The entire city is decimated, in fact the entire country.  My main character hears about it and five of his friends are trapped in a building in Detroit, and can't get out.  So he sets out to free them, and, well, you can just guess what he faces!

The Dragons of Creative Writing

I've compiled my blog posts into one book now, The Dragons of Creative Writing!  I'm excited by this new book, as it details my thoughts on how to change the writer, and thus change his writing.  It does not go through all the boring details that you've heard hundreds of times before about how to improve your writing, but rather, how to improve yourself, which will, in the end, make you a much better writer.

So join me, if you will, on a journey that explores the alchemy of a writer.  You'll be glad you did.

I've Finished My Book- The White Werewolf

I've finished my new book, The White Werewolf!  Finally!!  It's been almost 2 years since my stroke, when I couldn't walk and talk, but I've finally recovered and written a book!

And almost finished with the second and third book since my stroke, the Werewolf's Revenge and the Werewolf Awakening!  Man, I am so happy I could dance!

I'm Finding My Voice Again- and I'm Surprised

With all the time that I've been writing, you'd think I'd know my voice.  But after my stroke, I'm having to relearn everything.  I had to learn how to walk, how to think, and talk and yes, even how to write.  It's been brutal, but I had my loving wife to see me through it.

I learned how to write before I learned how to talk well, a conscious decision on my part that I don't regret.  I speak okay now, but I still have to speak abominably slowly.  The stroke seemed to affect my speech patterns the worst.  So during recovery, I concentrated on writing.

Fast forward a year and a half, and I've found that I can write quite well.  It wasn't so easy at first.  I could write only five words a day, and not very good at that!  Then I worked my way up to ten, fifteen, twenty-five, fifty, one hundred and finally, the much vaunted 250 words per day!  That took me about six months to do.  Somedays I wrote less, and somedays-- those were the good days-- I even wrote more.

Spring ahead another six months, and I finally worked my way up to 1200 words every day.  I didn't have much else to do. so that took me eight to ten hours, but I was determined.   

Now, a year and a half later, I can write an average of 1500 words per day, and I consider them pretty good,  I still have to feather them, of course, but they are good enough to get by.

But still, I wonder what to write about.  I've written The White Werewolf, Werewolf's Revenge and The Haunting of Hiram Abiff, but I'm anxious to move on to some real dark fiction.  I've got one more werewolf novel, which is the Werewolf Awakening, and after that a good ghost story--both of which I should finish by this year, but after that---who knows what I will write?

By then, I should have my voice back.

COVID-19 and the Writer

We're all aware that COVID-19 is here.  Everybody is going into quarantine except for emergency responders and people that absolutely have to go out.  People are scared.  Their jobs are at risk.  The federal government is coming to the rescue.  But how long will this contagion be a threat?

There are two anti-malarial drugs that show great promised in treating the infection and are commonly available.  They have already been approved by the FDA- and that's a good thing.  We can only cross our fingers as to the testing outcome.

But the bottom line, is everyone, even writers are being quarantined.

This does give us the opportunity to write, though, and, while I'm not to happy about the COVID-19 infection, I have to make the best of it.  So I will write.  The wife has stocked us up with provisions for three months, and we don't have to go out, so we'll wait and see.

But, in the meantime, I will write.

The White Werewolf

Well, I'm back after a 5 year hiatus in writing and publishing.  I suffered a series of strokes due to, believe it or not, diabetes, which I didn't know that I had.

I also didn't know that I was having strokes until the final big one hit.

My son took me to the hospital at my wife's request because I just didn't sound right.  Like before, I was vague, had trouble concentrating, but this time, I was having trouble speaking, too.  I was, as they say, royally screwed.

When I woke up about 12 hours later, they told me I had a stroke brought about by diabetes, and I would have to be on injections of Humalog for the rest of my life, followed by a nightly injection of Lantos.  I would also have to take a host of pills (6 of them) forever.

Yikes. 

But worse than that, I couldn't talk, and they told me that I might never be able to again.  And, of course, since my right side was impaired and I couldn't think straight, writing was out of the question.  In fact, it was highly doubtful that I would be able to go the bathroom by myself again.  

That I could have a stroke at such a young age was unthinkable.  It was... unfair.  But, I was lucky to be alive, the doctors said.  I wasn't so sure.

But my wife was adamant, that I could come back from everything.  Again, I wasn't so sure.  In fact, I could barely comprehend her faith.  

She was right.

I've written three novels since my stroke.  The Haunting of Hiram Abiff, The White Werewolf, Werewolf's Revenge, and I'm working on the fourth-- Werewolf's Awakening.  I'm off of the Humalog and Lantos injections and take just Metformin pills and I don't even need that- but I've heard that extends your life.  I just don't eat any carbohydrates or sugar anymore and I'm fine.

I'm also down to just taking three of my medications as a preventative.

Now, I can talk.  I can walk normal.  I can think.

Above all, I can write.

The Haunting of Hiram Abiff, Volume 1

The Haunting of Hiram Abiff Volume 1 is now available in Kindle and print version at Amazon.  

For hundreds of years the Knights Templar and the Freemasons have hidden a terrible secret.  His name is Hiram Abiff, and he has been dead for over three thousand years, but that won't stop him from taking over the world.

Ghost Giveaway

The Ghost Box can be downloaded for free at Amazon's Kindle Store for the next 3 days.  Enjoy.

White Cat's New Mystery Magazine

White Cat. LLC. will be making announcements soon for upcoming new magazines including a fantasy magazine, science fiction magazine, and a mystery magazine.  I'm going to be editing the mystery magazine myself and leaving the others to the new editors we'll be announcing in the near future.

Keep your eye on White Cat Publications website to see what's coming up.