May 2018 Updates

Happy Wednesday!

It’s been a while since I put up a blog post. I’ve been burning the proverbial candle at both ends and haven’t had much time to spare for it. Stealing a few minutes here to ramble a bit.

A number of exciting projects are underway. First, the editor sent back the file for Menagerie! I’m hoping to have everything put together with that for a release sometime within the next two weeks.

I’m also working on two second editions, re-releasing The Eldritch Heart and Caller 107 soon with new cover art and some revisions. Caller 107 (since it’s one of my earliest books) had the most changes (something like 3,500 tweaks inside and a few thousand more words added). For those of you who’ve read the first version of The Eldritch Heart, the edits are mostly minor things like sentence flow and a couple of minor echoes. I did however make a small-but-meaningful change toward the end which will hopefully provide a more satisfying feel to how everything wraps up.

Also, I wound up changing the name of the stone giant from Ogun to Omun. A reader pointed out that “Ogun” is also the name of an African deity, which I had unintentionally used. Appropriately enough, he’s an “Earth God,” so naming a stone giant after him kinda worked even if it was a coincidence. Honestly, I thought I made the word up not realizing… Alas, my Google-Fu was weak. However, out of respect, I changed the name.

Ghost Black, the third book in the Daughter of Mars series is scheduled for release on 5/22, about a week away.

I’m also eagerly awaiting the cover art for Out of Sight, a YA science fiction novel. The text is ready to go here, so as soon as the cover and interior art is ready, the book will be going live.

Citadel: The Concordant Sequence is done with proofreading and awaiting formatting!

The Divergent Fates Anthology recently had a new cover and interior formatting applied.

I’ve also got the outline underway for the third (as yet untitled) book in the Vampire Innocent series. (BTW the audiobook for A Nighttime of Forever should be going live soon. It’s in the final stages over at ACX.)

Dead Man’s Number just came back from the proofreader and is in queue.

J.R. Rain and I are working on the second Alex Silver novel, Deep Silver, which is in queue for editing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any idea of a release timeline at this point as we are both quite busy.

Also, paperback versions of Sophie’s Light, The Forest Beyond the Earth, A Nighttime of Forever, A Beginner’s Guide to Fangs, and the Divergent Fates Anthology are now available through Barnes & Noble.

So, over the next few weeks, I’ve got somewhere between 4 and 6 books expecting to release or re-release. Hence, the head-spinning.

Happy reading!

-Matt

 

Cover Reveal | The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey

Happy Monday everyone 🙂 (as much as a Monday can be happy)

I’m thrilled to finally be able to reveal the cover for my upcoming middle-grade adventure novel, The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey!

(Cover art by Ricky Gunawan)

Alas, I don’t yet have a firm release date as the edits are taking a touch longer than expected, but it will be out soonish.


Twelve year old Piper Bailey wouldn’t trade her friends for any amount of money―unfortunately, when her dad inherits a fortune, she doesn’t have a choice.

She’s happy with her little house in Syracuse and hand-me-down clothes twenty years out of style. The unexpected windfall is a blessing for her family, but it comes with a giant house hours away in the woods. Heartbroken at being so far from her tiny social circle, she tries to talk her parents into staying home, but they drag her off to the forest anyway.

Piper finds an unexpected friend in a boy who lives in the next house, and the two decide to explore grandpa’s giant mansion. It doesn’t take long for creepy things to start happening. Convinced there’s a malevolent ghost trying to hurt them, she asks her parents for help, but Mom goes from believing Piper is acting out over the unwanted move to being legit crazy.

A near-fatal attack from the spirit strands the kids in a hidden underground complex packed with supposedly mythical creatures. Thinking the strange zoo cruel, Piper is determined to free the creatures, but not all the captives are friendly.

Some are downright evil.

Silver Light on Sale

Hi All!

The first book of the Alexis Silver series is on sale this weekend for .99 on #kindle!

(We are working on the second book in this series now.)


For centuries, tales have told of merfolk haunting the seas, strange creatures teasing or helping sailors at their whim, occasionally having them for dinner.

And not in a cordial sense.

Alexis Silver was ahead of her time, a woman too smart to fit into society at the turn of the century. She gave up her dreams of higher education for love, marrying young, but her husband, and the life she wanted, perished in World War I soon after. Heartbroken and restless, she booked passage on a cruise along the West Coast in search of adventure, but adventure found her.

The ship capsized, killing everyone on board, except for her. As she drifted far beneath the waves, inexplicably alive, the reason for her survival flashed by in a streak of silver: a merman.

He had passed along the curse―or gift as Alexis sees it.

A century later, she breaks up the monotony of immortality in the Pacific Northwest working as a private investigator. The long-dormant maternal instincts of her resident Dark Master kick in when a nice older couple hire her to find their missing son and his family. Her instincts tell her this isn’t like her usual jilted-spouse cases.

If she doesn’t work fast, a little girl is going to die.