Happy New Year, one and all!

My holiday season was filled with house guests, part time work, and a rush to wrap up the Dark Choir series. Thus, I haven’t had much opportunity to update everyone with the state of the Sloan.

Beginning in 2019, I was faced with the prospect of starting over. My relationship with my former publisher ended just as we were preparing to ramp out Book 5 of the Dark Choir series. With my rights reverted, I began a year-long plan… re-release the entire series one month at a time, ending with the finale in January.

Here we are! In the past twelve months, I’ve not only completed the six-book Dark Choir series, I also wrapped up my contributions to the six-book White Lightning series co-authored with Debra Dunbar. That one-year plan was ambitious, and I’ll be honest with you…

I didn’t think I could do it.

But I did!

First of all, I’d like to share with everyone the cover for book 6, THE DARK CHOIR. I revisited the cover for the first book, looking to create a sort of reflection of Dorian Lake’s character journey. I think the cover speaks for itself!

I began this series in 2011, finishing the first book in 2012. The Dark Choir has dominated my decade, and typing “THE END” was bittersweet. On one hand, I’ll miss Dorian’s whip-crack sarcasm. He’s like a best friend to me. On the other hand, I’m excited to start something new.

To that end, I’ve begun work on a follow-up novel to Yea Though I Walk. It’s another western/horror in the same vein and universe as YTIW, though it’s neither sequel nor prequel… rather a standalone in the shared milieu.

Looking farther ahead, I’ve already written a science fiction novel which I’m about to send out to beta readers. It’s a possible introduction to another series, though I’m not sure if it’ll blossom into something worth sending out into the universe. Time will tell!

And beyond that, the door hasn’t completely shut on the Dark Choir universe. I have outlines for a spinoff series that gives some of the minor characters their own place in the spotlight. Again… time will tell if that plays out.

I’d like to extend a special thank you to all the folks at Animus Ferrum Publishing for making this year a catalyst for my future. It’s changed me in several ways, forcing me to acquire new skills and offering me bent ears when I felt low. If you’re into indie speculative fiction, consider signing up for their VIP Readers Facebook Group, where you’ll get all the announcements from my cohorts at AFP!

In the meantime, The Dark Choir finale releases this month. Keep your eyes open. If you haven’t already followed me on Amazon, consider doing so now. Amazon gives you notification when new books hit their digital shelves, and it’s the quickest way to know when fresh ink is ready for your eager eyes.

I wish you all good fortune and health in the coming year!

It’s a beautiful fall day here in the Mid-Atlantic. The temps are in the sixties, the sun is peeping from between fluffy clouds, and my thoughts turn to the change of the seasons. In fact, this cosmic mechanism is the center pin for the magic system of an urban fantasy series written by a writer friend of mine.

Sharon Bayliss submitted her December People series to my previous publisher roughly the same time I submitted the Dark Choir. We were published nearly back-to-back, and our worlds have a lot in common. Fun Fact: I slipped an oblique reference to her series in The Curse Mandate.

In Sharon’s series, magic and its users are governed by their identity with seasons. But beyond the magic and world-building, her books are about a family. I teach a course of creative writing at Frederick Community College, and I always place the class on character building before my plot lecture. I do this because I’m a firm believer that a reader can forgive weak, swiss-cheese plots if they give a damn about the characters.

Since my departure from my previous publisher, I’d fallen out of contact with Sharon. Which is why I was thrilled to discover that Animus Ferrum Publishing has picked up her December People series!

And as if by fate, the first book in her series, DESTRUCTION, is slated to release back-to-back with The Curse Mandate! If you enjoy urban fantasy aimed at an adult audience, this series is a slam dunk. Keep your eyes peeled… book one releases on Tuesday October 15!

Members of my newsletter got a sneak peak of the new cover for The Curse Mandate last week. Miss out on that? Then sign up right here for the Fistful of Fiction newsletter, and be the first to see new artwork and catch a glimpse at some of my behind-the-scenes antics!

The re-release-a-thon for the Dark Choir series continues for October, with Book 3, THE CURSE MANDATE! This is a real meat-and-potatoes book for Dorian’s sage, brimming with political conspiracy and a cast of memorable characters… including the return of Annarose Rodolfi, the Stregha from the prequel short story, “Bait & Witch”. (Want to read that story? Get a free copy with the newsletter signup! Okay, okay, I’ll stop plugging the newsletter.)

Here’s the new cover for Mandate… once again courtesy of J. Caleb Design:

The action heats up with this book… which ends the “Curse Trilogy”. Coming up in November, we’ll begin the endgame for Dorian in the “Dark Trilogy”, beginning with book 4, THE DARK INTEREST.

Keep your eyes peeled this Tuesday, October 9 for The Curse Mandate, and spread the word!

After a bit of technical difficulties, the Kindle Edition of The Curse Servant, book two of the Dark Choir series, is now available!

Dorian Lake begins his search for his lost soul, but the Dark Choir wants it more! Can Dorian rely on those he trusts the least in order to save innocents caught in the crossfire?

Continue the Dark Choir saga on Kindle or in Paperback on Amazon! For Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo and all other non-Amazon channels, follow this link!

Last Monday, the subscribers to my newsletter got the first glimpse of the new cover for The Curse Servant. Part of my release-a-thon for the entire Dark Choir series, Servant is the second book in the series wherein Dorian Lake comes to grips with the realities of having no soul. What’s worse, the Dark Choir seems hell-bent on finding it before he can.

The new cover from J. Caleb Design is a slam-dunk! Carrying on the new theme, I think this cover really conveys the dangers Dorian finds himself in, while still trying to protect the innocent.

The Curse Servant (hopefully) launches this Tuesdays, September 3rd. I say “hopefully” as there’s been a bit of a hiccup on Amazon’s end… hence my not having this available for pre-order. I’ll keep you posted. With any luck, and some nice, shiny karma, the book will be ready for your eager eyes on Tuesday!

Today’s the day that begins our six-book stretch. The Curse Merchant re-release is now available for purchase on Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Apple!

This new edition of the opening chapter of the Dark Choir series has been re-edited by yours truly and re-packaged with a new cover by J. Caleb Design.

If you haven’t already signed up for the newsletter, then you may be missing out on the prequel short story to The Curse Merchant. Click on over and snatch it free when you sign up for the newsletter!

If you have signed up, you’ll soon get a sneak preview on the new cover for The Curse Servant, which will be releasing next month.

Spread the word, you Fistful Faithful… urban fantasy that plays the magic close to the chest!

Hello again, one and all!

This is going to be one hell of a year for yours truly, and hopefully for fans of the Dark Choir series as well. Next month begins the Dark Choir release-a-thon, wherein I will be publishing a book per month until the entire 6-book series concludes in January.

I know tons of you have been on indefinite hold for Book 5, and I hate that it happened that way. I LOVE The Dark Principle, and I have a sneaking suspicion you will too.

Subscribers to my newsletter have already seen the new cover for The Curse Merchant. Missed out on that? Subscribe here to be the first to lay eyes on these glorious new covers! In addition, you’ll receive a free copy of the short story prequel to the Dark Choir series, “Bait & Witch”. Newsletter subscribers didn’t just catch an early preview of the new cover… I also treated them to a retrospective of all four covers that have graced this title.

But that’s the past. Let’s look to the future, shall we? The new cover for the re-brand of the Dark Choir series comes courtesy of J.Caleb Design, an industry heavyweight who, by the by, is an absolute treat to work with! Feast your eyes on the new, grittier cover for The Curse Merchant that positively OOZES urban fantasy:

One thing I really wanted in the new cover was to get back to the urban fantasy roots in a way that didn’t borrow from any of the current genre giants (*cough* Jim Butcher *cough*) Dorian presents a male lead in the urban fantasy genre, which gave J.Caleb Design an opportunity to play in a new sandbox.

I’m overjoyed to present the new re-edited, re-formatted Dark Choir series for all of you. And you can rest assured… you can ride this locomotive all the way to its epic conclusion!

In the meantime, The Curse Merchant will release on August 6th. I’ll have pre-order links up on my website and my social media outlets.

I have some news for all you Fistful Faithful! Check out the video on my Facebook page here!

The Dark Choir Series has been picked up by Animus Ferrum Publishing! I’ll be re-releasing Books 1 – 4 once a month starting in August, then continuing on with The Dark Principle, Book 5, which has been on the shelf waiting for publication for almost a year. Then in January, Book 6 will drop, drawing a final curtain on the Dark Choir series! Speaking of which…

Extra bonus update… I’m ramping out a newsletter to keep the Faithful more informed. First-time subscribers will get a free e-book of “Bait & Witch”, the prequel short story to the Dark Choir series. This is a GREAT time to grab that story and bone up on Dorian’s early career as a hex-peddler. The story introduces Annarose Rodolfi, a character that becomes *ahem* quite central to the Dark Choir series during the “back half”.

So, click that newsletter link and stay up to date… and keep your eyes peeled for BRAND NEW COVERS for the entire Dark Choir series!

Happy (almost) summer, all you Fistful Faithful! I have a BIG post for you today! As most of you know, the rights to my novels reverted back to me earlier this year, and I’m planning the rest of 2019 toward re-releasing each. The first title to be snatched up by another press happens to be my baby… my western/horror (or weird western, depending on the cut of your jib) YEA THOUGH I WALK.

When the task fell to me to secure new cover art for the book in which I take the most pride, I immediately approached the artist I’ve worked with in the past, one who is a master of horror and alternative illustration… Dean Samed. You’ll remember him from his award-winning cover for The Curse Servant.

Well, I was in luck. He was available, and jumped right on board to craft a new cover for YTIW. This time around, I wanted to really punch the horror elements, as that’s a readership I’ve yet to tap into. Let’s just say he knocked it directly out of the park. I’ll let you judge for yourselves:

An army of wendigo, a hoard of strigoi, and one righteous man to walk the path…

How THAT for a slice of fried gold? Linthicum Odell rides again this summer. YEA THOUGH I WALK will re-release under the Animus Ferrum Publishing banner on July 9th, 2019.

If you missed this title the first go-around, consider snatching it up now… pre-order link is live for Kindle!

Also, do me a HUGE solid… re-post and share with your horror lit friends. I’d love to drum up some notice for this book ahead of the re-release.

Stay tuned for more news on the Dark Choir series, which is next in line for re-release, along with book 5, The Dark Principle, and the finale which I’m working on right this very moment!

Hello again, one and all!

Last month I broke the news that the Dark Choir series was back under my control, and that I intended to re-publish those titles under my personal LLC. I also pledged to keep the original release date for book 5, The Dark Principle, intact.

Well, I lied. Not so much lied as changed my mind. Rather than simply re-packaging the same novels under new covers and thrusting them onto the Amazon Jumble without so much as a hey or howareya, I’ve decided to really overhaul each of these manuscripts and give them proper releases.

The Curse Merchant was my first published novel. Originally self-published in 2012 on the Smashwords platform, it and its sequel were picked up by Curiosity Quills and published back-to-back with their in-house editors. I’ve learned a lot since that manuscript, and have released eight more titles under my name and co-authored. I’ve also come around to certain social truths these past few years to which I was blind when I first wrote these manuscripts.

In that vein, I intend on doing a complete re-edit on each of the Dark Choir books, on top of new covers. Nothing major… the stories will remain the same. I just intend on shoring up some language, catching some errors that slipped through multiple house edits, and tweaking a name or location here and there in order to address insensitivity that escaped my notice due to my state of privilege. I’ve learned, and I want to take this opportunity to improve the series.

That said, I have talent lined up for the new covers. Due to his waiting list and backlog, the re-release dates will be pushed back later this year. Here is my preliminary schedule for releases:

The Curse Merchant – August 6th

The Curse Servant – September 3rd

The Curse Mandate – October 8th

The Dark Interest – November 5th

The Dark Principle – December 3rd

The Dark Choir – January 6th

Thanks for bearing with me during this transition period. The White Lightning books are proceeding unabated. Look forward to Trouble Boys, book 5, soon!