I’m not going to waste time on pictures here since I’m hoping to make this quick.  Part of it is also because my computer time is limited for a while.  I’ll explain more about that on Saturday because I have two important things to announce:

The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks

I just finished the short story collection.  It’s 11 tales at 250 pages, which I’m hoping to publish for $3.99 in the summer.  Need to find a cover artist for this and I want to be picky this time.  That computer problem also took out a file that had some suggestions made previously . . . ANYWAY!

I’m hoping to get some beta readers who can give me some feedback by May 15th.  I haven’t read through it myself beyond checking over the sections I wrote the previous day.  I do have one person here that will do some editing, but it doesn’t hurt to have more.

One thing to keep in mind is that each story is made to stand by itself, so there may be a little repetition in describing Ichabod.  I wanted to make it that a person could skip to any story and not be lost.  So, leave me a comment and I’ll send you the file in whatever format you prefer.  Right now I only have the Word file.

Conquering Bedlam?

On Sunday, I mentioned an idea that was kind of like ‘Lloyd & Cassidy vs Trump’.  I only say this because the villain I designed can be mistaken for him.  Tried changing it around, but the arrogance and refusal to admit defeat was too great a foil for my confident and psychotic heroes.  The character only shows up in the beginning and end while they go about taking on his minions.  Those would become fairly apparent too even with the changes to name and exaggerations to personality.  I’d be going for all side too if that’s what you were wondering.  So, what to do with this idea that is pestering me, but I don’t want to publish?

If people are interested, I will write it and then post the sections on Tuesdays and Thursday while promoting Crossing Bedlam and Chasing Bedlam.  Maybe something this risky can get them some sales if I end every post saying it’s $2 for the other stories.  This still poses some issues:

1. Again I find a ‘C’ word before Bedlam.  Derailing Bedlam is seeming out of place now, which means I should go back to finding a ‘C’ word for that title.
2. I might lose some people because I won’t tone down the violence, language, and innuendo here.  If I want to promote the books that are published then I want people to know what they’re getting.  Again, we’re looking at risk, which is why I’m hoping for some opinions here.
3. There’s that political issue that I prefer to stay away from.  Yet, I think I’m overreacting here.  People will realize who I’m lampooning.  The thing is that people really don’t have a sense of humor about this stuff nowadays.
4. Even taking over Tuesdays and Thursdays, I won’t get this written until the end of May.  That’s if I start it right after my son’s break.  Now, I was going to do another Dawn Addison story throughout October.  This would be a major overlap and mean that there would be days with two large posts.  I could pause Conquering Bedlam for that month, but that’s a momentum issue.  The other option is to leave Dawn for next year when I’ll either still be writing or be a ghost here.

So there’s a lot to think about with this second one.  I’d appreciate all suggestions and advice.  Seems this year is turning out to be just as chaotic as 2016.