Demons, Superheroes, and Ghosts: An Author Update

Being a writer is weird. It’s April, and I haven’t put out any new books yet this year, which makes me feel unproductive. But I’ve been working so hard!

So I figured I’d post an author update to prove to myself that I’ve accomplished things.

First off, let’s talk about The Shadow Journals. This is my new urban fantasy project that I mentioned in my post of goals for 2021, and I’m happy to report that I’ve finished the first draft of four novella-length stories in the series.

The fifth story is turning out to be way longer than the others. I’m considering bundling the first four stories into one volume and putting it out for free as a reader magnet. Then the rest of the books would be novel-length.

Maybe. I’m still thinking it over.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some aesthetics I’ve made for the series.

This one is for the heroine, freelance exorcist Beatriz Romo Reyes.

And this is for her trusty sidekick, amateur witch Maggie Greenfield.

The two of them have a Sherlock Holmes/John Watson vibe going on, in that Bea is the protagonist but Maggie is the viewpoint character. The conceit of the series is that you’re reading Maggie’s records of the jobs she’s helped Bea with.

Expect more updates on the blog as I make progress. I’m still hoping/planning to release the first book later this year.

You may remember Wardrobe, the interactive superhero story I released the first episode of earlier this year. I’ve since released two more episodes that you can play on the app Tales: Choose Your Own Story.

I originally planned for it to be four episodes long, but the big fight at the finale turned out even bigger than expected, so it’s going to be five episodes total. I’m very close to completing the whole thing, so expect a big launch post soon.

And speaking of games and apps, I have another story out. The Braden Banshee is Victorian gothic fiction with a steampunk flair. I originally published it in 2018, and now I’ve adapted it to an immersive story on the app Plop.

But what does “immersive story” mean? Well, you progress through the story by tapping the screen of your phone, and in addition to the text, you get images and sound effects.

Given that the story involves a banshee, you can bet your phone’s speakers are going to give you some spine-chilling ghostly wails. 😉

I don’t want to post too many of the images themselves, since they’re kind of spoilery, but let’s just say I’ve gotten pretty decent at making Photoshop art of ghosts. 👻

If you’re interested, press the button below.

The app is free, and while the chapters after the first one cost “coins” to read, you can earns coins through the app by doing tasks like checking in every day.

And that’s it for me! I’m basically hard at work on The Shadow Journals and experimenting with writing for apps to see if I can make any money from it.

I hope all of you are doing well!