Updates

It's been a few weeks and I just wanted to update everyone on what I've been working on. I've been working on Empire a little, but I hit the wall with it a little bit, so I've taken a break from it for the last week. So for the last week I've been working on Shattered, coming up with more storyline ideas, trying to blend it together. The first chapter is done, but I'm editing it, and adding to it. I also started some short stories that I've talked about previously. I'm really excited about Shattered and think that it could be one of those breakout books that gets some attention. I'm hopeful anyway. Also, seeing as how's it's book one of at least 4....should be interesting.

Interesting experiment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jul/19/books.booksnews?CMP=twt_gu

There was an interesting experiment done with the works of Jane Austen that highlights exactly how difficult it is to get an agent or publisher to even look at an author's book. It's almost darn near impossible! Read the article for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Stacey Cochrane

Just wanted to announce that popular author Stacey Cochrane will be stopping by the blog on August 12 to promote his new book, Claws 2! Obviously, it's the sequel to Claws! I think I read somewhere recently that Stacey has sold 40,000 books on Kindle since 2009 so it seems like he's doing something right. It's available now, so swing by Amazon and check it out!

Lit and Laundry Blog

Just wanted to let everyone know I will be featured on the Lit and Laundry blog this coming friday, July 16. It will be an interview, and I'll also be stopping by the blog if anyone has questions or wants to chime in with comments...I'll be responding. So I hope to see you there!

Here's the site:

http://litandlaundry.blogspot.com/

Adding to the WIP

Just announcing a few more stories to be added to the WIP (Works In Progress) pile. Right now I'm envisioning it as a 4 book series (could be more) which could be called The Evil Series. The theme of the books I guess would be considered in the horror/thriller genre which would be my first foray into the horror field. Nothing has been written yet, except some ideas. But I think I have some really cool ideas to make it stand out.

The preliminary titles are being called:
Something Evil
Something Wicked
The Hat Man
The Woods

These are just ideas for titles I have. Some have been done before so that's always a consideration. Will talk about it more once I get more into it.

Day of the Assassin

Is now available and only 99 cents! Here are the stories and link:

Day of the Assassin

Matt Beck is back as The Assassin in this short story collection. Day of the Assassin includes 3 short stories featuring:


Noose for an Assassin-A crooked card game leads to Beck being thrown in jail. While in jail a lynch mob forms with the intention of stringing Beck up by his neck until dead. Will they succeed or will they string up the wrong man?

Revenge of the Assassin-Someone takes a shot at Beck as he's riding to the town of Everwood. Beck goes to town and hunts down the person responsible. Beck finds the culprit, but shows compassion and spares their life, before he is forced into a deadly showdown.

Assassin's Day-Beck is summoned to a town to avenge a prostitute who was raped. Beck stops at nothing to force the guilty party into a duel.

June Interview

Q: Well, we're back with another round of questions. It's been a few months since we had a Q&A session.

RJ: Yeah, I apologize to all my readers for not having the site updated in a while. I've been using AOL dial up forever and it just took a long time to do everything, or wouldn't do it at all, and it'd frustrate me to no end. I just switched to Verizon high speed and now everything comes up within seconds, so the site will definitely be updated a lot more frequently. It's pretty exciting that I don't have to wait 10 or 20 minutes for a website to come up!

Q: What else do you have planned for the site?

RJ: I'm overhauling the books page. My short stories-Day of the Assassin, Misconduct, and The Mason Files are no longer being sold on Amazon so I have to redo the page.

Q: Any particular reason for not selling them anymore?

RJ: It was Amazon's decision to drop all stories from their old Shorts program. I could republish them again today if I wanted but the mininum I could charge is .99 cents and I don't think it's reasonable to expect anyone to buy a single short story for that price. Day of the Assassin will be put into a short story compilation that I'm releasing called, Assassin's Day. The Mason Files will probably work it's way into a Mason Files story compilation at some point as well. Misconduct...I don't really have any plans for at the moment.

Q: What's there to look forward to for the rest of this year?

RJ: I expect to release Assassin's Day and Empire before the year is over.

Q: I know I read some things about you not sure whether you were going to release Assassins Day as a novel or short stories? Sounds like you've made up your mind.

RJ: Yeah, I'm going to release it as a group of short stories. I really contemplated reworking the stories into a book but I would just rather work on some other stuff since most of the stories are done.

Q: Any other plans?

RJ: At some point after Assassins Day is released I'm going to release an e-book box set of the Westerns. So instead of buying them all individually you could get The Assassin, Asassins Day, Bounty Hunter, and Deadlock at once.

Q: What's the reasoning behind that?

RJ: Well it'd be a win-win for everybody. If a reader were to buy each story individually it'd cost them about $6.97. If I were to bundle them as a collection and it cost say $4.99, the readers would save money and I'd wind up making more money than if it was bought separate so everyone would benefit.

Q: Is that all the changes you have planned?

RJ: Nope! Readers will soon be able to order autographed copies on the website. I'll also be offering my e-books directly off the website if someone wants to purchase them through me instead of Amazon or whoever.