Update

I thought I'd take a second to give an update. Jessika did up a couple of fantastic concept sketches for the Beaver Finds Home manuscript and they've been sent on to Meegenius. As always its a bit of a waiting game to see if Meegenius is picking up the two stories, but so far so good!

 

A Rejection... But a Good Thing

Most writers will tell you that the road to becoming published is long and filled with rejection. I'm no exception and get my fair share of rejection letters and or no response at all. In fact, I have my favorite rejection letter printed and taped to the wall behind my desk at work.

But that said, those rejection letters where the agent or editor has taken the time to make a personal note are worth their weight in gold. They give you valuable insight on how to improve your writing, what is working and not working within your query letter, and most importantly they give you the fuel to push on.

I sent out several query letters for "Mom's Mean French Toast & Other Terrifying Tales", a collection of 13 creepy tales for middle-grade readers. Amy Tipton from Signature Literary Agency wrote back within 24 hours! It was a rejection of course but two things about it are very encouraging. First, she took the time to respond and within such a short period of time, and second, she took the time to compliment...

"Thank you for your query, which I read with interest. Unfortunately, I
am not the right agent for your work. Do not despair as another agent
might feel quite differently.

Thank you for considering me. I wish you the best with your writing.

Best,
Amy Tipton

 

*This is good--you're a very good writer!"

Update Needed.... Desperately!!!

Hey gang,

Sorry that this blog has been void of anything new. I've been focusing on the horror writing and I'm honored to announce that the publishing contact with Blood Bound Books is officially signed and we're moving on to the next step. My novella "He Only Takes One" will be published alongside a great horror author named Kisten Dearborn who signed with BBB for a novella titled "Jackson House". If her story is anything like mine be prepared for a very Stephen King'ish feeling novel.

On the children's lit side of things Meegenius has published the Owen the Pirate series in all its glory and Jessika has done an amazing job as usual! Also, Meegenius has shown some interest in publishing a couple more stories, "If We Served Traffic Jam on Toast" and "Beaver Finds Home".

Very exciting times!!!

Here's a sneak peek at the concept drawings Jessika sent to the Meegenius for Traffic Jam :)

Meegenius CEO Shares Her Thoughts on Reading

Wany Hoh, the CEO and founder of Meegenius wrote a nice article on the importance of reading and how it effect our children. Take a look, it's worth a read.

Huffington Post

Today is the Day! Owen the Pirate Goes Live!

That's right my friends, book one in the Owen the Pirate series is official up and running. I'm so excited about this series. Please follow the link and buy you copy today!

Owen the Pirate: Voyage to Sandbox Beach

For the Adults!

Just a FYI, if you enjoy creepy horror you need to take a listen to my short story "Swallow". It was recently narrated by Mr. Creepy Pasta and it has 5,789 views as of writing this!

Swallow by Mateo Hellion

Updates As Promissed

I have a good amount of updating to give you... Let's start with the Touch-a-Truck event. It was a huge success and I owe a lot of that to my wife Stacey who spent many hours making bookmarks and posting about the event on Facebook. Even though she's going through some medical stuff she came out and supported me.

We sold several bookmarks and handed out a ton of promotional bookmarks to promote Owen the Pirate and The Hiccup Mummy.

Muzzles on deck!

Chris doing the promoting thing.

Meegenius is in the process of making book one public and the illustrations for book two are done and turned in. Jessika is doing an amazing job on the illustrations as usual and I can't wait to see how the "Owen the Pirate" series does.

I'll tell every as soon as the first book is up and running.

As for Hiccup Mummy... the first quarter sales report was just emailed to me.

January 2013:    144 copies sold

February 2013:  287 copies sold

March 2013:      196 copies sold

Total copies sold for the 1st quarter of 2013 = 627 copies sold!

Not too shabby.

As for the summer plans, I'll be promoting Owen the Pirate as much as possible and fishing out several manuscripts for other stories, including Beaver Finds Home and Mom's Mean French Toast.