Yep. My first and probably only blog post in 2014. Obviously I plan to do better in 2015.

So where have I been? I started the year off with severe hallucination-giving flu. At the time, I was writing the fifth and final installment of ‘Season 1’ of Jeremy Bishop’s REFUGE series, which we released first as a serial, in five parts, and later as a collected novel. My part, BONFIRES BURNING BRIGHT, was full of hallucinatory madness and crazy action. I should have blogged at the time to announce it but…yeah. Sick. Hoping there will be a ‘Season 2.’ You can help by buying the collected novel or the individual parts, and by spreading the word about it.

In February, the anthology KAIJU RISING: AGE OF MONSTERS, from Ragnarok Publications, was released in e-book (and in print later in the year). I had a short story in that collection, “The Lighthouse Keeper of Kurohaka Island.” A lot of people who have read the anthology have remarked on my story as one of their favorites, which pleases me immensely. I’ve had a chance to read a few of the other stories in the book so far, and my overall impression is that you should hurry to get that book if you like Kaiju (for the uninitiated, ‘Kaiju’ means Strange Beast, and refers to large mutated creatures like Godzilla and Gamera).

In March, I began talks with an editor at one of the Big 5 traditional publishers in New York, who was interested in my work. I immediately began work on a new novel concept for the editor, when another similarly themed novel the publisher had put out didn’t perform very well. The editor lost interest in that topic, and I shelved that book.

Almost immediately after that, I got a call from an agent that wanted to know if I was interested in ghost writing a novel. For those who might not know, that means the ghost writer does most (or all) of the work writing the book, but their name isn’t attached to the project in any way, and as far as the public is concerned, the author whose name is on the cover, wrote the book. An example of this, would be the novelization of the film Star Wars: A New Hope. Alan Dean Foster actually wrote it, but George Lucas’s name was on the cover and Alan’s wasn’t. I had the chance to meet Alan once at his home in Arizona, and he was terribly nice and signed my copy of SPLINTER OF THE MIND’S EYE. Anyway, I needed the money and took the job. It ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would, pretty much ruining my productivity for the year, but it turned out nicely. Obviously I can’t say what it was or who it was for. Just know that you might one day read my seventh novel and not know it. And no, it wasn’t a Star Wars book, but that would have been cool.

Along the way in 2014, I spoke at the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City, thanks to a kind invite from Phil Sexton, the publisher of Writer’s Digest, and thanks also to Jeremy Robinson, whose suggestion it was that Phil invite me. Jeremy, Sean Ellis, Robert Swartwood, and I all had a great time in New York, and Jeremy, Sean, and I planned some devious things for Jeremy’s Chess Team universe over Chipotle burritos and beer.

Speaking of the Chess Team, I’m working right now on a guidebook to the Chess Team universe, which will summarize the stories that have appeared to date, will provide a few character and creature biographies, art, and reading order charts. The whole thing will be from Deep Blue’s perspective, as if you were reading his files, and the framing story will actually set up and tease some events in future Chess Team novels. For the foreseeable future, ENDGAME, will be my last contribution (besides editing) to Jeremy’s Chess Team world.

Oh yes, and a bundle package of 11 novels from myself and ten other great thriller authors, hit the international bestseller lists. My book, THE CRYPT OF DRACULA, was included in the bundle.

And yes, to all the faithful, FROZEN, the sequel to my first Jason Quinn novel, RESURRECT, will be out very soon. It’s my number one project from Christmas until it’s done, and budgeting in time for editing and catastrophic illness on my part (because I’ve had a sinus infection for weeks), we should expect that book to be released in February or March. Here are the pretty covers for FROZEN and the rebranded RESURRECT.

For those who know my phantom pseudonym, I released two short stories in late 2013 and promised more monthly. Monthly obviously isn’t going to happen, but there will be more soon from the mysterious Mr. P.

Did I say ENDGAME was going to be my last Chess Team involvement? I forgot one. Jeremy and I will be contributing to SNAFU II: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, from Cohesion Press. This anthology of Military Horror will have a co-authored Chess Team story. The title and subject are under wraps for now. More info as it becomes available.

The fine folks at Ragnarok Publications also invited me to contribute another short story for another of their anthologies, and I’m also dreaming up a novella for one of their future projects.

On tap for 2015: INTERSTATE 0 with J. Kent Holloway, MONSTER KINGDOM (which is partially written), and the revised idea for that editor in NYC, which I’ll keep under my hat for the moment, and which we will refer to as Project: Verne. I’ll be releasing the much delayed novella THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, to go with my Dracula book, and the sequel to Drac should be out for Halloween 2015. There’s also a secret project I’m codenaming Project: Blacktop (that won’t be the title). More information about that one as time goes on. If I get through all that and am still breathing, we might also see the release of Jason Quinn Book 3 in 2015. So lots to look forward to.