Category: "release"
Live with Happiness
Looks like I did it again! I commited romance, contemporary romance. My story, "Live with Happiness" is out in Romance for All Seasons: Sunkissed Summer. This beach read of a story is about a heart...
2025: The Year in Stories
Looking at the 2024 version of this post and reflecting on 2025, a theme is emerging: life is unpredictable and this has an effect on my ability to get stories out to you all. I'm in the middle of a...
Charly with a Y and Wendi with an I
Spring is almost here! And along with it, Romance for All Seasons: Spring Fling, an anthology of spring romances including my story "Charly with a Y and Wendi with an I." Just like with the last issue...
What it Takes to Make it In Hollywood
Today, a very different kind of holiday anthology came out. A Dark and Stormy Holiday features my story "What it Takes to Make it In Hollywood." Lyn Worthen, the editor of the book, said "What it...
A Major Christmas Eve
I've written a lot of holiday stories over the last five years and this year I've got a bunch of them for you. Not only did my holiday collection, Winter Wonders: Twelve Magical Holiday Stories, get...
Winter Wonders
I love to write short stories, especially for a themed anthology. The restrictions (theme, content, length, and time) all funnel the creative energy in lovely ways. But that's not the best part. The...
I Am Conner Bright
Conner Bright is a fun character to write. He's my version of a classic private detective with the obligatory troubled past and problem with alcohol, he's also another one of my Arizona-based...
The Devil You Know: A Conner Bright Mystery
Today is a big day for my Arizona private detective, Conner Bright! With the release of The Devil You Know, the promise of this crazy character really pays off! Conner is my version of your classic...
Writing Until the End (reprint)
My story, "Writing Until the End," is making its second appearance in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #39 I sure do love it when a story of mine gets reprinted! Why? Well, when more than one editor...
Haunted by the Past: A Conner Bright Mystery
Today my story "Haunted by the Past" is out! This is one of my Conner Bright stories and the first of three Conner Bright releases this year (or four if you count the collection another story will...
Return Carterville
Since The Blood of Carterville came out in 2020, Return to Carterville is the story I've been waiting to tell. You see, in The Blood of Carterville I exiled the protaganist, Henry Carter, from the...
2024: The Year in Stories
Things happened in 2024, including a death in the family, health issues that needed to be tended to, and a very busy day-job. Because of all this, 2024 wasn't the story year I had planned for, which...
Finding Time
Finding Time: 12 Meticulously Crafted Time Travel Stories is my latest short story collection, one I had so much fun putting together, but because of the vagaries of life it's taken me over a month to...
The Holiday Spectacular 2024!
This is the sixth year WMG Publishing has done the Holiday Spectacular and the third year I've had a story in it. So what is the Holiday Spectacular? It's a program where for 35 days from Thanksgiving...
Faces of Carterville
I've been spending a lot of time in Carterville lately getting two new books ready for this year! The first, Faces of Carterville, is out today! This book is a little different than the other...
Woody and June versus the Apocalypse, Volume 3
Let me tell you a story, about a series of stories that wasn’t meant to be more than a single story. (I’m a writer writing about writing, it’s bound to get a get a bit meta.) When I wrote a little...
Woody and June versus the End
When I sat down and started writing Volume 3 of Woody and June versus the Apocalypse, I had the end in mind, in so much as I wanted to end this phase of their story. These stories are many things:...
2023: The Year in Stories
2023 was an interesting year for short stories. On one hand I wrote a lot of them, on the other hand, not many came out. There are various reasons for this, the biggest one being that Pulphouse...
Woody and June versus the Standoff
Woody and June versus the Standoff is the penultimate episode in Volume 3 and boy do things get crazy!. We are building up to a big ending for the volume and this episode sure ramps things up. Woody...
Woody and June versus the Reunion
It's March and it's Wednesday, so time for the next exciting episode of Woody and June versus the Apocalypse, Woody and June versus the Reunion! This is the 15th episode and the third in Volume 3. In...
A Nice Short Conversation
I am very happy to tell you all that my story, "A Nice Short Conversation," is out now in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine's, Issue #26. It's been over a year since my last story appeared in Pulphouse and...
Woody and June versus the Impossible Choice
Happy Woody and June Wednesday! It's February, so that means it's time for another exciting episode of Woody and June versus the Apocalypse! This time it's Episode 14, Woody and June versus the...
Woody and June versus the Pod
It's a new year (hello, 2024), a new month, and what could be better but to start another Woody and June versus the Apocalypse adventure! Today Episode 13, Woody and June versus the Pod, the exciting...
A Hollow Earth Thanksgiving (part 2)
"A Hollow Earth Thanksgiving" came out in November of 2021. It kicked off the The WMG Holiday Spectacular 2021 on Thanksgiving Day, in fact! Now it's almost Thanksgiving 2023 and this...
Woody and June are (almost) back!
Action, adventure, and romance set in post-apocalyptic Arizona in and around the Grand Canyon... with zombies! That's Woody and June versus the Apocalypse in a sentence. This series is a blast to...
Destroyer of Carterville
It's been a few months since the Kickstarter for Destroyer of Carterville and now it's finally time for it to go out to the rest of the world! I love this series and I really love this book. I think...
The Blood of Carterville, Second Edition
Along with the release of Destroyer of Carterville (see the blog post), today I am releasing the second edition of The Blood of Carterville. (If you don't recall, I wrote these out of order, starting...
Wild and Wise (once again)
"Wild and Wise" my second "Hollow Earth Short Story" is ready to go... well, ready to go for the second time. Back in 2021 it appeared in Explorers: Cutter's Final Cut, Issue Three. Today it gets a...
Time for some reprints!
This happened a few years ago, occasionally WMG Publishing takes their Pulphouse Fiction Magazine stories and collects them into themed anthologies. I never know if mine will be in one of these until...
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Kickstarter, 2023
After a brief hiatus, Pulphouse Fiction Magazine is back! And it's going monthly! To quote part of my bio, I am "a regular contributor to Pulphouse Fiction Magazine." What that means quantitively is...
Contemporary Musings
Since I started the introduction to Contemporary Musings: Sixteen Contemporary Stories from a Sci-Fi Writer with a confession, I'm going to start this blog post with a different confession. Writing...
Gossamer Ghosts
Following up on last month's release of Gossamer Threads, another story in the series, Gossamer Ghosts, is now out! I'll refer you to the orginal post from when the story first came out in Pulphouse...
Ready for more Carterville?
Not familiar with Carterville? It is a fictional town in Northern Arizona full of mystery and surprises and the location of the Carterville Mysteries. (Lots more over at CartervilleAZ.com where you...
Gossamer Threads
How to describe my Gossamer stories? I've only written two so far, but the concept is fascinating, so I want to do more. Let me try it say it succinctly: The subtitle gives you part of the picture,...
Just Another Pinball Wizard
My story "Just Another Pinball Wizard" was recently released as part of Of Wizards and Wolves: Tales of Transformation This is a special book, and I am very happy to be part of it. It is a memorial...
The Last Flight of the Acurus
This story has been out for a long time (ten years now!) and it's finally getting a stand-alone release today! This is a special story for me for a bunch of reasons It's the first time someone paid me...
Woody and June versus the Apocalypse, Volume 2
Drum roll please... After these many months, the omnibus edition of Woody and June versus the Apocalypse, Volume 2 is finally out! Five new episodes with adventure, romance, and zombies that careens...
2022: The Year in Stories
There are many ways to mark the passage of a year. As a storyteller, it seems appropriate to take a look at the stories of mine that came out in a year. Each one is a victory. It's not easy to land a...
Woody and June versus the Siege
This is it. This is what it has all been leading to. Woody and June versus the Siege is the last episode in Woody and June versus the Apocalypse, Volume 2! Because of the way I write, when I started,...
A Grave Kind of Love (reprint)
Just in time for Christmas, my story, "A Grave Kind of Love," is out in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #21! This story, which originally came out in 2019 as part of The WMG Holiday Spectacular, is...
Woody and June versus the Infection
Another first Wednesday, another new episode of Woody and June versus the Apocalypse is ready to go!. Episode, #11, Woody and June versus the Infection is out now. This is the penultimate episode of...
Woody and June versus Winslow
It is, once again, Woody and June Wednesday and, it's time for Episode 10, Woody and June versus Winslow! I have to confess, I was chuckling to myself quite often while I wrote this one. It takes...
Woody and June versus Two Guns
Two Guns is a place in Arizona off I-40 east of Flagstaff. An old place full of ruins. A place where it looks like the apocalypse occurred long ago. A very strange place with a dark history. This is...
The Tombstone Barber
"The Tombstone Barber" is just out in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine's, Issue #19 This story has a history. I don't think I'll go into details, but for a while it seemed like this story about a cursed...
Woody and June versus the Chase
Woody and June are back! The Kickstarter is over (which was fun and went well) and now the episodes will be releasing one a month starting with Episode 8, Woody and June versus the Chase, today! If...
The Woody and June Kickstarter is Live!
Creating a Kickstarter campaign comes with a bit of a learning curve. Of all the things that had to be done, shooting the video for it was the hardest for me. This was the part of the process in which...
Writing Until the End
My story, "Writing Until the End," has just been published in Gilded Glass: Twisted Myths and Shattered Fairy Tales. This is an anthology about new myths, different myths, and "Writing Until the End"...
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Kickstarter
If you've been reading along, you've surely noticed I have a lot of stories coming out in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. I'm at about twelve with more coming, which is the reason my bio now says that I'm...
Woody and June are Back! (Almost)
I've been waiting for this moment for a long time: my fun, post-apocalyptic romp through Northern Arizona is back with Woody and June versus Apocalypse, Volume 2! Why so long, you might ask? Well, the...
Gossamer Ghosts
I'm trying to figure out a simple and clear way to categorize this new story, but it's not easily done. Let me try. "Gossamer Ghosts" is: Set during and after an apocalypseAn alien invasion story (but...
Chupacabra
I've taken a break from publishing my own books, over a year-long break—file it under the COVID-19 pandemic—but that ends today. Chupacabra: A Conner Bright Mystery is out! It's about a year later...
The Root Canal Tango
"The Root Canal Tango" is an interesting story title, isn't it? How in the world do those two things go together? On the one hand you have something universally dreaded and on the other you have a...
2021: The Year in Stories
I don't think any of us had a clue what 2021 was going to be like. I expected to keep my publishing streak from 2020 going and get a couple of novels out. That's not what happened. Pandemic year #2...
Emily Loves Christmas, Emily Loves Murder
Who would like nothing better than to read a Christmas Day murder mystery investigated by two ghost detectives? One that involves something very unexpected under the Christmas Tree? Well, if your like...
A Hollow Earth Thanksgiving
I'm exceedingly late to the party here. I wound this up with a fairly vague post for the Kickstarter but then the story came out and life was a little more than overwhelming and I didn't get this out...
The Holiday Spectacular 2021!
I'm going to apologize in advance because I'm going to be a little vague here. There is a good reason, I promise. Every year for the last three years, WMG Publishing has done their innovative Holiday...
Harry the Ghost Pirate
My story "Harry the Ghost Pirate" sets sail again, this time in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #14! This is a story about some ghosts that are looking for the Lost Dutchman Mine in the Superstition...
Four Books, Four Stories, One Day!
This writing thing can gain momentum on you in surprising ways. A couple of days ago, WMG Publishing dropped five new Stories from Pulphouse anthologies and four of them have stories of mine! If...
Wild and Wise
"Adventure" is one of my favorite words. While my days are spent largely at a computer, I do like to have adventures. Whether it's a hike on a mountain (which I did between starting and finishing this...
Seeing Forever, Hard Cover Edition
This is a bit of an experiment. My paperback books are all released as Print On Demand (POD) which has revolutionized book publishing. It makes it possible for me to release all these books as...
The Pearce Shootout
Okay, I'm really excited about this one! My story, "The Pearce Shootout," is just out in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #13. I finished this story a few years ago and have just been waiting for it...
Bits, Bites, and Rarities
My new book is out and it's not for sale! It's called Bits, Bites, and Rarities: The Worlds of Robert J. McCarter and is a sampling of my many worlds and series. Maybe "sample" is the wrong word. Most...
Death by Vodka
After last issue's "Death by Cookie", Pulphouse Fiction Magazine is back with another story in the same vein with "Death by Vodka" appearing in issue #12. In case you missed the last one, my "Death...
The Room of Possibilities
Welcome to Cave Creek, Nevada, a small town about an hour from Las Vegas where all kinds of strange things happen. Cave Creek, created by best selling author Dean Wesley Smith is a place "Where the...
My Moment of Weird
Welcome to Cave Creek, Nevada, a small town about an hour from Las Vegas where all kinds of strange things happen. Cave Creek, created by best selling author Dean Wesley Smith is a place "Where the...
Death by Cookie
"Death by Cookie" marks the return of JJ Lynch. If you've read my A Ghost's Memoir series, this is good news. This may only be JJ in a supporting role and it may only be a short story, but it's been a...
The Artist, the Engineer, and the Sleeping Dog
Today my short story "The Artist, the Engineer, and the Sleeping Dog" came out in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #10. This is my first story to hit in a magazine or anthology for 2021 and is a...
The Rescue of Jules Verne
There's a pattern emerging with my 2021 releases so far. Just like with last month's release, I'm taking a short story that is already out there and giving it a stand-alone release. The reasons are...
The Case of the Purple Unicorn
It's a new year so time for a new release. Well... in this case not a new story but a new stand-alone release for an old story. Under a slightly different title, this short story goes back to 2014...
2020: The Year in Stories
Besides continuing to write new stories, 2020 was about publishing, from start to finish. I did a challenge with Dean Wesley Smith he calls "The Great Publishing Challenge." The challenge was to...
Where the Past Belongs
There's a lot to say about this book. Mostly because it's about something very near and very dear to my heart: the relationship between dogs and people (and cats and people, too). Also because much of...
Out of a Christmas Sky
This is a happy day for me because Carterville is officially a series! Today the first Carterville novel, Out of a Christmas Sky is out. This is a Christmas murder mystery with plenty of suspects and...
Some Holiday Cheer (just a wee bit early)
I don't know if you noticed, but this last week or so the sweet holiday movies started hitting our lists of things to stream. And while late October may seem a little early, that doesn't feel as true...
Unfinished Business
Sometimes a title makes all the difference. It's like this sprinkle of magic that makes a project come together and suddenly it all makes sense. And that is true for Unfinished Business: The Cases of...
The Red Arrow Murders
It's release day! The Red Arrow Murders is out! It's been a long journey with Walter Anchor. The idea for a ghost detective came to me when I was working on To Be a Fool, which came out in 2013. I...
Neutrinoman & Lightningirl: Season 2
With the series I write, I always think of them in terms of the wider story arc, and in the case of Neutrinoman and Lightningirl in terms of Seasons. I call them "Seasons" for a reason. There is a...
A Hollywood Kind of Murder
Okay, Walter Anchor used to be an actor so why not have him solving a murder in a Hollywood? A murder with a particularly Hollywood kind of vibe. He's a ghost after all and moving about is easy. That...
Elemental Factors
Today I am wrapping up Season 2 of Neutrinoman and Lightningirl: A Love Story with Elemental Factors. This season delighted me because in the writing it took so many interesting turns that I didn't...
Death of a Dentist
There's are best practices for writing a series and then there are... what I did with this series. It has been an education on what not to do. My wife once jokingly called this story (in a different...
Breathing in the Stars
Back in 2017 when I was doing my Short Story Marathon, stars kept coming up thematically. Or, more specifically, that feeling I get when I look up at the Milk Way on a cold clear night. Over and over...
Hard Times
Hey, it's release day! Hard Times: Neutrinoman and Lightningirl: A Love Story, Episode 5 is out. I'll have the blurb below, and yes, it's on sale, but as this release has been approaching I've...
The Blood of Carterville
It's release day! The Blood of Carterville is out today and I am so excited. I know, we are in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and things are crazy out there, but I think of this as me doing my...
A Long Hard Fall
If you haven't heard about this series yet, Walter Anchor is a ghost detective. He's from the same graveyard as JJ Lynch and the ghosts in Shuffled Off and the rest of the books in that series. In...
Creatures Featured
Creatures Featured Starting in 2016, I've been releasing a short story collection every other year. I haven't exactly been planing it, it's just turned out that way. 2020 starts with a collection of...
The Ghost Bride's Gift
2020 is going to have a couple of stars when it comes to my writing. Walter Anchor is one. He's a ghost trying to solve his own murder, his stories based in the same graveyard as the A Ghost's Memoir...
With Light Years Between Us
Excuse me for a moment while I go all sci-fi on you. Only for a moment, I promise. If you hop on a space ship and travel fast, I mean really fast, as in approaching light speed, you will experience...
A Grave Kind of Love, Part 2
I am very lucky to be part of WMG's Holiday Spectacular 2019. This is a story-a-day subscription for the holiday season. Romantic stories, suspenseful stories, and stories that celebrate all kinds of...
October Review-o-Rama
So, October.... boy, there was a lot going on. Some of it planned, and some of it more like "scramble like a maniac to get things done." Lots of good stuff, so I think it all bears a little repeating....
Chupacabra: A Conner Bright Mystery Story
I've got a new story is out. This one is, technically, a short novella at about 80 pages long. I wrote it as part of my Campfire Tales program. It's where you guys fill out surveys to help me write my...
A Grave Kind of Love
Want to read my holiday-themed love story about two ghosts? "A Grave Kind of Love" is part of this amazing Kickstarter called The WMG Holiday Spectacular. 35 holiday themed stories, one each for 35...
A Boy, a Girl, and a Ghost is out!!
Today is the happiest kind of day for a writer. Release day! Here is where you get to take a look at what has been rattling around my brain for such a long time. I'll keep this short and sweet: A Boy,...
Everything you need to know about A Boy, a Girl, and a Ghost
Lots more details below, but here are the highlights: A Boy, a Girl, and a Ghost is available to pre-order on Amazon for only $2.99 (it goes up to $5.99 shortly after release)I think this is my best...
Dog People
My story "Dog People" is out in Snot-Nosed Aliens: Stories from Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. This is a new story, one I wrote in January when my wife and I were up in the Grand Canyon for her birthday....
Daisy's Heart
I am very happy to report that my short story, "Daisy's Heart" is now available in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #7! This is another one of the stories I wrote in 2017 during my Short Story...
For A Horse Named Corwin
Long ago, in another life time (or at least it feels that way), I lived on an 80-acre ranch outside of Globe, Arizona and had a white horse named Snoopy. For years, I rode this horse nearly every day....
The Mystery at Molas Pass
It's release day! A very special one at that. Our first release of a Campfire Tale is "The Mystery at Molas Pass." Aleia did a lovely roundup of were we are with Campfire Tales this morning, but I...