Welcome, new folks!

Hi, there. If you've joined the mailing list recently, I want to make sure you get your free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for this newsletter, which you're already getting) or here from Smashwords. It's also on Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Please, enjoy with my compliments.

The audiobook for What Grows From the Dead is here!

We've completed work on the audiobook version of What Grows From the Dead, and Tim Alexander did a tremendous job narrating the story and performing the characters, from Morris to Mindy to Vampire Steve to Bjorn Joergensen. This is a funny amateur-sleuth mystery about an out-of-work former professor whose thinks his life is falling apart, but rapidly learns things can get much worse, and it's probably his mom's fault. I'm really excited about this audio version, and I hope you'll enjoy it. It's available on Amazon, Apple Books, and Audible.

Get three Inquisitors' Guild books for free!

As a bonus for subscribers to this newsletter, I try to tell you when I'm doing a promotion, and I have a big one coming up. My three-book box set of Inquisitors' Guild stories will be free in ebook format from February 4 to February 7. Just drop by the Kindle page and grab your copy, and enjoy 1200+ pages of epic fantasy detective adventures.

An upcoming online indie fantasy conference!

There's a great Facebook group for indie fantasy readers called Indie Fantasy Addicts, and they're trying something new this year - they're running an online convention on February 15 with tons of authors and themes and conversations and books. The schedule is below.

I'll be part of the Tropes panel on Saturday the 15th, but there's a ton more to do and to be part of. It will be run via Zoom, but the best way to get the link and be part of the conference is to join the Facebook group. The pinned post there has more information.

Spotlight on a the Sunspear series

Elizabeth Lavender has been publishing fantasy books for about as long as I have (since 2019), and she has four books out in her Sunspear series now. It's got technology, magic, sci-fi, fantasy, mysteries, politics, family drama, planetary invasions, and a cadre of heroes set on defending humanity from evil forces - great stuff! Plus, there are magic spears, which always rock. I hope you'll check these books out and give them a try.

The first round of SPSFC judging

My judging team has completed our preliminary round of judging for this years Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (year #4!). We've cut our initial allocation of 31 books down to six, which we're reading now. I did a post about the sixteen books I sampled, so if you're interested in those, or in my thoughts on judging them, have a look here. I've entered this competition twice (with Daros and Kenai, which won last year), and I really enjoy it and the supportive community that comes with it.

Business musings

I've taken to doing short monthly updates on how my indie author career is going, and I recently published one for the whole year 2024 (and also for this past January 2025). If your'e interested in how the finances for this work (hint: they don't, at least not year), there's a lot of information there about how I'm doing and how I'm approaching this.

Quick writing update

I got another 20,000+ words done in January on my current project, another mystery set in North Carolina, bringing the total to 83,000. I'm in the home stretch, and I hope to be able to finish the first draft in the next couple weeks. This is a tricky part of any book, trying to bring it all home in a satisfying and consistent way, so I have my work cut out for me. I've commissioned cover art, but I'm still working on a title. I'll have more to share in the next newsletter on the 15th.

Some stories to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. Here are some new books I have to share this month:

Next, I have Call of the Siren by Scarlett Evans, a story about a timid woman with a secret power, living a nondescript life in the modern world. Then all (literal) hell breaks loose, with bloodsucking monsters and witches, and she needs to step up or die trying.

Next, I have Incursion by D.C. Fergerson. This has shadowy government officials, a Gulf War veteran named Cole, and mysterious women from the future. So much great stuff! Give it a look.

Next, I have Comets of Omen: The Presser Arc by Charles Weindorf. With huge red alien ships occluding a stormy sky with an enormous red planet hanging on the horizon, the cover is awesome, even if it is slightly suspect in terms of physics. Even better, this has aliens, mind-control implants, rogue comets, a colon in the title, and a character called Colonel Basil Deerborne. My heart melts. On sale for only $0.99.

Next, I have The Feeler by Katherine Okia, a cozy mystery sci fi novel about an empath amateur sleuth solving a mysterious murder entangled by many family connections. Only $0.99!

Finally, I have a group of ninety fantasy and fantasy romance books, all under $5 or free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. There's a tremendous variety here to choose, and they're all a bargain.

Thank you for reading!

Thanks so much for being part of my little author community here. I have so many things going on this month - I hope it's not too much overload to relate them all here. I hope you'll have a look at the free books in a couple days, and if you're an audiobook listener, please give What Grows From the Dead a try!

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave