Apollo Grant is out now! You can order your copy by clicking here.

Apollo Grant releases Oct 30th, just in time for the perfect Halloween read. Preorder your copy of the eBook by clicking here.

Physical version information is coming soon, so please look forward to it.

We’re a couple days into September, and that means we are inching closer to the launch of Apollo Grant! I’m super excited for this release, and should have a cover art reveal soon, and will post to share with you once I have it. Launch details, including release date are coming soon, so please look forward to it!

As I wait on launch information for Apollo Grant to arrive, I am keeping busy developing a couple of new novel-length projects.

One of these projects is my spin at playing in the Dracula sandbox. Lucy (working title) explores the question of what if Lucy Westenra isn’t dead?

The other project is a Ghost-Horror story about a doctor who used to work at a mental institution at the turn of the twentieth century. Its current working title is Until Death We Don’t Part. The main villain of this story is inspired by the real life story of Carl Tanzler, who you can read about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Tanzler

Other things I’ve been up to have been attending Authors & Dragons Con back in the beginning of August. I highly recommend you guys checking their podcast out if you have the time. https://www.authorsanddragons.com

Thanks for stopping by everyone, and stay safe out there!

-Rey

Apollo Grant finally has a scheduled release of October 2021! The book has been picked up by Mocha Memoirs Press! You can check out the publisher’s other awesome titles here!

Soon, everyone will get to read this comedic horror story about a vampire hunter in Las Vegas who can’t seem to catch a break to save his life.

More details to come soon!

Rejection.

I won’t lie. Rejection as a writer sucks. It will leave a person with that knee-jerk reaction of feeling heartbroken and disappointed that their work is not up to snuff. However, I want to take a moment to say that rejection is NOT A BAD THING.

Let me repeat. REJECTION IS NOT A BAD THING.

From my experience, there are two ways a writer can recover from rejection. You can live in despair forever and never write again–which if this is the case, perhaps you weren’t meant to be a writer to begin with–or you can nut up, Buttercup, and realize that the rejection is one step closer to acceptance and learn what the pass is trying to teach you.

Me, I always go for option number 2.

This can hold true for form or personal rejections, I have found. Allow me to provide some examples.

Let’s look at form rejections for a minute, shall we? You might think that the editor/publisher/agent, etc. who denied your work didn’t care about your submission enough. When I get a form response, I’ll take a look at the work, and if I still feel good about what I’ve written, then I consider that the form response is telling me one of two things. Either what I’ve submitted is too similar to something the place I’ve sent the sample to is producing, or perhaps, its just not the right market (writing to market is another topic I’ll get to later when I have the spoons, but is also something that is important to understand).

Now let’s take a look at personal rejections. These can give a momentary feeling of a knife still being stuck in the gut, but when you get a personal response, its a general indication you’ve leveled up, and you just need to fine-tune. I just received one of the best personal rejections two days ago in which the editor clearly stated why she passed, but then stated the work was strong enough to publish. I couldn’t have asked for a better response, because it made me realize I was almost there.

As that same editor also told me, opinions amongst editors and first readers can vary widely, so don’t be afraid to keep putting yourself up there.

Rejections are not mistakes, they are not bad things. They are LEARNING EXPERIENCES. Take the time to look at the positives of what you can learn from them, and I assure you, it will only help develop your craft until the door opens.

-Rey

Success!

Its been a busy week, month, year. However, I did want to announce that I just signed off on a book contract for my urban fantasy novella, Apollo Grant. More details to come once I have them and am able to announce.

In other news, I set a reading goal of 70 books for 2021, I read 9 so far in January. What are you all reading?

-Rey

Hello everyone!

I know its been a while, but I just wanted to give you all on a couple of updates for some things that are in the works.

Earlier this week, I received my third Honorable Mention in a row for the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. Rumor has it that that even these are not given out lightly, so I’m pretty excited that I’m maintaining that level of consistency with my work.

Also in the works, Apollo Grant has been submitted to a small press publisher. Keeping my fingers crossed that it gets accepted and I receive a publishing contract.

Speaking of Apollo Grant, for those of you who know me, know that I was adamant about not doing NaNo this year. Well, after my pitch with the first Apollo Grant novella going so well, I changed my mind a bit and decided this year I would spend November working on AG books 2 and 3, so keep an eye out on the Works in Progress page for more details.

Abdication is on track to have the first draft finished by the end of the year, and a second Chondrial book is currently being outlined.

That’s all I have to update for now. Everyone take care, and stay safe!

-Rey

What does a writer do when they are taking a break from their own projects?

Sometimes we support other authors by doing a book photo shoot!

Below are some of the images I took of this awesome book by Tamsin L. Silver, “The Curse of Billy the Kid”!

Go check it out here!

What creative things do you do to pass the time?

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Sooooo I got an Honorable Mention for the short story I submitted to Quarter 1 for vol. 37 of the Writers of the Future contest!

http://www.writersofthefuture.com

I highly encourage each and everyone of you who is looking to advance their skills as a writer, and move up that ladder called the path to publishing, to check this contest out.

I had such a great experience with it, and I look forward to seeing how my Quarter 2 submission performs.

In other news. I’ve submitted a piece of flash fiction (a short story 1000 words or less) to another market, so fingers crossed it gets accepted.

The final draft for Chondrial has made it through two rounds of reviews. Going to let it sit to the side before I do any line edits and start trying to query it.

Other projects in the works include an urban fantasy about a vampire hunter in Vegas tentatively titled Apollo Grant. I’ve also started a world build for a YA fantasy series, and have a few short stories in the bucket I need to work on.

Thanks so much for visiting everyone!

-Rey

Those straw-looking weed things? Yeah, those are tumble weeds. My apologies for it being so long since the last post. I promise to keep things more active on a weekly basis here.

For now, here are a few updates of some things I have in the works.

My NaNo draft was completed. Will I do NaNo again? probably not. But November is a bit far off, so who knows what will happen in 2020. The novella for that project did finish final edits in March, and “Once More, With Clarity” was submitted to a publisher.

My fantasy novel project, currently titled Chondrial wrapped up the rough draft stages this week. Hoping between now and the end of May while the country is still in lockdown to have that draft typed in so I can start sending out to beta readers soon. (I handwrite all my rough drafts)

I’ve started an urban fantasy book outline for a vampire hunter series, of which the first book is set in Vegas–tentatively called the Apollo Grant project for now until I get more than the first chapter composed and figure out a real book title.

Other projects in the pipeline include another short story submission for Writers of the Future v37 Q3 (still waiting on results for Q1, but judging I know has been on hold because of everything with COVID-19), a rewrite on a young adult fantasy series tentatively titled “Crystal and Ash”, and interactive all-ages story about a character called Frederick the Dinosaur.

Pay attention to that last project in the pipeline everyone. More details will be coming soon about how the interactive story project will work.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by, and please look forward to the next update. A lot of great things are happening in 2020!

-Rey