The Mysterious Disappearance of Charlene Kerringer — Now in Audio

This strange noir mystery short story may have only been released as a solo ebook in November 2019, but this story actually has quite a history. This story was entered into a competition back in 2012 with a publisher who is no longer active. It came in as a semi-finalist, the first award I ever received for my writing. It was ultimately published twice by them in two editions. Once as part of the anthology, RealLies, which you still might be able to find in print somewhere. Then again as a standalone story. I almost ended up having a novel of mine published with them, but then negotiations fell apart and ultimately the publisher closed its doors.

Long story short, the rights came back to me. For the longest time I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. At almost 10,000 words, it was too long to really submit to most short story calls and it was far too unique to really fit into an anthology of my own work. Trolls that change form, a film noir style, and a hard boiled detective story surrounded with sarcasm and a dry sense of humor, it had a hard time fitting in anywhere.

Then in November 2019, I got curious about independent publishing. I was sad that this weird and funny story was gathering dust on my computer and I didn’t like that I associated it with its previous publisher. It needed a new place to call home but was far too strange to fit in anywhere. So I decided to self publish it.

Now I’m happy to announce that it is available in AI audiobook format, free to listen to in its entirety on Youtube. For the first time in ten years, it’s available in an audiobook format.

Rest assured, it’s still a strange and has a very dry sense of humor, but I’ll always have a soft spot for it. I hope you’ll take an hour and give it a listen, if you’re okay with trolls speaking with an AI voice!

One Full Calendar!

It’s over halfway through 2019, and my event calendar is filling up fast! From horror conventions to brand new author conventions, my sister and I (MorbidSmile) will be traveling quite a bit over the next few months. Even the next few weekends really.

I admit, sometimes it’s difficult to keep up with all the schedule changes, all the confirmations, all the travel plans that come up so quickly. However I try to always list out the events I’m attending on my Facebook Author Page. Just click on the Events tab on the left to see all the Facebook events for the festivals I’m planning to attend.

You can also see all my events coming up on my newly updated Appearances page!

Scrivener Tutorials: Keywords and Compiling

It’s really been a crazy week for me at the day job, and I just didn’t have the time to post my video on Scrivener keywords. So this Saturday you get a two tutorials in one post!

Keywords are perhaps the most powerful feature of Scrivener, and Compiling a manuscript is perhaps one of the most challenging ones. These two videos close out my tutorial series, but I’m now looking at other websites and software that I’ve used that might be helpful for other authors.

Take a look at the end of Part 7 to see some that I’m looking at tackling. If you have one you’re curious about, leave me a comment below!

Scrivener Tutorial: Part 5: Keywords

I love finding tools or features that make my writing life easier.

When I was in junior high, we had to use notecards to keep everything organized. We created a code for our organization system, and that’s what we used for any kind of research paper. It was drilled into our heads how to keep track of references and quotes. In the creative writing world, however, we have to keep track of characters and themes.

That’s where Keywords come into play, one of the most powerful features of Scrivener that I’ve found, simply because it is so flexible and can be used for so many different things. It can help keep track of characters, locations, themes, missing scenes, and even a murder weapon for your mystery novel.

Watch my latest tutorial on Keywords to see how useful this organization tool can be.

Scrivener Tutorial Part 4: Using the Inspector

It’s been a busy year so far, y’all. I’m glad to get back to continuing my Scrivener tutorial series for fiction authors. I was really pleased to see how many people enjoyed the first three videos in my Scrivener playlist, so now that festival season has gotten a little bit quieter, I’m jumping back in with it.

In this video I tackle the Inspector and show features like labels, statuses, notes, an document references. I also show how to add color to your Binder to help organize scenes, chapters, and books.