Operation Backlog Completion 2026
Jan 052022
 

A new year brings new writing goals!

The outcome of last year’s goals was mixed: although I met my first two goals, I opted to revise On An Island of Oaks instead of the next two novels I’d intended to focus on based on my prioritized list, and since that one was in much worse condition, it left no time to get around to those two.

And while I did write a new pulp fiction story, I only completed two other short stories in addition to that. My website traffic didn’t quite meet the goal either, although one came close.

So let’s set some goals for this year!

By 2023, I will:

  • Send out regular batches of queries for my novels in the querying stage.
  • Revise Mage’s Test.
  • Revise The Sunken Sapphire.
  • Send On An Island of Oaks to a beta reader.
  • Write at least 5 new short stories, any genre.
  • Regularly update side websites and increase traffic to 500+ visits per month.

Once again, no book signing goals until things settle down… and of course, I’ll write a new NaNoWriMo draft in November!

Do you have any writing goals for 2022?

Nov 012021
 

Original image by brands amon from Pixabay

November is here, this year’s celebration of horror games is over, and the contest winners are being contacted!

We’ve got a lot of things to talk about, including a couple of games I finished in October that didn’t quite fit the spooky theme.

Before all that, however, NaNoWriMo has begun!

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a yearly challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

I got started at midnight, and so far I have 5,300 words written of a new supernatural horror novel. So even though our focused look on horror in video games is at an end for this year, I have another horror-themed month ahead for me in my writing. This year’s novel is partly inspired by Silent Hill 4, so I’m looking forward to getting into it!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, what sort of project are you working on?

And this was the first year that the Celebrating All Things Spooky contest had slightly different rules, so if you have any thoughts on that, please share those in the comments as well.

Here’s to a fun and productive November!

Oct 012021
 

Happy October!

You know what that means, another month of spooky games in honor of Halloween, with 2021’s Celebrating All Things Spooky celebration! I’ve also got a few special promotions and announcements lined up this year.

Sales and Promotions

Once again, my horror novellas The Book at Dernier and It Came Back will be on sale for $0.99 for the entire month of October.

Not only that, but my comedy/horror novella The Zombie Mishap will be FREE this weekend to kick off the spooky season! You’ll have from October 2 at 3:00 AM ET to October 3 at 2:59 PM ET to pick up The Zombie Mishap for free.

Announcements

You might recall that I wrote the script for a short horror visual novel called Not It, which is available for free from itch.io.

Not It has been revamped with new backgrounds, CGs, voice acting, and more as Not It: Spookiest Edition! It will be available to purchase from Steam on October 12.

Contest

And now let’s discuss this year’s Celebrating All Things Spooky contest! The rules are slightly different than they were last year, so be sure to read them carefully.

This year, the available prizes are:

  • Not It: Spookiest Edition (gift sent through Steam)
  • Alien: Isolation (gift sent through Steam)
  • Silent Hill 4: The Room (gift sent through GOG)
  • Dead Age (Steam code)
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location (Steam code)
  • Lakeview Cabin Collection (Steam code)
  • eBook copy of The Book at Dernier
  • eBook copy of It Came Back
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in November.

Rules:

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between October 1, 2021 at 12:01 AM ET and October 31, 2021 at 11:59 PM ET will be counted.
  • 1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on a Celebrating All Things Spooky blog post = 1 point.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and so on, until all prizes have been given out.
  • The winner will be contacted by November 2, 2021.

You have between now and Halloween to leave comments, earn points, and win a fantastic prize! The month will be filled with spooky game reviews and content as usual. I hope you’ll participate!

Meanwhile, I’ve been debating about changing the name of the event in the future to better indicate its focus on dark, spooky, creepy, and/or Halloween-themed video games… but to what?