Matt Novotny – Author December 2023 Blog

Hi Folks,

December in Colorado conjures visions of snowy mountains and holiday lights spreading a multi-colored glow over a winter wonderland. While we have snow on the high peaks, this year has been unseasonably warm and dry. Today for the first time I can remember I had to water the yard in the winter.

No worries though, I’ve been using the opportunity to get some additional hiking done, mostly because I can always use the exercise. The daily walks have given me some welcome churn time for the stories I’m working on.

Whether we manage a white Christmas or not, I wish you and your loved ones the very merriest of holiday seasons.

JOLABOKAFLOD – the book flood.


The Icelandic winter tradition of gifting new books to loved ones goes back to world war II. While other products were scarce or unavailable, Icelanders made the best of the situation and gave each other the gift of stories to enjoy. As a writer AND a reader this seems an eminently sensible tradition. Curl up with a good story and your favorite warm beverage while you wait for Santa.


As my gift to you this year I’m running a FREE promotion on Cast the First Stone December 22, 23 and 24.

Cast the First Stone

Some brief updates:

Website

I’ve done a series of updates on the website, including adding a status bar for work in progress to the main Blog page and transitioning to a new mail client that +should+ email new blog posts out to my mail list. This post will be a test of that function. If all goes well I’ll look at some additional integrations. There is a bit of wonkyness in the formatting as the mail client converts the blog feed into my newsletter and the blog and mailer have different ideas about how images should look.

I’ve also added a Behind the Scenes page that you can access from the main page that gives some of what I’ve shared on different projects in the past.

Thirteen Stories Audiobook

New Audio!


Thirteen Stories of Horror now has an audiobook available through Audiobooks.com .

Find it HERE

There’s no thrill for an author that’s quite like hearing our stories come to life through narration.

Already in the Holiday spirit? Thirteen Stories is still great for those snowy nights. Just remember “A Christmas Carol” – is a ghost story.


Warbirds


I’m a little over ten percent in at 9100 of a projected 85K, but based on some of the scenes so far this one may run long. Don’t forget you can see how I’m doing with the spiffy progress bar now on the main blog page.

There’s a lot to keep track of with the Seven Deadly Sins Merc company helping the Votha and Futaba to secure their system in the aftermath of the Xoth’tar attack.

Preston Pembrooke and the the Consortium are busy consolidating power on the Benth Orbital station and Benth itself, neither situation is one the Benthi are happy about. While the resistance works to free the station, the Federation seeks to recover and find new allies while planning their next move.

Rath and 7DS can only be sure that any real response will require ships – a lot of them.


On the Horizon


There +might+ be a new Cajun story for an anthology out next year – I’m waiting for news on that project. I’ll give you more when I can.

Likewise, SOUL MATE, in the Hit World/Valkyries universe will be released sometime in 2024.

That’s all for now,

As always,

KEEP READING

Matt Novotny – Author December 2023 Blog Read More ยป