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.

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.

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

Hi Folks!

Happy spooky time! The fall and Halloween are some of my favorite times of the year. The crisp air, sometimes tinged with woodsmoke and the rustle of leaves beneath a Colorado blue sky? It doesn’t get better than that! There’s been a lot going on in the Mattiverse, but not nearly enough on the writing front. Some updates:

The personal front:

At the end of August I underwent a “Reduction in Force” from my employer of 24 years. I’m not going to go into detail other than to say it’s so far been a positive move for me. A great deal of the stress I carried came from the way that role functioned within the companies framework and the fact that I hadn’t taken an extended break in too long a time. All work and no play didn’t make Matt a dull boy, but it did make him a tired one. While there are certainly new challenges dealing with the tail end of a case of burnout along with needing to expand a “very particular set of skills”, it’s also given me time to look at my opportunities with fresh but still tired eyes. It’s an ongoing process and I expect it will take some time to sort out.

On the writing front:

NEW RELEASE:

On October 13th I was fortunate to have a story included in THIRTEEN STORIES of HORROR – an Anthology edited by Nick Steverson and Marisa Wolf. I joined an all-star cast to help your spooky season along and send a shiver down your spine. If you love horror you are sure to find a new favorite from the offerings inside. Published by Three Ravens Publishing!

In my story I’ll take you back to London of 1888, into the streets, and the mind of a killer. But there is another story you’ve never heard, so as the fog rises, let me reintroduce you – to a Legend.

They Called Him Jack

Thirteen tales of Horror, perfect for a dark and stormy Friday the 13th…or a sunny Tuesday afternoon.

From science fiction to classic European horror, interwoven with layers of creep factor, gore, and mystery that will keep you turning the page…and looking over your shoulder.

So, light the candles, stir the cauldron, and check your ammo count, because things are about to get dark!

Warbirds

Work is still moving ahead. I’ve added a bunch of bits to the outline and have been writing scenes sporadically. Part of the delay is life-event related and part has been an overhaul in my writing process that I’m hoping will pay steady dividends down the road. This includes some pre-outlining on the third book – Birds of a Feather. I’ve been experimenting with looking at the outlining process from more of a series based point of view.

Concept work

I currently have two series concepts I’m working on. One for an alt-history/horror series and another for Military Sci-fi. It’s too early to go into much detail, but there’s plenty on the drawing board. Both of these are minimum 3-5 books and possibly much more.

Pro-crast-i-tasking

Today I completed a major revision on the website for the Book Shop. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Soon I will be taking another look at mail lists. The current mailer I use could do better notifying me when I have new sign-ups. That could be a limitation in the product or a problem in the way I have it set up – either way it’s in need of improvement. Fortunately most of my followers are with me across multiple platforms for which I’m very grateful – you folks rock! I’m also revisiting all of my writer-tech decisions with an eye toward integrations and ease of use. The goal is to streamline the admin tasks as much as possible.

That’s the not-so-quick and dirty. Thanks for being part of the madness!

As always, KEEP READING!

2022 has been a challenging year on the writing front. My production was less than I wanted due to a number of things. A demanding day job and scheduling conflicts top the list along with the seemingly endless list of things that a writer needs to do – that isn’t writing. A good deal of what was published in 2022 was written in 2021, and the single release short stories were all part of anthologies where the rights reverted.

When I started writing in 2020, I had a narrow concept of what a writer did – specifically, write stories, but the reality is that every writer who intends to make a living outside of the traditional publishing path has a lot to do, and a lot to learn, because unless you are blessed with an independent income – you are going to be doing it yourself. In addition to outlines and story structure, plots and sub-plots, genre pacing, there are the demands that every small business faces. Tools and software, advertising images and copy, artwork and book covers, networking, marketing, social media and the time management that keeps all of those things from overshadowing the first, if not the only goal.
Telling a good story.

A good portion of the end of my year has been focused on setting up these necessary business tasks in a way that makes them sustainable – I’ll come back to this later.

2022

Novels

The Executioners – with Jason Cordova, published April 26. This project started as a concept of Jason’s that I was invited to work on and It’s one of my favorite projects to date. Depending on schedules there’s definitely more for the future!

Anthologies

You Pay: We Slay – January 25. Among the Embers, April 12. WE DARE – Wanted, Dead or Alive – May 3. The Valkyries Initiative – September 13.
All of these universes were fantastic opportunities that I’m hoping to do more in – Notably Hit World / Valkyries already has a novel in development for 2023.

Short Stories

GUMBO, February 4. Hollow Threats, October 21. Whatever Happened to Charlie Biggs, November 23.

2023 – On Deck

On the writing board:

Edits, rewrites and revisions for SOUL MATE – A novel in the Hit World/Valkyries universe.

Short stories in the 4HU, the second Irving Tolliver case file, and a Horror anthology submission. There’s also a novella planned as an expansion of some previous work that will be announced in the down the road.

The main work of 2023 will be a return to the Benthi Federation for books 2 and 3 in the Salvage Title universe that started with A Nest of Stars.
The working titles are WARBIRDS and BIRDS of a FEATHER.

Lastly – I may have a release for Ravenswept Chronicles, but I’m still undecided on what form that might take. I recently expanded one of the initial stories and will be looking at how those changes work downstream.

Around all that I’m developing my own Military Sci-Fi universe concept – I’m still in the very early stages of planning – more information to be announced later. If all goes well this will probably have a release date in 2024.

The Business Side

Back to all those bits and pieces I’m trying to learn how to juggle. The first is that I now have an official website – mattnovotny.net – which of course, you know, since you are already here. I will be transitioning the point-of-origin for my blog from Goodreads to my website. I do plan on streaming to my Goodreads Author blog. I was going to stream to Amazon as well, but Amazon has changed its author pages in the U.S. and blog posts are no longer available there. This post will be the first test – stay tuned, shenanigans may ensue.

I ALSO have an updates and Blog sign-up on the main page. In the future I plan on adding exclusive content and giveaways that will only be available here.

I’d like to invite you to do some exploring on my website. In addition to slinging books I have links to a bunch of the Filk I’ve written, a link to the Hope Station T-Shirt shop for Executioners and Prodigal Son swag, and have plans for a gallery to showcase some of the settings and characters.- Find it all, along with pithy commentary here:

Social media

There are a few other places social media wise where you can find me. I’m also working to make sure they are all available through the website:

Facebook: facebook.com/MattNovotnyWrites

BookBub: bookbub.com/authors/matt-novotny

Amazon: amazon.com/stores/Matt-Novotny/author/B089DR63XC

That’s all for now. Thanks to everyone for being a part of my Author journey!

As always, Keep Reading!

Matt

Okay – not JUST Christmas – it’s a Charlie Biggs Holiday Special – The release was November 23rd. Charlie doesn’t mind. He’s a celebrate them all kind of guy.

This time of year is busy for everyone, so I’ll keep it short. The first bit of news it the stand-alone release of “Whatever Happened to Charlie Biggs?” and is a return to the Salvage Title Universe and the Benthi Federation.

Charlie” is a tie-in story to “A Nest of Stars” and – as a teaser – sets up a lot of future events on the Benth orbital ring. Those things that don’t seem important? Well, wait and see!

When the alarms sound on one of the largest structures in space, it gets your attention.

They say adventure is months of boredom punctuated by hours of sheer terror. It’s a saying Charlie Biggs – a career Officer on the Benthi Federation’s orbital ring security force – can absolutely tell you is true.

When a routine check into some noisy alien visitors coincides with an attack on the station, It’s up to Charlie to sort things out – even when the authorities on the station seem to want them dead.

Whatever Happened to Charlie Biggs? Is a short story of 10200 words in the Salvage Title Universe.

The beginning of December I rewrote an introductory story for the Ravenswept Chronicles Universe. The jury is out on if that will appear in a future anthology or will become part of a novel, but after doubling the original word count I’m happy with where it ends – and how it begins the next part of the story.

There has been a delay in the production of SOUL MATE – that’s actually good news as it led to some additional opportunities that I’m looking forward to telling you about when things solidify – expect an announcement sometime in Q1, 2023.

I plan on finishing up 2022 with A new short story for the 4HU, outlining a Horror story for later in the year, and I may tinker some with Shoggoth on the Run – the next story in the Irving Tolliver Case Files.

2023 starts with with a deep dive into my next novel in the Salvage title universe with the working title: WARBIRDS.

I wish you all an amazing Holiday season, with Health, Wealth, and Happiness for all the new year!

As always, KEEP READING!

Matt

Catching up. Again.

How is it the end of October already? I’ve just returned from FactoryCon – the annual conference held by Chris Kennedy Publishing in Coinjock, NC. It’s a place to relax, connect with other Authors and talk shop, plan, plot and scheme for the year ahead. It’s also one of the places where we talk with readers – the hardy souls who venture out to connect with folks that (we hope) are the best kind of crazy.

I have a bunch of catching up to do, so I’ll start with what’s happening now and work backwards.

First up is the short story release of Hollow Threats, The first story in the Irving Tolliver Case Files. Hollow Threats originally appeared in And Then It Got Weird, edited by Jamie Ibson. Its a Genre-smashing future noir detective story set against a mythos background. Cosmic horror? Not so much, but by the time you make it through all the twists and turns – I hope you have as much fun reading this story as I did writing it.Seven hundred years in the future – the stars are right. Followers of Cthulhu are calling out to the Great Old One, and it’s up to Private Detective Irving Tolliver to stop them.The next Tolliver Case Files story – Shoggoth on the Run – is in progress!

September saw the release of The Valkyries Initiative edited by Marisa Wolf! In my story Glass Houses I had a fantastic time exploring the relationship between Mila and Ivanova. This one was all about the ladies.

In Hit World, everything is legal—if you pay the right amount to the right person with the right paperwork.

LifeEnders, Inc. has made a lot of money taking all kinds of targets off the board—everything from an annoying boss to a rampaging monster from another dimension.

But there are some things no contract can cover. When a rival organization threatens to eat LEI from the inside out, they’ll need something beyond their licensed Shooters to counter their new enemy.

They’ll need Valkyries.

In September I also completed Soul Mate – a novel in William Alan Webb‘s Hit World Universe. Soul Mate is the continuing story of Solomon Thorpe, AKA The Sin Eater, and stars characters from Cast the First Stone and Glass Houses which appeared in: You Pay; We Slay and The Valkyries Initiative respectively. Now that the manuscript is turned in, once approved I can begin the editing process. More info on this later.

In May I was part of: Wanted, Dead or Alive, edited by Jamie Ibson, and wrote what I hope will be the first of many tales in his Contractor Wars Universe. In ContAInment Reynard Dupree gives you a new way to look at Bounties and Bounty Hunters.

There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.
– Hemingway.

Bounty hunting is one of those morally gray areas that exist at the periphery of civil society. Few people know anyone whose job it is to find and retrieve fugitives, and bring them before the courts. In the future, however, one can envision any number of ways of how bounty hunting can be used (or abused) for any number of problems. Alien monsters haunting your space station? Bring in a team of hunters, and watch the double-crosses fly. Indentured workers flee ‘the system’ for the safety and anonymity of the Underhive? Facial recognition and some DNA sampling might help you find them. On the flip side of the coin, what if you were born wanted, and have been on the run your whole life?

From there we go alllllll the way back to the end of April for the release of The Executioners! The Executioners was a kick-ass ride written with my friend Jason Córdova which has already passed 200 ratings on amazon – A first for a project I’ve been a part of. There’s more to come in this segment of the 4HU!

Death comes for us all. Enforcers simply expedite the process.

The Alpha Contracts was the turning point in modern Human history. Of the one hundred companies who accepted the first mercenary contracts, only four returned. These four—collectively known as the Four Horsemen—would go on to become the largest and most successful Human mercenary companies in existence.

But what happened to the people who survived the Alpha Contracts when the rest of their friends and their companies died? Some were subsequently killed by merciless aliens, while others were enslaved. Still more tried to find their way through an unforgiving universe, eking out a living with the hope of one day returning home. Some became legends, while others faded into obscurity.

Juwan Washington, on the other hand, was recruited into something bigger—and more important—than anything he could have dreamed of. Thrust into a clandestine operation to discover the truth about a Peacemaker Candidate’s long-forgotten murder, Juwan and his newfound allies will have their revolve tested in ways unimaginable.

The only question is, can any of them survive it?

Whew! That’s a lot of stuff – there’s more in progress, but I’m going to save that for the next installment.

Keep Reading!

Matt

The ides of March. Well, okay, technically post ides – but you get the idea.

First is a toe-dip into the world of non-fiction with Brief Lessons in Writing, a book of essays from/for new writers. I was fortunate to be asked to contribute. I’m rationing these stories, but only because I don’t want them to end.

Second is the solo release of my first professionally released short story. GUMBO: A Rise of the Peacemakers Story which originally appeared in Set the Terms. Available NOW on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Peacemaker Candidate Jackson Rains has a problem on the agro world of Avbo, and it has entirely too many legs.

Tensions between the Flatar-Tortantula garrison and the Xiq’tal mercenaries that use Avbo as a liberty world have escalated from a minor conflict to an all-out war. While both sides are having a wonderful time killing one another, not even the Mercenary Guild is talking about why…

Coming Soon!

THE EXECUTIONERS – Releasing on April 29th by myself and Jason Córdova.

This one is a high body-count ride from the first days of Humanity’s entry into the Galactic Union – Set in the Four Horsemen Universe! Like most Four Horsemen novels, if you look carefully you’ll find a few Easter eggs that will make you look at happenings in the other books in a whole new way.

And just on the horizon – Check out my story WHAT GOES AROUND in “Among the Embers,” a new Fallen World anthology by Chris Kennedy and Chris Woods on May 6

That’s all for now, and as always,

Keep Reading!