WELCOME TO OCTOBER…
It’s spooky season and I have not one but two new book releases going on at the same time!
ONE: The Waking of Witches Kickstarter is live
The Waking of Witches series = middle grade horror for stubborn, skeptical kids 10 and up, and for the adults who remember being exactly that kid.
It is legit scary, even for adults. I’ve AHHHHHHHHHHH NOPE NOPE NOPE gotten up from the keyboard on both of these while my subconscious cackles gleefully and says reassuring things like “If you don’t write it, I’ll give you niiiiightmaaaaares.“
Book 1, The Witch House:
Jayla Jackson paints her nails black, hisses at anyone who talks to her, and wears spiked black Crocs as a warning. Her English teacher assigns a journal and says the class can write whatever they want, even if it’s not true. So Jayla writes that she’s a witch, along with spells for warding off Sunday sadness and rules for feeding ghost cats. Then her imagination stops being imaginary.
You can find samples chapters here.
Book 2, The Witch Labyrinth:
A house turns up in Renee’s neighborhood that wasn’t there yesterday. She knows she shouldn’t go in. But her family is falling apart and she doesn’t feel safe at home and her best friend is a ghosthunter and this is for SCIENCE.
The Kickstarter has dust-jacketed hardcovers of both books. It’s the first time The Witch House has been in hardcover, and the first time The Witch Labyrinth has been in print at all. Paperbacks and ebooks are there too, plus a book-fair’s worth of add-ons. Back it and the ebooks show up right away, so you can catch up.
Book 3, The Witch Garden:
Starts today! I’m writing it live all October, one day of the characters’ journals per day, posted for free Patreon subscribers. There’s no outline. I’ve done this before, for both of the first two books, as well as three flash-fiction collections.
The Kickstarter runs from October 1 – October 31. As you DO.
TWO: The Apocalypse Job is in the Light Fantasy Bundle
The Apocalypse Job is a comic heist/caper in the Westlake tradition (I specifically studied Bank Shot on this one), with a crew of middle-aged superheroes who’ve been hiding their powers. Now it’s time to get together for one last heist…they’re gonna steal the techbro apocalypse.
For now, it’s exclusive to the Light Fantasy Bundle. Here’s what curator Kris Rusch has to say about it:
The Light Fantasy Bundle – Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:
A professional damsel in distress. Hapless heroes. Feline familiars. Fairytales turned upside down. Happy endings—well, not guaranteed, but hinted at. Smiles and escape guaranteed.
Oh, and great stories by marvelous writers. I figured we’d need an escape at this point in 2026, so I asked some of my favorite writers to provide us with exclusive books for the Fall StoryBundle. Exclusive fantasy books. Exclusive light fantasy books. Nothing heavy to tax our brains or our already jangled nerves.
The Light Fantasy StoryBundle will get us enough to read through the New Year. Maybe by then, we can relax a little. Here’s hoping…
To find out more about the 15 books (and every book is a StoryBundle Exclusive) in this bundle, click here, and make sure to click on each cover for a synopsis, reviews and preview of each book!
You can find a sample chapter by clinking on my book cover at the Storybundle link!
The Storybundle runs from October 1 – October 28. Fifteen books, all exclusive, by:
Annie Reed, Jamie Ferguson, Lisa Silverthorn,
Anthea Sharp, Bonnie Elizabeth, Dean Wesley Smith,
Robin Brande, Jason A. Adams, Kari Kilgore, Stefon Mears,
Debbie Mumford, Kristine Grayson (Kris’s lighter-fantasy pen name), Robert Jeschonek,
And yours truly.
A stack of books, pay what you want for them, and eheheheh RAY MADE CHARACTER ART FOR ME. But I’ll post that later; I want to make sure what I have is final-final (final) (no really this time).
AND NOW IT IS TIME TO BEGIN WRITING THE WITCH HOUSE.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
