(Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan – Photo taken by me, July 2025)

Well, happy September 2025 to you. Time for another update from yours truly. I hope you’ve weathered the heat and are heading toward a productive fall. It’s been quite the eventful summer for me, including a number of personal firsts…

• First time in Indiana.
• First time in Michigan.
• First time in Japan.
• First time seeing a Broadway show I’d already seen on Broadway.
• First time crossing the Pacific/First time taking a flight longer than 8 hours.
• First time taking a domestic plane flight in another country.
• First time attending a sporting event outside of the US.
• First time visiting an international Disney park.
• First time visiting a Pokémon Center.
• First time visiting a World Expo.
• First time on a bullet train.
• First time developing allergic dermatitis from medication (they can’t all be great).

And, a number of writing firsts…

• First time attending a signing event outside DFW. It did not go well.
• First time attending a multi-day signing event.
• First time organizing my own multi-author signing event.
• First time attending a signing event at a library.
• First time meeting someone who had read Steelwing but hadn’t met me in person before for a signed copy (they were so excited to get Friend or Foe!).
• First time being invited by a bookstore to a signing.
• First time being asked by a bookstore to restock my books because they were selling well (!).
• First time being told by a bookstore from across the Internet they were going to stock my books (!).
• First time reordering paperback copies of Dangers to Society.
• First time not selling any books at a signing (they can’t all be great).
• And perhaps the one I’m most excited about, first time invited to be a speaker at DFWCon.

All that, in addition to the regular fare of summer camps, travel planning, home maintenance, car maintenance, dealing with a shoulder injury, picking out a new school for the kiddo, VP of Programs duties for my writing workshop, and just day-to-day life, means I’ve been a pretty busy puppy.

Despite the time crunch, my fledgling writing career continues to surprise and gratify. The signing events I’ve attended have been mostly great successes, and I’m slowly building my email list, which is my primary goal of these signings (that and not lose money). Get on the email list, if you haven’t already. The Local Author Crawl I organized for DFWWW was a great success, and we’re already on Half Price Books’ calendar for next year on August 24, 2026 (mark it down now!). We learned some lessons, and it’ll be an even better event next time. Indie Author Day is the next event I’m helping plan on November 15 at the Grapevine Public Library. The young lady named Felix who was practically bursting with excitement to meet me and get a signed copy of Friend or Foe totally made my summer. Mom, if you’re reading this, thanks so much for bringing her. I hope she loves it! Steelwing: Lost Dragon will be coming soon and it’s going to be incredible.

I’ve seen the first draft of Steelwing 3’s cover and it’s gonna be another banger. Can’t wait to show off the finished version. Unfortunately, due to the pace at which we’re able to get it completed, it’s quite likely Steelwing 3 won’t be coming until February or March 2026. This is far later than I hoped, but sometimes these things take time. The good news is during my trip to Japan, I managed to knock out four killer chapters, which put me past the halfway point to first draft completion. Right now, it’s looking to be about 25 chapters long and roughly 60k words (another 10% bigger than Friend or Foe which was 10% bigger than Steelwing). I’m quite excited the way the story is playing out, and there’s lots of fun in store! Steelwing 3 will take a bit of a back burner so I can wrap up the first draft of The Department of Daniel Prevention so I can have it ready to pitch and query at DFWCon, but progress will still be made. I just wrapped up another chapter today, and it’s another ending that’ll make you say, “WHAT!?”

Speaking of fun, check out my appearances page for the up-to-date list of my upcoming signings. I seem to be doing 2-3 a month right now which is a crazy pace. Haven’t worn myself out yet!

I’m also looking to start a podcast/TikTok channel in the coming weeks to talk about writing and help promote my books. I’ll probably be posting that stuff here in addition to their native locations, so stay tuned for more info.

And that’s all for now. Stay cool! M