Tag Archives: announcement

News, Announcements, Blog

Works in Progress, Website Updates, and Possible Substack Coming Soon

Hello, friends, fans, foes, and everyone in between! It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update, but that’s mostly because I’ve been keeping myself busy. I have an uncanny talent for trending toward workaholism. There’s a lot I need to tell you, and a bit I’m keeping close to the vest for the time being.

First, I’ve been thinking that, while I’ve used this website as a blog to post both updates and opinion pieces, I may shift the latter to a Substack. I’m still looking into that platform, but if it seems viable, I may start a new blog there in the next few months. If I do, this website will focus more on updates pertaining to my book and fiction projects.

Speaking of which, I’ve finished editing my next short story collection, The Worlds of Nathan Marchand, Vol. 2: Tales of the Lost and Lonely. The next step is to create the cover, which I’m doing with my photographer sister, Sarah, this week. Hopefully, this book will be out before Christmas. It’s a collection of mostly unpublished literary short stories (although some have appeared on this website). My goal is to get back into the habit of publishing at least one new book every year, starting with this.

On the podcasting front, I continue to record and publish episodes for both The Monster Island Film Vault and Henshin Power V3. However, I am neck-deep in production for a special audiodrama episode I’m co-writing with my friend Joy Metter called Gamera Saves Christmas. In this fanfic, an angry teenage girl and her younger twin siblings are swept up into an adventure where they must help Gamera defeat a reindeer kaiju at the command of Santa’s evil brother, Krampus, who has invaded the North Pole with his Goblin horde. The script should be finalized and sent out to the actors this week. My plan is to release the episode Christmas Eve.

The next book projects for 2026 will be sequels to Destroyer. The first is my current WIP, Apollyon: Body and Soul (working title), which will be followed by Apollyon: Haunted Legacy (working title). I have one publisher who is interested in picking up these and the first book (which may get retitled). I have a second publisher to whom I’ll send proposals for these books.

Amidst all of this, I’ve updated my website with my portfolio. This is an ongoing project, as many of my online articles were on websites that no longer exist, or they were only published in print. A key part of this is the redesigned “Books“ page. It looks much better now and includes all the anthologies I have short stories and essays in.

All of that to say, you have a lot to look forward to from me in the next year! Stay tuned!

Announcements, Blog, News

COMING SOON – ‘The Worlds of Nathan Marchand, Vol. 2: Tales of the Lost and Lonely’

This summer (and hopefully before Gen-Con), I plan to release another short story collection that will be titled The Worlds of Nathan Marchand, Vol. 2: Tales of the Lost and Lonely. It’ll be another anthology of unpublished stories spanning my entire writing career, from college to today (well, close enough).

Unlike in Volume 1, these stories won’t be speculative fiction (with one possible exception), but many will involve “nerdy” things. For example, the flagship story involves a young man in a small town trying to return a collectible Superman cape he found in a dumpster on Christmas Eve. You may recognize some of the stories because many were once available on this very website.

As with Volume 1, I’m including short intros for each story that explains their origins. Some stories were written for college classes; others were the products of prompts from a writers group I used to attend.

Currently, my sister, Sarah, is editing the book and working on a photographic cover. Once those are done, it will be in print quickly.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Novellas, Fantasy, Books, Blog

NEW BOOK – ‘ZORSAM AND THE GOD WHO DEVOURS’

The cover art for the book.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything of note on this website. I’ll say it’s a New Year’s Resolution to remedy that. So, let’s start that off with a mandatory post about my newly published book, Zorsam and the God Who Devours!

Some years ago in a wonderful place called Story, Indiana, a bunch of my college writer friends and I made a pilgrimage to have a weekend retreat in a big cabin. Amidst some sightseeing and tabletop gaming, we all sat down and discussed doing a big year-long project together we called “The Pulp Fiction Project” (the “literary genre,” not the Tarantino movie). We listed several types of stories that you’d see in old pulp magazines, including space western, monster story (which led to Destroyer), and “barbarian story.” My friend Nick Hayden chose to write that last one. Over the course of the next year, our goal was to have multiple 30,000-word novellas in the style of old dime store novels. Each would have three writers who took four months each to write about 10,000 words a piece before passing it on to another writer whose name would be drawn from a hat. It fell to Aaron Brosman second and finally to me.

It sat on the proverbial shelf (or rather, hard drive) for years until Nick attempted to get it published with a publishing house he was with a few years ago. That didn’t work out, so I contacted Wild Hunt Press, who jumped at the chance to publish some sword and sorcery.

What’s this book about? In a nutshell: a barbarian cooler than Conan.

You read that right.

Here’s the back cover copy:

Zorsam is a mighty and savage warrior born in an undreamed of and unrecorded age, filled with strange kingdoms, fierce warriors, dark magick, nightmarish monstrosities, and terrifying deities. Among the latter is the dreaded Manrix, the God Who Devours, a bestial deity who demands the sacrifice of young female virgins to keep his appetite sated and appeased. His most powerful follower in that bygone era is the brutal King Margruxks, the ruler of the much-respected kingdom of Glaur, whose latest intended sacrifice is a young woman named Asundi.

Zorsam is soon to learn, through a deadly series of trials he is put through by an avatar of Death itself, that the sacrificial girl is one of his tribe, and he becomes determined to do the unthinkable and take on his greatest trial yet: invading the lands of Glaur, oppose King Margruxks and his deadly minions, and dare to deny Manrix his demanded offering by rescuing Asundi.

Among King Margruxk’s soldiers are the brothers Zaduk and Fria, unconquerable warriors who control the forces of fire and ice respectively, which will more than ensure Zorsam a challenge that shall truly earn him the title of one of the greatest warriors of all time — if he survives. For even if he gets through this incredible gauntlet, he must then face the deadly sword of King Margruxks himself, and ultimately, the power of the God Who Devours.

The blood-stained saga of Zorsam begins here, and it is brought to you by no less than three authors who have made the sword and sorcery genre their passion.

It’s available on Amazon as an eBook right now, but the paperback is coming soon!

If schedules allow, I’m hoping to do a livestream with both Nick and Aaron on my YouTube channel to discuss the book and the process of writing it. Stay tuned!

In meantime, start the New Year off with a new book!