Please Release Me

Right now I'm working on getting two titles ready for Kindle releasing.  I know I've mentioned both before on this blog and the old blog.

One possible cover

The first one is A Hero's Journey (Tales of the Scarlet Knight Volume 1).  If you followed the old blog I talked about these stories at length.  But if you didn't, here's the plot description:

Dr. Emma Earl is a brilliant geologist who's starting her first job at age 19.  Then one day the ghost of her mother visits her and tells her she's got to save the world.  The ghost leads her to the museum's sub-subbasement, where she finds a magic suit of armor that transforms her into the Scarlet Knight.  Now it's up to Emma to save the world from the evil Black Dragoon before his scheme to take control of Rampart City unfolds.

I queried this to agents and small publishers and up to this point haven't heard anything positive, so I'll just release it myself.  Incidentally, this is the "clean" version, where I took out most of the swearing, as well as most allusions to sex, and it's less obvious that the mob boss Don Vendetta is a lesbian who wants to fuck Emma.  There are also a lot of scenes cut from the first draft so it's a lot shorter and maybe flows better.


And then from yesterday you should know I also have this:

Still working on the cover and title.

I already wrote a detailed plot summary of Back to Life (or whatever it ends up being called) yesterday, but if you weren't paying attention to that, here's a briefer summary:

Detective Steve Fischer gets injected with an experimental drug that turns him into a woman.  Going by the name of Stephanie now, she seeks revenge on those who did this to her and to recover the drug's formula so that maybe she can go back to her old life.

This is definitely not the "clean" version.  There's still swearing, gory violence, lesbian sex, allusions to rape, and a vagina exam.  So whereas A Hero's Journey is PG-13, this would be R-rated, and a hard-R at that.  Because that's what Grumpy Bulldog does.

Again, not sure when I'll release this.  By now it should be pretty much ready to go.  But you know, you can't just throw stuff out there.  You got to build a website and Tweet and Facebook or whatever.  I really should build a centralized website, something like patrickdilloway.com so all my many fans (sound of crickets) can go there to find everything, plus whatever added content.

Which the thought of that makes me go, "Argh."  I'm pretty much a recluse when it comes to all that stuff.  My motto is always, "Can't someone else do it?"  I mean, I need an intern or assistant or something to do all that stupid social networking crap so when I get home from work I can just sit around watching movies on Netflix and coming up with new stories.  But that would require more resources than I have, so I guess I'll just have to do the best I can, damn it.

I'm pretty much going to go with the Amanda Hocking strategy then of quantity over quality.  Or maybe it's quantity AND quality, eh?  Which means after those two stories go out then later will come all the sequels!  So future releases:

Tales of the Scarlet Knight:
      

 A Hero's Journey (already talked about that)

 Time Enough to Say Goodbye 

Emma battles the evil Watchmaker, who's fucking with the timeline

The Hazards of Love 

An evil, pissed-off goddess named Isis shows up to wreak havoc on the city and Emma's love life

Change of Heart  

When a mysterious meteor shows up, Emma and her friend Becky get to walk a mile in each other's shoes
 

Imperfect Love

 An evil businessman begins unleashing terror in the city by using one of Emma's best friends
 

 Future Shock 

A spell catapults Emma 20 years into the future, where she finds her daughter following in her footsteps

 

Living Sacrifice 

Emma discovers her baby daughter is alive and in the clutches of an old enemy

 

The Heart of Emma Earl 

in the epic conclusion, Emma has a final showdown with Isis over the fate of the entire world

The Stephanie Zale Trilogy (or whatever it gets called)

1. Back to Life (already talked about that)
2. Song for Stephanie - a mad Chinese scientist takes Stephanie and Madison captive to test his own version of the FY-1978 drug, which gives them a second childhood
3. Elegy for Stephanie - on the verge of getting married, Stephanie begins turning back into a man while a killer she put away 25 years ago is back on the loose and wreaking havoc

So that's a pretty full year or two of books right there.