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I’m very proud to announce that my debut novel is available now on Amazon and CreateSpace, and it’s on sale right now for $2.99 until May 31! Read the synopsis here and the prologue here. I hope you enjoy it, and once you finish it please leave a review.

You can now read the prologue for The Lost Door here. Enjoy!

Today I received my final beta reader’s notes, so I will be going over those this weekend and next week to finalize changes to the book. As of right now I’m on track for releasing The Lost Door on May 12th.

Here is what the physical book looks like.

I had originally intended to have The Lost Door available at the end of this month, but it’s been pushed back a few weeks while I make some last minute tweaks. One of my beta readers went old school and mailed me a marked up manuscript, and since he lives overseas it’s taken a little longer to get to me. I should have the manuscript this week and corrections made by the weekend, so my new target date is May 12.

This morning I was delivered the completed cover art for The Lost Door, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s always fun to see the ideas transform from a sketch to the final product. I want to thank Diago Lando for doing such a fantastic job. You can see his portfolio on his website here.

I am now waiting on the printer to send me a proof to finalize. If everything looks as good as I hope it will I’m on track for releasing the book at the end of April.

In other news I have completed the first chapter of my next novel Echoes. It is the first in what is a planned trilogy. All three books are outlined and I have a clear path to follow, so hopefully this book will take less time to write than The Lost Door. I look forward to posting more information on this new book at a later date.

It has been a long and arduous journey writing my first novel, but the end is in sight. The final set of beta readers have been sending me their notes and corrections are underway. I am also in the preliminary stages of working with a designer for the cover art. I expect the book to be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, iBooks, and others by the end of April.

For those that like numbers, the books word count is approximated 85,000 which is roughly 290 pages for a paperback.

It’s been a long year and a half of writing and re-writing my first novel. Longer still if you count when I initially conceived the story and the various attempts at writing it. The Lost Door went from being a screenplay to a television mini-series to 5-part novella series to a novel.

The original concept was big. It involved four major characters whose lives ultimately intersect, but why they intersect is because of an event that happened over fifty years earlier. The story never gelled properly for a 120-page screenplay, so that’s when I thought about doing it as a mini-series. The first four parts would focus on one of the characters while the fifth would bring it all together.

It was around that time I spoke with a friend who works in LA and bounced the idea of him to get ideas on how to proceed. His recommendation? Write it as a book. “If you happen to sell your screenplay,” he said, “expect next to no pay unless it gets made. More than likely it will end up in a drawer, and you’ll never see it again. Are you okay with that? If not then write it as a book.”

I didn’t want to spend a year working on something only to have it end up in a drawer, so I set out to write it as a series of novellas instead. After finishing the first one I gave it to two friends for comments. Their feedback solidified my fears that the story meandered, and I knew then that the subplots of each story would have to go. Not only did they not add to the main plot, but they also padded an already complex story.

That was a blessing though. If I could cut out subplots then what was becoming an exceptionally long book would be wrangled to something more manageable. I could also make it a standalone novel as opposed to a series of novellas.

The first draft was still long at 120k words. (For those unfamiliar most books average 80k-90k.) Two revisions later I got it down to 92k, still a little long but not so bad it would will bog the story down.

This third draft is now in the hands of a trusted few to give me feedback and notes. So while I wait what’s next? I have a sci-fi novel outlined that I plan to work on next. That, too, started as a screenplay. I love its concept and the characters and can’t wait to start exploring that world.

This long journey is nearing an end and I couldn’t be happier. Having these characters and stories in my head for so long (8 years and counting) it will be nice to finally put them to rest.

RPM Films was a production company I co-founded in 2001 with two college buddies. Over the years the I ended up the sole owner when one left Chicago for LA and the other fell out of film making. I continued on several more years producing a feature film, several shorts, a web series as well as some industrial and corporate videos. I got married and had two kids and, over time, I had less and less time or money to devote to film. After a dry spell I ended up taking a job for the CTA in March 2013 shooting and editing their internal and customer videos. When that happened I decided it was time to close RPM Films.

Closing the company I’ve been a part of for twelve years was a hard decision. I co-created it and helped it evolve into a successful company, so deciding to close its doors was not a simple decision. It was the right one though. That chapter of my life had come to a close.

But I needed a way to continue my creative endeavors in some fashion. That’s when I decided to set up a new site to share my past and future works, as well a place for me to talk about my interests. That’s where this blog comes into play. The site is broken down into my fiction projects, my film projects, and a blog for everything else. And, should someone want help designing a site, producing or editing a video, or building a computer there’s a place for that too.

So welcome! I look forward to getting to know you.