Some Updates from Mechanical Pulp!

Recent things and planned things

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to share some updates, since I’ve posted tidbits as Notes but not everyone sees all that I post in their feed.

Things that I’ve done recently:

1. Part 2 of The Temple of the Green Stone Men was posted right after Pull Me Under chapter 21 the day before, and I think the two things posted so close together may have resulted in some cannibalizing of views. If you read one but missed the other, they aren’t going anywhere, take your time, this is just a reminder.

2. This most recent Saturday I posted PMU chapter 22, and there’s always a “previous chapter” link with the TOC link at the top to help you catch up. We’re nearing a big turning point in the story, so for those following along, get hype! There’s 36 chapters total, so… yeah, we’re approaching some big events.

3. The one-month anniversary of Pallas’ release was a few days ago! BIG thanks to those who have already snagged a copy, and for those that haven’t yet, check out this post to see if it might be your cup of tea! Please please remember to talk about it anywhere you talk about books. Forums, discord, wherever—word of mouth is HUGE for indie authors and without a publisher stamp on the spine, it’s the READERS who give legitimacy to a book. So, if you read it and enjoyed it, please let others know! An EXTRA HUGE THANKS for those who have already left reviews on Goodreads/Amazon, too! You’re the best!

Things I’m about to do:

1. I’m preparing to send out my upcoming novel The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick to my proofreader/copy editor in September, so I’m reading it over (again!), and I gotta say I am SO EXCITED for you guys to be able to read this book! I’m super proud of it.

2. As far as my smaller projects, TotGSM part 3 (and possibly 4…) is coming, but probably not much else for a bit (aside from PMU, every Saturday!) Because…

3. As I reread the Highwayman, I’m also trying to finish the first draft of a novel that got put on the backburner since starting my Substack in April, and I’d like to get back into the daily grind on that, just about exclusively. Putting myself in a “novel bunker” if you will. Especially since I’m thinking it might be the next serial after the conclusion of PMU! It’s similar in style to a couple short stories I’ve posted (The Well part 1 and 2, and The Roots Touch the Sky were actually kinda-sorta-spin-offs (inspired-by’s?) as I was working on the novel, as well as this poem) so if you enjoyed those, look forward to this one!

4. A first for my Substack, I’ve got a book review coming very soon, so if you like gross-out horror anthologies, stay tuned!

5. I’ve begun seriously brainstorming cover ideas/concepts for both PMU (so I can finally ditch the “placeholder” smoke image thing I’ve been using…) and The Highwayman, so if you like cover reveals, the next few months should bring you a couple!

6. When all 36 chapters of PMU are posted, I’ll be uploading a quick and dirty .epub for folks to download. So, if you’ve wanted to start but feel intimidated at the chapter count/prefer to read it all at once, don’t worry! Also, November is still a ways away, but I’m thinking a sequel would be a good idea for a NaNoWriMo project… hmm… Be sure to let me know your thoughts on that!

That’s about it for my writing. As far as my personal life, in early July we found a pair of abandoned kittens right behind our yard, and so we joined forces with our local Humane Society to foster the kittens until they were ready for adoption. We decided to keep one, and the other was adopted 30 MINUTES after we dropped her off at the shelter on Friday! She is a very sweet, loving kitten and that family is extremely lucky to have her.

Now that I just called her sweet, here’s my favourite picture of her:

She’s blurry because of all the vicious sampling of my flesh. Kittens are hilarious, and very difficult to photograph.

It’s still summer, though starting to cool off. So with that, I’m heading outside to look at my garden, watch the bumblebees, think about how I need to start Halloween costumes, whatever. Also, I’ll be going camping early September, so I’ll be MIA for a few days but don’t worry, the PMU chapter for that week will be scheduled as normal. Looking forward to catching a bunch of fish!

One last thing: If anyone wants to keep in touch on Instagram, especially since there’s no DMs here yet, feel free to add me: @mechanical.pulp. I mostly post books I’m reading. That’s really the only social media I use.

Peace!