May Update
Free Story of the Month - Shelly's Fate Pt. 1
Author Interview
Azrielle Lawless was nice enough to interview me about my writing on her YouTube channel. Check out the entire interview here:
Writing Update
This month, my newer story, The Force of Magic, actually passed my first story, After It’s Over, in both words and episodes. Part of that is TFOM is just a more fun story to write, but I was publishing 2 episodes a week for almost two months, while sticking to one a week for AIO. In order keep them both on track, I’ve now moved to publishing 2 episodes a week for both stories and hope to keep that pace up until both stories are finished, sometime late this summer. You can read the latest episodes on Kindle Vella here and here or wait for them to be published on Substack.
I have tentatively scheduled After It’s Over for a September release in eBook, paperback and hardback. Look for The Force of Magic to follow shortly afterwards in October. Both of these books will have sequels, to be released in mid-2023. The third book in The Force of Magic trilogy will be coming in the 1st quarter 2024. I hope you’ll read all my stories in whatever format you prefer. Vella and Substack make for a fun process of writing and getting feedback on the fly, but all of my books will be going through editing and revision before they are released in book form.
Stats Update
If you know me, you know I love to keep track of stats on many different things, an obsession that started in the old days of pen and paper gathering what we could from the box scores in the newspapers. Here are this month’s updates (as of 5/20/22) on both of my stories:
After It’s Over
154 People following this story
1885 Episodes read
#1 Post-Apocalyptic Story
#1 Pandemic Story
#3 Alternate History Story
#5 Survival Story
#8 Dystopian Story
#41 Adventure Story
#37 Thriller Story
The Force of Magic
138 People Following the Story
1595 Episodes Read
#1 Super Powers Story
#6 Female Protagonist Story
#17 Young Adult Story
#15 Coming of Age Story
#33 Adventure Story
#27 Magic Story
Free Story of the Month - Shelly’s Fate Pt. 1 - After It’s Over
Note: This story occurs after Episode 7 of After It’s Over. If you haven’t read that far, catch up before reading this free bonus story
Shelly was finally headed towards her parents. She felt awful betraying Reece’s trust, but he made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with traveling with her to California. Things weren’t going to get better. Shelly knew she waited too long to leave already. It might have been different if she’d had the courage to leave even a month ago, but her parents discouraged her from coming and the thought of driving cross country in all of this uncertainty was too much for her.
Shelly was afraid Reece would wake up and catch her sneaking out, but it seemed that the long day on the road the day before kept him out of it enough to not hear her sneaking out before first light. She was careful to take note of things before going to bed, like where his keys were and some of his supplies. Still, the Subaru was far from full, the readout showed she could travel 342 miles before she would need gas. That wasn’t nearly enough.
She was carrying about $4000 cash and she hoped that would be enough to see her through whatever came her way. The GPS said she had 32 hours of driving and 2148 miles to go. She would need a lot to go in her favor if she was going to make it. Once she was sure she made it away from Reece, Shelly pulled over to the side of the road and checked the route the GPS was going to take her against what she previously plotted on her phone. It had her going through St. Louis and she wanted to avoid big cities. Reece showed her that she was much more likely to find compassion in smaller communities.
Shelly plotted a path around St. Louis, heading through several small towns in Illinois and Missouri, where she hoped she would be able to find some fuel. After that, she turned her phone off to save the battery, and to avoid having to talk to Reece when he woke up. Driving in the quiet of the early morning left her alone with her thoughts and Shelly found that a dark place to be. She was truly alone in this world in every sense of the word. The day spent with Reece is the car yesterday was the first meaningful interaction she’d had in months.
Part of her regretted leaving him. Reece was a good man, and she’d loved him at one point, but when they drifted apart she’d closed that part of her heart off for good. Last night, she’d been tempted to open it back up, but there was too much distance between them. No, she was better off going to see her parents. They needed her in a way Reece didn’t and maybe she could make a difference in their lives.
It was strange to be driving on the road with so few other people. Shelly hadn’t driven enough to really notice it before, but the highway was empty. She was glad when the sun finally started to rise, bringing light into the darkness before her. She saw the sign ahead for her exit. In order to avoid St. Louis, she was headed for the small town of Chester, IL, where there was another bridge across the mighty Mississippi. She hoped there would be a place to get gas in one of the towns along the way.
Most of the places she was passing looked closed down for good, similar to what she saw in Chicago. But when she came to a small town called Whittington, Shelly saw a hand painted sign that said “GAS” with an arrow drawn away from the direction she needed to go. Shelly decided it was worth a risk. It was not yet 8AM, and she hoped there would be someone to help her.
After two blocks, she came to an old Philips 66 station that reminded her of the one Reece and her stopped at the day before. She hoped that was a good sign. Shelly pulled up to the pump, which had a padlock on the handle and got out of the car.
“Hello, is anyone here?” She asked.
She heard a sound behind her and saw a large man, dressed in dirty overalls coming out the side door of the station, walking in her direction. She couldn’t see his face, as he was backlit by the rising sun. Shelly said a prayer and hoped she hadn’t made a mistake.
I hope you enjoyed this free story. The next part will be published in June! If you know someone who you think would like the stories I’m telling, please take the time to share them and consider writing a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I’m very glad to have you as a reader!