In this week’s update I ask what’s been happening in the scribbling lives of Eric Brown, Heather Cumiskey, AL Kaplan and David Kazzie.

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Eric Brown

GS: Originally interviewed in January this year, I caught up with Eric to find out what he’s been working on.

EB: At the moment I’m working on two novels. I’m finished going through an edit of The Menace From Mars, a Sherlock Holmes SF adventure due out next February from Titan Books. It’s a mash up of Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Wells’s War of the Worlds – set partly on the red planet, partly on Earth.

I had great fun writing it, and it’ll be my first book from Titan.

And I’m putting the finishing touches on the first draft of Murder By Invitation, the seventh book in the Langham Dupre series of whodunits set in 1956. I hope this will see the light of day from Severn House at some point next year.

I also have two collections due out imminently from PS Publishing: The Disciples of Apollo, the Best of Eric Brown; and The Ice Garden and other stories – an original collection.

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On the short story front, I have tales in the forthcoming anthology Extraordinary Tales of Amateur Sleuths and Private Eyes, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, and in the next issue of the Irish SF magazine Albedo One.

GJ: Wow. You have been busy! Here’s the link you Eric’s author page on Amazon so you can check out his amazing back catalogue and new releases!

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Heather Cumiskey

GS: I hear you have an announcement to make?

HC: Yes! I’m excited to announce that the second book in the YA duology I Like You Like This titled I Love You Like That just released!

One of the unexpected rewards of becoming an author is being invited to talk to teens about writing. There’s nothing better than encouraging young people and adults to believe in their work and the story they are meant to tell. When I’m not working on my third YA novel, a modern-day romance set in NYC, I conduct teen writing workshops in schools, libraries, and bookstores.

People can learn more about my books and workshops at HeatherCumiskey.com and follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HeatherCumiskey.

GS: That’s great news and you can check out the original interview from September 2018 here.

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A L Kaplan

GS: So what’s been happening since we last spoke in September 2018?

AK: I published my short story Wolf Dawn in March.  A Hidden Past – A Deadly Secret.

Gifted with the ability to wolf-talk, Kara has lived with the wolves since she lost her memories eight years ago. Now at sixteen, snippets of her past send her searching for answers. But the warm welcome she receives in the human village hides more danger than life with the pack.

I’m still working on a sequel to Star Touched and am almost finished with a short story in that world. Also in the works is a YA fantasy.

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David Kazzie

GS: How have you been keeping and what have you been up to since your interview twelve months ago?

DK: Well, I am still rolling along here. The biggest change is that I’ve started to focus exclusively on Amazon Advertising. For whatever reason, the effectiveness of Facebook ads crashed suddenly and without warning about a month ago. There’s been a lot of talk about this in the various FB groups I am in – I posted about it around September 6 and heard from a number of authors who reported the same – some of whom had been seeing five-figure sales months. 

So I’m on a learning curve with Amazon Ads, but I am determined to make it work!

GS: I’d definitely be interested to hear how that goes!

DK: I did release a new book in June this year called THE NOTHING MEN. It’s a different take on the zombie story – the infected are sick and not undead, and then after a few months they all recover from their infection.

The world is trying to move on, and these infected people are treated like second class citizens and have to grapple with the memories of what they did while infected. I wrote the first draft years ago but it needed a lot of work, so I shelved it for a long time. Then I spent the first half of 2019 getting it into shape. 

I am working on a new four-book dystopian/post-apocalyptic series that I hope to release over the next year. 

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A big thank you to all four of the authors who gave updates today.

Also just a quick reminder that my new novel, BEFORE THE END, releases at the end of the week which will mean my current 99c/99p promotion for my debut comes to an end soon. Why not grab it while it’s a bargain!