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New Release | Ascendant Unrest

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Greetings!

I’m thrilled to announce the release of Ascendant Unrest – the second book in the Faded Skies series. Out now on #kindle. (I think the publisher is releasing it wide across several outlets but I’m not 100% sure). Though this series has a nine-year-old main character, it’s not intended for young readers.

The series is linear, so be sure to read Heir Ascendant first!

Two weeks after Maya tried to save the world, little has changed. Little, except for a nine-year-old’s building fear that her ex-mother’s revenge waits around every corner.

When her face appeared on every still-working video monitor along the Eastern Seaboard, streaming her plea and her evidence all over the planet, she thought they’d won. Alas, her fairy tale dream died. The Authority didn’t become noble overnight. Her ex-mother didn’t face punishment for her crimes. The lack of any retribution, or even any effort on the part of the Brigade to hide her, only fans the flames of her worry.

To make matters worse, her best friend Sarah is hiding a painful secret.

Maya’s fears come to fruition in the middle of the night. In a hail of gunfire, she and Sarah flee into the dangerous streets of the Habitation District, rife with dosers, street gangs, corrupt Authority officers, chased by an unknown enemy worse than Ascendant.

They don’t want to kidnap her―they want her dead.

 

New Release | The Artist of Ruin

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Greetings all! I’m thrilled to announce the ebook release of The Artist of Ruin, the third book in the Vampire Innocent series. (Vampiric humor with a little drama.)

Sarah Wright knows she’s in for a rough week when a ghost asking for help is the least frightening thing she has to deal with.

A month after waking up as a vampire, unlife is feeling pretty sweet. Her mood swings are easing off, she’s got a decent boyfriend, and best of all, the parents let her slide on being lazy. They understand it’s a little awkward to keep a job when daylight can kill her.

Oh, and the whole magical powers thing is pretty cool, too.

After two weeks of quiet, her new normal blooms into a chaotic mess. Ashley’s awful luck with romance hits dangerously close to home. A simple favor for Aurélie ends with a possessed antique doll loose in the house, and worse, one random act of kindness gives Sarah something she’s never had before—a nemesis who wants to do more than kill her.

She wants to utterly ruin her.

Also, book one (A Nighttime of Forever) is going on sale. Grab it on #kindle for .99 over the next few days!

New Release | Citadel: The Concordant Sequence

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Out Now!

Citadel: The Concordant Sequence – a post-apocalyptic young-adult novel

Eleven year old Kiera Quinn is sure she’s having a nightmare. She doesn’t believe a nap that started safe in her suburban bedroom ends in an empty wasteland. She doesn’t believe everyone she’s ever known may have never existed―and she definitely doesn’t believe an old man who tells her she will resurrect the world.

After he finds her crawling from a vent, the odd shaman clad in junk and old computer parts claims she is ‘the child born of the earth,’ humanity’s only chance to survive. As crazy as he sounds, being alone in a vast desert frightens her more than a kindly stranger. Desperate and scared, Kiera humors him, hoping her bad dream ends soon.

Fate has a funny habit of getting in the way of destiny. When an opportunity for a safe home presents itself, Kiera jumps at the chance. New parents and a new town―even a super-primitive tribal village―feel like the best place for a child to be, not off saving the world at the ramblings of a nutty old man. Adjusting to life without video games isn’t easy, but her new mom and dad give her what her old ones couldn’t: time and attention.

Alas, Kiera’s discovery of a secret within ancient ruins causes the ruler of the distant Citadel to regard her as a threat in need of disposal. Her only chance to keep her new family is to believe a crazy old man wasn’t so crazy―and that saving them won’t destroy the whole planet.

 

May 2018 Updates

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Happy Wednesday!

It’s been a while since I put up a blog post. I’ve been burning the proverbial candle at both ends and haven’t had much time to spare for it. Stealing a few minutes here to ramble a bit.

A number of exciting projects are underway. First, the editor sent back the file for Menagerie! I’m hoping to have everything put together with that for a release sometime within the next two weeks.

I’m also working on two second editions, re-releasing The Eldritch Heart and Caller 107 soon with new cover art and some revisions. Caller 107 (since it’s one of my earliest books) had the most changes (something like 3,500 tweaks inside and a few thousand more words added). For those of you who’ve read the first version of The Eldritch Heart, the edits are mostly minor things like sentence flow and a couple of minor echoes. I did however make a small-but-meaningful change toward the end which will hopefully provide a more satisfying feel to how everything wraps up.

Also, I wound up changing the name of the stone giant from Ogun to Omun. A reader pointed out that “Ogun” is also the name of an African deity, which I had unintentionally used. Appropriately enough, he’s an “Earth God,” so naming a stone giant after him kinda worked even if it was a coincidence. Honestly, I thought I made the word up not realizing… Alas, my Google-Fu was weak. However, out of respect, I changed the name.

Ghost Black, the third book in the Daughter of Mars series is scheduled for release on 5/22, about a week away.

I’m also eagerly awaiting the cover art for Out of Sight, a YA science fiction novel. The text is ready to go here, so as soon as the cover and interior art is ready, the book will be going live.

Citadel: The Concordant Sequence is done with proofreading and awaiting formatting!

The Divergent Fates Anthology recently had a new cover and interior formatting applied.

I’ve also got the outline underway for the third (as yet untitled) book in the Vampire Innocent series. (BTW the audiobook for A Nighttime of Forever should be going live soon. It’s in the final stages over at ACX.)

Dead Man’s Number just came back from the proofreader and is in queue.

J.R. Rain and I are working on the second Alex Silver novel, Deep Silver, which is in queue for editing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any idea of a release timeline at this point as we are both quite busy.

Also, paperback versions of Sophie’s Light, The Forest Beyond the Earth, A Nighttime of Forever, A Beginner’s Guide to Fangs, and the Divergent Fates Anthology are now available through Barnes & Noble.

So, over the next few weeks, I’ve got somewhere between 4 and 6 books expecting to release or re-release. Hence, the head-spinning.

Happy reading!

-Matt

 

Cover Reveal | The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey

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Happy Monday everyone 🙂 (as much as a Monday can be happy)

I’m thrilled to finally be able to reveal the cover for my upcoming middle-grade adventure novel, The Menagerie of Jenkins Bailey!

(Cover art by Ricky Gunawan)

Alas, I don’t yet have a firm release date as the edits are taking a touch longer than expected, but it will be out soonish.

Twelve year old Piper Bailey wouldn’t trade her friends for any amount of money―unfortunately, when her dad inherits a fortune, she doesn’t have a choice.

She’s happy with her little house in Syracuse and hand-me-down clothes twenty years out of style. The unexpected windfall is a blessing for her family, but it comes with a giant house hours away in the woods. Heartbroken at being so far from her tiny social circle, she tries to talk her parents into staying home, but they drag her off to the forest anyway.

Piper finds an unexpected friend in a boy who lives in the next house, and the two decide to explore grandpa’s giant mansion. It doesn’t take long for creepy things to start happening. Convinced there’s a malevolent ghost trying to hurt them, she asks her parents for help, but Mom goes from believing Piper is acting out over the unwanted move to being legit crazy.

A near-fatal attack from the spirit strands the kids in a hidden underground complex packed with supposedly mythical creatures. Thinking the strange zoo cruel, Piper is determined to free the creatures, but not all the captives are friendly.

Some are downright evil.