Comment
I think I hit the mark with this one.
I posted the full description when the pre-orders went live, but the gist is basically “how hard it is to outrun the demons from your past when they’re literal demons.” Anyone who’s read the ending to Buried Memories, the fourth book, knows where this is going already though.
You can find the paperback on Amazon, Bookshop.org, Direct Order it from me, or get it through whatever retail chain you want with the ISBN 9798295897726. If you’d rather get it as an eBook, you can of course find it on Kindle, Kobo, or as a DRM-free ePub in my Patreon shop.
While I think with the first four books you could jump in and enjoy them, this book really does benefit from having read the earlier books in the series. So, uh, you should do that? Read my books. That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying you should read my books.
Shocking, I know.
We’ll be at booth 618, and besides print copies of the first volume of Peregrine Lake, Ethan will have a whole bunch of art and I’ll have all of my books. That includes the new novel, The Perfect Host, which doesn’t officially go on sale until Monday August 10th. That’s right, at Big Minneapolis Anime you can get the fifth Mia Graves Saga book a day or two early if you really want to!
I haven’t done a convention since the spring, so I’m really excited to get back out there. With Anime 414 shutting down, this is my only August con this year. Which is, y’know, easier on my mental health probably, but a whole lot less fun.
If you can’t make it, I have a couple of events coming up in the Eau Claire area in September — but this is going to be the only con on Ethan’s schedule for a while. So, if you want to meet the both of us, this is your chance to do it. Hopefully I’ll see you there!
And remember, “The Perfect Host,” Book 5 in the Mia Graves Saga is still available for pre-order on Kindle, Kobo, and Paperback!
This last weekend Crysta and I got in the truck and made the drive down to Milwaukee to see my parents. Several family members on my Dad’s side of the family had flown into town for what is, normaly, a weekend where we go to a ballgame. Unfortunately, with the Brewers playing the Cubs, those tickets were way too expensive, so instead we watched the game on a TV in the garage and just turned it into a fairly nice family party.
It was nice, as I haven’t seen some of these people in years, and it was good to get together.
A lot of my contact with that side of the family used to be through events at my late grandmother’s house, so things have been a bit more loosey goosey over the last few years. Honestly, folks are just pretty spread out, so it’s hard to do a lot now that there isn’t a midwestern home base for people to stay at.
Of course, it wasn’t an exactly pain-free trip.
On Friday night, when we were about an hour away from my folks’ house, I got a text from my mom that the water had been shut off at their house. They’d gotten a notice while they were out for dinner, as something had apparently gone wrong. When we rolled in a little before ten, halfway down the block there were a bunch of workers doing probably their least favorite tihng to do on a Friday night.
So that meant we couldn’t take showers until after midnight, which, y’know, wasn’t great.
And then, of course, we got woken up by construction across the street at six thirty in the morning, which I’m fairly certain is against local ordinances, but what the hell do I know. I kind of get why they were doing the work then — we’ve since been hit by an obnoxious heat wave — it still sucked though.
But, with all the minor frustrations, the party was good, and I was happy to see my family.
Could have done without being woken up on Sunday by the same construction crews too though.
Oh yeah, “The Perfect Host,” Book 5 in the Mia Graves Saga is now available for pre-order on Kindle, Kobo, and Paperback!
Last year, for our anniversary, Crysta and I went down to the Big Sky Drive In in the Wisconsin Dells for our anniversary, and then got Paul Bunyan’s with my brother David and his partner Mary the day after. Because it looked like Stardust was still going to be closed for 2026, we actually did that again at the beginning of June this year as well… even if I accidentally booked a worse hotel this time around.
And while I like the Big Sky Drive In, it’s not as nice as Stardust and (more importantly) too far to just do on a casual weekend.
But the universe decided to finally be kind to us, because for the first time I can remember a closed drive in movie theater reopened. This weekend, under new ownership, the Stardust Drive In in Chetek had its soft opening. They’re running a bit barebones on concessions and just did one movie per screen instead of double features, but the place is genuinely, fully back.
They’re still ironing out all the kinks (as I said, it’s a soft open), but oh my god it was so nice to go back there again.
We’ll probably still do a Big Sky Drive In weekend next year in the Dells, but mostly because it’s nice to have some variety (and hang out with David and Mary). It takes a lot of pressure off of that trip too knowing that we’ll have other drive in experiences throughout the summer. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if you live near a drive in movie theater, please patronize it. These are all independent operations, and seeing movies out under the stars is the best way to experience them.
Or at least I think it is.
One of the hardest parts of being an independent creator is getting anyone to actually look at the stuff you’ve made. Like, writing a comic? Writing a novel? These are things I know how to do. But making things is not the same as promoting things.
And I never quite know how to go about doing it.
Like in less than two months, I have a new book coming out. Like the previous one, I’ve been trying to arrange ARCs for readers (though last time I used a service and this time I’m doing it myself). I’ve run some Facebook and Tumblr ads, and I have no idea if book trailers work. But, like, I made a book trailer anyways:
And besides just spamming my own social media accounts, I don’t really know what else to do. Like I’ve got in-person events scheduled, but beyond that I’m out of ideas.
We run into this same problem with comics. Like we came out with a print collection for the current comic I’m working on with Ethan Flanagan called Peregrine Lake. While I would love to sell more print copies, mostly i just want people to read it. Promoting a webcomic in 2026 is a lot harder than promoting a webcomic was in 2009. A lot of the infrastructure for that kind of promo evaporated a while ago.
So we’re trying shit, and hoping something works.
I don’t really know if there really is a solution beyond “keep plugging away and maybe it will work,” but it just kind of sucks. There are ad systems that just a few years ago worked pretty well, but now barely produce any returns. With people moving to closed platforms, it’s hard to tell when something is catching on or not.
So I keep trying.
Who the hell knows if any of it is working.
![Nerd & Tie[dot]Social Forums](https://www.nerdandtie.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/natsocial-nicepreview-square-300x300.png)
