Cameron Lowe's Blog, page 10

Saying Goodbye to Ghosts, Pt. 7 – Smyle

Since Smyle is still a relatively new release for me, I’m not going to spoil anything major here. Instead, let’s talk about what the plan initially was between Band of Fallen Princes and Smyle.

[image error]While On Hallowed Lanes was a failure in my eyes,, it helped me realize that it was time to try my hand with a romance novel. You can read about Forever and Farewell elsewhere, but I’ll say this – it was a breath of fresh air writing in a genre outside my wheelhouse, and it made me realize I needed to...

Saying Goodbye to Ghosts, Pt. 6 – On Hallowed Lanes

Oh, my sweet, ugly duckling On Hallowed Lanes.

You were partially good. The basic idea of Brianna and Garrett taking a road trip together sans ghosts (kind of) was a fun idea for a novella that both unfortunately ballooned out unnecessarily and never found its way until the very last few chapters.

I liked the actual road trip part of you. Thanks to friends from Canada like Andy Shelgrove, whop provided me with an awesome, exhaustively-researched theoretical list of must-see places around Albe...

Saying Goodbye to Ghosts, Pt. 5 – Butt Sex (or Band of Fallen Princes)

People pick the strangest battles.

You’d think the horror and violence would garner the most visceral reaction from readers – and it does, but it’s mostly limited to the first novel in my Rankin Flats series. They read that – or part of it – and realize the depth of violence and horror isn’t their thing. That’s fine! If I was a reader who didn’t like those things, I’d want to read a few reviews pointing them out too.

Same goes with my profanity and sex. Usually if people don’t like either in...

Saying Goodbye to Ghosts, Pt. 4 – Bone Carvers

Bone Carvers is secretly the oldest book I’ve ever written – and in its original iteration, it was terrible.

Once upon a time, my mom and I drove to Missouri – or from Missouri, I don’t recall which way we were pointed – to drop me off at college. Along the way, we pulled off for gas at a tiny little town that shall remain unnamed. A mile or so from the Interstate, Anonymous immediately creeped us out, and never stopped. The houses universally had cracked stone foundations. The few people out...

Saying Goodbye to Ghosts, Pt. 3 – For All the Sins of Man

Rowen.

Some characters take me a few books to come to love – Monica, namely. Some, a book. Some a few chapters. Only one of them has made me love her from the very introduction, and that’s little Rowen. From the moment she whispers, “Daddy’s sick,” in regards to her drug addict father and takes Garrett’s hand so she can be rescued, I loved this character. No one, not Brianna, not Murphy, not Sloan, won me over so completely in the series as Rowen.

[image error]Cover by RAZ Designs

Even now, writing this a...

Saying Goodbye to Ghosts, Pt. 2 – Shifting Furies

Shifting Furies started life as The Ghost and the Shifter, but early in the draft, I realized my friend Bobbi Holmes names her books similarly. She was absolutely fine about it, but I was a bit mortified and felt like I was inadvertently copying her titling system, so I came up with an alternative – Shifting Furies, so named because of the shapeshifter and a plot element revolving around Brianna. That’s one of the best things to have happened to the series – I stride now to be more original a...

Saying Goodbye to Ghosts, Pt. 1 – The Ghost at His Back

In nine days, I’ll be hitting the publish button on Plague of Life, the final Rankin Flats supernatural thriller, at least in its current incarnation.

It was never supposed to end.

I didn’t like The Ghost at His Back’s premise. I didn’t care about ghosts, or gyms, or psychotic breakdowns of programmers. I saw an opportunity to create something that hadn’t really been done before, as far as I knew, and I thought – perhaps mistakenly – there was a bigger market for it. The plan was to write as...

The Fit Hit – Mar. 12, 2018

Been a while, but I’ve been on the mend from a fall on the ice and my workouts haven’t been great. Happy to report I’m good now.

And as an added bonus, it seems our endless winter is finally easing up a little. My folks bought me a ten day swim pass at the local Spa Motel, fed naturally by sulfur hot springs in the area (if you’ve read The Ghost at His Back, it’s mentioned in there). The winter’s been so bad I haven’t had a chance to use it once – and get this, the motel’s only a block away....

Plague of Life is a-comin’

My readers are coming along nicely on Plague of Life, the last in my Rankin Flats supernatural thrillers, but I’ve kinda found myself wishing they hated it, that it needs a complete rewrite so I have an excuse to not shut the door on Garrett, Murphy, and Brianna.

The next return to Rankin Flats will feature an all new cast, but won’t be for a few years yet until I’ve dipped my fingers into a few other genre pies. Look for that to be a more lighthearted take on the universe.

Next up will be A...

Smyle, out now

Like the title says, the sixth and second-to-last novel in the Rankin Flats supernatural thrillers is out now. And reception has been… tepid’s too kind. At this point with this series, I’m feeling like the marathon finished a day ago and I’m just now crossing the halfway mark after a hobo passed and pissed on me. It’s not the fault of readers. I knew what I was writing was going to be a niche thing, and if you’re writing for the sake of attention, whoooo boy, you’re in the wrong business. But...