Michael C. Bailey's Blog, page 99

Action Figures – A Reintroduction

As of this morning, I’ve exceeded last month’s sales by 12 copies (312 sold in June), so I have ample motivation to get back to work on book three (said work has been somewhat on hold due to two renaissance faires eating up a lot of my schedule and creative energy).

Most readers of this blog know about the series already, but I’ve gained quite a few new followers on my various social media platforms, so this post is aimed at people who have yet to pick up either book — you know, something AF devotees can pass on to their friends to introduce them to the series (hint hint), which they can then buy by clicking on the Buy Now tab at the top of this page.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins

It was the worst summer of Carrie Hauser’s life, and the weirdest: it was the summer her parents announced they were getting divorced, and when a dying alien passed on to her his fantastic superhuman abilities. 

All Carrie wants now is to settle into her new home in Kingsport and get her life back to something resembling normal – but that won’t be easy when her secret is discovered by a group of teenage super-hero wannabes, who need her help to discover why experimental military drones have been wreaking havoc in town. 

Their search leads the fledgling super-team to Archimedes, an artificial intelligence that will do anything to escape its virtual reality prison and enter the real world. 

However, the kids aren’t the only ones with an interest in Archimedes, and the super-teens soon find themselves caught in the middle of a longstanding feud between Concorde, Kingsport’s high-flying hometown hero, and his nemesis, the deadly mercenary Manticore. 

Save the day? Sure…as soon as school lets out.

 

Action Figures – Issue Two: Black Magic Women

The world is full of magic…and it wants the Hero Squad dead. 

Winter in Kingsport heats up when the necromancer Black Betty comes to town, on the hunt for the Libris Infernalis, a legendary book of dark magic with the power to raise hell on Earth…literally. 

Facing power beyond their understanding, the Hero Squad turns to the Protectorate’s resident sorceress for help, but the mysterious Dr. Enigma seems to have an agenda of her own. Is she on the side of angels, or is she a devil in disguise?

 

And, coming this fall…

Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect

The past is coming back to haunt the Hero Squad.

Archimedes, the Squad’s first foe, is finally heading to trial, and the teen heroes aren’t exactly looking forward to again facing the man capable of revealing their deepest secrets to the world — but their secrets are nothing compared to the dark truths being hidden from them by people they know and trust.

When those secrets are finally laid bare, they could tear the team apart, one heartbreaking piece at a time…and if they don’t, the bloodthirsty killer known as Buzzkill Joy will.

 

Still not sure whether Action Figures is for you? Then go check out this free full-length short story!

Yay Reviews!

Just a quick post today, but a happy one: Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins just received a very positive review from the good people (or person, more specifically) over at A Simple Taste For Reading. Go here to read the review, which the reviewer, Sierra Klein, kindly posted on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as on her blog and Facebook page.

It may seem like a small thing to an outsider, but as I’ve remarked before, positive reviews are vital to indie authors. If you’ve read either of the Action Figures novels and enjoyed them, please take five minutes to post a rating on Amazon, along with a quick review. You don’t need to write an epic essay; a sentence or two is all it takes!

Blog Tour Stop – T. Michelle Nelson’s “Death Warmed Over”

Heyo, regular readers! You might be wondering what’s going on here with this “blog tour” thing, so let me explain…

“Blog tours” are a way for indie writers to spread the word about their books. Whereas a more established author, backed by a major publisher, might tour the country for in-person book signings, indie authors take the virtual route and get fellow authors (like me) to host a “tour stop.” Michelle and I have done a couple of cross-promos before, so I was happy to play host for her new book.

Speaking of which…

In the conclusion of the Lily Drake series, Lily must choose not only what is best for herself and her son, but for her people.  Her sword will be stained with blood through her efforts to preserve the lives of the people she loves, but she won’t be able to save them all.

When a devastating loss crushes her will to live, can Lily go on and be the leader she has to be?  What is she willing to sacrifice to save others?

Death comes to everyone…even the Queen’s house…

What doesn’t kill you will make you wish it did…

Bonus! Here’s a chance to win a free copy of the book via a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Literary Infanticide

After losing a lot of writing time due to my commitments to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire, I finally got back to work last week on Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect. It was tough getting back into a writing groove after several weeks of barely touching the manuscript, but soon enough, I was in full-on writer mode and managed to finish a fairly pivotal scene.

Which I then deleted.

The bit in question was part of a subplot involving Matt, who I put through the wringer in book three. The scene involved a scuffle with another student, which was there to show how Matt is falling apart under the stress of his situation (sorry to be vague, but I don’t want to spoil anything). The scene itself was fine, until I started wondering where it went from there.

I hate it when characters escape the consequences of their actions, and I didn’t want Matt’s schoolyard scrap to pass without repercussions — and there would have been serious repercussions in this case, repercussions that could not be avoided or casually dismissed without it coming off as a flagrant cop-out on my part. However, once addressed, those consequences would have followed Matt throughout the rest of the story, and could have thrown off other elements of the plot.

I tried re-writing the scene a few times, hoping to make it work, but ultimately came to the decision that the story didn’t need it that badly, so I engaged in the age-old writer’s tradition of killing my baby. It actually wasn’t that hard to pull the trigger.

And then I had to so it again, and this time, it hurt.

Another planned subplot would have ended with a resolution, of a sort, to the tension between Matt and Sara. I really wanted to deal with it sooner rather than later, because I dislike “will they or won’t they” romantic subplots in general, but I outright loathe them when they get dragged out, so I was hellbent on addressing it in book three, and addressing the outcome in book four.

Then I realized that it was one subplot too many and needed to go, or else the story as a whole would have been cluttered and bloated. I’m consoling myself with the knowledge that a critical scene that addresses this subplot, which I’d already written, is not gone forever, but will return in book four — which, really, is a better home for it — but it still stung to make the call to pull it.

Cover Reveal! Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect

The release of Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect may be a few months away still, but I had to get things rolling on the cover art front after my artist, Tricia Lupien, gave me this great piece of teaser art, which I unveiled last month to celebrate selling 100 copies of Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins and Issue Two: Black Magic Women:

This happy young lady is Buzzkill Joy, the central villain of book three. I’d originally intended to use this as the back cover spot illo, but the image was so striking I decided to make it the front cover. Tricia got to work right away, and first dropped this color rough on me:

Tricia, feeling the muse upon her, finished off the color art in a few days, adding some nice touches like the bruising on Joy’s face (“I figure she’s not going down without a fight,” Tricia reasoned, and she’s spot-on there).

The final touch was to re-add the lettering on the mug shot board (or whatever it’s called) and drop in the logo, which Tricia finished off last night. Now, without further ado, here it is: the finished cover for book three!

Action Figures – Issue Three Rough Cut Preview!

So, remember earlier this month, when I unveiled a piece of teaser art as a thank-you to readers after I hit the “100 sales in one month” benchmark?

Yeah, well, over the long holiday weekend, I broke the 200 copies sales mark, and hit a new personal record for sales in a single day, AND cracked Amazon’s top 50 list for my genre. That deserves another special thank-you, right? Well, here it is: a special “rough cut” preview of chapter one of Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect!

What is a “rough cut preview,” you ask? Simply, it’s chapter one from the first draft, which means it is completely unedited. That means there will be typos, there will be wonky sentences, and there will be changes by the time the book sees publication (which, FYI, is this September — tentatively), but the chapter will appear in the final product more or less as you read it here.

BTW, based on the word counts of my first two books, this sucker’s at least halfway done. Once my duties at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire are done, I’m taking a weekend to catch up on my writing. I’d like to have draft one wrapped by the end of June at the latest, draft two by the end of July, and then it’s off to the test readers!

One important final note: if you’ve already read either or both of the first two books, I’d appreciate it if you took five minutes to leave a favorable review on Amazon. The positive reviews I’ve received so far played a crucial role in attracting new readers, and it never hurts to have a few (or lots) more. Thanks!

 

ACTION FIGURES – ISSUE THREE: PASTS IMPERFECT

PART ONE: HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS

 

It’s been a weird winter.

Weird by my standards, I mean; life hasn’t been normal for me since I got my powers from a dying extraterrestrial, but feuding sorceresses and demons attempting to literally raise Hell on Earth? That’s a bit much, even for me.

Still, I would happily run out and fight every demon in creation to get away from the man who might well be my greatest enemy ever:

My mom’s new boyfriend.

 

ONE

 

Ben sits on the opposite corner of the couch, looking as uncomfortable as I feel. We stare at each other in silence, our mouths set in a line that, at a glance, might pass as thin smiles.

“Dinner smells great,” he says, acknowledging the mouthwatering aroma of my mother’s lasagna, a hearty dish so dense with pasta, cheese, and assorted meats you could use it to patch potholes. It’s one of her A-list meals, one she trots out for special occasions.

“Mm. Yeah,” I say. Not much else to say about that, really; “food smells good” tends to be a self-affirming observation.

Cue awkward silence the second.

“I’m not good at small talk,” Ben says.

“Me either. Well, the point of this dinner is to give us a chance to interrogate each other, so let’s get to it. When did you start dating my mother?”

“Uh, couple of weeks ago? We’d gone out before, with after-work groups, I mean,” he begins. I unconsciously dig my fingernails into the armrest, and his voice dissolves into nonsensical white noise.

A couple of weeks ago, my mother enjoyed a Friday night out with some co-workers. She didn’t come home until Saturday morning. She told me she had too much to drink, so she spent the night at a friend’s place. It’s important to note, she told me this while staring at the carpet, guiltily, as if I’d caught her stealing money out of my purse. Conclusion: her “friend” is sitting across from me now, and they did not simply have an innocent little sleepover — and now, they’re a thing. An item. A couple.

I accept certain realities about my parents’ divorce. I know, logically, their marriage is done and gone. I know they’re never getting back together. I know they would eventually move on and find someone else. I didn’t know it would happen for Mom this quickly. I mean, come on, she and Dad were together since high school. And now, six months after the split, she already has a new boyfriend. That’s what pushes me past mere discomfort and into the red zone of anger.

It takes a supreme effort of will to stomp that anger down and, for the sake of civility, say to Ben in a steady, level voice, “That’s cool.”

“I know she hasn’t mentioned me to you at all,” Ben says, though he doesn’t seem bothered by this, “but she talks about you all the time.”

“Often through clenched teeth, I’m sure.” Hey, I’m realistic. I know I can be a pain in the butt.

“No. No, it’s all been good.” I cock a skeptical eyebrow. He smiles. “Okay, it’s been mostly good. I get the feeling you two are a lot alike.”

“That’s what Dad thinks,” I say, putting a little too much emphasis on Dad. Scale it back, Carrie. Mom and I have been on relatively good terms lately, don’t screw it up by chewing out her –

Her boyfriend.

Grrrrrrrrggghhh…

Mom emerges from the kitchen, carrying a plate of cheese and crackers. “How’s it going out here?” she says.

“Fine,” we say in unison.

“Good,” Mom says. She sits in the easy chair near Ben — close enough to make it clear they’re together, but separated enough to put me at ease. That’s the theory, anyway.

“We’ve been talking about how you two met,” I say.

Panic flashes across Mom’s face, ever so briefly. “Oh?”

Ben jumps to the rescue. “She was appropriately bored. There isn’t anything terribly romantic about two co-workers deciding to date.”

“I may have fallen asleep,” I say. Mom relaxes, smiles in relief, then excuses herself to tend to dinner.

Apparently, we set the tone for the evening right off, because dinnertime conversation is sparse, dry, and inoffensive. There are no inquiries more probing than “How is school?” and “What do you do for work, exactly?” — standard getting-to-know-you chit-chat. The bland discourse continues through our dessert of tiramisu and espresso. Now, normally, Mom likes to throw a little Bailey’s Irish cream into her espresso, but this time around, she takes it straight, and doesn’t offer any boozy additives to Ben. Now that I think about it, she never broke out any wine for herself or Ben — thus minimizing the chance either of them might let something embarrassing or scandalizing slip out.

That’s when it hits me: this night wasn’t about us trying to impress Ben; they were trying to impress me.

Ben, thankfully, doesn’t linger long after we finish dessert. He gives Mom a chaste good-night kiss on the cheek (girlrage rising), tells me how nice it was to finally meet me, and away he goes. He’s barely out the door when Mom hits me up for my opinion.

“Well? What do you think?” she says hopefully.

I highly doubt my approval, or lack thereof, matters for much, but I say, “I liked him.”

She buys it, but Mom’s not going to let me leave it at that. “Honestly?”

No. “Yeah. Honestly.”

“I want you two to get along.”

“I think we got along fine.”

“Good,” she says. “I expect you’re going to see each other quite a bit.”

“Cool,” I say, and I head upstairs.

“Carrie?” I pause. Mom wrings her hands anxiously. “You really like Ben?”

No, Mom, I hate him.

“Yes, Mom. I like him.”

She smiles, and in that moment, I realize what an exceptionally skilled liar I’ve become.

I’m not proud of this.

 

***

 

Guilt and anger keep me from falling asleep right away, and I spend the night fading in and out. I wake up feeling like five miles of bad road, as my dad likes to say — less than ideal condition for enjoying a day of birthday festivities.

Not mine, mind you; my birthday is about two weeks away. No, today is for celebrating the sixteenth anniversary of one Matthew William Steiger’s entry into the world. Today is also February 29, which is appropriate; it’s an odd day for an odd kid, who I expect will take full advantage of his privileges as the birthday boy and call for a day of odd activities.

After wolfing a couple of strawberry Pop-Tarts and power-chugging a couple cups of Mom’s wretched coffee, I hike over to Sara’s house.

“Hey,” she says, then furrows her brow at me. “Where’s Matt’s present?”

“Well, crap,” I say. “Back at my house, because I’m a moron.”

“Let me finish breakfast, and we’ll run back and get it.” I follow Sara into the kitchen, where she proceeds to wolf down a corn muffin like a contestant in a corn muffin-eating contest. Stuart eats with more restraint.

“Better slow down, or I’m going to have to Heimlich you.”

“I just want to get out of here.”

I’m about to ask why, when Mr. Danvers appears in the kitchen, dressed in a dark blue suit. “Oh, hello, Carrie,” he says. He doesn’t wait for my response. “Sara, I really think you should go with me.”

“I told you, I have plans today,” Sara says through a mouthful of muffin.

“And I told you, church is more important than that Steiger boy’s birthday party. You can go after church.”

That Steiger boy?

“Yeah, I could. Or, I could go to the party right now, like I planned. Come on, Carrie.”

Sara brushes past her father. I follow, offering Daddy Danvers an apologetic smile, which he does not return.

Once we’re out the door, I ask, “What was that all about?”

“Ugghhh. Dad’s in one of his moods,” Sara says. “I don’t know what set him off, but all week he’s been all gay agenda this and liberal media that, and this morning the fair-weather Catholic decided it’s time to church up again after, like, a year of not going.”

“And he asked you to go with him.”

“More like he ordered me to go. Mom, he asks, but she’s got the Get out of Church Because I’m Jewish Card to play.”

“Fun. Frustrating parents must be the motif today.”

“Uh-oh, what’s going on now?”

“Mom has a new boyfriend.”

Sara’s jaw falls open. “No way.”

“Uh-huh. I met the new suitor last night. Ben and Mom and I, we had a lovely little dinner together,” I sneer. “Ben was so interested in me and my life and my friends. He wanted to know all about me so we could become the bestest of friends.”

“I don’t know how to ask this delicately,” Sara says, “but do you think this is the guy your mom spent the night with that time?”

“Oh, I know it is. Mom was twitchy all night.”

“You didn’t bring it up?”

“God, no. Things were uncomfortable enough without me saying, ‘Oh, hey, Ben, quick question: did you get busy with my mother?’ ”

Besides which, bringing up that touchy subject could backfire on me, big-time. Earlier this month, Mom caught me in an ill-thought-out lie — a necessary lie, told to cover up a late night of super-heroics, but badly executed nevertheless — and I confronted Mom about her (alleged) hook-up to deflect her interrogation. It worked, and she hasn’t brought the matter up since — and she won’t, but only as long as I don’t push her to admit that yes, she was “with” Ben. I’m not sure whether this is blackmail or extortion. Either way, it’s another item on my big list of Things of Which I am Ashamed.

“Can I ask you something?” Sara says. I know what that means: she wants to ask me a question I might not like, but doesn’t want me to blow up at her. “Do you think you might be misdirecting your anger?”

“Misdirecting my anger?”

“Yeah. You know: you think you’re angry at Ben because he’s dating your mom, but you’re really angry at your mom because she’s with someone who isn’t your dad?”

“Where’d you get that from?”

“You spend a lot of time talking to a psychologist,” she says, referring to Mindforce, “you pick up some things. Well?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Is Ben a decent guy?”

I shrug. “I guess. He seems okay.”

“Look, you know I’m on your side, but maybe you should give him a fair chance, and not hate on him right off when he hasn’t actually done anything to deserve it.”

“Hmph. Aren’t I supposed to be the grounded, rational one?”

Sara smiles. “I’m expanding my repertoire.”

The State Of The Writer Report – May

The state of the writer is: friggin’ tired.

The author smolders with fellow CTRF castmates Matt Cassar and Bevin Ayers.

I picked up a seasonal job to pay off some debt a little faster (boilers are bloody expensive), and that takes up my weekdays from 5 AM until 2 PM. After that I come home and, depending on my energy levels, head up to the Storied Threads studio to help out my wife, or I collapse onto the couch and stare at the TV.

The weekends, normally prime writing time, have been taken up by the Connecticut Renaissance Faire (which opens tomorrow, hint hint). I’m in the cast once again, and I am serving as the show’s fight captain, which means I wrangle the stage combat performers…and by “wrangle performers” I mean, “learn everyone’s fights so I can teach them to the cast and then maybe learn my own fights.” It’s been an exhausting schedule.

…One that has left me with precious little time to write, which is a problem. I’m maybe halfway through draft one of Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect, and I should be a lot further along. I want to get book three out by September, and I have a LOT of incentive to stay on top of my writing.

That incentive is a recent surge in sales of the first two books. I don’t know why, but the Kindle editions of Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins and Issue Two: Black Magic Women have been pleasantly steady, and slowly increasing, and so I’m feeling a little pressure to produce the next book before people lose interest.

Book one AND two, on Amazon’s charts!

To avoid that, I’m working on keeping my online presence active and diverse. Thankfully, the folks at Author Shout have aided and abetted that effort nicely by choosing me for this month’s featured interview – and then the Twitterverse got its hands on it, and the interview link was passed around like a doobie at a frat party. Hooray going viral!

One Hundred Copies — And Counting!

Long story short: last night, I hit — and passed — the 100 copies sales threshold.

As I write this, I have sold 101 copies combined of Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins and Issue Two – Black Magic Women. As promised, here is a special teaser for Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect!

The past is coming back to haunt the Hero Squad.

Archimedes, the Squad’s first foe, is finally heading to trial, and the teen heroes aren’t exactly looking forward to again facing the man capable of revealing their deepest secrets to the world — but their secrets are nothing compared to the dark truths being hidden from them by people they know and trust.

When those secrets are finally laid bare, they could tear the team apart, one heartbreaking piece at a time…and if they don’t, the bloodthirsty killer known as Buzzkill Joy will.

And who is Buzzkill Joy? Well, she looks something like this, and thanks to my cover artist Tricia Lupien the Hero Squad’s next major baddie to life!

Countdown To 100 Copies!

I’ll keep this short and sweet, folks. My two Action Figures novels have been selling like crazy this month — crazy by my humble standards, anyway, and I stand to clear 100 copies before May is out…perhaps even before the weekend is out!

To make sure that happens, I’m going to dangle something in front of my readers. If and when I hit the 100 coy threshold, I’ll reveal a special piece of sneak-preview artwork (courtesy of my artistic right-hand woman Tricia Lupien) that unveils one of the main bad guys from Action Figures – Issue Three: Pasts Imperfect!

Want to make damn sure this happen? Then tell your friends about Action Figures! Post links to this blog’s Buy Now page on your favorite social media site, tell people in person, spray-paint graffiti in a well-traveled public location*…whatever! As long as I hit 100 copies sold before the end of the month, I’ll post the artwork!

 

* = Don’t actually vandalize public property on my account. That’d be dumb.

Good Deed For The Day

A few weeks ago, fellow indie author T. Michelle Nelson put out the call for donations of books for a program run by her cousin, Stephanie Stanfill, a teacher at Graves County High School in Kentucky. I donated a copy of Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins, and yesterday I received this note, which I thought I’d share here. Hopefully, Ms. Stanfill got a lot of books for her initiative.

Greetings from Graves County High School in Mayfield KY! Let me begin by thanking you for contributing to our “Post It Note Promise” campaign.  To give you some background, I currently teach in an at-risk center.  By at-risk, we mean that we have approximately 80 students that we pull from the main building who are at risk of not graduating for any given reason.  Each student here has a unique situation that could inhibit success in high school.  Tina aka T Michelle sent me a few signed books for students to receive as rewards.  Because we are from a small town with low socio-economic status, the students were overwhelmed at the idea of owning something so “valuable”.  I didn’t have enough books for everyone, so essentially students attached a post it note to the book with their promise and signed.  Once completed, he or she had earned that particular book.  Students have done things like meet benchmark on ACT in reading, be the first to graduate in their family, earn an A or B on national end of course assessment,  and obtain perfect attendance for a month.  These are huge accomplishments for these students.  Most of my students average a fourth grade reading level so just seeing them read the backs of these books is a milestone much less to see them carry them around and read during some down time.

I truly appreciate your generosity in sharing your writing with us.  We have had many lessons just from reading the covers and piqued interests in things I never knew these young ladies and gentlemen pondered.  Thank you for your literary contributions but most importantly for sharing the love of students and helping to provide opportunities for success.  I believe from my heart that teaching is a calling just as writing is.  Together we can make a difference in the lives of these students and hopefully break the chain as well as raise their esteem for future success.