New Release – Hide & Seek

Here’s the beauty (or, I should say, ONE of the beautiful things) of self-publishing … I get to release what I want, when I want, how I want.

LOVE IT!

I’ve been truly overwhelmed and touched by the response to Appaloosa Summer. It’s just lovely to see readers from all over the world connecting with it, and pulling things from the story that (a) I hoped they would and (b) completely surprise me.

I want to stay connected with these people and I feel like asking them to wait until March (tentative publication date of Again, Someday – aka Island Trilogy, Book Two) just seems like far too long.

So, I’m releasing a short story!

I’m also releasing this story because I got the idea for it from a story that was in the news this summer and, because I’m self-publishing, I can do something with that idea. In a traditional world, there isn’t much of a market for one-off short stories. You could maybe submit to magazines, but the pay would be likely to be little to nothing. Or, you could try to find the right kind of anthology, and hope your story fit, both in theme and length but, beyond that, I don’t know of much call in the traditional publishing world for short stories.

And, of course, both of the above require being selected. Which means following submission guidelines and waiting, and waiting, and waiting to hear whether you’ve been accepted, and – realistically – having about a two per cent chance of being selected, and so on …

I love short stories, and I loved writing my short story, but I have to say, the idea of jumping through those hoops for a short story, just seems crazy to me.

Instead, I heard this story on the news, went running, fleshed out the idea in my head, spent the second half of the summer writing it. Had it edited, had a cover designed for it, and HERE WE GO! New story …

It’s going out in the world next week and it will be FREE for the first few days it’s published. Free, free, free … what a nice word!

After that it will be $0.99. Ninety-nine big cents!

I hope Appaloosa Summer readers will pick it up, and enjoy it until I can get them a new book to read, and I hope some new readers might find it and then go discover Appaloosa Summer.

I, of course, hope you’ll read it, too …

Here’s the description:

Anna Docherty loves the woods. Until the night a game of hide and seek sends her running a little too far, a little too fast.

Lost in the dark, it doesn’t take long for Anna’s love of the forest to turn to terror.

When Ryan finds her, huddled in his childhood hideout, and leads her back to safety, Anna is forever grateful to him.

But is she grateful enough to fight her fear when Ryan’s the one who needs help?

And here’s the nearly-final version of the cover (since you’re my blog readers you get to see the before-it’s-finalized version).

And that’s it!

I’ll post a link to it next week when it’s published, and free.

Let me know if you have any questions about this story, or writing short stories, or publishing short stories, or ANYTHING.