Question: Where can I find this amazing book of horror and wonders?
Answer: It’s available on Amazon right here. The e-book is available now. Paperback and hardcover is available starting October 31.
Question: What’s the book about anyway?
Answer: This is my collection of 28 micro, flash, and short fiction stories. Beneath Our Painted Smiles is a themed anthology focusing on characters and places that aren’t quite what they seem. The stories come from the weird, the bizarre, the sci-fi, and the fantastic horrors of life.
“We all wear masks to contain our inner monsters and hide the dark parts of ourselves from the world. Masks keep us safe. They keep us from being seen, but they also obscure our vision and prevent us from clearly seeing the world and the people around us. But what would happen if we tore off our masks and exposed our true selves to the world? Step inside and find out.”
Question: Where did these stories come from? I mean, who thinks up this weird stuff?
Answer: Something that makes this anthology unique are the prefaces to each story, where I briefly discuss where the story came from and what drove me to write it. I’m giving you a sneaky, behind-the-scenes peak into each one.
Question: What are some of the things you learned writing, editing, and publishing this anthology?
Answer: I learned several new things while putting this anthology together. This was my first adventure into the wild world of independent publishing. It was important to me that this book not only contained great stories but also looked professional and amazing. I went with an award-winning artist; someone I know personally who would produce an amazing cover and format all the typography for print. CL Fors won the Illustrators of the Future award in volume 41 of the annual Writers of the Future anthology. You should check out her website and illustrations. Her watercolor work is especially gorgeous, which is why I chose that medium for my cover.
Besides having a top-notch cover, it was also important for me that the stories themselves were the best they could be. I’ll be the first to admit there’s a literal ocean of horrible independently published books out there. I’ve been disappointed more than a few times reading something that looked great on the outside, but had little depth on the inside. I wanted my book to read as great on the inside as it looked on the outside. I didn’t want readers to feel disappointed. So addition to hiring a professional illustrator, I also hired a professional editor to review all my stories and help me whip them into shape.
The last big thing I learned was how to format a manuscript for publication. Until publishing this anthology, I had only ever submitted stories in Shunn standard manuscript format. That’s what contests and magazines require. But for publishing an actual book, whether in e-book or print formats, it’s a completely different world. I had to decide on print size, paper type, margin spacing, types of headers and footers, and a dozen other things BEFORE the cover design could even be finalized, because all those decisions affect what the final cover looks like and how it fits or wraps around the final printed version. It was definitely the hardest part of the whole process for me.
Dammit Jim, I’m a writer, not a layout designer! There’s software out there that will do the job for you, but I didn’t have the money or time to invest in something like that with the timeframe I had to work in. Halloween is my birthday, and since these stories are mildly horror, slightly creepy, and definitely weird, I wanted them out for the world in October. If I ever do this again, I’ll probably go with a program like Vellum.
So that’s my big announcement for the month, probably my biggest announcement for the year. The book is out and available for the world. I wrote these stories for you. I hope you enjoy them. If you do, the kindest thing you can do is leave a review and recommend it to a friend.
Available NOW on Amazon
