announcements

What I’ve Been Up To

/ JD Byrne / Leave a comment

Hey gang! It’s been a while. I was going to get back to blogging a few weeks ago, as my Don’t Call It a Book Tour wound down, but Frontier’s internet service had other plans. So I pushed things back until after Labor Day. It’s supposed be fall now, right?

That said, the book tour still has a couple of stops left on it. As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be back at the West Virginia Book Festival on October 19. Before that, though, I’ll be part of a night of Spooky Storytelling at Cicada Books & Coffee in Huntington on September 19.

I’ll bust out some of my scarier stuff, along with other local authors Stephen Bias,  Joel Gun, A.B. Hooser and Caitlyn Pace, along with podcaster Mark Muncy. It’s open mic, too, so bring your best spooky tale! More details here.

In between all the book tour stuff, I’ve managed to finally finish a complete draft of The Fall, my NaNoWriMo project from last year. This one was tough, having a stunted first attempt, a change of direction for the second attempt that got scrapped halfway through, and questions about how the damned thing was going to end. It’s in pretty rough shape, but I have something I can work on and make better.

All of which is a long way of saying that regular programming is resuming here at the blog (until it doesn’t, of course!).

Don’t Call It a Book Tour (Redux)

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Just thought I’d check in while I’m still out promoting my award-winning new book, The Triplets of Tennerton.

I’m about halfway through my planned events. I had a really great time at Plot Twist Books in South Charleston and Cicada Books & Coffee in Huntington, doing some signings and reading. I got to add another event, too, and appear as the featured author at the monthly Writers Can Read gathering in Huntington.

That last event is particularly neat, as after the feature author reads, anyone can get up and read from works in progress or works long finished. We had memoir, poetry, and other fiction read that night. You can keep up to date on their events here.

In addition to events at the Lewisburg Literary Festival and West Virginia Book Festival, I also have another neat event to announce.

On August 17 at 6pm I’ll be appearing along with a couple of other local authors at Bake My Day which, as the name suggests, is a bakery! In addition to readings and signings, there will also be music and a wine & macaron tasting event. Truly, something for everyone.

More details here.

Regular programming will resume in early August, after the event in Lewisburg (and my wife’s birthday!).

Don’t Call It a Book Tour!

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Now that the award winning The Triplets of Tennerton is out and about in the world, I’m happy to announce that I’ll be doing some in-person events later this year where I’ll be selling and signing and other stuff, too!

June 29, 2024 @ 11am-2pm: Plot Twist Books – South Charleston, WV

The first stop is in my hometown, so it’s particularly special. I grew up in South Charleston and my father still lives there (only a couple of blocks away, in fact), so it’s a nice place to kick things off. I’ll be there signing and selling books.

July 11, 2024 @ 6:30pm: Cicada Books & Coffee – Huntington, WV

Cicada is a cool little spot on the west side of Huntington. They’ve got a great selection of books (including lots from local authors) as well as a couple of neat nooks in the store for meetings or chats. The coffee is good, too, from what I’ve heard (I’m not a connoisseur). In addition to signing books, I’ll be doing some readings at this event, too.

Ticketing information for this event can be found here.

August 2-3: Lewisburg Literary Festival – Lewisburg, WV

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to participate in this event, so I’m really excited to be back. Lewisburg is a cool little town generally speaking, but it’s even cooler when it’s filled with readers and writers and lovers of words. I’ll be in the Festival Bookstore. Much more going on that weekend, so check out their website.

October 19: West Virginia Book Festival – Charleston, WV

Last (?) but certainly not least, I’ll be back at the West Virginia Book Festival after missing out last year. As usual, there’s a great roster of authors and other presenters during the day, as well as the famous library used book sale.

Come on out, say hi, and buy some books!

The Triplets of Tennerton – Out Now!

/ JD Byrne / 2 Comments

Today’s the day! The Triplets of Tennerton, the long-awaited sequel to Moore Hollow, is here!

You can get paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon and other eBook formats as well (eBook version only 99 cents for a limited time). If you’re in my neck of the woods and want to shop local, the paperback (along with the revised Moore Hollow, featuring new cover art) will be available at Plot Twist Books in South Charleston and Cicada Books & Coffee in Huntington.

Tell your friends! Tell your enemies, too, if they happen to be readers! If you like Triplets please write a review at your venue of choice. Even if you don’t like it, write one anyway, I won’t mind.

Welcome back to the life of Ben Potter and the weirdness that dwells in this part of the world. Welcome to Paranormal Appalachia.

The Triplets of Tennerton – The Interview

/ JD Byrne / 1 Comment

In which I steal a bit from John Scalzi and sit down and talk with a probing interviewer – myself! – about my new book.

So you wrote a sequel to Moore Hollow?

Yes, it’s called The Triplets of Tennerton and it’ll be released on May 29.

What a sec – wasn’t Moore Hollow a standalone novel?

When it came out back in 2015, yes, that was the plan. Since its release, however, I had several people ask about writing a sequel. I didn’t really plan to do one, but I came across a real-life inspiration that made realize I could tell some more stories set in that world.

Good grief, you’re not doing another trilogy, are you?

No, not this time. This series is going to be open ended, with each book basically being a standalone adventure. Characters and references will build from book to book, but there won’t be one overarching story that’s driving to a particular conclusion. You can pick up any book in the series and enjoy it without knowing what came before.

So it’s just going to end one day?

That’s possible. I do have a pretty good idea of a story to tell to “end” it, but I’ll jump off that bridge when I come to it.

What’s the setup for this new series? How does it tie into Moore Hollow?

Ben Potter, the main character, has decided to relocate permanently from London to West Virginia. He’s bought a home in Sutton and set up a website called Paranormal Appalachia, where he’ll investigate various local beasties, legends, and other strange goings on.

Hold up – isn’t Paranormal Appalachia the name of this series?

Indeed! It’s what Frank Zappa called “conceptual continuity.”

There are bizarre musical references in this one, aren’t there?

A couple. Ben’s very much like me with regard to his taste in music.

No wonder he’s single.

Anyway, think of Moore Hollow as the movie that set up this world and Triplets (and later stories) as the TV series spun off from it.

In what way?

In the sense that there are several new characters in Triplets that will have a recurring role throughout the rest of the stories.

Such as?

The main one is a local lawyer, Grace, who actually comes out of my first successful NaNoWriMo novel (that nonetheless will never see the light of day). She was an Assistant Federal Public Defender who got a case that dipped into UFOs and whatnot and has developed a reputation for dealing with “weird” cases and clients.

I’m guessing that Ben gets wrapped up in one of those weird cases?

Yup. A old guy named Sid Grimaldi is charged with burning down his home decades before, resulting in the deaths of his infant triplet daughters. Grace takes the case and hires Ben to do some of her investigating.

Naturally, Sid didn’t do it.

That’s what he says, but there’s more.

Oh?

Sid says he knows his girls are still alive, that they didn’t die in that fire.

That sounds impossible.

Did I mention that Ben investigated paranormal and other weird things? Impossible is just the start of it.

Was there an inspiration for that case?

Yes, I’ll be talking about it more in a couple of weeks.

What else is there to look forward to in the coming month?

In addition to a post about the inspiration for this story there will be a couple of excerpts. Then it’ll be release day!

I guess that means it’s time for details.

Right. The new book is called The Triplets of Tennerton and it’s coming out May 29.

The original Moore Hollow has also been revamped to make it part of the Paranormal Appalachia franchise. Get yours now so you’ll be ready for Triplets when it lands on May 29.

Programming Note

/ JD Byrne / Leave a comment

I’ve been delinquent with the blog posts the past couple of weeks. Partly that was due to some business travel related to my day job, but more so it was due to having a few different irons in the fire I thought I’d tell you about.

First, you’ll recall my newest project, that I started during NaNoWriMo last year. As I said in December, although I’d “won” by hitting the 50,000-word target for the month, the first draft wasn’t finished. It wound up not actually getting finished, for a couple of reasons. One of them was that a second main character kind of appeared in my brain and inserted herself into the story in a way that shifted things a bit and made finishing the originally conceived first draft kind of pointless. Long story short, I’m now working on the second version of that first draft, polishing and adapting what’s already been done and weaving in my new character. I’m really excited to see how it comes together.

Second, you’ll also recall that I have a sequel to Moore Hollow in the works. I’m also doing the final prep on that to get it ready for release this summer. Part of that includes rebranding Moore Hollow as the first book in a new series, Paranormal Appalachia. Part of that is a new cover. I don’t want to share it, yet, but here’s some idea of the imagery in it:

The new book finally has a title, The Triplets of Tennerton. More details in the coming months!

So, for the next few weeks, I’m going to buckle down and work on that stuff. Back here in May, I imagine. Until then . . .

New Story, New Music – and Come See Me!

/ JD Byrne / 1 Comment

A couple pieces of “new” to let you know about.

New Story & New Event!

First, I’m very happy to have a story in the debut volume of Old Bones, the new annual literary journal of Henlo Press.

The story is called “To the Sound of Birds.” It’s about a guy setting up to sell used pulp paperbacks at a swap meet in a high school parking lot when he starts to hear odd noises from the mountain across the highway. Naturally he investigates and discovers something beyond his wildest imagination.

For what it’s worth the inspiration for the story was just that – the high school parking lot where my local SCCA chapter used to autocross was across the highway from a pretty sizeable mountain and, one day, I heard something weird from over there. Didn’t check it out, though, so I suppose we’ll have to let my imagination run wild, right?

You can get a physical copy of Old Bones by clicking here or a Kindle version here.

Or, if you want not just a physical copy but a signed copy, you can come see me! On February 25 I’ll be at Henlo’s first Writers’ Block event at the community center in Barboursville, WV. Things kick off at noon and readings by some of the authors start about 12:45 – maybe you’ll get a chance to hear a chapter from my forthcoming Moore Hollow sequel. It all leads up to the launch of 304 Monsters by Stephen Bias, which looks pretty cool if you’re into the weird West Virginia thing (and who isn’t?). I’ll also have all my other books there, too, if you need to stock up.

New Music!

It’s been a couple of years since I put any new music up, but I’m finally getting around to finishing some of the bits and pieces that have piled up since. The genesis of this one actually dates back to the year of the plague, but I didn’t start to really develop it until recently. It’s called “Chihuahua Junk Pixies.” I don’t remember specifically where the name came from, but I’m sure it had something to do with these two:

It’s bouncy and fun, at least in parts, and, if I may say so, kind of catchy. Enjoy!

At Least I Got This Cool Graphic

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NaNoWriMo is over, which means it’s time to take stock and see whether it was all worth it. Was it? Well, I did get this spiffy graphic:

Which means, yes, I “won” again this year. I’m particularly pleased since the month included not only Thanksgiving (which my wife and I host for the family, so lots of work) but a birthday weekend jaunt to New Orleans (thanks, honey!) and I still managed to keep to task and wind up with 50k+ words in the end.

I’m really happy with them, too. There are definitely things that need to get worked out in a second draft (I have notes, of course), but this story and this main characters and taking me to some different, interesting places. Alabrie, the city-state where the story is set, is shaping up to be a character all in itself.

It’s not done, of course, not even the first draft, but I can see the end of the tunnel. More than most books I had a real idea of what the entire story was before I sat down to write it. Still, much work still left to do.

Off to Write a New Book!

/ JD Byrne / 2 Comments

It’s that time of year again! No, not when the lungs are clogged with clods of pumpkin spice, but when it’s just about National Novel Writing Month!

As I wrote a little while back I’ve got a new project ready to go for NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve got a few more days to put to finishing touches on my planning and then it’s off to the races on Monday. Needless to say, there won’t be any new posts for November, and maybe even into December if I’m on a roll.

So, until then . . .