The Big Bang - Reveal Day

It's usual for authors to roll out a new book by staging multiple events ahead of launch day. Things such as a COVER REVEAL, BLURB REVEAL, PRE-ORDER DATES, etc. Well... I've decided to do mine a little differently. I'm revealing everything at the same time... TODAY. 

Welcome to the BIG BANG! And because followers of this blog have been with me the longest, it's only happening here first!

PRICK will be hitting the shelves on December 12th, but the ebook version is available for pre-order right now on Amazon for only .99 cents, but just until launch day.

This is my first Young Adult novel, but don't let that label fool you because adults will find this tale just as entertaining. Here's the blurb - 

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People are dying under mysterious circumstances in the small town of New Haven. And the city’s best hope of uncovering the truth rests with a troubled teen and the girl who can't stand him.

Cassie Underwood’s life is shattered when her younger sister dies in a freak car accident. In her grief, Cassie unfairly blames her sister’s constant companion—Taggart McGill—a boy with a sketchy past and abrasive personality. As Cassie attempts to recover from the loss, she struggles to honor her late-sister’s memory by befriending the person she resents most.

Things get complicated when Cassie overhears a fellow student asking Taggart to convince the police another death in the accident had nothing to do with the crash at all. Taggart surprisingly agrees and a suspicious Cassie decides to accompany him in his snooping. She soon learns everything she knows about Taggart is wrong… and he has insight into things that link the car accident to other suspicious deaths in their close-knit community.

Is Taggart McGill the "prick" everyone says he is, or will uncovering his secrets be the key that keeps Cassie's name off the mounting list of victims?

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I also have a brand-new website to support the new release (which is self-published) along with my existing books. Here's the link:

DL HAMMONS

I am super excited to finally see this series come to fruition and can't wait to share it with the world. There will be a couple more events leading up to release day, so keep checking in with me (like you always have!) 

:)

DL

A Call for ARC Reviewers

 

I'm looking for a limited number of avid readers to join my ARC team for my upcoming YA book PRICK. It may be YA, but adults will enjoy this story as well.

Blurb:

People are dying under mysterious circumstances in the small town of New Haven. And the city’s best hope of uncovering the truth rests with a troubled teen and the girl who can't stand him.

Cassie Underwood’s life is shattered when her younger sister dies in a freak car accident. In her grief, Cassie unfairly blames her sister’s constant companion—Taggart McGill—a boy with a sketchy past and abrasive personality. As Cassie attempts to recover from the loss, she struggles to honor her late sister’s memory by befriending the person she resents most.

Things get complicated when Cassie overhears a fellow student asking Taggart to convince the police another death in the accident had nothing to do with the crash at all. Taggart surprisingly agrees and a suspicious Cassie decides to accompany him in his snooping.

She soon learns everything she knows about Taggart is wrong… and he has insight into things that link the car accident to other suspicious deaths in their close-knit community.

Now it seems there’s only one thing keeping Cassie’s name off the growing list of victims—finding out who Taggart McGill really is.

Join my team here: https://tinyurl.com/2asfzk5q

A Change in Direction

After months of querying my adult suspense/thriller TWIST to agents and seeing very little interest, I've decided to go in a different direction.

Years ago, I wrote a YA suspense/thriller (PRICK) which stirred up plenty of buzz and ultimately landed me my agent. I even wrote the second book (it was meant to be a 3-book series). Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful at finding a publisher willing to take a chance on it...and me. So, it's just been sitting there, collecting dust on the shelf, which is a shame because I consider it one of my best works.

That's why I've made the decision to self-publish PRICK. I have tentatively set a December 12th release date.

I realize many of the folks who decided to follow my exploits here did so because of my adult stuff, but I promise you that even though PRICK is targeted at YA, adult readers will enjoy it as well.

The other thing that I want to mention is that this blog will be shuddering its doors in the near future. I'll be moving over to a more professional website to prepare for PRICK's launch and maintaining two separate sites will be more than I can handle. It will be a sad day, for sure, when that day comes, but we still have a little time.

That's my news. I'll be back later with updates (cover reveal, pre-order details, etc.) as the release date approaches. Stay tuned!

Hanging On By A Thread

 

It's time for a status update and I think the above picture says it all. 

I feel like I'm talking to myself here (maybe I am - it's therapeutic) because this blog is read by only a handful of followers now ... way down from its heyday. I think I secretly hope that eventually, when one of my books sparks a widespread interest, new readers will find their way here and read all about the long and twisting road I've taken. It's also a place where everything started for me. Giving up on it means giving up entirely ... and I'm not ready to do that.

Sales for my two published books (KNIGHT RISE & FALLEN KNIGHT) have tapered off dramatically (despite positive reviews), so I've decided to write a brand-new novel with totally new characters. It's tentatively titled TWIST and I've already finished the first couple of drafts. I'm waiting for feedback from a couple of Alpha readers and once I incorporate those changes it'll be ready for editing. I have exceptionally high hopes for this one, so fingers crossed. My intention is to have this one traditionally published.

I have three other YA novels represented by my agent, but we've failed to make headway with any of them. They've been shopped around to publishers for a couple years now, so I'm not holding out much hope.

That's where I'm at right now. Kinda treading water, waiting to see which way the tide will turn. For those of you still reading along with me ... thanks. I'll update you again when something significant happens.

DL

Reflections - One Year Being Published

 

It was one year today that my debut novel — KNIGHT RISE — was released into the world, the result of a decade-old dream. A little over nine months later I followed that up with its sequel — FALLEN KNIGHT. A lot has transpired over the course of the past 365 days, some good, some not so much, but I thought it would be appropriate to document how things are going, my own state of the union, so to speak.

To be candid, things haven’t gone the way I hoped. Despite all my backbreaking efforts and those of my publisher (Wild Lark Books), my books failed to gain any traction in the marketplace. Total book sales have been less than 500 units (for both books and all formats combined) and during the past couple of months, sales have become downright stagnant. My monetary take-home was less than $1000. On the encouraging side — and the thing that is most frustrating — is the reviews and ratings for the books have been overwhelmingly positive, and KNIGHT RISE was even a finalist for the Page Turner Awards.

My venture into publication (long sought after) was never about the money – although I did set a goal of earning enough to cover my expenses. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. As a result, the time has come for me to make some hard choices. My vision of introducing readers to a group of middle-aged friends who are teamed with a feisty female private investigator (as one reader put it – The Goonies for adults) must take a back seat and placed on indefinite hold. I won’t say it is over because anything can happen in the publishing world, and I will never say NEVER, but for now, I have no further plans for more entries in this series. It’s such a shame because I had some creative ideas for where these stories might go. Oh well. I will continue to promote these books in the most cost-effective ways possible, and who knows, maybe someday they’ll find their niche.

That doesn’t mean my publication efforts are finished. Not even close. My literary agent (Tina P. Schwartz of The Purcell Agency) and her associates represent three of my YA novels and are presently submitting them to various publishers. I still have irons in the fire and possibilities to aspire to!

What have I learned over this past year? Maybe a better question is would I have done anything differently? The short answer is NO. I still believe in Wild Lark Books and its concept, and I’m proud to have my books associated with them. What I discovered is just how hard it is to achieve exposure when you’re a newbie author with limited resources (and time) — regardless of the quality of your product. Yes, there are exceptions that come along which are celebrated (rightly so), but they are truly that, exceptions.

Despite this disappointing setback, I’m looking forward to the upcoming year with buoyant optimism. Hopefully, for my next annual update, I’ll be reflecting on more positive achievements.

Until then.

DL