July Newsletter!

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Book Progress:

War Dog: In content Editing, Alpha readers, and Querying agents

The Hands That Feed: 15K words into rough draft

Horror anthology: Indefinitely on hold – too much fun writing The Hands That Feed

Black Games: On hold at 17k into first draft

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Welcome back to the newsletter of a guy who still isn’t even published yet! Crazy, right? Well here’s the deal – I’m in the Querying phase of finding an agent and I’ve had two positive rejections. Yay! Lol.

Honestly, I love that I’m in this process right now and for anyone unfamiliar, this is the part where I spend a year getting told no until somebody comes along and says yes. In the meantime, I’m still editing and I’ve begun writing the second book in the trilogy – The Hands That Feed (THTF). We’re at almost 15 thousand words already!

As some of you know, I finished the the rough and first drafts of War Dog, and got it to my Alpha readers WAY EARLY. That was exciting. I figured that Alpha readers would get it in August, and instead, it’s already been read by three of the five and really good feedback is coming in.

Here’s my favorite feedback so far:

” Reading your work is like listening to a poet laureate recite amazing poems in a thick New York accent.” -C. Powers

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I’ve updated the book blurb for War Dog as well. Here it is:

Drustan Seta is not a hero. He’s never been anything other than a War Dog – a violent solution to other people’s problems. But when Dru butchered the wrong person, he was kicked out of the Squad, a classified military branch filled with humans, cryptids, and a few other creatures from myths and legends known as Extras.

Now, Dru is alone again, addicted to painkillers, and ready to end it all until the wife of the only man he had been willing to call friend knocks on his door asking for help. Her husband is gone, maybe dead, and there’s a nasty defense contractor called Broadhead Securities mixed up in his disappearance.

Dru sets out to either rescue the closest thing to a family he’s had in forever, or kill every last person involved in his death, only to find himself stuck in the middle of two warring factions of true believers with a plan to bring back the Old Gods along with the magic they make possible.

What they don’t understand is that Dru has finally found people he can call brother and sister, and he has secrets of his own with a trauma-filled past that has shaped him into the guy who can do what the Heroes can’t. Now he has one shot to teach them all just how loyal a War Dog can be when you mess with family.

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On the personal front: Working two jobs is hard…Lol. I’m lucky that the hours are weird, so I can find time for writing (my third job) and keep moving forward.

Teaching the Inclusive and adapted martial arts classes (www.1worldma.com) is still the most rewarding and amazing job I’ve ever had, but being part time now, it’s allowed my body to heal and recover. I’m feeling better than I have in ages. I just got back from a week in Colorado teaching a “Martial Arts as Fine Arts” camp with my Art teacher older Brother. We do it every year and it’s pure joy.

My second job is at the Austin Airport. I work in security – specifically, I work the pedestrian crossings. Yup. I’m a crossing guard! It’s Austin, so it’s hotter than Hades, but it’s active (doctors number one requirement for me), it’s relatively low stress, and it pays the bills.

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The Travelogue: Our Boat, Ora Wah is on the hard and we’re getting ready to spend our life savings (JKNK) on a major refit. We’re watching Hurricane Beryl sweep in to try and destroy the lives and livelihood of some great friends in the Caribbean, and we’re hoping it doesn’t. Our plan is to be finished the refit in time to sail to the Caribean in the winter of 2025. We’ll be here in Austin, working our butts off until then. So major travels are on hold, but we will be going to Maryland later this month for a week. I’m sure I don’t have to explain that my dream come true would be to Write my books from the boat at anchor in exotic locals.

Oh yeah! I promised a short story for everyone in my last newsletter. Here it is:

Just A Crack House

(sorry – this content is just for newsletter subscribers)

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Thanks for hanging out with me.

Daniel Nick (he/him/his)