Current Work In Progress

 

I've been hard at work on The Dapper Detective (the sequel to The Dandy Medium)! It's coming along, I assure you! Out of all the books I've written, this one has taken me the longest to write. Partly, because I had some health issues slow me down. And partly, because I just want to make sure everything about it is as close to perfect as possible. I know you can never make a story perfect, but I have a vision for this one and where it might possibly lead in the future and I just want to make sure I get it right.

I'm currently working through the second draft (over halfway through it) and I already know I'll probably add several scenes before I call it complete and begin the editing process. I hate to attach deadlines/timelines to creative projects, especially knowing how quickly a health issue can throw you off course; so I won't give any solid release date yet but I will say that I'd love to have this out to you by October/November. I am certainly working very hard to try and make that happen!

Here's what you can expect:

🎩 Alfie & Sebastian return for another murder mystery!

🦇 The Crimson Bat Society takes a leading role!

🌙 A deeper dive into the lore of the Nótt Haven world!

🍄 Woodland Magic!

Another thing in the works is SOMNISCOPE: A Dreampunk Convergence, the anthology sequel to MIRRORMAZE. I have a short story entitled, Looped, which will be featured. You can see the full list of contributing authors HERE. Release date is TBD, but hoping for a late 2023 / early 2024 publication.

If you'd like to catch up on this anthology series, you can read my short story Thatcher Maugden and the Dream Witch in MIRRORMAZE.

🔮🔮🔮

Future Projects

Once I complete The Dapper Detective, I have several other projects I'm considering. It'll depend on my mood at the time; but in the future, you can look forward to these projects:

- The Dead Oaks: Omnibus

- A new Dreampunk series

- A Nótt Haven Spin-Off

There are other, more abstract at the moment, stories I would love to write as well. I really want to get some other LGBTQ books out there that aren't just M/M. I have few series ideas for F/F stories and I'm also tempted to test the waters of releasing a Kindle Vella series as well.

So, as you can see, I'm not lacking in ideas! Just the time to execute them all. 😅

Until then, if you haven't had a chance to read The Dandy Medium, it's available on Amazon!

Happy Reading!

❤ Dez

Blog Revival

 

Welcome back, friends!

You may follow me on social media but it's been several months since I've posted here. And even if you do follow me on social media, you may have noticed that I haven't been quite as active on any of my platforms lately. Which leads us directly into why I'm slowly reviving my blog!

To put it as concisely as possible, life is busy and social media can be stressful. I had some health issues at the end of last year and early part of this year, plus changing jobs (I'm now back to working at a fine arts museum. Yay!), and I've just been feeling a general disconnect from the sort of energy that social media platforms bring. The only one I truly enjoy using is Instagram, but I don't have a whole lot of free time to create visual content on a regular basis to make the algorithm love me. 

So, in the spirit of staying connected while also protecting my free time, I've decided to attempt to start posting here weekly (most likely my posts will go up on Mondays) and I will still post links to my social media platforms to let you know. I will also use them for other occasional posts, but at least you'll know that this is the place where I'll be more regularly and I hope to be able to share so much more with you here about what writing projects I'm working on along with life updates and things that just generally interest me.

I'm hoping this will be a much more personal way to stay connected with you all while providing a place you know you can go to find out updates and more about my books!

Please feel free to let me know what you'd like for me to post about here and if there are any specific topics that you'd be interested in seeing me cover.

I'll be back next week (like I said, hopefully Monday!) with updates on my progress with The Dapper Detective.

Thanks for reading!

🖤 Dez

2023 Writing + Publishing Plans

 

Happy Yule, Happy Holidays, and a very Happy New Year to all!

As we round out 2022, I just want to say again how grateful I am to each and every one of you who read my stories. I've always said that I mostly write them for myself and if anyone else happens to enjoy them then that's a wonderful bonus. And it does mean so very much to me any time someone leaves a nice review or comment about my books. So THANK YOU! And I hope you continue to stick around for more stories to come. 💜

Speaking of, I'm here to share my writing and publishing plans for 2023! I'm going to spend the last week of December mainly relaxing before I dive back into working on any projects, but for the most part, I already know what I plan to work on in the year ahead.

First, sometime in 2023, I'll have a new short story, 'Looped', published in SOMNISCOPE: A Dreampunk Anthology which is the follow-up to MIRRORMAZE (both published by Fractured Mirror Publishing and edited by Dreampunk visionary, Cliff Jones Jr.). There isn't a set release date yet, but it is in the editing process.

I'll also be simultaneously working on THE DAPPER DETECTIVE (the sequel to THE DANDY MEDIUM) and THE DEAD OAKS: OMNIBUS. I'm not sure which will release first, but I'm hoping to have one release in the Spring and the other by Autumn. I can't force the muse, so I've decided to let it guide me on which project it would prefer to work on each day.

THE DAPPER DETECTIVE will bring back Alfie and Sebastian on a new mysterious case of murder and deception. But this time, they'll have the leader of the Crimson Bat Society, Francis the vampire, helping (or hindering, as Alfie sees it) their investigation. This story will delve deeper into the history of Nótt Haven and perhaps open up some possible storylines for spin-offs. THE DANDY MEDIUM and THE DAPPER DETECTIVE are meant to be a duology, but I've very quickly come to realize that so many more stories can be told within this world so there's a possibility of more Nótt Haven books featuring other characters in the future.

THE DEAD OAKS: OMNIBUS will be a rerelease of all of the previous DEAD OAKS stories combined into one giant volume and will include a new short story and new cover art. I've always wanted these stories to exist in physical form, not just ebooks, so this will be a great way to offer print editions of the series. I'll most likely host a lot of D.O.P.S.-themed giveaways around the time of this release, so keep your eye out if you need some Jasper & Wes merch in your life! 😉

And if I have any time left at the end of the year, I have some new ideas that I'm hoping to begin work on. Currently, I'm leaning into a new Dreampunk series, but I also have other stories brewing that I might delve into depending on how I feel when the time comes. I'm also toying around with creating a second pen name for a new genre, but more on that another time.

I hope your holiday season is bright and the new year is fruitful!

Happy Holidays & Happy Reading!

Dez 💜

NaNoWriMo Updates + The Bird App

 

We're a little over halfway through November, friends! My current NaNoWriMo word count is 15,701. And like all best-laid plans... I've decided to take a step back from NaNoWriMo. I'll still be writing, only without the pressure of having to try and hit specific word count goals every day. Outside of writing, I also work a full-time job and I was just informed I'll have to have my gallbladder removed soon (Happy holidays to me, right?). So, I think slowing down this season is probably smart. But I will still keep you all updated on my writing progress with this book!

Speaking of staying in touch, I know a lot of you are leaving Twitter. With that in mind, I'm going to do my best to try and keep this blog updated more regularly so we will have a chance to stay connected. I'm hoping to get into a routine of posting here at least once a week. You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook if you'd like. Or just sign-up for my newsletter on my main website if you want to make sure you don't miss any new releases or book sale announcements from me.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate, and happy reading!

💜 Dez

NaNoWriMo 2022: Week One

 

I hope you all had a very happy Halloween/Samhain! Salem loved the pumpkins but wasn't as big of a fan of the trick-or-treaters. 😹 We had a decent amount come by (though, surprisingly only one Eddie Munson!) but still ended up with three bags of candy left over, so we're all set on treats for the rest of the year.

This week also kicked off National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! If you subscribe to my newsletter or saw my last blog post then you already know that this NaNoWriMo I'm working on the sequel to THE DANDY MEDIUM which is titled THE DAPPER DETECTIVE. It's MM Gaslamp Fantasy and will complete the Duology. Although, I do have plans to write other books in the future within the same universe.

I'm also participating in the #LGBTQWriMo tag on Twitter. However, seeing as Twitter is in a bad place at the moment and its future is unsure, I would love it if you would follow me on other platforms so we can stay connected. You can find me on: Instagram, Facebook, and this blog! 🖤

This first week of NaNoWriMo went well overall thanks in large part to the fact that I had already started early and entered the month with 12K on this project. I was only able to write 3 of the first 5 days since I'm also now working a full-time job and my personal life was very busy. I don't imagine that changing over the rest of the month. In fact, I expect it will only become busier; so I'm not going to be too hard on myself if I can't make time to write every single day. I'm just glad to finally be making some good progress on this story and I'm looking forward to sharing more with you all about it!

I hope you all have a great weekend and here's looking forward to more words written for NaNoWriMo week two!

Thanks for reading!

💜 Dez

Preptober Update + Title Reveal

 

I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) again this year and I'm excited to officially announce that the project I'll be working on is THE DAPPER DETECTIVE, the sequel to my MM Gaslamp Fantasy novel THE DANDY MEDIUM.

I've actually gotten a head start. I've already written the first 12K words. This Preptober (the NaNoWriMo nickname for October since it's when we do our prepping), I reread what I'd already written and have been jotting down notes, ideas, and further fleshing out my outline so I'll be ready to hit the ground running on November 1st.

I've also made the decision that these two books will be a Duology. This story picks up several months after the events of THE DANDY MEDIUM and Alfie and Sebastian are pulled into another gothic murder mystery. But will they be able to survive this time? Who's ready for another Alfie & Sebastian adventure?!

If you haven't read THE DANDY MEDIUM yet, you can get caught up HERE!

You can also follow along with my progress next month on the NaNoWriMo site and, of course, I'll be posting my process and behind-the-scenes tidbits on social media.

I'm looking forward to sharing more with you all soon!

Have a Happy Halloween my spooky friends!

- Dez 🖤

BELIEVING BIGFOOT is OUT NOW!

 

Harvey Clark knows better than to believe in Bigfoot hoaxes. In fact, it’s his job to debunk all the things that go bump in the night. When Harvey books a cabin in Woodland Lake, Minnesota, he intends to do just that for a corporate client paying a hefty sum to disprove anything paranormal is hiding in the woods they hope to build on.

But the town’s obnoxiously handsome city planning manager, Jonah Bernardi, seems intent on thwarting any attempt Harvey makes to collect information on their local Bigfoot, the Woodland Wildman.

What Harvey expected to be an easy task turns into his most difficult case yet when he winds up alone in the middle of the woods at night, face-to-face with the truth.

EARLY REVIEWS

"This was a really fun read. Low stress, low heat, just a good old fashioned cryptid hunt with a couple of guys making eyes at each other from opposite sides of the table."

- A.E. Bross (Author of 'Sands of Thea')

"If you enjoy Sasquatch lore, mountain cabins in the fall, gorgeous flannel wearing axe-throwing locals, and in the mood for a quick short story, this one is super cute and fun."

- Ivy (IG: thegirlsareader)

"I loved this story. It was a nice spin on Sasquatch stories with cute leads. There's plenty of snappy humor and also great atmosphere. If you've read Dez's other books there is a fantastic crossover moment that got me excited at the possibility of a crossover book. (Note to Author: I really want that! I think everyone should want that!)
The writing is so fun, it's always hard to put a Dez Schwartz book down. This one is just another excellent example."

- Jennifer Patino, Goodreads

GET IT TODAY!