"The Fairy's Ruby Cage" Interior Design

The Fairy's Ruby Cage is nearly complete. Just one thing remains: the interior design and typsetting.

Katherine Lloyd has taken on this task (she also designed the interior for Swords of the Six) and I wanted to share her website with you: http://www.thedeskonline.com/

The Creation Museum: awesome!

Petersburg, Kentucky is home to a museum that my wife and I have been dying to check out. Ken Ham's ministry Answers In Genesis has a marvelous selection of exhibits full of scientific facts to counter the ugly lie of Darwinism. This afternoon we drove down there with our friend Kelsie Nagele (it is only 40 minutes from where we're staying). The picture above is of my favorite spot in the museum: the bookstore! It had the best selection of Creation Science books I have seen in one spot. I'm proud to say (yes, and I didn't feel guilty putting down that much) I spent $110 on books. I am always looking for professionally appealing science books, especially from a Christian world-view. One of the highlights of the tour (in our eyes) was the Ark exhibit. Check out these photos I took of the models they created. I love the way my second photo turned out.

If you have not seen this place I order you to check it out next time you pass through northern Kentucky!

New Adventures in the Works!

It seems that as I finish one project another is eagerly waiting for me. I've sent the necessary files for the cover and interior of The Fairy's Ruby Cage to the printer. The proof arrives, holidays permitting, within the week. As soon as I approve the proof there is approximately 30 days to wait for the title to appear on Amazon.com

Check out the artwork above: your glimpse into this 60-page book; Short but packed with a powerful story that will wrench at your heart. Artist Jared Sloger has done a FABULOUS job visualizing Kif's struggle with the dark wizard.

If this novella sells well, and I predict it will (especially retailing for a mere $9.99) I will be putting up a notification on the Flaming Pen Press website that I am opening to submissions of science fiction and fantasy stories between 10,000 and 20,000-words-long. My vision is a set of these novellas, perhaps twenty or so different stories by various fresh authors.

Now, as I wait for the proof of The Fairy's Ruby Cage to arrive, I am going to try to really hammer out my next novel in The Sword of the Dragon series... book 2 Offspring. It is already over 100,000-words in length but I'd like to hit between 115,000 and 120,000-words. And there is plenty of content to do so. Finally I am ready to get into the meat of my favorite tale and to follow the adventures of my favorite heroine: Oganna. Finally I get to show my readers the desert of Resgeria and Burloi and the battle for Ar'lenon. My readers will not be disappointed! If you liked SoTS you'll love this sequel.

On top of all this, Jacob Parker's Kestrel's Midnight Song is about to hit its first development stages. In February artwork will commence and editing will come in for hard punches. This is a novel that I truly believe can and will be well received by the Christian fantasy readers. Otherwise I would not have accepted it for publication by Flaming Pen Press.

"Avatar" -a movie review

If I were to rate this movie out of ten possible stars, I'd give it 9 out of 10. The visual effects were stunning and the story, though not overly deep, felt like it fit the movie quite well. The acting was great and the art was phenomenal. Original ideas, creatures, panoramic scapes, believable characters... I lost myself in the world of Pandora.

* * * * *

I would love to see a sequel, however the end wrapped things up very nicely so I think there would be a danger in sequels revisiting/rehashing the old themes.

But don't bring children to watch this. It has a good deal of language, a sex scene, and natives with little to no clothing.

"The Fairy's Ruby Cage"

Front cover... I'd love to hear your comments as I designed it myself in Photoshop. This book's release is coming very soon!

"The Fairy's Ruby Cage" update

Looking forward to purchasing The Fairy's Ruby Cage upon its release this coming Spring?

The target audience for this novella is 15 yrs and older. It is a darker tale and fits best in the secular market. It is a strongly written book, and by strong I mean that P.M.M. Green wrote this amazingly.

Check out the artwork (by Jared Sloger) for the cover (almost completed):

Videos from Dixie Heights school visit

Here are a couple videos you need to check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5bS7ZLwgwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLwaOOe8cH4
Check out this long, detailed post about the school event by Nathan. He truly covered most everthing! http://whisperedroars.blogspot.com/2009/12/author-scott-appleton-visits.html

Dixie Heights Visit

We went to Dixie Heights High School in Kentucky today. I had a lot of fun speaking to two Creative Writing classes and later addressing about a hundred students in the auditorium. My favorite part of this visit was finally meeting one of my blog followers Nathan Petrie (pictured with me). Nathan has a heart for the Lord, both my wife and I saw it, and someday I wager we'll all see his novels on our bookshelves!

"America in the Web of Sin"

"America in the Web of Sin"
a poem by Scott Appleton
--------------------------
A million times I have fallen
Into sin's ocean depths I have plunged.
I have strayed from the Savior
Though my sins he'd expunged.

The web of sin
Has drawn America in.

Surrounded by defeat
I once despaired of the Life I'd been given.
Every time I strayed
My Savior reminded me I was forgiven.

The web of sin
Has drawn America in.

When I rose from that ocean
A warrior honed by God's grace
I looked around
And knew the favor of God's face.

Yet the web of sin
Had drawn America in

Christmas: as it approaches

Hard to believe it; I looked at today's date and time has flown. I've been so busy that I feel I've hardly caught a breath; a lot of driving and putting my pen to the signature page of Swords of the Six. But the book is making an impact on this area and I'm going to return to Indiana to hit some schools I don't have time for this month. My plan is to go to Missouri for a week in early January and then return here to follow up with signings and hit more schools. Then, sometime in February I'll be in Atlanta GA. In between that I want to stop in Tennessee.

...Goodnight, dear readers! Merry Christmas!

My wife has prepared a late-night soup and it smells good (as usual). So I have some food to eat, perhaps we'll watch a I Dream of Jeanie episode, and then some sleep. Tomorrow I plan to veg... and organize/prepare for the remaining December events. I need to start booking January events, too.

Over 2,000-copies of "Swords of the Six" have Sold!

Yesterday and today I spoke to nearly 800 students at Sunman-Dearborn Intermediate School in southern Indiana. The response was awesome! My wife handled the sales while I signed books, posters, and cards. We sold close to 100 books and tomorrow are returning at 2 o'clock to sign more!

This event pushed the total count of Swords of the Six sales to 2,050... that's in about 7-months (since the release in March of this year). Yep, now moving on to the three-thousand-book milestone.

I remember when the book first printed and the first 1500-copies arrived... it looked like a mountain of books to sell. It is very rewarding to realize I've sold so many more copies than that. Next year I'll focus on schools. Stores don't sell nearly as well as schools and, also, I am reaching my target audience directly.

The few weeks around Christmas are difficult to get events. I'll be focusing on writing my second novel instead of events. But I do need events for January. If you live in the St. Louis, Missouri area then be sure to let me know. I need to target some schools for January 7th-19th.

The Lord has been teaching me some things as we travel. Both my wife and I long to lead a simpler life...and I intend to follow through on that goal. We are so comfortable in America, we need to get back to the basics and really live. I feel alive when I write and, yet, there are so many things to distract me that I recognize I often do not reach my true potential. ...Anyways, there are some thoughts from this writer to his readers!

On to Southern Indiana

We left northern Indiana and the good company of the Richardson family (had a great time with them) and yesterday hit two more Waldenbooks stores. Over two hundred of these outlets are being closed by/on January 1st. The first store I SOLD OUT (pictured below). They had 15-books and I even sold a couple additional copies. Then we had a bit of a drive to the next store. En route a train got in our way, thus making me late to the next event. But the next store was the slowest mall I have ever seen. The manager and staff were great, but I was only able to sell 5 books.

Now I am in southern Indiana mentally preparing for all the events I've booked for the next two weeks. I'm confident of meeting with success. If you think of me, please pray I will have the energy and alertness to charge into the next two weeks and sell well. Also, I'm going to be looking for more bookings, especially schools and some bookstores. On top of that I need to start booking events in Missouri for January.

Success in Indiana (northern)

Well, today was our last in northern Indiana. Tomorrow we're heading south. I have a lot of signings upcoming!

A store up here (a Borders) had canceled its signing event with me, so I ended up at another Borders (Mishawaka, IN) and what a fantastic event I had! I sold 62-books!
I'm feeling energetic and eager. This trip has so far been as productive and profitable as I'd hoped. I am just shy of 2,000-books sold... I'll let you know when that number is passed. My next stop has wireless highspeed, which means I'll be able to readily access the internet and post with photos again.

Indiana: we've arrived!

It took approx. 12-hours to drive out here from New Jersey, but I'm in Indiana now. Tomorrow I'll be meeting with area homeschoolers in Mentone and signing at a Borders location. My wife and I staggered our trip with a concert in Pennsylvania (Shane & Shane, and Bethany Dillon) which we greatly enjoyed). I'll post some pictures of our trip as soon as I have wireless again. At the moment I'm using our host family's computer.

I now have a couple different schools who'll be hosting me during my stay in southern Indiana. I'll be at a middle school in Sunman-Dearborn IN, and at a high school in northern Kentucky! God's blessing with open doors... I have a feeling we'll be on the road for a long while.