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It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this website. Since then, I’ve published a children’s book, bought a house, and lost my mother to esophageal cancer.

My mother was once of the most interesting people I’ve ever known. She was unconventional, hilarious, and a little crazy. She taught me lessons no one else could have taught in the same way, and I decided I would share them with the world. So, I wrote “The Gospel According to Joy,” a short and sweet book about Mom and the lessons she taught me. It’s coming soon, and I hope you enjoy it.

Michelle

Well, “August’s Gardens” made its big debut a few months ago, so I guess it’s time to talk about what I’m up to next. I’m putting down the Phantasmagories series for now and setting to work on a few more personal projects. There are three already in the works and a lot of ideas waiting in line.

I think the project you will be likely to see first is a collection of short stories. They are all horror stories loosely based on intrusive thoughts related to my OCD. Don’t worry. When I say loosely, I mean very loosely. You wouldn’t be able to tell the thought inspired the story, but I can tell and it’s part of my therapy process. A few stories are completed already, but I’ll be taking my sweet time with everything from now on, so please be patient.

Another project I am working on is a book I started in my early twenties about a group of friends who has some seriously messed up experiences. I’m not sure where I’m going to take it from my younger self, but I’m in the process of getting it all off typewritten pages and onto my laptop.

Lastly, I’m working on something of a memoir about my life with OCD. It will include anecdotes from other mental patients, professionals and more. If it’s not interesting, at least it will be painfully funny.

Anyway, that’s it from me for now. I’ve got a lot of work to do and the rest of my life to do it.

Happy Holidays

Hello Reddit,

This is my proof that I am who I say I am. You will find a ton of information about me and my fiction work on this site. You can find the copywriting/day job stuff that I do online under the pseudonym Shelly Barclay.

Thanks for stopping by.

If you’re coming across this and wondering what the hell I’m talking about … this https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3hi0q6/iama_still_moderately_successful_freelance_writer/

It’s about that time. August’s Gardens is launching next week and I’m going to be going on a virtual tour with it. Reading Addiction Virtual Book Tours was kind enough to pull together a blog tour for me. It’s my first time trying out this method of reaching out to readers, so bear with me. You can find all of the blog tour stops here. I hope you find some interesting material and it becomes an enjoyable way for me to introduce books to you.

I will also be posting an AMA on Reddit Tuesday August 18, 2015 at about 6 p.m. EST. If I remember, I will post a link here. If you’re new to this, all it means is you can show up on Reddit and ask me whatever you want. Note: This will depend on Reddit. Right now, or last time I checked, things are/were a little weird in the Redditsphere, so there are no guarantees that I will be able to conduct a good AMA there. I’ve done it before and really enjoyed it, so I’m going to try. *fingers crossed*

When I wrote “Rot,” I was entering a short fiction contest that was based on how many downloads each writer could get of his or her short story. In order to enter the contest, I had to make my story available free. Now that the contest is over, I can make the novella-length story available in new places. The first of these is going to be Amazon for one good reason, they let you give your stories away. (Edit: Actually, they don’t do that forever, so read on for my alternative solution.)

I am going to keep “Rot” available free in its digital format. You can still download it at Freeditorial anytime in a few formats. However, that is a very minimally formatted version of the book and it does not include the cover. I am working on specifically formatting the story for Amazon, so you can download it to your Kindle in more than just a rough format and with the cover art.

I will update the site as soon as the new version becomes available. Thanks for reading!

Update: It turns out that I cannot post my story permanently free on Kindle. However, I am going to charge the lowest possible price. I will still have other download options and I will see what I can do about just posting it on my site or something simple like that for you guys. 

Hi, Reddit. Casual readers, you can ignore this post for now. It is proof for a Reddit IAmA. I will try to remember to update it with the official time of the Q&A as soon as I have it.

Thanks!