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September 29, 2017

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Books and Prose, Comics and Graphic Novels

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Dead Trees

A two-month break is a long non-blogging stretch at Eyestrain Productions, but rest assured it’s been all work and no fun. After the not-so-subtle hinty post in July, I can now officially confirm that Longshot Comics Book Three: The Inauspicious Adventures of Filson Gethers exists. In some form. Just not a purchasable form…yet.

The Italian edition is off for translation, and work on reprints of Book One and Two continues.

The proof is in the dog-eared proof copy. Finnegan expresses as much curiosity about Book Three of Longshot Comics as any other long-time reader.

And then becomes its first critic by shoving pages off the table.

Meanwhile, paperback editions of Necropolis and Raw await my final seal of approval before being made available through Amazon.

And my contributor copy of Part VII of the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories has arrived. My story “The Adventure of the Mind’s Eye” bookends this edition with Jack Reacher author, Lee Child’s foreword. Retail copies are available at the end of October, but you can pre-order now.

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Shane Simmons

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July 25, 2017

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Books and Prose, Film and Television, History and Archaeology

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No Time in the Present

So many updates, and no time to write it all down.

I could tell you about my work on the new animated TV show ToonMarty and link you to some of my episodes that have shown up on YouTube.

I could tell you about my trip to Paris and all the morbid history I got to hang out with.

I could tell you about my last three appearances on Cinema Smackdown and my pending chat about the Fantasia film fest tonight at 7:00 on CJLO.

I could even tell you how the sequel to Necropolis is coming along.

But mostly my time is occupied by a new/old project that requires me to produce nearly 300 pages of reformatted art—hopefully before the end of the year.

I’ll give you a clue what that involves.

Observant readers may extrapolate additional information from one of the file names appearing in that screenshot.

Yes, it’s for real this time. There’s a contract and an advance payment I’ve already spent.

What the hell have I let myself in for?

♦

In honour of the passing of one of my personal favourite film directors, George Romero, newsletter subscribers will be receiving a brand-new exclusive short story—my one and only foray into flesh-eating zombie fiction. Sign up now to get it with the next newsletter, along with other unique content and exclusives.

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Shane Simmons

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June 7, 2017

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Books and Prose

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Advanced Warning

I have a couple of book promotions coming up next week that I wanted to mention here. If you haven’t grabbed a copy of Filmography on the cheap yet, there will be two windows of opportunity to get it for free. And even if you already have it/read it/left a review/bought the t-shirt, there will be plenty of other mysteries and thrillers and crime stories from other authors for you to download for zero dollars and zero cents.

Download All the eBooks will be running their giveaway from June 9 – 11.

And Renee Pawlish will be running one from June 17 – 18. The page hasn’t been updated yet, but head over there when the time comes to see all the goodies.

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Shane Simmons

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May 23, 2017

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Books and Prose

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Page Turner

“The Adventure of the Cat’s Claws”—my latest mystery, filled with murder, maulings, tawdry affairs, and circus sideshow freaks. Just one of dozens of new Sherlock Holmes adventures collected in this single volume, now available in hardcover and paperback.

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Shane Simmons

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May 17, 2017

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Books and Prose

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The Game Is Apaw

“The Adventure of the Cat’s Claws,” my latest Sherlockian mystery, has been published in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part VI: 2017 Annual. It’s now available on Amazon for Kindle, with hardcover and paperback editions coming next Tuesday. This is the biggest collection in the series yet, brimming with new tales of Holmes, Watson, and other famed and infamous associates. Once again, I write from the point of view of Baker Street Irregular, Wiggins, as he reveals the tawdry truth behind “The Veiled Lodger”—one of the final stories of the original Conan Doyle canon.

With the seal of approval from the Conan Doyle estate, all proceeds will go towards the restoration of Undershaw, for the benefit of the Stepping Stones school that is now set up in the grand house that was home to Sir Arthur back when he was writing such famed tales as The Hound of the Baskervilles. As revealed in “The Veiling Lodger” and “The Cat’s Claws,” Holmes didn’t face off against gigantic dogs alone—there was at least one gigantic cat in the mix.

Followers of The MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories will be dropping by the blog for a visit, so let me take a moment to offer them a handy checklist of my other mystery and crime books for sale through Amazon, and available to read for free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Necropolis is a supernatural thriller full of intrigue, murder mysteries, and comedy for those who like their detective stories to come with a touch of magic and horror.

Raw and Other Stories features twenty tales of crimes, major and minor, petty and vindictive. It’s a single-author collection that prints many of my shorts that have previously been published in anthologies and magazines, as well as new material appearing for the first time.

Sex Tape is a soft-boiled detective thriller about the sleazy side of Hollywood, and the underbelly of the Montreal skin-flick industry. Join ex-paparazzo Sid Volke and publicist Alexandra Middleton as they race against time to solve a murder and keep a stolen celebrity sex tape from going public over the Christmas holidays.

Filmography tells the story of three obsessive film fans who decide to make one final motion picture feature with their favourite deceased horror-movie star by kidnapping his corpse and putting him in front of the camera again. Extortion plots and international felonies snowball out of control, until everyone is in danger of ending up just as dead as their headlining thespian.

My thanks go out to all the newcomers making this visit. I hope you enjoy the new Holmes story and that you’ll want to read more material in my solo books. If you like what you see, stick around, follow the blog and/or subscribe to the newsletter.

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Shane Simmons

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April 28, 2017

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Books and Prose, Film and Television

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2 + 8 Days Later

Ten days into release, Necropolis has already sold as many copies as my last two books combined. Raw and Other Stories still dominates on the Kindle Unlimited pages-read front. And sex may have sold Sex Tape, but not as much as urban fantasy sold Necropolis. I hope to see Necropolis, at twice the length of my collection of short stories, topple Raw in the pages-read category in the near future—not least because I ultimately make more money with the Kindle Unlimited program. Damn you, Amazon, and your tempting promotional programs that further establish you as a monopoly thanks to my willing complicity!

♦

Last night I attended the launch part for ToonMarty, which is a new cartoon series that will air on Teletoon starting May 1st. I haven’t talked about screenwriting on this blog in a long time, but this is one of the shows I worked on recently, scripting three episodes of the first season. I’ll probably get around to linking them just as soon as someone records and illegally posts them to YouTube. Checking out my television-credits page, I notice there have been a number of episodes yanked since last time I looked. Getting called on copyright violations, no doubt. That’s unfortunate, considering YouTube has been the most convenient venue for me to see my own material for years now.

I was also informed that work continues on Chop Chop Ninja. This is the other series I worked on last year. I completed my contract on it in 2016, but if there are still unfinished scripts on the production line, I don’t expect to see that air until this fall at the very earliest.

Right now, it’s back to work on Epitaph, which is currently sitting at 66,000 words and counting. And another project that may involve just as many dots.

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Shane Simmons

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April 26, 2017

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Books and Prose, Death and Morbidity

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King of the Hill

Here’s a screenshot trophy for me to wave around like a semaphore flag for anyone who will look my way. It was an uphill battle to topple Stephen King’s It because I don’t have a movie adaptation coming out. Plus my novel doesn’t end with a pre-teen gangbang in a sewer and a universe-creating turtle-god. Can’t wait to see how those elements are not handled in the new film version of It this time around!

Okay, fine, this phenomenon only happened for a day on Amazon.ca, not over with the big boys at Amazon.com. Honestly, it took a shockingly low number of sales to climb to the top of the horror chart in Canada. Meanwhile, in the same category on dotcom, Necropolis has been picking at the fringes of the top 500.

Here’s hoping today’s promo can push it just a little higher. Download All the eBooks is doing a multi-author promo for science-fiction, fantasy, and horror novels. Necropolis is in the mix, along with box sets, series starters, and other fun stuff. Check it out and enter the contest for a chance to win a Kindle Fire or Amazon gift certificate.

The DATE multi-author promo is here.

Meanwhile Necropolis remains priced at $0.99 for a little while longer, or free to read for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Get your copy now.

And if that epic tale isn’t enough Necropolis material for you, there’s more to be had in advance of the eventual sequel coming later this year. Clever readers have signed up for the Eyestrain Productions newsletter in order to get exclusives, like “Crocodile Tears.” This is an all-new short story about one of the cast of Necropolis—a standalone adventure featuring grief, greed, and gallows humour. Subscribers already have their free copies. Would you like a link to read or download it for yourself when the next issue goes out in a week? Just sign up.

Subscribe to the newsletter now.

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Shane Simmons

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April 18, 2017

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Books and Prose, Death and Morbidity

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Fly or Die

It’s out.

I had a hard time letting Necropolis go. This is the first thing I’ve published through Amazon that has never existed elsewhere in any other form. Most of the stories in Raw saw print earlier in other books and magazines. As did Carrion Luggage, Hot Pennies, and Choke the Chicken. The Red Baron articles also go way back to the pages of Aviation History and Dog World among others. Even Sex Tape and Filmography spent time in development as film projects first. Necropolis, however, is completely new, entirely original, and has never been seen before. It was my little secret for years, becoming a bigger and bigger secret as time went on and chapters were added. Now it’s been pushed out of the nest and onto virtual bookshelves.

Necropolis is priced at only $0.99 for its initial launch/promotion period. It’s also available through Kindle Unlimited if you’re a subscriber. Reads and reviews on Amazon.com are encouraged and welcome.