The stories will be back up soon

Just a mock cover...

Because of pirates and bots, we had to take down the first four shorts, but they'll be back up soon, likely with links to download them rather than reading them here. An eagle-eyed reader spotted them on another website--something I was reasonable sure would eventually happen--and while that's been dealt with, we need to find a better way to distribute them.

On the plus side...there are several shorts in the bank, possibly enough for two printed volumes. This might take some time; as published here, the stories were somewhere between first and second draft and need work, and need to be threaded together (which was always the goal.) stories 5-10 are with a beta reader now and my editor has her eyeballs on them, but the rewrites probably won't start until after the holidays.

When ready for download, they'll be in formats for Kindle (.mobi), Nook and similar readers (ePub), and likely PDF. You don't need a digital device to be able to read them; I know the Kindle app is available for PC and Mac, and Adobe Reader is on most computers already, but also available for free online.

Wick Shorts #5

Our fifth Wick Short, Rhys, is now available. It's a bit long and not broken into parts yet, but hopefully we'll get around to that tomorrow. Our paws are stiff from formatting this and we need to rest for a bit.

Fourth Wick Short: Becoming Blackshear

This is a long one, so it was split into four parts to make it easier. If Hyrum is your jam, you're gonna love it.

Becoming Blackshear

Some of the future shorts will be just as long, so eventually they'll be available to download to your favorite digital reader, probably using Book Funnel. And when there are enough, there will be a print version, too.

Third Wick Short, The Seeds

...is now available. Just click [HERE]...

Because I Need To Explain...and Vent

Let's talk.

I've been going back and forth with a few people, one on Facebook, and a couple in email, about how inconvenient the way I'm offering up the short stories is. There are complaints that I'm not offering them in print, complaints that I'm not offering them as a download, and complaints that the formatting here is not book-standard and it should be.

So, I'm addressing these issues.

• It's cost-prohibitive for the reader if I sell these in print. Who wants to pay $5 for a 5-10 page short story? I don't. That would be seriously unfair of me.
• Also, my editor said no. 
• I've been accused of wanting the money (? I don't get this one) because I apparently won't earn enough from print. No...I don't want to charge you for these shorts. I want you to get them for free.
• These stories will appear in print at a later date, in a single volume. Right now--and it's right there in the sidebar--I'm offering up things that are just barely 2nd draft material. They're almost where I want them, but the final draft will wait until all the stories have been finished and the order determined.
• I can offer them as a download via Bookfunnel. If there's enough interest, I absolutely will do that. 
• It's not easy to format here and have it book-standard; I went with what will look decent across multiple browsers. If the font is too small (and I get that, I'd like it bigger, too) you can hit CTRL + scroll and the size will increase. That works on pretty much every web page. 

Look. Anyone who has stuck with me this far knows that my royalties go toward buying as many toys at Christmas as we can, and those toys either go to Toys for Tots or toys for foster kids. (Despite my frequent whining about the people spending my money...the Man really does pay for the care and feeding of the creatures in the house, thusly can I afford to use the royalties that way.) This isn't and has never been about the money for me. But I also can't spend money out of pocket to print these and give them away (as has been suggested) nor can I offer print copies as donor gifts (as has been suggested) to dozens of people.

All I really wanted when we started kicking around the idea of a Wick website was to give something for free, something for my readers, and not as a way to make a lot of money. This site isn't monetized. I could have done that; we thought about doing that by way of advertisements, to generate the purchase of a few more toys. But damn, doods, I really wanted to do this because so many of you have been there since the beginning of The Psychokitty Speaks Out, you've bought my books, you've followed me on Facebook, and you've made doing all of this so much fun.

I want to continue doing this. But at this moment, the fun has been sucked out of it, and I feel like I'm banging my forehead on the keyboard.

I know I can't make everyone happy.

And you know what started the worst of this? The Woman's nephew is doing a charity walk, and she made the offer on FB that if he hit X-number of dollars by the end of the weekend, we'd put Wick After Dark up for free as a download. And the complaints started. One woman wanted print copies (though she didn't donate a damned thing.) Someone else complained that they'd read those already so why can't they have something else...and it went on. And on.

I have tried really hard to not lose my chit over this, but tonight someone declared they are done with me because--and I am not even kidding--I'd answered her question but apparently not the way she wanted. And all I did was explain why I can't do the shorts in print yet.

Doods, I'll bend over backwards to make things easy when I can, but I'll only take so much.

So. 

If you would like the shorts available as a download via Bookfunnel, speak up. I can do that.

If you want them in print, please be patient. I have to write them all first.

And if you think I suck, well, sorry. Not much I can do about that.

Second Short is now up!

Melody of Hope, the 2nd Wick short is up! Just click on the title in the menu bar (above) or in the right sidebar.

That title will probably change someday. Or not. We'll see.

But we're really getting rolling and I have a lot of stories to tell.

New story is up now!

Just click [RIGHT HERE] to read A Day in the Life.

By request, the map of Wick's World

Just under the blog header, there's a link titled "Wick Universe Map." Since the first book came out a few years ago, I've had some requests to see a map of how the old United States was split up; we originally intended for their to be a map, but things happened, and the map was not included.

Tiny version

So. Click on the link and it'll take you to a pretty basic version of what we'd hoped to publish in The Emperor of San Francisco. I really wish we could show you the map that was supposed to be in the book, but there are licensing issues involving the base map now, so we can't use it. But this will give you an idea!

...And We're Off...!

To get things rolling, we're offering the first three books in the Wick Chronicles - The Emperor of San Francisco, Ozoo, and Forked - absolutely free.

This is for a limited time only, so if you haven't read any of them, here's your chance! The link will expire on July 19, 2019 (not sure what time).

You can get this digital edition for your Kindle, Kindle app, or whatever reader you use that takes ePub files--and it should go directly to your reading device (this is the first time we've tried this...cross your fingers there are no hiccups.)

Just CLICK RIGHT HERE and grab your copy now!

Pretty soon, there will be a brand new Wick short story, the first of what we hope will be many, and it will be FREE. SO get caught up now--there are 9 books in total--and join the Wick Universe!

What's Coming...

All righty…with the 9th Wick book out, we’ve been working on some other Wick-related things. We’re still trying to figure out how we want this site to look–blog-like, magazine-like, or something else we haven’t even thought of–but we’re slowly building some content. He’s thinking…really hard…

He's thinking...really hard

One of the things we’ve wanted to do was offer short stories…for free. These won’t be highly polished, ready-for-print stories, but just-past-first-draft things, stories that will probably wind up in a later book. Some will be filler, just bits about what’s happening in Wick’s little world. Some might be really short while others really long (for real…a short we’ve been working on somehow grew into a novella.)

And if you haven’t stuck your toe in the warm, wonderful Wick pool, for a limited time we’ll offer a digital version of the very first Wick book, The Emperor of San Francisco. We need to figure out the best way to distribute it without breaking the bank.

Also…we don’t have one yet, but there might be a Facebook page, so if you get most of your info there, you’ll be able to like it and get notifications when new content is posted here.

And one of these days I’ll be here with some stuff not wrapped up in a layer of MAYBE and be able to say HERE IT IS!

The 9th Book is Out

The King of Saint Francis, 4th book in the Return of the Wick Chronicles and 9th book overall, is available now in print and for e-readers.

Take a guess where we’re headed! Yep. In the ninth Wick book, we sneak back into Saint Francis. Jax is tired, needs a break, and decides that killing someone seems like a fine idea. What Wick doesn’t understand is why the Emperor and Queen seem to be on board with the idea; no one is stopping him, and they’re actively helping him…but why?

Still Working On It

Playing with the website took a back seat to getting edits on the newest Wick book finished and ready for layout. Coming soon:

This is a mockup of the front cover. Some things will be tweaked and pushed over here and there to make it fit the print template. But it’s done! And will be available soon!

How this site looks right now will probably change again. And then again. I need to let it sit for a while, and then see if I still think it’s spiffy. A lot of the time something I like turns out to be pretty horrible to others, so we’ll see. But content will start showing up, and if all goes to plan, you’ll get sneak peeks at some upcoming things.

Wick’s gonna show you his shorts, y’all!

Welcome to Wick

We’re just getting started, and things will be rocky here until we get the layout nailed down, and figure out how to change the sidebar and things. But as time goes by, this is where you’ll be able to read a little Wick, get news about the series and upcoming titles, and connect with the authors, Max and K.A. Thompson.