What I'm Working On...

Unlike a lot of professional writers, I have a seed of subclinical ADD... I just cannot work exclusively on one work for more than a few weeks without getting so bored with it that I just can't keep at it. As such, I tend to have multiple projects going at once until the inspiration for one shoves my full attention to that one for a while. So this page turns out to be one of the more busy sections. So let's see...

11-08-21

Wow, has it ever been busy! We have had so much going on that we haven't had time to process, let alone keep you guys posted. For starters, Scarefest was a huge success. My son and I sold some books, met some interesting characters (see the photo gallery for pics!), and put copies of No Swimming in the hands of both Kane Hodder and Bruce Campbell. Sixteen year old me is still having a stroke over that fact. The people who entertained me as a teen now have copies of my book! How crazy is that???

The second big thing is that I have parted ways with Archway Publishing, the company who published Incompatible With Life. The original edition will no longer be available once Amazon runs out of copies. By the end of the week, a second edition will be available through Amazon. This edition has received the editing attention and further development that Archway promised, but did not deliver. This will have a new cover design and is a superior book overall.

Close on the heels of the rerelease of Incompatible With Life, Crisis of Faith will have its release on the first week of December, just in time for Christmas! The continuing adventures of Lindsey, Eric, Joel, and Rachael will develop into a full series, and I will try hard not to make you wait so long for book three!

But fear not, horror fans... I am also hard at work on my next horror novel, this one about a haunted hospital tentatively titled "Keller-Wood Medical Center". So far, I'm having as much fun with it as I did No Swimming!

In conclusion (because that phrase just sounds deliciously pompous, like a politician commanding attention), I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and I pray the blessing of God on each of you.

9-18-21

Lots of exciting things going on in the world of KR Pendergrass! First off, I have finally finished Crisis of Faith! I'm about 50/50 excited and relieved. I've been working on it for almost four years, so I was starting to think it would never completely come together! Here's the thing I've learned over and over, but always forget when I'm stuck on a story... You can't think your way out of a hole! You can plan and work things out in your head, but there is only one way out of a tight spot. You have to write. Trust your story, trust your characters, and if you built it right to that point, it will work itself out as you write. 

Second, Amazon is in the works on a hardcover edition of No Swimming! Wow! My first horror novel in hardcover! How cool is that? It should be available in the next three days. Check it out!

Third, it is only five weeks to Scarefest in Lexington! This will be my first convention ever as a writer and I am excited and nervous and completely and utterly clueless. I've got a bunch of books, some drawstring bags with my new logo, and some classic horror buttons. Along with my trademark teal pen, of course, to sign with! Nothing like being at a place where a thousand + people will be to get my name out there! 

So in conclusion, I have a million things to do, all at once, and I'm not sure where to begin. Plus the new 20 gauge shotgun I got for Christmas is in the closet counting down to deer time... So in conclusion, as always, stay safe, stay healthy, and read more.

8-28-21

Okay, so it's been a while since I've updated y' all. I have not simply let time pass, but have been hard at work. I am finishing the pre-edit draft of Crisis of Faith, the sequel to Incompatible With Life. It is just a few chapters and some polishing away from ready, and we are shooting for a December 1 release! Super excited about all of this, and am also working hard on a haunted hospital novel that I hope to have ready by next summer. Sorry that you guys have been left out of the loop, but I'm back and you fans were never far from my mind!

9-5-20
So in today’s news, I am working on a new novel while I try to sell No Swimming to a publisher. I’m pretty excited, because when I finished NS I was ready to dive back in (so to speak) to my next project. I was in love with writing again and all set to write the next great american horror novel, the one that college kids study and all those kind of delusions of grandeur. So I pretty much passed out from exhaustion, jumped up the next morning with caffeine and Gatorade, settled into my writing nook, and... nothing. No idea, no story, not even an interesting character. 

I have to say, that scared me. I have never had absolutely nothing. All my life, my brain has been able to throw me something, even if it was silly. But that morning, I couldn’t write a grocery list! So of course, I did the one thing a writer should never do when they are stuck in neutral. I panicked. I went to the Kindle store and downloaded five writing prompt books, reread most of my short story books, trying to spark anything to work. But I just couldn’t force it. So I kept reading and hoping, and when I was tuning up my compound bow in preparation for deer season, it happened. 

The weird little questions that get a writer started. What if a hunter wasn’t the top predator in the woods he hunted in? What if the deer and other critters were on to him and had a plan? The result was an absolutely ridiculous story about a massive Venus fly trap and a sixteen point buck that I sincerely hope will never see the light of day, but it was a story. And two more fairly decent ones followed, and then the questions got bigger. What if The Blair Witch Project had an actual story? And what happens when it stops being just a story?
So my next novel is in progress. I’m working on trying to get NS out there. And it’s deer season. So, in closing, I’m going to go do stuff. Stay safe, stay healthy, and read more!

   8-1-20

Okay, so can we all say that 2020 has been basically its own horror story? Do we really need more scary stuff to read when awful stuff is going on around us? YES! Stephen King said it best when he said we make up horrors to help us cope with real ones. A global pandemic? Yeah, there are no words for how terrible that is. So you have to go pretty over the top to distract from that... Evil clown-spider-thing anyone? I mean, things are nuts, but not that nuts! Well, yet...

So i have been pretty busy with all this quarantine downtime. Not only as a front line first responder, but most definitely as a writer. I put together a collection of short stories and sent out to several publishers. Got no bites as a whole, but Rainfall Publishing has decided to take several of the stories and make a short chapbook they are calling "Tales of Horror 16". It is due out later this year, and you can find it on their website when it comes out.

The other big thing I had going on was i learned about a very short (6 days!) submission window for unagented novels at an imprint of HarperCollins. It is a brand new horror imprint, so this could be huge! Fingers crossed! My new and longest work to date, a novel I worked on with a lot of help from my son, Danny, called No Swimming will hopefully be on their debut roster!

Of course, numerous short stories are rattling around in my head, and a few more of them have made it to paper... uh, I mean electronic media. I'm not that old! They have been sent to multiple submission calls, so I will keep you posted as things happen. Stay safe, stay healthy, and God bless!  

3. So I just got a response today from "Heart and Humanity" online magazine. They are going to publish my short essay called "Beef Jerky and Matthew West". The submission call was for essays on self-discovery. Really, what could embody that more than being twenty-eight and not knowing if you liked beef jerky? Or that you had just followed someone else's taste in music and clothes? The essay had been in my head for years, I just needed a good excuse to write it! Keep an eye on their site, they said the January issue:)

2. Okay, so the end of December is coming up with several deadlines for short stories. These are mostly horror stories.  just finished one I call "Fight or Flight" that I have submitted, and hope to finish one tomorrow called "Darkness". That one is just a working title. Plus I have an untitled one for Crystal Lake Publishing that is due in January. Still waiting for the Scarlet Leaf Review to come out... Hope its soon!

1.First of all, I have submitted a sci-fi novella to a company that sent out a submission call. It as the working title of "American Heroes". I have a lot of hope for that one, even though I am still around 125th down on the list to be read. 

Also, I have sent two of my scary stories in to anthology publishers that I think suited their subject well. The selection for those won't be made until into the new year, but again, I hope to be able to share them in print soon. Multiple stories have been sent to multiple publishers, and I hope to be able to give you new publication notices soon. 

Of course, not all my effort is focused on short stories. I also have three separate novels in progress at the moment and a few ideas cultivating in my head. The first project is called  Crisis of Faith, the sequel to Incompatible With Life, and be the next step in Annie Lindsay's story. The other is a mystery novel in the style of Lisa Jackson, with the working title of Shadows. And the third has not told me yet if it is a full novel or just a long short story, but it is about a new concept of a haunted house. Currently, it goes by Bunker House. 

As I said, I jump around a lot, so as soon as there is more to know, I will update you!