Nytwriter

FATE OF BLOOD Available Now

2025-12-03T08:42:00.008-05:00

Fate of Blood, book 2 of the Cord & Asher dark MM romance duet, is available now on Amazon.

Tropes include second chance, soul mates, found family, best friends to lovers, touch him and die, vampire mafia.

Blurb as follows:

Does fate lie in the blood or the act?

Since the moment he walked into my life,

Cord McCallister has been my dark knight.

Fighting my demons.

Slaying my dragons.

A force as constant as the rising sun.

But now I need something more from him.

Something I have no right to ask.

Something that could cost him everything.

I need him to be my savior.

Because without him, I don’t think I’ll survive another night.

Fate of Blood offers even more filthy spice, unhinged violence, and a guaranteed HEA that will leave you smiling.

Fate of Blood is available for print and ebook here: Amazon purchase link

Read for free in Kindle Unlimited.

TASTE OF BLOOD Released TODAY

2025-10-13T09:14:00.000-04:00

TASTE OF BLOOD, Book 1 of the dark paranormal MM romance Cord & Asher duology, is out today. Meet the MCs:

Cord McCallister:

–Morally black mafia fixer

–Talks with his fists

–Slow to trust

Asher Winston:

–Body like sin

–Loves unconditionally

–Erotically sadistic

Dive into Cord and Asher's world, full of second chance angst, unhinged violence, and enough steamy spice to curl your toes.

Available in ebook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited HERE

Preorders are ready for Taste of Blood

2025-08-26T08:35:00.002-04:00

Dive into Cord & Asher's story with the first book of their duet, TASTE OF BLOOD. Blurb as follows:

Forever is a long time for a vampire.

I always thought Asher Winston was my forever.

That’s why cutting him out of my life was like cutting off a limb.

But it had to be done.

If I’d stayed, we would have killed each other.

For ten years I avoided him.

Going through the motions.

Empty and alone.

And then that chance meeting on the street.

Now I’m caught in his web again.

I know where this will lead, but I don’t have the strength to end it.

Because as much as I hate it, the only time I can breathe is when he’s near me.

Release date October 13, 2025. Preorder HERE

The True Soul Updated Cover

2025-04-12T09:41:00.007-04:00

Ever since I commissioned the cover for The True Soul I was dissatisfied with it. It looked like a trashy romance novel (a reader even recently told me that), which, while there are aspects of this book that place it in the category of paranormal romance, is not reflective of what the book is really about. It's a love story, true, but it's also a story of a lost culture. I suppose that's why, when I created the hardcover version, I went with another cover.

When I decided to reformat all my books to be more reader-friendly (many were published in 10pt Times New Roman, which is not a reader-friendly font face or size), I naturally needed to redo all the covers because the page counts had increased. And I figured, as long as I was doing that, I might as well commission an upgrade. This is what we came up with. I believe it now reflects the more fantastical elements of the book because there is a sense of magic in the relationship of Sharla and Flies With Wind, as well as in the tribe's existence.

The True Soul is available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover HERE.

Publishing Update

2025-04-06T08:02:00.004-04:00

I'm in the process of removing all my books from Kindle Unlimited so I can sell them on other outlets like Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, etc. While no longer in KU, they will be available on Kobo Plus. Right now the first four books of my Sacrifice series have been uploaded, awaiting publication. As my current KU obligations expire, more will follow with updated links provided on the My Books page.

Embedding Fonts in a PDF Document

2025-04-03T10:11:00.002-04:00

I’ve seen it countless times by authors in online forums–how do I embed fonts in a PDF document? I did some research on it for my own purposes and came up with this instructional document.

I’m going to assume you’re working with an MS Word document. If so, first embed the fonts in that document by the following method:

File>Save As

Then choose the folder where you want to save your document (even if it’s already in that folder). When the dialog box opens, click Tools (at the bottom)>Save Options then check the box next to Embed Fonts in This File. Uncheck any of the boxes below that.

Click OK>Save.

Now we move onto the PDF portion. Under File, click Print.

Select Adobe PDF>Printer Properties (see image 1 below)

Click Advanced. In the dialog box, click the Paper/Quality tab, then click on the Paper Size drop down menu and scroll down to Postscript Custom Page Size (see image 2).

Enter the trim size of your book. If this is a bleed book, you will need to enter the actual size you used when you set it up. For instance, if it's a 6x9 trim size with bleed, you would actually enter 6.13x9.25.

Click OK.

Go to the Adobe PDF Settings tab, and under Default Settings, click Edit (see image 3 below)

Under Fonts, scroll down the Windows/FONTS listed and click to Add any to Always Embed box (see image 4).

Click OK, then a box will come up with a job number (not important). Click Save, then when it closes, click OK.

Now click Print and your PDF will be created. When you open the PDF file, click File>Properties and check the fonts. It should list all the fonts you added.

A word about nonstandard fonts. I have had little success in adding them, but you can try adding them manually. When I want to use a decorative font for a chapter heading, I usually just create a graphic of it.

If you would like a PDF copy of this post, let me know in the comments below. Please include an email address where I can send it.

New Video for The Sacrifice Series

2024-12-29T12:45:00.002-05:00

I just dropped a new video for my Sacrifice urban fantasy series. I'm pretty proud of this one.

Podcast for The Cruelty of Thorns

2024-12-26T11:30:00.003-05:00

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

This is a YouTube recording of a podcast reviewing my dark paranormal romance The Cruelty of Thorns. If you haven't read it, you might want to skip listening because it contains spoilers on the ending.

New Promo for RELEASE

2024-12-25T11:55:00.001-05:00

I've created a new promo video for RELEASE, Book 5 of The Sacrifice series. Short and sweet.

The Cruelty of Thorns Published

2024-07-24T08:38:00.003-04:00

JUST RELEASED! My new dark paranormal romance, The Cruelty of Thorns.

JULIANUS

I’m a sensualist, born to chase desire. I’m also a bloodthirsty monster. The ruinous events that led to that fate have ruled my nights and haunted my dreams throughout my centuries of existence. Until I saw her. Now I can’t get her out of my mind, even though another man commands her attention. Every instinct is warning me to stay away, but how can I do that when she could be the key to my redemption?

MYRA

I came to Whitfield College for a new beginning. To forget the tragic event that stole my creativity and forced me to swear off romance for good. Until now. Now I find myself faced with a dilemma I never dreamed I’d have. Two gorgeous men, one mysterious and exciting, the other grounded and sweet. Both determined to claim me as their own, and my life could depend on which one I choose.

THE CRUELTY OF THORNS is available for ebook and paperback on Amazon. For a limited time, read for free on Kindle Unlimited.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: This book contains content recommended for those 18+, to include:

BDSM, MF and MM sex, polyamorous sex, sexual assault, nonconsensual sex, murder, torture, blood play, and suicide (off-page)

Book Trailer for The Cruelty of Thorns

2024-06-25T14:06:00.000-04:00

I finished my dark paranormal romance, The Cruelty of Thorns, on Sunday and created a book trailer for it. See below:

The Video That Got Me Banned From TikTok

2024-06-08T09:44:00.001-04:00

A while back, after I published my latest novella, Skinned, I created a video short to promote it. It was just the above image with an excerpt from the book. I posted it all over social media with no problem, but for some reason, the PTB over at TikTok took exception to it and banned my account. I've tried reaching out to them to protest this to no avail. There was no warning, no slap on the hand, just my account disappearing. I even tried opening a new account with a different email address, but when I posted that video, it received the same treatment. Two accounts banned.

You can view the video for yourself and see what you think. Is this worthy of being banned?

View it here: SKINNED: A Descent Into Obsession

Just Released! Skinned: A Descent Into Obsession

2024-04-25T08:46:00.001-04:00

This is a novella I wrote several years ago and debated publishing due to the taboo nature of some of its content. However, given what I've recently seen available in the dark romance market, I think its reached its time.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BOREDOM MEETS OBSESSION?

I thought I was happy. Good job. Nice house. Loving son.

Then Sloan walked into my life. Tall, dark and wickedly handsome. Trouble with a capital T. A man who likes to push buttons.

He’s pushing all of mine, awakening desires I didn’t know I possessed.

Now I’m spiraling down a rabbit hole of depravity I can’t escape. And the worst part is, I don’t want to. I like being his pet. His plaything.

Am I sick or just obsessed?

Trigger Warnings: BDSM, MF and FF sex, polyamorous sex, discussion of taboo subjects to include stepbrother and underage sex, humiliation and shaming, MMC sharing FMC, psychological manipulation

Skinned is available for ebook and paperback on Amazon. For a limited time, read for free on Kindle Unlimited.

Video for A Legacy in Blood Special Hardcover Edition

2024-03-25T13:55:00.001-04:00

I made a video of the special hardcover edition of my gothic vampire horror novel A Legacy in Blood to show off the art inside.

I'm really enjoying doing chapters spreads and other artwork for the interior of my novels and plan to really step up my game in the next book, The Cruely of Thorns.

Formatting Bleed Images in a Word Document

2024-02-25T12:19:00.002-05:00

I’ve recently fallen in love with books that have artwork inside. Whether it’s chapter heading images or a full page bleed image, I am obsessed with it and gobble up the print version (whether that be paperback or hardcover) of any book I’m interested in reading that includes artwork. Naturally, that lead to me wanting to do the same for my own books.

I chose two of my standalone books and set about creating special hardcover editions. I use Word for all my writing, editing, and formatting because it’s a very powerful program with plenty of features if you just bother to learn it. I use Adobe Photoshop for my images because I had a web and graphic design business for years and that’s my go-to graphics program.

If you’re going to go this route using full page bleed images, the first and most important thing you have to do is decide on your trim size because that affects your artwork. For my hardcovers I used 6x9. You can go to KDP Format Your Paperback (or Hardcover) and under Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins, scroll down to the Trim Size Specifications for Amazon.com. There you’ll find a table that shows the trim size with and without bleed. According to the table, a 6x9 book with bleed should have a page size of 6.125 x 9.25.

Now you need to set up your document. I did a post on Formatting A Word Document For Amazon last year, but for our purposes here we’re just going to worry about page size and margins.

Create a new document and under Page Layout, go to the Size pulldown and scroll down to More Paper Sizes. Enter your dimensions in the appropriate place (9.25 height and 6.125 width) then go to the margins tab and set up your preliminary margins. You may have to tweak this later depending on your final page count. Select Mirror Margins, then set the top and bottom margins to .5”, the inside margin to .70” and the outside margin to .45”. Ignore gutter.

Now you get to do the fun part, select and size your artwork. Whether you use your own artwork or source it somewhere else, you should always use the highest resolution possible just like you do for your cover. I would suggest 300dpi for all print artwork.

I've used a couple of sources for digital artwork, among them Etsy. There are tons of artists selling clipart, watercolor, scrapbook pages, and other digital artwork on there and when you purchase them the agreement usually includes a commercial use license. Another source I’ve found is The Hungry JPEG. You can also purchase fonts on there. All of the artwork I’ve purchased on both sites comes in 300dpi because they mean for you to print it out.

Size your art to the page size (for 6x9 that means 6.125 x 9.25 at 300 dpi using a graphics program. If you have art that doesn’t fill the page (such as an image you want for the top of your chapter headings) you can create a blank page at the trim size dimensions and place your artwork on it where you want it and save it as a separate image. That way it’s consistent throughout and it covers the headers and page numbers on those pages.

Okay, you’ve created your artwork, you’ve designed how you want your book to look, now you have to put it together. Let’s say you want a full page image to go behind the text on the first page of a chapter. Go to that page and before placing the image, put in as many hard returns as you’ll need to get to the first line of text. I do this because if you do it after you place the image, it sometimes scrolls the image down the page.

Go to the top of the page and under Insert, select Picture. Go to the folder where your image is located and select it. Now the Formatting dialog comes up. Under Wrap Text, go to More Layout Options, then select Behind Text so the image will appear as a background behind your text. Next go to the Size tab and enter a size larger than your page size so the image will bleed past the margins. For 9.25” height, set it to 9.3”. For 6.125” width, set it to 6.2”. Click OK, then position the art at the top and left margin of the page. It should fill the page.

Here’s an example:

Go through your book inserting your images on the pages where you want them using the same method. Pay attention to whether you’re placing them on a left or right page, depending on how you want them to appear. I would suggest starting your chapters on a right page, so you may need to insert a blank page here and there so it will fall correctly. To avoid having headers and page numbers on blank pages, I created a blank page image to insert on those pages that fills the page and covers the headers and page numbers.

Incubus Released

2024-02-23T07:57:00.001-05:00

I WOULD TELL YOU TO FORGET ME, BUT I KNOW THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE.

The only reason Dana came to the bohemian Latin Quarter of the city was to find her missing sister. Eva was never one to paint outside the lines, so it should have been easy to trace her whereabouts. But the deeper Dana probes, the stranger things get.

First there is Eva’s interest in a rare book on witchcraft full of love spells and lurid rituals. Then the psychic she consulted before her disappearance urges Dana to leave town before it’s too late. But the most troubling is the mysterious man in black her sister was involved with. The melancholy poet in the rambling old house who quickly burrows his way into Dana’s every waking thought and haunts her dreams. Never one to lean toward romance, Dana’s world is shaken by the nightly fantasies she’s ashamed to acknowledge even to herself.

Is it love or obsession that causes Dana to stay when every instinct is screaming for her to flee? And if she stays, will she be doomed to follow in her sister’s footsteps?

Incubus, a standalone dark fantasy romance novella, is now available for ebook and paperback on Amazon. For a limited time, read it for free on Kindle Unlimited.

Book Trailer for Incubus

2024-02-17T14:13:00.001-05:00

Just finished creating a book trailer for my upcoming dark fantasy romance novella Incubus.

A Bone to Pick - A Story from The Sacrifice World

2024-02-16T08:18:00.007-05:00

A while back I wrote a short prequel story in the world of The Sacrifice series. I originally had it only available for subscribers to my newsletter, but I'm now including a link here for anyone to download and read it. Just a little story about Laec before the events of TRIAL, though it does figure into the the fifth book in the series, RELEASE.

Download A Bone to Pick

A Legacy in Blood Hardcover Edition

2024-02-13T14:31:00.004-05:00

Just released! The special collector's hardcover edition of A Legacy in Blood. This has been a labor of love for me, pulling together the wonderful gothic artwork and formatting this special edition. I also relied on my graphic arts background to design the cover and am quite proud of it.

Hardcover available exclusively on Amazon.

Video for The True Soul

2024-02-10T13:55:00.002-05:00

Just a little something I created for The True Soul.

Special Edition Hardcover of The True Soul

2024-01-31T07:41:00.001-05:00

JUST RELEASED! A new special collector's edition hardcover with a different cover and beautiful artwork throughout. Buy on Amazon here.

RELEASE Published

2024-01-23T07:58:00.005-05:00

In RELEASE, Book 5 of The Sacrifice series, our intrepid anti-hero, Laec Matthews, may be in over his head. While not the last Sacrifice book, this one will usher in a major change in the series as follows:

For months Laec Matthews bounced between preparing for a demon war and wanting a normal life with the woman he loves. One seemed destined to remain out of reach, while the other threatened to destroy his world.

With all signs pointing to war, it’s now up to Laec and his circle of friends to gather battle-ready fighters. Their efforts lead them to forge the most unlikely of alliances, but is it already too late? Has the Queen of Hell learned the secret of the Lock, enabling her to launch a coordinated attack on this realm? Are those her demons who roam the streets and alleys, picking off unsuspecting humans and supernatural warriors alike?

While chaos swirls around him, can Laec finally claim a little luck on his side? If so, he has to be ready when the opportunity strikes, because this time, it’s for keeps.

RELEASE is available for ebook and paperback on Amazon. Soon to be available in all stores where books are sold.

Updates and a New Cover

2023-12-30T10:40:00.005-05:00

I recently had the cover updated for my first novel, Bring John Bland, by the fine folks at Getcovers. I figured after 19 years (2005--has it really been that long?), it was overdue for a change.

You can buy the book HERE.

As far as other news, I finished RELEASE, Book 5 of The Sacrifice, and will start edits after the new year with the intention of publishing in January 2024.

I've also started work on a new project, a dark fantasy novella entitled Incubus. Stay tuned for news on that.

Book Trailer for A Legacy in Blood

2023-11-25T14:21:00.005-05:00

Was just tooling around waiting for the turkey to cook Thanksgiving day and created this trailer. For full size, view on YouTube.

A Legacy in Blood Released

2023-11-20T08:03:00.002-05:00

JUST RELEASED!

A Legacy in Blood, an old-fashioned, gothic vampire tale in the vein of Anne Rice, meandering through multiple timelines and generations of the Castillo family.

A curse uttered generations ago on a rain swept Spanish hillside hangs over the life of Kira Castillo, and there is nothing she or anyone else can do to change it.

As an only child, Kira had always known she was the last hope to carry on her family’s legacy. An arranged marriage to a man she did not love sought to secure that legacy, but fate had other plans. Kira’s life was upended the night she was to become Eduardo Lopez’s bride, and for her, nothing would ever be the same. A mysterious face in the crowd, a terrifying ritual at the hands of a voodoo king, and a tragic tryst with a childhood love would shape the woman she was to become.

Now she must cross oceans and time to save her family again and again, always arriving at the eleventh hour while fighting to contain the deadly secret that torments her nights.

Available for ebook and paperback on Amazon. For a limited time, read for free on Kindle Unlimited. A free excerpt is available on my Random Sh!t Nobody Cares About website.