indie author – R.J. Sullivan Fiction

COVER REVEAL Blue Omnibus

by R.J. SullivanJune 16, 2021August 31, 2021Leave a comment

The Complete Adventures of Blue Shaefer
The Entire Blue Shaefer Story Arc in a Single Volume

Coming soon to your favorite online outlet, the R.J. Home Store, and autumn 2021 personal appearances.

Links are already going live on its dedicated order page. UPDATE: AS I WAS WRITING THIS, THE AMAZON PAPERBACK EDITION WENT LIVE. Click here to see all the order links.

Check out that amazing front cover, a collaborative team image, with my thanks to:

Cover Photo: Paul-Louis Webster Photography and Greg Hernandez.
Cover Model: Jessica Lynn Cannaday.
Cover design: Bryan Donihue and Section 28 Publishing

Read More “COVER REVEAL Blue Omnibus”

Darkness With a Chance of Whimsy Audiobook Now Live

by R.J. SullivanMay 11, 2021August 31, 2021Leave a comment

I’m not gonna lie, Amazon put this up and out faster than anticipated, based on past experience. Nevertheless, it’s true that your greedy ears can hear Danielle Muething read the ten short stories from my collection now.

This includes Able Bodied, Starter Kit, and Backstage Pass. and of course, Robot Vampire. It’s great stuff, if I do say so myself.

Here are the direct links to get you there:
Audible
Amazon
My Web Page

RJ Gushes About His Audio Book Narrator

by R.J. SullivanMay 6, 2021Leave a comment

NOTE: This blog came about upon Danielle Muething concluding the recording of my latest Audible release, my short story collection Darkness With a Chance of Whimsy. I wanted to update my live blurbs for her and instead ended up writing this couple hundred word blog. Ah, well, it’s what I do.

Back in 2019, starting on my first ever audio book project, Danielle Muething blew me away with her blind audition read. All I knew I wanted at the time was someone who could read my story Haunting Obsession with a convincing “Marilyn Monroe” voice to represent the antagonist ghost of the story. Any narrator who could do that was the best logical choice “voice for hire.”

Commanding the Red Lotus Relaunched

by R.J. SullivanApril 21, 2021April 21, 20212 Comments

After being out of print for almost a year, I’m super-excited to announce that Hydra Publications has just “relaunched” Commanding the Red Lotus. The new edition is essentially the same as the previous edition, including the awesome original cover by Enggar. Click here to see the order links go live on my website.

Sayuri Arai, privileged daughter of a corporate mogul, abandons a promising career to find her own path. She invests in a broken-down asteroid mining ship and steps in as the commander of its crew. Every day presents a new challenge just to keep her ship from falling apart and the bitter crew from killing each other. Can Sayuri unite the feuding factions, or will her rivals turn the entire complement against her? Commanding the Red Lotus offers a classic sense of wonder for today’s science fiction readers.

Commanding the Red lotus includes the previously released ebook novelettes:
Fate of the Red Lotus
Red Lotus: Innocence Lost
Plus the novella Mutiny on the Red Lotus

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Haunting Blue Audio Book Now Live

by R.J. SullivanMay 1, 2020August 6, 2020Leave a comment

NEW for 2020
Haunting Blue, my first published novel from 2010, is my second audio book release, and that release is now live. Published by DarkWhimsy Books, Haunting Blue puts Danielle Muething back in the narrator’s booth to repeat (and dare I say exceed) the amazing and dramatic performance similar to Haunting Obsession (Click here to order the Haunting Obsession audio book).

Click the link of your preferred format to order: Audible Amazon
Apple (not yet available)
Don’t care about audiobooks? Click here to go to the paperback and ebook page.

Check out this short YouTube Preview

A note to those who have already enjoyed the Haunting Obsession Audio Book:

Haunting Blue Audible Preview

by R.J. SullivanFebruary 3, 2020March 6, 2020Leave a comment

As announced earlier, I’m excited to expand beyond the amazing first splash that is Danielle Muething narrating Haunting Obsession. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Click Here).

Now Seventh Star Press and my imprint DarkWhimsy Books have partnered to secure Danielle’s narration talents to bring the rest of the trilogy to audio! Danielle is already in the sound booth laying down tracks and voices for Haunting Blue, my first novel and the start of the paranormal adventures of punk girl Blue Shaefer and her boyfriend Chip Farren. Haunting Blue will likely be out on Audible and other popular audiobook options well before summer!

Audiobook Trilogy to Go Forward

by R.J. SullivanDecember 28, 2019December 29, 2019Leave a comment

The details have been worked out and we are a go!

Last spring, my first-ever audiobook happened. It was a perfect-storm project where the ideal narrator submitted a random audition for a novella she deep-down wanted to land much more than she cared to admit at the time, whose reading blew away the anxious author who fretted that his vision be dramatized by a kindred spirit who “got it” (and knew that boy-howdy did she!). And they were backed by a supportive publisher making their first ventures into audiobook and who knew they had something special.

Steady sales and excellent reviews of Haunting Obsession the Audiobook followed, (also, these promo videos, did you see these awesome videos?) so we’ve decided to finish the trilogy together!

…we’ve decided to finish the trilogy together!

New R.J. Webstore Now Live!

by R.J. SullivanNovember 30, 2019November 30, 2019Leave a comment

Well, that turned into a working weekend, but I think the effort will prove well worth it. Drum roll please.

Announcing the new, improved, highly streamlined R.J. Sullivan Fiction Webstore , now up and live! Effective immediately, for anyone who orders books directly from me, the Webstore replaces the less efficient method that used to be seen here.

What this is: The new Webstore allows you to pick selections from my personal stock of books for personalized signatures and gift giving. Credit card transactions are handled through GooglePay and go directly to me. I personally will handle fulfilling orders.

What this is not: This is not the place to order ebooks, Amazon, Kindle, Kobo, Audible, or any non-paper format. For that, go to my book catalog and click on the cover of the book that interests you.

Improvements over the previous method

Look, ma, an electronic shopping cart!
Coupon deal options (check the product description to see what fits yours).
Author exclusive product such as my Christmas Book and the Haunting Obsession Elegant Paper Dolls book
A field for personalized signatures.
Payment, postage, and label printing are all automated.

I’m looking forward to trying this new method just in time for the holidays. Hopefully, this new, streamlined Webstore will make personalized book mailings easier than ever!

Now click here to check it out!!

COVER REVEAL: Blue Christmas

by R.J. SullivanSeptember 7, 2018September 7, 20181 Comment

I’m super-excited to reveal Cover One to the first-ever DarkWhimsy Books release. The book will be presented in a retro-innovative binding I’m calling DoubleFront. The method of laying out the two stories offset 180% means that this collection of two Holiday stories “Blue/Christmas / The Beacon” will have two front covers (print version only). If you have ever seen the classic science fiction paperbacks Ace Doubles, you’ll get it. If not, you’ll just have to check it out in person. It’s cool. So enough about that, here’s the cover!!

Cover One is for “Blue Christmas,” created by awesome 3D rendering artist and long-time marketing collaborator Nell Williams. The story features my paranormal thriller series protags Blue Shaefer and Rebecca Burton. The story originally appeared in the SFG Publishing holiday collection Gifts of the Magi.

Blue and Chip are enjoying a quiet Christmas Eve-ning together when the mysterious paranormal investigator Rebecca Burton knocks on their door… holding a peace offering. Blue and Rebecca had last parted ways furious with each other.

On the other hand, Rebecca had saved Blue’s life. Blue decides to hear her out–and hopes she won’t regret it.

Coming soon: the reveal of Cover Two for “The Beacon: An SF Comedy Play in Two Acts.” The cover is currently being created by RJ’s long-time awesome artist collaborator Ash Arceneaux.

Blue Christmas / The Beacon, a DoubleFront Holiday Book will be the first release of R.J. Sullivan’s indie press label DarkWhimsy Books. The mini-read will be available in plenty of time for Christmas. Watch this space for more announcements!

Announcing DarkWhimsy Books

by R.J. SullivanAugust 10, 2018August 10, 201814 Comments

I’m super-excited to announce my plans to “go hybrid” with new projects under my own imprint label DarkWhimsy Books! The logo, being unveiled here for the first time, was created with the assistance of Section 28 Publishing’s Bryan Donihue, who is also helping with page layout duties and other tasks that go over my head.

The name and logo refer to the title and visuals of my 2015 Seventh Star Press short story collection Darkness with a Chance of Whimsy. Artist Enggar Adirrasa created the original idea from my concept (translation–doodle) of a dark cloud raining down smiley faces. The combination of the grim and the silly has been a niche that I’ve fit in comfortably, and I look forward to expanding those realms as I start this new chapter of my publishing life.

Speaking of Seventh Star, this does not mean I am leaving the publishing house where I started. Nor does it mean the end of my paranormal thriller series nor the Red Lotus adventures. In fact, I believe this transition will offer me greater freedom than ever to bring my patient readers more Blue, Rebecca Burton, and Commander Sayuri than ever before. More on that in a bit.

Nell Williams, fabulous 3D rendering artist and creator of this “family portrait” of Rebecca Burton, Maxine Marie, me, and Blue, will return to offer her talents to Dark Whimsy Books

The first release under the DarkWhimsy Books banner will be a holiday paperback of two short stories, the previously released “Blue Christmas” (featuring the return of Rebecca Burton and Blue) and the annotated script to my original SF comedy Christmas play “The Beacon.” The paperback version will be offered in a special fun “double front” format.

Scheduled for early next year is the release of the first part of Lawgiver’s Crisis, a new epic science fiction adventure series with Book I titled Fall of the Sky Citadel. It’s a concept I’ve had on the back burner for awhile and it’s ready to come out. I’m super-excited to bring this story to you.

For those that don’t quite get the distinction, the difference between Seventh Star and my own imprint is that Seventh Star has covered the bulk of publishing expenses, distribution, marketing, editing, and of course their especially remarkable cover art. In exchange, they collect royalties on my titles in perpetuity.

Titles under the DarkWhimsy Books label will be entirely self-funded (with….perhaps a little assistance through Kickstarter and/or Patreon at some point, but… baby steps). It also means I can play with offering readers flash fiction, short stories, and other material that a publisher could not necessarily invest in. So, just a random example, I might write 10 or 12 Rebecca Burton and Blue short stories or a couple of Red Lotus novellas as exclusive material to my supporters under DarkWhimsy Books, and then bundle them under a new Seventh Star title once I have a book-length release.

Just a… y’know… totally random example.

Along with the help of Section 28, I’ll be re-teaming up with some old friends, including cover artists Nell Williams and Ash Arceneaux, who have agreed to provide the double-front covers for Blue Christmas/The Beacon.

And I’m very excited to say that my old friend and Maxine marketing model Lily Monstermeat will also return as a model (this time I should say cover model) as the title character “Lawgiver” of the Lawgiver’s Crisis series. And maybe… every now and then…I might be able to talk her back into donning that Maxine Marie white wig. 🙂

I look forward to starting this exciting new chapter in my career as an author, bringing my loyal readers along with me. and hopefully picking up a few along the way. Watch this space for more announcements, exciting new projects and stories under the DarkWhimsy Books banner!