The Many Worlds of John X. Grey
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Congratulations on my win of the National Novel Writing Month for a third year in 2018 with the novel Dawn of a New Vampire Hunter.

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Greetings viewers of this page.  John X. Grey (through his real name) has become one of the numerous winners of the 2018 National Novel Writing Month contest with his 88,656-word novel Dawn of a New Vampire Hunter.  I wrote the required 50,000 minimum words to win the contest by November 22nd (Thanksgiving) and finished the complete rough draft manuscript just before midnight on November 29th.  It is the story of my old-time vampire hunter Jack Petrov's grandson Jack Pike (the son of his daughter Daphne and her husband Zebulon Q. Pike, a famous monster hunter) and his first adventure against a vampire cult and its billionaire master vampire leader Magnus Maximus Moondragon within Las Vegas where he has gone for the summer of 2002 as a journalism student to intern at a tabloid weekly newspaper.  Someday in the near future I will release this adventure, but for I'm happy this it the third time I've won this contest (the other times in 2010 and 2011 for my novels Invasion Bubble of the Eternal War and Saved by a Damsel in Distress​).

Professor Midnight: Costumed & Masked Mystery Man of Adventure story collection is available in 2018 on Amazon.com and Kindle in paperback.

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My newest story collection available since August 2018, Professor Midnight: Costumed & Masked Mystery Man of Adventure is available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.  It contained 20 adventures about a 1930s psychiatrist who turned costumed crime fighter when his parents were murdered by a mobster's bomb destroying their grocery store in a Chicago suburb.  Dr. Carl Krytchek became the masked vigilante Professor Midnight avenging wrongs and hunting down evil men and organizations with gadgets, developed fighting skills and an understanding of the criminal mind.  Working with teenage sidekicks and hero teams from the mid-1930's until his death at the hands of an energy being called Dark Energy in 1994, Professor Midnight had his share of strange cases in America, overseas location and in other unusual enemies or places (alien monsters, some hellish dimensions, mad scientists, parallel universes and time travel misadventures).  These are chronicled here in 20 novellas or shorter stories that mostly also feature the true love of his life the Atlantean princess heroine known as Amphibia (Athina of Kronos Island AKA Atlantia Kronos Krytchek).  This 656-page super-sized volume is available at Amazon in paperback ($29.99) and Kindle edition ($5.99) and at that length I hope the reader gets his money's worth this year and beyond.
Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Professor-Midnight-Costumed-Mystery-Adventure/dp/1724631209/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544069759&sr=1-4&keywords=Professor+Midnight

Kindle Edition
https://www.amazon.com/Professor-Midnight-Costumed-Mystery-Adventure-ebook/dp/B07H856YXK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1544069759&sr=1-4

A Dark Mirrored Land, the second novel in my Jack Petrov Private Investigator/Vampire Hunter series is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
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In early 2018, I finally self-published my second novel (begun in 2013 originally) featuring vampire hunting private investigator Jack Petrov (from A Legacy of Blood the first novel adventure of the character) in an adventure that takes him and his legman sidekick Elroy Moody into an alternate world where the rural land of Varlochia (part of that planet's Holy Serelethian Empire) is administered by a local Arch-Duke named Istvan Mardok, the man cursed decades earlier with vampire immortality by the young woman he intended wedding after slaying her secret lover (his younger brother).  Jack and Elroy begin this adventure in 1928 Gotham, New Jersey investigating the disappearance of a local shipping magnate's only adult daughter.  Their initial search of Bloomfield Manor yields a strange mystical mirror that on one stormy night opens a portal that the detectives accidentally enter for reaching Varlochia.  Jack and Elroy continue seeking the missing Valerie Mae Bloomfield in the village of Klostenburg menaced by nearby Schloss (Castle) Mardok, the home of Archduke Istvan Mardok and his court in mountains overlooking that community.  Aiding a young woman named Tatyana Pechak, a local silversmith's daughter who wishes to flee Varlochia since she resembles the archduke's dead fiancee and local law requires any female resembling Irina Kolym to be taken to that ruler for becoming his reincarnated bride (other women meeting with strange deaths before they could wed the vampire due to the curse of Irina Kolym against Istvan).  Petrov and Moody locate Valerie Bloomfield in Istvan's castle as his guest, but must aid Tatyana to avoid being forced into marriage and get Miss Bloomfield back to 1928 Gotham.  The book is available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions (https://www.amazon.com/Mirrored-Petrov-Private-Investigator-Vampire-ebook/dp/B079577TMP).

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The Second Coming of three past published novels in 2015-2016 - A Legacy of Blood, Sister Helena of the Sword and Worldjumpers are available on CreateSpace and Kindle.

Welcome to 2016, visitors one and all. at my site.  Yes, my posts here have been few in the past year or so, but I was busy with the task of daily survival with spare time from mid-2015 to early 2016 spent on giving the three volumes mentioned here a final polish to remove the final rough edges. I have released with either slightly altered or considerably overhauled front covers two novels first published in 2011 (Worldjumpers and A Legacy of Blood) and another published in 2012 (Sister Helena of the Sword).  They are available at Amazon.com and Createspace.com in paperback and (except for Sister Helena) Kindle editions.  The Kindle for Sister Helena of the Sword will be available in May 2016  Each volume has also changed in length with A Legacy of Blood now at 250 pages, Sister Helena of the Sword 330 pages and Worldjumpers 178 pages.  Here are the Amazon page urls.

Worldjumpers paperback

http://www.amazon.com/Worldjumpers-amazing-Journey-Parallel-Worlds/dp/1463767579

Worldjumpers Kindle edition

http://www.amazon.com/Worldjumpers-John-X-Grey-ebook/dp/B0072PMYI2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

A Legacy of Blood paperback

http://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Blood-Private-Investigator-Vampire/dp/146630815X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

A Legacy of Blood Kindle Edition

http://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Blood-John-X-Grey-ebook/dp/B00728BWV4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Sister Helena of the Sword paperback

http://www.amazon.com/Sister-Helena-Sword-Sepharata-Saga/dp/1478386584


The Second Coming of The Circle of Light is available again in paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon.com and CreateSpace in December 2014.

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Greetings, anyone visiting my blog since the last time I published anything about my career here.  This year has been one of reevaluations about my past work and finding errors that needed correcting for satisfying my perfectionist soul.  To your left is the new cover for my 2012 superhero fantasy novel The Circle of Light, the story of a Christian superhero team killed off by the secret plotting of a former member that requires it be reborn with new heroes and some children of the deceased champions.  I revised the manuscript and condensed it from 310 to 292 pages, even after adding small amounts of additional material and improving the existing story (hoping someday to write a full trilogy about the heroes fighting the anti-vigilante conspiracy introduced in this volume).  The paperback and Kindle editions can be found at this Amazon.com page.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Circle-Light-John-Grey/dp/1475195710


http://www.amazon.com/Circle-Light-John-Grey-ebook/dp/B00QU4BI3I/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

At the Stroke of Thirteen anthology, available from Horrified Press, includes one of my favorite stories within the collection.

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On April 17, 2014, Thirteen Press through the UK-based Horrified Press released a new collection of horror short fiction that includes one of my personal favorite Jack Petrov Vampire Hunter tales originally appearing in the now defunct Pill Hill Press' Leather, Denim and Silver: Legends of the Monster Hunter, a brisk selling anthology since released in April 2011, and reprinted in Emby Press' 2014 electronic-only collection Both Barrels: Legends of the Monster Hunter Omnibus Edition Volumes 1 & 2.  "The Vampire Hunter's Requiem" now appears once more among stories by leading or up-and-coming authors of outstanding horror fiction edited by George Wilhite.  For more details, here is the Horrified Press announcement about the anthology's release earlier this month.

At the stroke of thirteen, terror reigns… Thirteen O’ Clock is a sinister hour, strange and horrific, just like the incredible stories in this anthology. These authors have track records for producing spine chilling tales for dark nights and haunted places, yet in this volume they have outdone themselves. Here revealed are the unspeakable visions that few would dare to put down on paper. Here is a three-ring circus of fear presided over by that ringmaster of horror – Mr. Nick Cuti. Step right up! The show is about to begin and an unpleasant time is guaranteed for all.

The anthology is available now as a $5.00 Kindle edition download from Amazon.com for $5.00.  When or if it becomes available in paperback from Lulu via Horrified Press, I will announce it here.  The Amazon.com Kindle Edition is available here.

http://www.amazon.com/At-Stroke-Thirteen-Nicola-Cuti-ebook/dp/B00JS8B9NW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1398728869&sr=1-1&keywords=at+the+stroke+of+thirteen

More good news about projects I had thought lost and effectively dead.

Recently I learned that a canceled anthology at Static Movement (one called Fightin' Jack: A Horror History) will be eventually published once the collection get just one more story submitted for it, according to SM Publisher and Chief Editor Chris Bartholomew at a recent post on the SM message board.  I was relieved to learn this change in plans after the anthology's cancellation on September 6th of this year (originally due to lack of interest by recent contributions being few to none) for two personal reasons.  First, three of my stories had been accepted for publication there - "The Night Fightin' Jack Petrov came to Town," "Quicksilver for a Speedy Vampire" and "Final Flight of the Fighting Jack Churchill."  Obviously I would like to see those works published along with those from other contributors to the volume.  The second reason was due to my July hard drive failure that lost works I had created since July 2012 (failing to back up that 12 months of material never foreseeing the hard drive's failure), among my lost stories "Final Flight of the Fighting Jack Churchill" (a future story about Earth's desperate last stand against invaders from another galaxy and the sacrifice of one Earth starship and its crew in destroying an alien command ship after the ship - Fighting Jack Churchill - named for a famous British WWII commando - had been boarded and most of its crew killed).  Fortunately most of those lost stories will be published sometime in 2014 and only one remains lost among them (a steampunk adventure story entitled "Adventurers Unlimited: The Grand Canyon Caper - which I hope to recreate next year as my first screenplay, since it was originally an idea for a TV series similar to The Wild Wild West or The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr.).  I hope someone out there can come up with a great story for Fightin' Jack soon.  If interested, go to the Static Movement message board or contact Chris Bartholomew at her e-mail address for more details about the anthology.  As I recall the original listing for it, removed back when the project was cancelled, the theme was horror stories involving someone named Fightin' Jack, but Jack did not have to appear necessarily in some cases only drive the story's action or purpose at least.  My stories submitted, for example, feature an evil vampire doppelganger of my vampire hunter, a kindly great uncle named Jacques (the French form of the name Jack) aiding his great nephew against a fast-moving vampire, and a starship named for someone known as Fighting Jack that is sacrificed by its commander to stop alien invaders.  Admittedly when I first saw the listing for this anthology a few years ago, I was uncertain if I could come up with any good story ideas, but providence provided my three such ideas in 2011 and 2012 that I was able to execute successfully.  I hope some writer out there is inspired to create just one more entry for this collection.  Let's keep Fightin' Jack alive.

A lost story is found and will be published in Static Movement's Beneath the Waves.

I recently learned some good and welcome news from Static Movement Publisher/Editor Chris Bartholomew in a Facebook message.  A story I submitted in late June as an attachment that was lost in electronic transit to her mailbox has been found and will be included in the upcoming Static Movement anthology Beneath the Waves.  Entitled "Currents in a Superheroine's Career," it chronicled scenes featuring a character from some of my other Professor Midnight Costumed Masked Mystery Man of Adventure (that last phrase is to keep my character from being confused with another literary character named Professor Midnight, a wizard) stories named Amphibia (Princess Athina of Kronos Island, a lost colony of Atlantis is the Bermuda Triangle's exact center out of phase with the rest of Earth).  The story showed her underwater heroic exploits with two different costumed hero teams and also the heroine's final moments before dying in 1994 as her son and his heroic allies battled an alien menace threatening Miami, Florida.  This will be the third story I've contributed to Beneath the Waves, the other two accepted earlier being "Escaping Kronos Island" (telling how Princess Athina came to the US in 1941) and "Toothsome Encounter off Matool Island" (involving a shape-shifting Atlantean from Kronos encountering a zombie and getting bitten while in the form of a shark).  It will be gratifying seeing all three of those stories in print once the anthology is published sometime next year (currently waiting its turn in the SM print queue).

Sad news for my stories from Static Movement.

Today I learned four of my stories to be published at the small press Static Movement have been returned to me  after two anthologies they were accepted for were closed due to lack of interest from enough contributing authors to continue those projects (in fact Editor/Publisher Chris Bartholomew closed four other unfinished anthologies with those two on September 5-6).  The first one (Fightin' Jack: A Horror History) would have contained three of my submissions - "The Night Fightin' Jack Petrov came to Town"" (a Jack Petrov Vampire Hunter story), "Quicksilver for a Speedy Vampire" (a tale about his grandson Jack Pike, another monster hunter) and "The Final Flight of the Fighting Jack Churchill" (a space opera tale about a 24th Century Earth starship and its crew facing overwhelming alien invaders).  In a second anthology (Carnivorous) I had one story accepted "Death from the Stars" involving a futuristic bounty hunter trio tracking an escaped alien carnivore across 23rd century northern Arizona.  Fortunately other stories of mine in additional anthologies should see print later this year, as will other projects from Static Movement wherein my stories will not appear.  I remain grateful for the exposure Chris Bartholomew has given me in the last few years and wish she and her publishing enterprise every success in 2013 and beyond.  I will be updating my short story publications page to reflect these changes soon, but am forced to use a local library computer currently to make any changes (my laptop and desktop both remain out of commission since July).

The reason for my elimination of the Previously Unpublished Stories section here.

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Frequent visitors here might or might not notice I eliminated one section here - my previously unpublished stories section started last year.  There is a good reason for this alteration.  Since I chose to include "An Awakening of Forgotten Shadows," "Far Flight of the Last Wyrm" and "The Avatar House on Eternity Road" in my new short story collection, it seemed strange to leave them all posted here as well.  I apologize for any irritation or inconvenience this decision may cause.  I also may have made some minor revisions to each story in editing the collection not found in the versions once published here.  So, each story once appearing here is now included with the baker's dozen of tales in The Orphaned Stories of John X. Grey (currently marked down from $11.99 to $10.35 at Amazon.com) released last month to minor sales I've sadly come to expect from the general indifference my work seems to get from the overall book buying public.  I also must eliminate one of the previously unpublished novel first chapters sections - the one for The Nightmare of Aarontown - since it has only this year been accepted (not yet contracted) for publication by Dark Moon Press after I had taken the 606-page manuscript, broke it into three parts and expanded it even further (now at 810 pages and 254,000 words in total for the three volumes).  It should appear I've been told in 2014 and 2015.

New at the Yahoo! Contributors Network for June 2013 - "Sister Helena versus the Visitor from Beyond Sepharata."

Since "The Blood Guardian" is getting some attention at Yahoo! Contributors Network, I've published a second story there.  This time around, it's something I wrote last year for submission to Sword & Sorceress #27 where it was rejected - the main character from my 2012 fantasy novel Sister Helena of the Sword appearing this time in "Sister Helena Versus the Visitor from Beyond Sepharata" that takes place 12 years after the novel.  In this tale, the warrior nun and her bodyguard knights investigate a small village where no communication has left in recent weeks.  Once there, they discover everyone has died in the village, the local vegetation withering and a lack of animals around the woods, and soon the reason for this strange condition.  The story is now available at YCN.  Thanks to every visitor at Yahoo! Contributors Network for checking out "The Blood Guardian."  I hope some of you and others will read "Sister Helena versus the Visitor from Beyond Sepharata."  I should mention that a modified form of this story will become the basis of a prologue chapter in the future sequel to Sister Helena of the Sword, entitled Sister Lara the Redeemer saves the World, since that novel will involve the same extraterrestrial threat from the short story decades later fought by Helena's granddaughter.

I will publish some original stories at Yahoo's Contributors Network for people to view.  In May the first story of mine there is "Blood Guardian."

Greetings, folks and various visitors to this front page.  At the suggestion of a high school classmate and fellow writer I have joined the Yahoo Contributors Network to publish some of my stories non-exclusively (meaning I can still reprint them elsewhere in the future) for web browsing parties potentially interested in my speculative fiction tales as reading entertainment.  Admittedly this route may not open up my works to any new readers, but with sales of my books stagnant after a brief surge for the new story collection announced below here, I figured there was nothing much to lose.  My first posting is a space opera vampire story first written back in 2010 and successfully submitted as an emergency replacement to one Static Movement anthology needing one more story after another writer pulled something already accepted during December 2010.  More than two years after that contracting and a delay in intended interior artwork, the project was cancelled and my story released.  Now, read for yourselves my tale about a female vampire's choice to fight against criminal elements to satisfy her blood hunger or leave with a trusted mentor for other worlds to feed upon in the 4,800-word piece "Blood Guardian."  Here is the page link for that story.

http://voices.yahoo.com/blood-guardian-12146183.html?cat=44

Hopefully I can publish additional stories for other folks reading enjoyment in coming months during 2013 at the rate of one new story per month.  We'll see how this works.  One small thing I need to mention about this new experiment in web publishing.  Although the content is free for anyone to view (so far as I know), I will receive $1.50 for each 1,000 visitors of web traffic that view the story.  Next month, I will consider publishing there my short story about a wizard's apprentice put to the test against a humanoid invasion entitled "The Ordeal."

The Orphaned Stories of John X. Grey is now available for sale at CreateSpace's e-store and Amazon.com for just $11.50.

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My first short story collection is finally available for sale at CreateSpace's e-store and Amazon.com .  At 172 pages the new paperback is on sale for $11.50.  It may eventually be available at other outlets and even in Kindle if I can afford some additional marketing opportunities.  It contains a baker's dozen of stories written between 2003 to more recently this year in the fantasy, horror and science-fiction genres I love dabbling with so much (plus two newer poems of mine never printed before in any book).  Each story was rejected at least three or more times by various anthology or magazine publishers over the years and as such I considered those unwanted pieces of fiction as my orphaned children seeking a home in print.  The links to the book's sales pages at Amazon.com and CreateSpace are included below and I hope my children (stories) find a good home with fans of science-fiction, fantasy or horror (often though my stories contain equal parts of one or more of those genres) out there in the crowded world of book publishing this spring and summer.  I hope the reading public shows some love and invites my previously unwanted offspring onto their bookshelves or reading lists in 2013.  I would appreciate the gesture.

https://www.createspace.com/4263063

http://www.amazon.com/Orphaned-Stories-John-X-Grey/dp/1484835417/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367577979&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Orphaned+Stories+of+John+X.+Grey

AUTHOR'S NOTE: As of May 8, 2013, this story collection is ranked 189,741 in sales at Amazon.com (it was ranked 150,588, 304,419 and 324,558 earlier in the same day).  Thanks to everyone who bought a copy and I hope my fictional offspring entertain your reading time successfully.

Two of my old monster hunting stories will appear again within the e-book omnibus anthology Both Barrels in 2013.

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As of today, St. Patrick's Day March 17, 2013, my two monster hunting stories from 2011, featured in Pill Hill Press' Leather, Denim & Silver: Legends of the Monster Hunter and The Trigger Reflex: Legends of the Monster Hunter 2 - "The Vampire Hunter's Requiem" and "Knocking them Dead" - will both appear in the new omnibus edition of stories from those two volumes to be released at the new Emby Press by editor/publisher Miles Boothe entitled Both Barrels as an electronic book.  When I know more about this project, the details will be added here, so stay tuned.  The preliminary cover appearance for the edition I've been shown is featured to the left, but this design may also be subject to change.

The cover for my first short story collection is completed.  I intend to release The Orphaned Stories of John X. Grey through CreateSpace later this year.

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To your left is the new front cover artwork for my first short story collection of thirteen tales that were each rejected by three or more publishers since I first wrote and tried marketing them.  Despite their rejection, I decided to release them collected together for other readers to decide their merit.  The genres featured are fantasy, horror and science-fiction, the tales often mixtures of two or more of those genres, featuring stories about alternate universes, dragons, extraterrestrials, forbidden or star-crossed lovers. humanoids and the undead.  I hope this 190-page story collection will find an audience for my shorter writings from 2002 - 2013.  Once the details are finalized, I will post additional news here.

One delaying factor to the project is that three of the intended stories are still submitted to different publishers - "A New Species of Undead" at the Wicked East Press anthology Hidden in the Basement, "Aftermath of The Becoming" at Science Fiction Press magazine and "One of our Authors is missing" at TQR magazine.  If those three editors do not want to publish my stories in their respective projects, I would certainly like to know before being forced to withdraw each submission.  Each publishing market listed is a paying publication - two professional rate and one token rate.  Id like to have the three stories published and receive money for them, but if that is not to be I won't have to replace them with alternative short fiction pieces.

Claws of T'birsk will soon appear in additional electronic formats for sale.

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I have recently learned from Dark Moon Press' publisher Corvis Nocturnum when sent an amended contract for my young adult horror novel Claws of T'birsk that there are plans to release it in additional electronic formats beyond Amazon.com's Kindle.  These formats will be Nook, iPad, Kobo and Sony formats sometime this year.  If and when I find out more about these additional releases of my novel, I'll pass on that information here

Claws of T'birsk is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and as a Kindle Edition!

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My newest horror novel with terrific cover artwork by Drake Mefestta is now available for the first time at Amazon.com, in addition to the General Horror category of books at Dark Moon Press its publisher.  I hope this doubling of websites that carry my young adult horror novel (about a young TV actress discovering her family's werewolf roots from 16th Century Russia while on a vacation and publicity trip unexpectedly detoured to rural south-central Alaska in the year 2000) will expand the potential sales.  If and when the title is available at Barnes & Noble, I will post the announcements here.  So, without any further ado, I now post the Amazon.com paperback book link page for this title below.  If you like a title with mystery, menace and murder befalling a group of nighttime TV drama actors on their junket into the Land of the Midnight Sun, with a bit of sex and romance mixed in, Claws of T'birsk might be the right horror novel for your frightening story pleasure (cover price $19.99).  It is also available at Amazon.com in a Kindle Edition for $9.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Claws-Tbrisk-John-X-Grey/dp/1479383708/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358743118&sr=1-1&keywords=Claws+of+T%27brisk

Here is the Kindle Edition's page.

http://www.amazon.com/Claws-of-Tbrisk-ebook/dp/B00ANMJ9JI/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1358743118&sr=1-1

Price Reduction on Sister Helena of the Sword - making all my self-published novels cost "less than $13.00 for 2013."

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Hello in 2013, everyone.  I've decided to lower the price of my most recent self-published novel (Sister Helena of the Sword) from $13.50 to $12.99 for the new year.  This reduction now means all my self published novels are all $13.00 or less at Amazon.com.  This new price change will take effect in a few days on the book's page, so I hope it will become a bit more attractive to the conscientious book buyer seeking bargains in these hard economic times.  The new cover is certainly an improvement on the first one until i can afford and find a professional-quality artist for realizing my vision on the cover (although the cover to the left isn't bad).

My other books remain at the same prices for now.  Worldjumpers is still $9.99, A Legacy of Blood is $11.99 and The Circle of Light will also be reduced to $12.99 - thus making all my paperback books on Amazon less than $13 (not counting shipping and handling) for 2013.  I intend releasing Sister Helena of the Sword on Kindle this year (probably around $2.99), so all you out there with the electronic reading pad from Amazon.com keep a look out for it if interested.

Now to get back to figuring out what I'll be releasing new for 2013.

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For 2013, I have changed the name of this site to The Many Worlds of John X. Grey for emphasizing my fiction writing career and deemphasizing my overblown opinions.

Greetings, visitor.  Today on December 22, 2012, I changed the name of this site to The Many Worlds of John X. Grey to give it a greater emphasis on the fiction writing I still dabble in with the hopes of realizing an actual career doing this as what I love as a life's labor.  I have also moved the Blog further down in order of my featured pages to subtly deemphasize my sometimes caustic opinion pieces that some have taken offense toward (two people even unfriending me at Facebook over something I wrote that condemned a mutual acquaintance and their friend that died eight years ago, but someone that emotionally wounded me twenty-six years in the past).  I will not cease writing such things on occasion, but will use this site to promote my ficiton work far more than highlight my overblown opinions to the world (that largely doesn't care what I think).  As to the "Many Worlds" label replacing the "Anti-Celebrity" label, I will continue to consider myself an Anti-Celebrity (since I still disdain the celebrity worshiping culture of modern America) along with being an Omega Male (refusing to be an Alpha leader or Beta follower, but instead an Omega loner) and a sometimes Natural Born Loser (due to the possible condition of Asperger's Syndrome).  I want 2013 to be better for John X. Grey than 2012 has proven.  Sure, I managed to get three novels published (The Circle of Light, Sister Helena of the Sword and Claws of T'birsk) this year, but produced fewer short stories and completed no new novels for the year, and gradually sank deeper and deeper into financial oblivion while working privately to breakthrough into mainstream writing success.  Every paid market I submitted to this year rejected my work, with few giving any exact explanation for why the stories were not suitable.  Last year I sold three stories at token paying markets from February to August, but this year that number dropped to zero.  The book covers I self-created are not eye-catching to anyone viewing them for the first time, and proved unable to create the ideas for those in my imagination or hire any talented artist to render what I wanted.  Some critical opinion has stated my writing is sometimes difficult for average readers to grasp with sentences that are too long and paragraphs of similar length.  I don't know how to correct these alleged shortcomings within my particular style.  It would probably take a skilled editor considerable effort to change this for the better, but no one's stepping up to volunteer for the position and I clearly cannot do it since my writing style may be the problem.  If these shortcomings cannot be changed and I cannot find someone in the publishing industry who likes my work enough to champion it within major publishers' circles - the definintion of a literary agent fits this - then John X. Grey may remain an unknown amateur writer who few readers ever read in his lifetime or beyond.

Claws of T'birsk now available at Dark Moon Press.

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Hi again, folks.  Good news I discovered today.  My werewolf horror novel set in rural Alaska, Claws of T'birsk, is now available from Dark Moon Press.  My werewolf's journey of discovery tale set in December 2000 tells the terrifying story of teenage TV actress Hayley Ann White (Krytchek) and her fellow cast members with others from the production going on a vacation/promotional junket to Alaska.  Sidetracked when headed from Anchorage to Fairbanks by a massive blizzard, the group finds shelter at a yet-to-open skiing lodge called the Wandering Wolf's Lair and its two local winter caretakers where the trip turns nightmarish.  It seems the local population in the nearby village of T'birsk (named for a 16th Century Russian village where the curse began) are werewolves, but not all of them have adjusted to modern living customs.  Hayley will see her fellow actors and other fellow travelers getting killed off one by one starting the first night spent at the lodge, and discover her estranged father's connection to the lodge and T'birsk as a powerful real estate mogul sharing the family curse dating back to 1581 Russia.  A tense thriller filled with occasional unexpected twists and turns, Claws of T'birsk can be found on Dark Moon Press' website in the General Horror category page for $19.99.  Dark Moon Editor/Publisher Corvus Nocturnum created the cover art and design depicted above.  Cruise on over to Dark Moon Press if you dare face the Claws of T'birsk and other horror selections for the Christmas season and beyond.  I'm sure you'll be glad you did.  Just click on the link below.

http://darkmoonpress.com/general-horor.html

Sister Helena of the Sword gets new cover artwork.

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A new cover will soon grace my first volume in the Sepharata Trilogy, Sister Helena of the Sword, and should be available in a few days for sale with the book manuscript.  Any Kindle edition must be delayed until 2013 with my current low financial circumstances, but I hope to have it available in that format eventually.  The Amazon.com page for this novel now shows the new cover, but CreateSpace indicates the new cover will be available soon (just not yet).

Additional Note: I learned today (11/24/2012) that another copy of this novel recently sold back in October over at Amazon.com.  My thanks to whoever the purchaser was and I hope you enjoy the adventure.  In addition to the Kindle edition for this book to come, I also hope to release Volume 2 of the fantasy series (Sister Catherine versus the Volcano People) in 2013 and eventually Volume 3 (Sister Lara the Redeemer saves the World) at some later point.

Sister Helena of the Sword now available at Barnes & Noble.

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I discovered today that my newest fantasy novel Sister Helena of the Sword (part one of the Sepharata Saga trilogy) is available at Barnes & Noble for $13.50 in paperback.  I will wait about releasing it as a Kindle at Amazon.com until deciding if the cover artwork needs changing to make the book more appealing to book buyers who judge their purchases based on superficial impressions.  I still need to find out how I get any titles of mine at B&N on Nook for sale.

The page for my novel at B&N can be reached by the following link.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sister-helena-of-the-sword-john-x-grey/1112480664?ean=9781478386582

And in case anyone is interested or has forgotten, my other three self-published paperbacks are also available at Barnes & Noble at these pages.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/worldjumpers-john-grey/1111420802?ean=9781463767570
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-legacy-of-blood-john-grey/1111580543?ean=9781466308152
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-circle-of-light-john-grey/1111035809?ean=9781475195712

I still haven't found out how to get them released there as Nook editions yet.

Sister Helena of the Sword, Volume One in the Sepharata Saga, is now available for sale at Amazon.com.

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Sister Helena of the Sword, Volume One of my Sepharata Saga Trilogy, is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, a 290-page paperback at $13.50.  The unexpected adventures of a former delinquent misfit high school dropout from 1957 America, Evelyn Weiss is thrust by a cosmic lightning bolt striking her during a tornado-spawning thunderstorm into the strange primitive world of Sepharata in another universe.  There, she is captured by troops of the despotic ruler of Yuar, Saffron, and barely escapes death twice at that woman's order due to the Sword-Despotrix's hatred of Catholics as a 16th Century English Protestant.  Going to sea under the alias Helena Soror as a cabin maiden, our heroine faces various perils and ordeals aboard the Ambergris Wake, soon rising to become an officer after others are killed by a gigantic sea monster.  Later shipwrecked on a mysterious tropical island, Helena meets another American refugee there named Richard Cunningham sending her to the hidden southern polar citadel of the mysterious Magi.  Trained in body, mind and spirit by these advanced humans, Sister Helena then embarks on her God-given mission to bring His teachings from Earth to Sepharata, but must first raise a holy army from divided nations of the Magarus continent by demonstrating supernatural miracles and lead this force against Yuar and its capital citadel Rayak to the northwest, confronting Saffron in the ancient single combat ritual known as the Grand Challenge of Blades.

The eventual follow up volumes to this fantasy epic currently have the working titles Sister Catherine versus the Volcano People, featuring Helena's only daughter Shirley Maygard (Sister Catherine) searching for her missing mother across a dense jungle interior west of the Jafian Coast only to run afoul of an Aztek/Mayan-like empire complete with human sacrifices that subjugates neighboring tribes, and Sister Lara the Redeemer saves the World, in which Helena's granddaughter Diana Grant (Sister Lara) returns to confront both apostate forces corrupting Sepharata's Church in its existence of a few decades on Magarus and a race of extraterrestrial shape shifters plotting to conquer humanity, those two forces sometimes working together against her.

I hope Other Worlds story fantasy fans will give my new story a look, enjoying the adventures and misadventures of Evelyn Lynn Weiss as she is gradually remade and transformed into Sister Helena of the Sword.  I should also mention I would be spurred into completing the succeeding novels more quickly if the first volume meets with great and unexpected success.  Any reviews (even negative ones - I'm a big boy at 44 and can take it, even when anxiously gripping the armrests of my chair while reading them) for my books are always appreciated over at Amazon.com.  Here is the Amazon.com link to the book's page.  The front cover is also featured below in the slideshow.

http://www.amazon.com/Sister-Helena-Sword-Sepharata-Volume/dp/1478386584/ref=lh_ni_t

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