Tales of the Macabre West is nearly published. We are in the home stretch. Right now, it looks like the official publish date of my first book will be sometime in October 2014 (just weeks away)!

I want to first thank my Beta Readers. Their feedback improved the book in some fabulous ways and their comments really made me push to do my best work yet.

In terms of the nuts & bolts, here’s where things are at. The book has been through final copy editing and the text is now locked down for printing.

What still needs to get done?

There are couple of last items that need to get completed:

Back cover design – I will post a cover reveal soon for the front cover but there is still some work to be done on the back cover layout and book blurb.

Print & eBook layout – fonts, margins, chapter markers, and layout details have to be finalized for both the print and eBook versions.

Illustrations – my talented brother, Bryant Hodson is doing illustrations for each of the five stories in the book. There’s still some last work to be done on those illustrations. Here’s a sneak-peek at the amazing illustration for “The Scarecrow” story.

Illustration of "The Scarecrow" story in Tales of the Macabre West

Illustration of “The Scarecrow” story in Tales of the Macabre West

All told, it’s getting close and I couldn’t be happier with how Tales of the Macabre West is turning out!