Category Archives: Writing

I was a Three Black Cats Featured Author!

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I’m a little late on this announcement, but I’m happy to share that I was a Featured Author at the Three Black Cats store in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Three Black Cats is an excellent snarky gift store that started as an Etsy shop and has blown up as a prominent place with its own brick-and-mortar store. In addition to the great items they offer, such as wine tumblers, home decor, clothes, and more, they also display a Little Free Library and provide free books to patrons. This month, I was the featured author and gratefully donated copies of my books, business cards, and bookmarks to share with new readers.

I will admit, the owner of Three Black Cats is a long-time friend of mine, and she is generously giving exposure in her shop to indie authors like myself. I couldn’t be more grateful and appreciative of this opportunity!

I’m hoping this sparks some motivation in me to finish editing some of my new stories. I admit I have opened up the file for my in-progress May-December romance story, “Autumn Fire” and started editing it again. Fingers crossed!

Here are some of the displays from the Three Black Cats store. It makes me so happy that people have taken my books! I am also honored to be mentioned on their widely followed Instagram page.

I highly recommend you check out their Etsy shop. And if you’re in the Albuquerque area, please visit their store!

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

Deathly Ever After cover reveal

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In 2018, I worked with a small group of independent writers to put out an anthology called Spirits Abound: Ghostly Little Tales. It was a fun group experiment, but despite the joy of collaborating, we all became rather busy, and for me, who spearheaded the anthology, I just didn’t have the time to put together another one.

I contributed a short story called “Deathly Ever After”, which is a gripping horror story of which I’m quite proud.

In the coming months, I’ll release this story by itself as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. Here is the cover I created to launch the ebook. The story is still available in Spirits Abound: Ghostly Little Tales and it’s accompanied by some really great ghost stories. Of course, it’s free on Kindle Unlimited!

Deathly Ever After by HK Rowe

I will share the release date soon, and I hope everyone who has not yet read the story will read it if you love horror!

Also – I have some big news coming soon! Stay tuned. I’m hoping to update this blog more regularly.

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

And I sold my time to the devil at the crossroads…

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It’s been a while.

I confess that I have been doing less writing in the past couple of years than I’ve wanted. I’ve had grandiose plans to work on this Fury series and several smaller short stories, and time has just slipped away from me.

As a parent, I’ve had to make some sacrifices. My only child is now in school (and starting to read – proud mom here!), and I adopted yet another dog, so I have three fur babies, a husband, and a daughter to care for.

I’ve also spent the majority of my time advancing my career in the technology space, and I’ve done well for myself and my family. I love my job and constantly find the motivation to improve and grow.

I haven’t given up writing. I haven’t given up designing either. I dabble in fanfiction if I feel motivated. I still draw on my iPad in Procreate. I’m still voraciously reading and watching shows. I also jump on the spin bike or elliptical regularly.

Life is like that I guess. I don’t have any intention of giving up writing. I know that my stories are still there, waiting for me to share them. I plan on taking 2023 to plan my next goals, to stick to these goals, and do it again in 2024.

My current goals are to release two short stories this year as well as re-release an old story on Amazon. Updates coming soon.

I’m not dead, so that means I can still write. Hopefully soon!

Did You Know? I design my own covers!

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I’ve designed every cover of my stories. I’ve also done some covers for other authors too! I’m always open to working with indie authors for covers. I know that indie authors don’t have much money like traditional publishers working on their books. I have some flexible pricing when it comes to cover creation, but let’s get into that later.

I have over twenty years of graphic and web design experience, which is what I’m doing right now as my day job. I love writing, but I love my day job working on graphics and websites as well! And well, creating book covers, photo-manipulations and banners is one of my favorite hobbies.

Here are some of the covers I’ve done.

  • The Sinner and the Serpent: Tales of Lilith and Eve
  • Mod Fury – New urban fantasy series coming soon on Amazon!

And I’ve also worked with indie writer Rebecca Crunden. Her Outlands Pentalogy are some of my favorite covers.

The Outlands Pentalogy by Rebecca Crunden.

If you need some help with book cover design, please send me a comment! I’d love to help.

Cheers,

HK Rowe

Happy New Year! Here’s a Short Story – Promise to Keep

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Hello all! I hope you had a great new year. Welcome to 2022.

I didn’t meet my goal for NaNoWriMo, but I did get a lot of writing done, so I feel that it was an accomplishment. I’m hoping to write more in the coming new year.

A couple of years ago, I contributed to an indie anthology with some other writers. The story is called Promise to Keep, which is an urban fantasy/paranormal romance between a beat cop, who is also a mage, and her superior, the captain of the police force, and a werewolf. In this world, magical beings have lived a long time alongside humans in society. The two characters come out of a deadly situation and realize their feelings for each other.

The anthology recently was taken down from Amazon, something that had to do with Brexit, so I wanted to make the story available again by itself. I submitted it to Amazon yesterday, and it’s ready for purchase.

Of course, it’s free on Kindle Unlimited. The price will be going down in a couple of days due to its short format. Here is the beautiful cover!

A Promise to Keep by HK Rowe, a short story on Amazon.

If you have Goodreads, please add it there as well!

I hope you enjoy it! Have a wonderful new year and best wishes.

Please look forward to more story updates and reviews throughout the year.

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

NaNoWriMo – Day 2

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Cat editor says “Why aren’t you writing right now?”

I’m maintaining velocity on writing. I’m one chapter away from finishing a story, and then onto the next one. I’m determined to clear up a majority of WIPs so I’m hoping to keep up with it. I find that working at night is best, usually when the household is quiet and everyone is asleep.

I tried writing a bit during downtime at work, but I was too distracted. I don’t know, I feel a little guilty about writing during work hours.


3432 / 50000 words. 7% done!

NaNoWriMo 2021! IT BEGINS!

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nanowrimo.org

2064 / 50000 words. 4% done!

This year I’m finishing some WIPs. Some are fanfics, some are short stories, and another one is a longer fic that I just haven’t been able to finish. My goal is to FINISH what I’ve started. It’s hard for me to finish incomplete stories, so I’m hoping this year’s NaNoWriMo will help me change that habit.

Tonight I started writing! It was hard with a needy dog and a wild toddler vying for my attention, but I managed to get a healthy word count in. Yay!

Yay, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. I hope I can finish it. I haven’t been able to finish it for a while. I get started, but I never make the word count. It’s been even harder since I’ve become a mom, and I really miss writing so I hope this works out. Now that I work from home, I’m hoping to find writing time during downtime or slow periods and keep up a healthy cadence.

Is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year? Add me as a buddy and drop a comment below with your screen name and I’ll add you back. Mine is hkrowe.

Good luck with your writing!

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

Unbridled 2nd edition – Paperback version

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The second edition of my first book Unbridled is now available in paperback! It now has a new cover, new summary, and some much-needed polish.

Unbridled is still free on Kindle Unlimited.

You can get a paperback version for $10.99, priced lower than the previous version.

I hope you enjoy the new edition!

Unbridled – 2nd edition is available in paperback on Amazon!

I’ve you have a chance to read it, please leave a review at Goodreads and Amazon! Reviews are lifeblood for indie authors.

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

“Unbridled” Second Edition

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The second edition of Unbridled is available at Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Hey all!

My first book, Unbridled, has just been updated with a second edition for the Kindle eBook, and it includes a new cover as well. Current owners of this eBook can update it at their Amazon account, or if you have your update settings set for automatic, it should already be updated in your Kindle library.

The paperback is still in progress but will be updated soon. Right now the first edition paperback is unavailable. I am waiting on the proof to check over, and once I’m done with that, I’ll publish the new paperback version as well.

I’m extremely excited to publish this second edition because I was able to massage out some errors and issues, as well as create a brand new cover that I am much happier with than the previous two covers.

I hope this is a fitting end for Unbridled, and once the paperback version is available, I hope to take advantage of some new promotions and possibly a virtual book tour.

You may purchase the eBook now on Amazon. If you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, the story is free to read! Enjoy.

Cheers!

H.K. Rowe

“Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep Moving.” – Neil Gaiman.

Big Changes

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Holly says “Hello! And why aren’t you writing right now?”

I’m planning on several big changes for this site soon. There will be more sections added for reviews, articles, and other offerings. I plan on making this a little more active. It seems I say this and nothing happens, but I assure you it’s a lot of planning in my notebook and new posts will be coming soon as well as new stories and more insight and upcoming publications.

So far on the horizon you can expect:

  • Unbridled the second edition and new cover. I’m finishing up edits for this.
  • a camping themed short story
  • NaNoWriMo 2020 project – Hello, Professor – a new romance!
  • Articles on self-publishing, design and mindfulness
  • more reviews!

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these crazy times.

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe