Testing, testing. Is this thing on?
Okay, let’s get this over with. Doe’s anybody even read this dumbass self-serving crap? I mean, really, another “About the Author” page? They’re are millions of the things! Do people even care about this sh…
Wait, what? We’re LIVE?
Uh…hiiiii there, thriller readers! I’m Richard Freeland, and I write thrillers “with a bite”. But don’t let that scare you. Or, rather, DO let that scare you. Or let my BOOKS scare you.
Anyway…on with the show.
Got a new one out. The 5, a paranormal thriller. Kind of a “coming-or-age meets ghosts” story. Check it out right here.
And while you’re at it, take a gander at my short story compilation Equinox – Six Declinations, featuring a half-dozen stories of the macabre. Everything from horror to paranormal to fantasy with a little humor thrown in.
If you love short stories (and who doesn’t), take your pick from a myriad of stand-alone stories, most in the horror/thriller genres.
Curious about me? Here’s a brief (thankfully, very brief) send-up:
I’m a retired landscape architect (You rock, plants!)
I’ve worked in a factory weighing and trimming foam wing assemblies for radio-controlled aircraft. (“And there-in lies a horror tale in itself!” he exclaims ghoulishly. “It involves spiders. Black widow spiders. LOTS of black widow spiders.”) Hmmm…that just might make its way into a short story one day…
Did a stint in an electric motor laboratory, assembling and testing prototype electric motors (“Stress testing big motors in the wind tunnel was the best. When one of those babies failed and the giant fan came flying off, careening all over the room, it was total chaos.”)
And that’s enough drivel about my work history. Boring stuff. Hey, not ALL authors lead thrilling, adventurous lives.
Hmmm…what else? Oh, yeah
I’m an avid reader (or is that rabid?).
Got an A in creative writing in high school for an original short story (thinking back, maybe not THAT good. But, hey, we takes what we can get).
That tiny bit of ego-boost recognition was enough to unleash the writing beast (nobody mentioned all the dang rejections that would come my way).
Several of my short stories have appeared in online magazines such as “Fool Motley” (now defunct, and not to be confused with the financial website Motley Fool), and Dark Fire. And my short stories “Equinox” (horror), “Garbage Man” (paranormal) and “Anomalies” (humor/contemporary fantasy) were published in the premier editions of the fiction magazine “eFiction“.
So what do I do when not writing? Well, I’ll tell you.
I piddle around playing guitar and singing (some say caterwauling) at open mics.
Hike the Appalachian Trail and other single-track paths in the Georgia mountains with Martha, my better half.
Fly fish North Georgia and Smoky Mountain freestone streams with my two boys, Josh and Scott (“What’s that, boys? It’s more like playing at losing flies when I fish? Hey, now…”).
Write for my destination travel website Jekyll Island Family Adventures.
So what’s next on the ol’ fiction agenda?
Several new short stories coming up. Plant Life (more of a novella-length story); Malignant; and Legacy (a Western).
A novel I’ve been working on for awhile now, titled Seed. It’s an epic historical/paranormal/western/thriller (“My, how I like those cross-genre tomes.”). The idea germinated as a simple premise – if the werewolf legend was real, how might it have originated? So I wrote a short story to find out. And it morphed into a 180,000 word novel manuscript – which is now undergoing revision, cutting and polishing, to (hopefully) appear sometime soon, suitably trimmed to a proper, readable size, perfect for you avid (rabid) readers to clutch within your sticky fingers.
A new series. I’m doing world building for an upcoming paranormal thriller series featuring protagonist Macon Grant. Mac is one mean son-of-a-bitch. The introductory book is tentatively titled Ravager, and will be packed with action.
To paraphrase Poe’s “The Raven”…”Any more?”
Just that I live in Gainesville, Georgia with Martha and two finicky cats, Henry and Clarence. If I ain’t in Gainesville, you can find me relaxing on Jekyll Island, in Georgia’s Golden Isles (“My wife’s definition of ‘relaxing’ is seven days of biking, hiking, chasing wildlife, playing tennis, and doing physical torture-like stuff. Mine is reading a good book while lounging in the shade tucked into a plush rocking chair while working on lowering the liquid level in a pitcher of margaritas. Seems like Martha never got the memo.”).
Nough said about me. Mosey through the website. Check out my books. Here are a few places to start:
