Pulse is one of my few stand-alone novels. It’s an urban fantasy set in Phoenix, and for the longest time, had the working title of ZOMGZOMBIES! Here’s the blurb:

When the call comes in the middle of the night — disturbing what had been a hot, sticky dream — Chris’s troubles should have been over. The bad guy who was responsible for a series of late night attacks is dead, the waiter a hero. Everything should have been over except for the paperwork. But the young waiter, Gregory, is the one who’s been making Chris’s dreams very hot and sticky. Gregory is on the run from a hypocritical television evangelist who removes the will of people and turns them into mindless slaves. He wants Gregory back – and he’s only getting stronger.

It’s been out of print for the last few years, and I’ve held back on re-releasing it myself, always meaning to go back and tighten up the climax of the story a bit. But really, I have so many other project on the go that it’s been on the to-do list for about four years now.

As a story, I love the atmosphere and magic in this world. The love interest had an instant presence the moment he was on the screen. It was my first falling in love story that took the course of the book instead of something that happened in the first chapter and then spent the rest of the time running and screaming. I’ve always had a weird fascination with TV preachers and their insane private greed and public humility, so this story let me explore that world and it’s something I’d love to come back to.

From a writing perspective, the thing I like most about Pulse is that it was my first attempt at laying the pipeline through the story as the main character and I found out who and what the big bad was and what the big bad wanted together. Throwaway lines in the beginning were extremely significant when I realized what the story was about at the 35 thousand word mark.

Then it was just a simple matter of finishing the rest of the book as though I’d always known what the antagonist wanted. Of course the beginning needed to be rewritten and I never did sew the two halves together, but I also learned even if you could sew the new beginning onto the old end, I’d be missing out. The new beginning lead to more interesting twists than just trying to save the old prose.

You can pick up a copy right now on Amazon.com/Amazon.ca  etc, etc, and Smashwords, and it should be showing up on other Smashwords affiliates like Barnes & Noble in the next few days–I’ll keep you posted!