Bait Dog

Bait Dog is here.

Let’s just get your procurement options out on the table.

Or, buy direct using the link below. I’ll send you the files directly if you buy in this fashion, and you’ll get all three versions — PDF, MOBI, and EPUB. I try to send quickly, but PayPal can be slow to send out notifications, so give me 24 hours before you come knocking at my digital door. (But, if you don’t get the files by then, do come knocking. Contact form above will do you right.)

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Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…

The Book Itself

“If you like very human protagonists who kick ass, if you want to see true evil punished, if you love your pets, Bait Dog is for you. Know going in that it’s going to hurt. Remember that the hurt will be worth it. Take a deep breath, and dive in.” — from Josh Loomis’ review at his blog (click here to read the rest).

This book contains both the novella Shotgun Gravy as well as the follow-up novel, Bait Dog. Total size, if that’s a thing that matters to you, is around 90k — 25k for the novella, 65k for the novel.

The novel features the continuing adventures of our troubled teen protagonist — a little bit vigilante, a little bit detective — Atlanta Burns. It’s about how, by trying to avoid solving her friend’s murder, she runs head-first into it. It’s about how looking into the death of a sweet little dog she exposes a dog-fighting ring. It’s about companionship and sacrifice. It’s about the wrong way to a right thing.

It was a hard book to write.

Not hard in the day-to-day. In that, the words came fast and plentiful. But the subject matter is tough stuff. I don’t know much about the value of trigger warnings, but this book probably has ’em, so be warned.

It tackles rough stuff. Dog-fighting ain’t pretty. Bullying is awful. White supremacy is an epidemic. Gay rights and being a teen and being a girl and violence and abuse and —

Well. It’s a kettle set to boil over.

Though, I tried to find hope in here, too. And humor. Always humor. I think a book like this needs that lightness. Flinty humor and awkward situations. From Shane and his flea market katana to Atlanta’s mother trying to cook when she damn well shouldn’t to Whitey and his — well, I guess I’ll let you meet Whitey all on your own. But I love Whitey. I love Whitey with all my heart.

This is a book I love deeply, featuring characters I feel strongly about for good and for bad. I don’t know that it’s a good book but it’s the book I wrote and I’m damn glad I wrote it.

This is also my first attempt at putting novel-length fiction up in the self-publishing space. The book was, to my mind, a raging success on Kickstarter — it was 100% funded in under 10 hours, and ended up scoring over 200% in its funding by the end of its run. I hope it’ll do well out there. We’ll see, I guess.

Point is, I hope you’ll take a look.