CHALLENGE DONE!!!
I Did 75 Major Books in My 75th Year!!
And not one hint of AI on any of them. (Kind of sad I have to say that right up front.) I did every bit of this myself. Writing, covers, layout. Everything.
So here is how it all worked out.
- 38 Major ten-story collections. No duplicates on stories. (Collection name list is below under art.)
- 5 Detective’s Collide.
- 3 new Thunder Mountain 10-story collections. (Ready for a Kickstarter this spring.)
- 2 new Sky Tate 10-story collections.(Ready for a Kickstarter this coming year.)
- 14 complete revamps of Thunder Mountain novels, including all new covers, new interiors, and sales copy. (Ready for a Kickstarter this spring.)
- 8 revamp of writing books, including new covers and updated content and sales copy. (Kickstarter last spring.)
- 4 StoryBundle collections and exclusives (includes four collections and one writing book, all done in 2026.)
- 1 Mary Jo Collection. (For an older Kickstarter.)
75 major books, starting from November 10th, 2025 to now.
None of these are in hardback or paper yet. That and getting them all wide is my project, among other things in the coming year.
But of the 75 books, readers have already had a chance to read 33 of them. And with StoryBundles and Kickstarters, I have already made over $30,000 on this challenge. I expect that number to grow a lot in 2027 and then beyond.
THE PACING…
Last fall was still an ugly time for me and Kris. Still had a baseless lawsuit we were dealing with (judges words, not mine) and Steph was gone from WMG and Kris and I decided we were going back to doing it all ourselves. And wow did we both have a lot of learning curves (mostly in the details of things.)
So I only managed one collection for a Story Bundle in the first two months of the challenge and at that point discovered how really bad shape my short story organization was in. I managed eight more in the next two months and slowly picked up speed from there.
When I discovered that I would only end up with around 380 stories that I wanted to take into the future for the challenge, thus 38 books, I tackled the mess that was my favorite-to-write series, THUNDER MOUNTAIN. I redid and rebranded all 14 novels cover, and reworked the interiors and also this coming year will be putting all 14 in this cool hardback and paperback set, again all rebranded. Then I put together three original THUNDER MOUNTAIN collections and also put together two SKY TAKE collections for a different Kickstarter project.
Collections are not easy to do, especially when I would sometimes spend an hour or more looking for one story.
I am so glad this challenge is over. Far, far too much stress the last three months. But I hit it.
For those of you who might not remember, I did 70 books in my 70th year, but had employees at the time to help out. These 75 books I did it all.
So here is the image of all the covers and below that the list of the 38 collections. (They are not numbered except in my computer and here for ease.)
Thanks for watching.
List of 38 Ten-Story Collections
(As I said, some of these were out in special circumstances but none of them are out wide or on my store yet.)
TO GET A SENSE OF THE SIZE OF THIS CHALLENGE, THIS LIST OF BOOKS IS ABOUT HALF OF WHAT I DID…
1 MY SOCKS ROLLED DOWN and Nine Other Really Twisted Stories
2 THE ROAD BACK and Nine Other Really Strange Crime Stories
3 REMEMBER and Nine Other Time-Challenged Stories
4 SLEEPING WITH THE GODDESS and Nine Other Sort-of Fantasy Stories
5 A PINCH OF HOW ROSIE LIVED and Nine Other Twisted Fantasy Stories
6 THE MATCH and Nine Other Twisted SF Stories
7 EYES ON MY CARDS and Nine Other Strange Crime Stories
8 THE MOUTH THAT WALKED and Nine Other Strange Science Fiction Stories
9 THE WAITING OF THE WIND and Nine Other Really Whacky Fantasy Stories
10 MISS SMALLWOOD’S GOODIES and Nine Other Strange Mystery Stories
11 STAND FOR HOME and Nine Other Strange Science Fiction Stories
12 FOR THE BALANCE OF A HEART and Nine Other Twisted Fantasy Stories
13 THE ATLANTIS FIFTY and Nine Other Twisted Science Fiction Stories
14 PLAYING IN THE STREET and Nine Other Twisted Science Fiction Stories
15 THE REMARKABLE WAY SHE DIED and Nine Other Gripping Mystery Stories
16 TO REMEMBER A SINGLE MINUTE and Nine Other Unique Science Fiction Stories
17 SHADOW IN THE CITY and Nine Other Unique Science Fiction Stories
18 LET’S DANCE and Nine Other Unique Science Fiction Stories
19 HIDDEN BOX INN AND CASINO and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
20 DELIGHTFULLY DIZZY and Nine Other Twisted Fantasy Stories
21 ENOUGH TIME and Nine Other Time-Focused SF Stories
22 EVERYTHING GOT COLDER and Nine Other Twisted Science Fiction Stories
23 TO SURVIVE THE TREASURE and Nine Other Strange Science Fiction Stories
24 A MARBLE FOR SHERRIE and Nine Other Strange Science Fiction Stories
25 AN IMMORTALITY OF SORTS and Nine Other Strange Science Fiction Stories
26 A LONG WAY DOWN and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
27 IN THE DREAM OF MANY BODIES and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
28 THE PARK, THE YARD, AND OTHER COLD PLACES and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
29 WRONG TURN and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
30 A SONG FOR THE OLD MEMORY and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
31 AA LADY IN HEAT and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
32 DEATH STOPS FOR THE NIGHT and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
33 A ROOM WITHOUT A REASON and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
34 A MENUE OF MEMORY and Nine Other Twisted Fantasy Stories
35 GHOST MAKER and Nine Other Twisted Fantasy Stories
36 THE REAL SHAPE OF DEATH and Nine Other Twisted Mystery Stories
37 ONE LAST DANCE and Nine other Fantasy and Science Fiction Stories
38 A GHOST IN TIME and Nine other Fantasy and Science Fiction Stories