The writings and worlds of Robert J. McCarter.
I recently submitted a new story to Romance for All Seasons , a publication I’ve been very happy to have stories appear in lately. Today I want to talk a little about the story I submitted (no spoilers, of course) and how I used AI for this story. For those not in the writing community, AI is a rather hot topic in terms of how it is used, what the moral implications are, and what it is useful for.…
My Story of the Month program has launched! Here's the deal: once a month I'll post a short story of mine for free here on my website. The catch? It will only be available in its entirety for one week, so be sure to subscribe to my email newsletter so you know as soon as they are posted. This month's short story is "Shogun Dreams" . Here's the blurb: Modern master of multiple genres, Robert J.…
Looks like I did it again! I commited romance, contemporary romance. My story, "Live with Happiness" is out in Romance for All Seasons: Sunkissed Summer . This beach read of a story is about a heart broken romance writer who can't finish his beach read novel, The Girl of Summer (yes, it gets a bit meta, there is a story within a story). This story takes place in the town of Kihei on the island of…
Back when Volume 3 of Woody and June versus the Apocalypse came out, I did a Kickstarter that had some Woody and June merchandise that was only available through that Kickstarter. Well, to make a long story short, the print-on-demand vendor, Printful, has made it easy to set up a little store, so the Woody and June merch is now available again at woody-and-june.printful.me ! Very fun! Pictured is…
Looking at the 2024 version of this post and reflecting on 2025, a theme is emerging: life is unpredictable and this has an effect on my ability to get stories out to you all. I'm in the middle of a huge transition (which I will leave at that for now) which explains why it's so deep into the year before I got to this post. In any case, here are the stories of mine, short and long, that came out in…
Spring is almost here! And along with it, Romance for All Seasons: Spring Fling , an anthology of spring romances including my story "Charly with a Y and Wendi with an I." Just like with the last issue of Romance of All Seasons , I'm delighted to have landed a contemporary romance story alongside a bunch of amazing writers! This story, as you might be able to tell from the title, is all about the…
Today, a very different kind of holiday anthology came out. A Dark and Stormy Holiday features my story "What it Takes to Make it In Hollywood." Lyn Worthen, the editor of the book, said "What it Takes to Make it In Hollywood" is a "deliciously convoluted tale." And it is. It's about a man waking up in a snowstorm not knowing where he is, followed by the discovery of a dead body and his arrest.…
I've written a lot of holiday stories over the last five years and this year I've got a bunch of them for you. Not only did my holiday collection, Winter Wonders: Twelve Magical Holiday Stories , get released, but now my short story "A Major Christmas Eve" has been published in Romance for All Seasons: Winter Warmth . I must say I'm pretty delighted to be in this anthology for a bunch of reasons,…
I love to write short stories, especially for a themed anthology. The restrictions (theme, content, length, and time) all funnel the creative energy in lovely ways. But that's not the best part. The best part is the needs of the anthology pushes my writing in new directions and I end up with stories I would never have otherwise. My new collection, Winter Wonders: Twelve Magical Holiday Stories is…
Welcome to the spooky season! Fall is here and along with it one of the best holidays of the year, Halloween! This year, I get to celebrate it by being in a story bundle (this is where a group of similarly themed ebooks are bundled together for a low price)! My novel Shuffled Off: A Ghost's Memoir, Book 1 is part of The Ghosts and Hauntings Bundle . For those of you not familiar, Shuffled Off is a…
Conner Bright is a fun character to write. He's my version of a classic private detective with the obligatory troubled past and problem with alcohol, he's also another one of my Arizona-based characters, but there's quite a bit more to Conner. He's an Arizona native but looks like and talks like he's from the Australian Outback hiding in plain sight from his traumatic past. And although these…
Today is a big day for my Arizona private detective, Conner Bright! With the release of The Devil You Know , the promise of this crazy character really pays off! Conner is my version of your classic private detective. He's got a troubled past, no money, a problem with alcohol, and the world never seems to give him a break. But there's more. Conner hides in plain sight in his native Arizona by…
My story, "Writing Until the End," is making its second appearance in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #39 I sure do love it when a story of mine gets reprinted! Why? Well, when more than one editor says "yes" to a story and then writes you a check to publish it, that has weight, especially with a story that is as weirdly personal as this one. If you read "Writing Until the End" you won't learn a…
Today my story "Haunted by the Past" is out! This is one of my Conner Bright stories and the first of three Conner Bright releases this year (or four if you count the collection another story will appear in). That makes this the year of Conner Bright. I've been writing about Conner for over ten years so it's about time he got some focus. "Haunted by the Past" is a short story and cronologically…
Since The Blood of Carterville came out in 2020, Return to Carterville is the story I've been waiting to tell. You see, in The Blood of Carterville I exiled the protaganist, Henry Carter, from the town that bore his name and I did it in such a way that returning was never, ever going to be simple or easy. Given this fascinating small town full of quirky powers and the curious characters, I went…
Things happened in 2024, including a death in the family, health issues that needed to be tended to, and a very busy day-job. Because of all this, 2024 wasn't the story year I had planned for, which is, honestly, not surprising. Plans are guesses and my plans got me much further than I would have gotten otherwise. So, here are the stories of mine, short and long, that came out in 2024. You can see…
Finding Time: 12 Meticulously Crafted Time Travel Stories is my latest short story collection, one I had so much fun putting together, but because of the vagaries of life it's taken me over a month to officially announce it here. Why? Well, I'm not going to say much except that there was a sudden death in my family and the last thing I wanted to do was to talk about a new book. I needed a breath,…
This is the sixth year WMG Publishing has done the Holiday Spectacular and the third year I've had a story in it. So what is the Holiday Spectacular ? It's a program where for 35 days from Thanksgiving to January 1st, they will email you a brand-new holiday-themed short story. It is, basically, an advent calendar filled with holiday stories. If you like the winter holidays and you like short…
I've been spending a lot of time in Carterville lately getting two new books ready for this year! The first, Faces of Carterville , is out today! This book is a little different than the other Carterville books. First off, is it doesn't take place in Carterville! Note the subtitle is "A Henry Carter Mystery" not "A Carterville Mystery." If you read The Blood of Carterville then you'll have a good…
Let me tell you a story, about a series of stories that wasn’t meant to be more than a single story. (I’m a writer writing about writing, it’s bound to get a get a bit meta.) When I wrote a little story called Woody and June versus the Wannabe Warlord , I was doing two things: having fun; and training for a what I called my “ short story marathon .” Going quick is often useful as a writer.…