Steven E. Wedel's Blog

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

That’s the opening sentence from Charles Dickens’ most biographical novel — and my personal favorite novel — David Copperfield. The thing about favorite novels is that you often reread them, and with each rereading comes better understanding and new insights.

Over the last decade, I have realized that I have not been living as the hero of my own life. Perso...

I am looking to begin a new adventure as the owner of a bookstore.

You may recall a few years ago I published a novel called The Lost Pages Bookstore. I think it’s probably my best story, and part of that is because the desire to run a store in a small town has been strong in me for a really long time.

Now is the time to make it a reality. The Lost Pages Bookstore LLC is a real thing. There’s a website, though at the moment it’s kind of in beta mode and mostly only has my own books listed ...

If you’ve been following along on the blog, you know I’ve declared 2026 an all-out campaign year.

February looked less like a glorious cavalry charge and more like digging trenches and stockpiling ammunition.

Books were released. Manuscripts were forged. Ads were tested (and paused). Newsletter lists were built. Strategies were refined. A few coins rattled into the coffers.

Not exactly a banner month.

But the war room is active.

What you don’t see here on the blog are the full...

Yesterday (Feb. 10) saw the publication of Wallacetown Reckoning, the fourth book in my ongoing Western series The Travels of Jacob Wolf.

Readers of the series will remember that in Book 3, Warhorse Trail, Jacob’s bounty hunter mentor Jerome Freeman retired from the trade to settle in Cherokee Territory with his Indian bride and raise horses, leaving Jacob as a lone rider. In this book, Jacob has made his way into eastern Colorado Territory, where he finds his reputation as a fast gun arrived...

In a couple of hours I’ll have a new bundled edition of the first three novellas in The Travels of Jacob Wolf series live on Amazon. The bundle includes:

You can get the ebook bundle for about 50 cents less than if you bought each book separately.

These three volumes trace young Jacob’s journey after his girl dumps him upon their arrival in San Antonio from their home in Kentucky. It follows his first gunfight and subsequent train...

Welcome to 2026!

As part of my Project: Assault on 2026, I’ve revived my dormant Patreon account. That is the only place I will be openly discussing my pen names and the books related to them.

I’ve set my membership tiers at low prices. You’ll be able to get pretty much everything for $1 a month. Every once in a while I might offer something special for the higher tier, which is only $2 per month.

I will continue to talk about all of my Steven E. Wedel releases and various other news on...

I entered the workforce at the age of 16. That was in 1982. I worked for the only McDonald’s Enid, Oklahoma, had at that time. I lasted three weeks, then moved on to another job. That’s 43 years of answering to someone else in order to make the money needed to survive. I’m tired of it.

I hate my job. I was manipulated and lied to and put into a position I specifically said I did not want. The stress is eating at me every day.

I should be able to retire after 43 years of working, but I was ...

I’ve been playing around with a couple of artificial intelligence tools lately. I know they’re not popular with writers, but they’re not going away, so I’m going to follow the lead of Joanna Penn and find an ethical way to use them. Mostly I’ve been using them for marketing when it comes to books. I’ve also used them — Primarily ChatGPT — for creative business plans for a bookstore I want to open and creating a plan that would allow me to hit a certain income goal with my writing/publishing/mark...

People ask me sometimes—why horror?

They ask it like I’ve made a strange, almost impolite choice. Like I could have written something nice. A romance. A cozy mystery. Something where the dog doesn’t die and everyone learns a heartwarming lesson by the end.

I’ve written books like that. But horror is where I began and horror is where I’m most comfortable.

Not because I like blood or shock or jump scares. Not because I want to disturb anyone...

Sometimes, a story grows out of a nightmare.

Other times, it starts with something quiet.

This one started on a dairy farm in Ripley, Oklahoma.

I loved my grandfathers. Mom’s dad encouraged my love of Westerns, teaching me to make a lasso and giving me a stack of ancient Old West magazines. Dad’s dad ran a farm and that was some kind of paradise for a young boy growing up in a small city.

Years after they were both gone, truths came out about both of these men. Devastating truths...