The copy edits for CURSE and RAVELER are finished. The artist has also begun working on the cover for RAVELER.
The next task is to review and add anything necessary to make the ending of CURSE and the beginning of RAVELER work in their new roles.
And then it’s pub time. Getting very close now, folks.
Servant of a Dark God in Paperback, Tuesday, November 2!
For those of you who have been waiting for the cheaper version — Be happy, pre-order the book today! Alternatively, you may vote in the national elections then immediately reward yourself for being such a responsible citizen! Or make someone else happy for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or some pagan solstice ritual with 624 AWARD-WINNING pages of thrilling ACTION, cool MONSTERS, wicked MAGIC, and a Ginzu KNIFE! (okay, so there’s no knife, but the book does feature the most awesome weapons ever; I’m talking about the three living silver spikes called Hag’s Teeth). Whoever gets this book will love you forever*. Book info in the Fiction part of my site.
*tested on a statistically valid sample of gerbils, hamsters, and various other intelligent rodents who all cheered with wild delight at the reading and then asked for more peanuts and crackers
Yes, it’s goofy GIF worthy. It’s time to party.
Holy cow.
HOLY COW!
The beast is finally finished. Now I send it to my copy editor to brush a bit off here, comb a few strands of hair back, and shine a few buttons there.
It is done.
This means release is weeks away.
I will be announcing an early bird sale to those who have signed up for the Good Stuff Notification. If you want to be sure to get in on that sale, sign up at the top of the left sidebar.
Wahooooooo!
I just turned in my final story edits to Stacy and David. The due date was November 1. The 3rd actually. The book clocks in around 177,000 words.
Wow. This last set of story edits led to some great changes. Not huge ones, but nice touches. I had to rewrite part of this battle scene, and man, oh, man I’m totally geeking out about it. We’ll see how it plays with readers.
What’s been interesting is seeing the types of things Stacy and David have commented on in the text. It’s as if they went through asking simple logic questions. Did they have enough time actually to do this? It makes no sense that person y wasn’t there. This thing isn’t fully explained.
And sure enough, the logic gaps were there.
So it wasn’t the interest level of the story they seemed to be editing for as much as the details that lead to clarity and belief. Of course, that those two things must be present for the interest to come. And this is not to say they didn’t focus on parts where interest flagged. There was one comment that forced me to cut my favorite dawg scene, a whole chapter’s worth. But the bulk of the comments were focused on the “logic” of the story.
Anyway, as of next Monday I think I’m officially into production. And back to book 2, which I’m 25,000 words into.
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, mistakes make their ways into the text. Omissions are common. For example, a missing “the” or “of” can be hard to see; your magical mind just fills these tiny words in.
Some omissions are hilarious. I was editing Raveler a few days ago and ran across a howler that made me laugh and laugh.
In one scene Shim is angry about the Bone Faces. When he sees their ships, I meant to have him exclaim with some indignation that they were “Coming to plunder under our noses while we’re tied up here.”
What I wrote was “Coming to plunder our noses while we’re tied up here,” which is a different type of threat altogether.
And then there are the aaarg! omissions. Like leaving the names of awesome folks who provided valuable input out of your acknowledgements. (Head smack!)
Yes, I’m guilty of such an idiocy.
I’m very recently guilty. Like, today guilty.
The good thing about indie publishing is that I can make changes and upload them immediately. I have already fixed the ebooks. The big paperbacks will be fixed on Monday. But these folks deserve better. To make amends, I’m going to spotlight them here, right now, for all posterity.
For excellent feedback on the full manuscript, I want to thank Stephen and Liesl Nelson.
A few years ago, I posted on this website, asking if anyone would be willing to read and report their response to a beginning I wanted to test. These folks stepped up and responded in grand fashion, helping me make the beginning better.
Adam Teachout
Alexis Cooper
Cameron Wilson
David West
Eric Allen
Hyrum Grissom
Justin Fisher
Krista Hoeppner Leahy
Laurel Amberdine
Lindsey Tolis
Mark Holt
Martin Cahill
Melanie Goldmund
Merrill Nielson
Nick Dianatkhah
Ray Solomon
Wes Amodt
All of you rock. And may the Bone Faces never come to plunder your noses.
The very observant will note that the progress bar for draf 4 of CURSE OF A DARK GOD has moved. Here’s the opening, although I’m sure it will change. We’re on our way, folks.
It was well past midnight, and they were deep in enemy Fir-Noy territory. There were eight of them: Talen, Sugar, River, and five of Shim’s soldiers, all of them staying back in the deep moon shadows at the edge of the wood, crouching low in the dry autumn weeds that had not yet been eaten down by the village livestock. They had to be careful. Talen, Sugar, and River all had sizeable Fir-Noy bounties on their heads. And even though they wore weaves of might, being multiplied didn’t make their flesh impervious to arrows and blades.
This vulnerability had been made abundantly clear to Talen in his training. In addition to his many fine bruises and the finger which had recently healed from a break, he wore a bandage around his arm where a soldier had cut him in practice two days ago with a spear.
The night shadows of the clouds played over the moonlit fields and houses and road that ran through the village of Plum. The village where Sugar’s father had been killed and her mother taken and beaten. The village where the Fir-Noy had burned her life to the ground. The village that was their destination.
Purity, Sugar’s mother, had hidden valuables there. Weaves and maybe a codex of lore. Talen and the others had been tasked to steal into the village and retrieve the items, right under the noses of the sleeping Fir-Noy.
Except this wasn’t right. They were supposed to have come out across from the ash ruins of Sugar’s old house. “I think you’ve brought us to the wrong end,” Talen whispered to Sugar.
“No, I’m just coming to get what’s mine first.” Sugar pointed up the road to the entrance of the village.
Talen followed her finger. The Fir-Noy here had begun to build a wall around their village. A wooden palisade atop a mound of dirt. But she wasn’t pointing at the half-finished wall with its timber supports still showing like bones. She was pointing at a tall pole that had been erected at the gate of the village. Something had been fastened to the top of the pole. Talen peered closer and saw a skull shining pale in the moonlight.
“That’s your father’s, isn’t it?”
“You’re going to help me,” she said. “He deserves better than that.”
I’ll be signing September 25 with a whole bunch of other SFF authors. Come by and say hello.
| Saturday, September 25, 11 am – 1 pm | Book Signing | West Jordan, UT | Super Writers of the Universe and Friends from Sector Five Radio, AM 630 K-talk. 10 SFF authors, including me, Tracy Hickman, Dave Farland, Howard Tayler, Larry Correia, and Eric James Stone.
Barnes & Noble – Jordan Landing 7157 Plaza Center Drive West Jordan, UT 84084 801-282-1324 |
| Saturday, September 25, 3 pm – 5 pm | Book Signing | Murray, UT | Super Writers of the Universe and Friends Same 10 authors, but this time at Borders
132 East Winchester Murray, UT 84107 |
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Do you know if your website host provider has been having problems?
Several times in the past few days when I have tried to access your site (looking for news on the release of Curse), it has been offline. Then a few hours later it will be back up.
I noticed something yesterday, but haven’t see it other days. I’ll keep an eye on it.