Storms and Built are in the Race

Both Storms on an Opal Sea and Built for Murder appear to be near the end of their final editing phase. If so, there’s a good chance that both will be released within a short time of their completion. Not sure how I feel about that but its not something I can ignore.

Since Built for Murder is a novel I’ve decided that it will get precedence over the short story. Yes, Storms has been years longer in the writing but the release of my first novel length manuscript definitely outweighs the release of a short story, any day.

Storms has been getting some great critiques with lots of useful suggestions and comment which I plan to implement. When that’s done I should end up with my best written and strongest short story I’ve ever released. I hope you think so as well.

So, the current plan is to release Built for Murder at the end of May and follow it in a couple of weeks with Storms in June.

Also, Alexiandrölarn will soon go under the alpha viewers knives and I expect to improve as well.

We’re getting so close, I just can’t wait.

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Wouldn’t You Know It?

Barely 5 days after declaring the manuscript for Built for Murder golden I’m getting feedback from a beta reader with a host of excellent comments. It was not something I planned but its happened and now I’ll deal with it. That means I’ll review the edits, the comments, the suggestions, and overall feedback to make the story stronger and easier to read. To do less would lessen the story readers will encounter, and I don’t want that, not at all.

Therefore I’m delaying the publication of BfM for at least 30 days to make sure I can receive and integrate all the new feedback into the manuscript to make it the best it can be. So, right now I’m thinking late May will be when it’s ready for release. If the feedback comes in sooner then I’ll release it sooner.

The good thing is, the book is being self-published so there is no real release date I have to hit to satisfy anyone other than myself. And I believe if I’m happy with the result then readers will be as well.

It’s a disappointment, no doubt about that. The manuscript has been under development for nearly 3 years and I was all ramped up to kick it out the door and see what kind of acceptance it would get. Now that’ll have to wait and I’m hoping the final-final will be even better than the golden version I have right now. So maybe golden-golden version? Or double-gold?

In the meantime, onto finishing Storms on an Opal Sea and the novella Alexiandrölarn.

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Built for Murder Is Now Golden

In software terms I now have the golden master ready for duplication and distribution. It’s the final version ready for customers to read and enjoy. Monday I completed the final chapters live read through to rid those last pesky chapters of any remaining bugs, IE, missing words, extra words, awkward sentences/paragraphs/and story, to make it read as smooth as possible. Tuesday I edited the manuscript with all the changes and am now ready to begin the production stage.

Built for Murder is the best fiction novel I can write at this time.

After decades of technical writing its taken a major shift in styles, approaches, and technique to move to writing fiction. A long learning experience I hope to improve even more as I continue writing.

I’ll be spending the rest of the week doing countless iterations of making the epubs for uploading. That means three different versions as no one can simply accept a standard epub formatted file without some changes to meet the distributors requirements.

Tuesday, April 30 is fast approaching and there’s still a lot of details to iron out. Wish me luck.

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Final Preparations, No Really

I hope to in one week be able to upload the final version of Built for Murder to Amazon, Apple Books, and Smashwords for pre-ordering sales. That is, give or take a day or two if everything works out. Still have some issues to resolve but we’re getting there.

Right now I’m doing a final read through of the manuscript, and by read through I mean I’m reading the text aloud and fixing any problems I find. After all the passes by myself and my dedicated beta-readers I was pretty sure we’d killed them all. But, like cockroaches they seem to survive hostile environments effortlessly. We’re slowly but surely eradicating them one-by-one. And don’t call me Shirley!

I also made a test pass through Amazon and Smashwords to ensure I was up to speed with the publishing process and for those distribution sites it looks fine. Apple Books OTOH refused to recognize my user ID to upload any new material. I can edit any previously uploaded stories just fine, just can’t add anything new to the mix. Guess I need to contact them and find out what’s going on if I want to be ready on the release date.

Beyond that there are numerous other projects being worked on. As previously mentioned, as soon as Built for Murder goes out the door I’ll begin prepping Storms on an Opal Sea to follow. Am also finishing the rewrite of Alexiandrolarn so it can follow Storms out the door later this summer.

Also working hard on Ramble’s book #2, Festival of Murder for a winter release. If I make that date it will be the quickest book I’ve ever written and released, coming in at maybe a year?

Finally, a new Young Hieronymus story called The Will of Sorcery is underway with a follow up already blocked out to write.

Man, it’s nice to have ideas and energy to get writing done. Cross your fingers I can keep this up, assuming my fingers don’t fall off from all the typing.

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