The 5th draft of Journey to Elara is finished, highly polished, and ready to send out to agents and editors for their consideration. I will be sending out the first queries this week.
More of my full attention can now turn to writing book two. I’m very excited about upcoming developments in the story and am looking forward to an intensive year of writing.
Some music brings happiness and joy, contentment and hope, but some music has dire consequences. And you must know that these consequences are madness and death. When Dylan McAllister finds a notebook hidden in a secret compartment of an old piano, he soon discovers a music that should never be heard by human ears.
I just finished the first draft today. This tale of horror returns to Auxerre, Wisconsin, a univeristy town which grows increasingly disturbing as more of its troubled history is revealed.
The fourth draft of Journey to Elara was finished before the holidays and I am now working on a readthrough for a fifth and more or less final draft. I have already turned large portions of my mind over to thinking about and planning for book two. With the editing finished, and a short story I’ve been working on soon to be done, I will start writing Dark Mage of Midgard by mid-January. I hope to have a first draft of that book by Christmas next year.
I just finished a 3rd draft. Feedback from readers so far has been glowing, and I’m excited to dive back in for another draft. I’m anticipating two more drafts at least for detailed line editing. I should have a polished manuscript by Christmas.
The 2nd draft of Journey to Elara has gone out to some brave and eager readers and I am anxiously awaiting to hear their verdict. Some early feedback has been very positive. My own editing continues as I work toward another draft of the manuscript.
With the 1st draft I was really focused on all the little things that needed to be fixed, continuity issues and such, not to mention spelling and typos. Now that a lot of those things are taken care of, I am really enjoying the 2nd draft. Hopefully my readers are enjoying it too.
The 2nd draft is finished. Along the way, the book was retitled Journey to Elara, and many continuity issues were cleared up. I now have basically a rough, readable draft that I will be showing around for some feedback.
I’m very excited about sharing the story with some readers as the work of editing and rewriting continues. Stay tuned for future updates. I hope to have a polished draft by January. After that starts the search for a good agent.
My story “Legend of the Crystal Robots” has been published in Issue #2 of Bill Rupp’s WORLDS APART. It appears alongside stories by such noted authors as Jay Lake, Michael Stone, and Shawn Madison. The magazine is available through the Continuum Science Fiction website. Make sure to select issue #2 when you order. I’m delighted to finally be able to share this story with readers.
Now that the story is in print, I want to thank Bill Rupp for sticking with me, and this story, for so long. I also want to thank Bill Rupp and Patricia Hartman for their comments, and for prompting me to rework the ending. It’s a better a story for it.
The editing process has begun. It’s a lot of fun at this point. I took a break after finishing the first draft so reading it now is like seeing something so familiar for the first time.
Editing is a long process and there will likely be several more drafts before the book is called done. But for now I’m just really enjoying the story and understanding how everything fits together from beginning to end. I keep having flashes of insight for Book 2 as well. There’s still so much to look forward to.
Now that the first draft of Heir to Elara is finished, I have a little time to devote to other projects before diving into the editing process.
I just finished a short story called “The Gathering.” It’s a horror story set in the increasingly disturbing locale of Auxerre, Wisconsin.
This is the story I forgot about a while back. I found it well worth finishing and am looking forward to sharing it with readers.
Auxerre, Wisconsin has a long history of being associated with witches, dating back to the famous Auxerre Township witchtrials of 1798. When local newspaper reporter Amanda Thomas investigates some strange events happening around the woods of Auxerre, she stumbles into the terrifying truth behind those storied legends.
I finished the first draft of Heir to Elara in a characteristic frenzy of end-game writing. Yesterday I wrote 3300 words over a span of about 10 hours, more or less locked in my windowless, closet-like writing room. But it was all worth it. I finished the last 1500 words this morning and printed out the 525 page manuscript.
If the ending is half as exciting to read as it was write, people will be in for a good ride. I’m thrilled with the way the climactic elements of the story unfolded, and of course about being finished with the first book of this planned trilogy.
I’m going to be taking a little vacation now, before getting into serious rewrites and editing. After that it will be on to writing book two: Dark Mage of Midgard.
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