Writing Updates

1/28/19 Recently, I finished the first draft of my next project, and sent it off to a trusted friend and author to provide beta level feedback.  Unless you've been through this process, you probably wouldn't understand the anxiety that accompanies receiving such feedback, and how it affects the author and the final product, so I'll try to explain. My manuscript, the one that I thought needed nothing more than spelling, grammar and a little polish here and there, needed more than that. My beta reader had identified some real issues. There were inconsistencies in my characters, as well as some chapters lacked conflict and the humor was uneven, and some pieces fell flat. By the gods! This is my baby , and it is supposed to be perfect ! Clearly he just missed the genius of my writing and this is all a mistake, right? That was my first thought, and I had a bit of a defiant attitude for an hour or so. After further thought, I realized I hadn't thanked

Currently, I'm about a little over a third of the way done with what will begin a new series. I'm not ready to divulge too much about that series yet, but I will say a little: It's Space Opera and I'm having a blast writing it! Once that is done and off to my alpha readers, I'm getting back to work on book 3 in the Black Swan Planet series, "Black Swan Empire." I have a little done on it, but after spending months writing Raka's saga, it was time for me to "see someone else" for a bit :-) It seems that rarely a day goes by that I don't think of some idea that I think I should write a book about, so in no particular order are a few "back burner" projects that may or may not ever see the light of day: "Stardust to Stardust" - a follow-up short story to "Carbon to Carbon" following Aegis on his next adventure "Group Therapy" - a comedy story about a stressed out fellow and his adventures in a s

To celebrate its release, I'm giving away 10 copies of Black Swan Antithesis on Kindle! See this #AmazonGiveaway for a chance to win: Black Swan Antithesis: Book 2 of the Black Swan Planet Trilogy (Kindle Edition).   https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/ 19377f4ee566dd08   NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  Official Rules   http://amzn.to/GArules .

Pins and Needles. The Kindle version of Book 2 in the Black Swan Planet trilogy, "Black Swan Antithesis" is on pre-sale currently, for delivery on Aug 24th. It can be found here: http://a.co/d/fWiOY0y  Paperback and Audible versions will follow. It's taken approximately one year from start to finish, and while it was a blast to write, I'd be lying to say that everything about the process is all rainbows and unicorns. I love to write, but working on cover designs, promotions, etc. are not what I live for. Don't get me wrong, I love being an author! But there is always a bit of dread when I get a manuscript back marked up from an advanced reader, editor or proofer. Also, I know no matter how many eyes we get on the book, there's going to be at least a few mistakes able to slip through the cracks. Multiply that by a thousand when you pull the trigger to start the sales. What if this book gets bad reviews? What if the success of book one was just a fluk

Recently, I finished my first draft of "Black Swan Antithesis", the sequel to "Black Swan Planet." Now I find myself in a peculiar situation that only authors will understand - I'm the only person in the world who knows this story. Sure, I have beta readers started on it, and am getting feedback as they make progress, but there's nobody for me to share an inside joke with who knows the entire plot. I found myself at wit's end, not sure what to do with myself while I'm waiting. So I created a video to promote the first book - which you can find here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFf1rUZLiY0 While that was fun, it kept me busy for a few hours. So I did what I knew I needed to do, and I began book 3 in the trilogy, "Black Swan Empire." And now I have new characters that nobody will know for a long, long time. But I have to write, and the more I get done now while I'm waiting for others is bonus, or "dual processing" as

"Gimme back my bullets" If you grew up in the 70's, you're probably familiar with the Lynyrd Skynyrd song of that title, but you may not know what it referenced, and might have thought it was about literal bullets being fired from a gun and the singer wanting you to return them to him, adding insult to injury perhaps?   Billboard magazine tracked song popularity, and when a song moved quickly up the charts, they would print an icon of a bullet next to it, so a disc jockey might say "This is song number 20 with a bullet, rising fifteen spots in this week's polls." Lynyrd Skynyrd wanted to feel the rush of having songs climbing fast in the charts, thus writing that song. Being an author on Amazon, I get a similar sense of rush when I see I'm rising in the ratings. As I write this, my author rank is 72,769; which means that is precisely how many other authors are more popular than I am on Amazon, as of this instant. Their handy chart g