Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Coming Closer

It's getting close, so close I can almost taste it.

I'm talking, of course, about the imminent release of Consequences upon the screaming masses.

I know, I know. Screaming masses? Give me my fantasies, all right?

Anyway, I am currently about two-thirds of the way done with the final edits. Once I finish those, I get to complete the interior formatting for the print edition so I can lock the page count and get the correct template to my cover artist. Once she's done, I send it off to the person doing my eBook formatting, then it's ready to go.

I've already started the process with CreateSpace, which means the book now has an ISBN and ISBN-13. For those of you who just looked at those acronyms with utter confusion, it stands for International Standard Book Number, and is basically the number found in the UPC code on the back of every book released nowadays. Acquiring the number is an intent to publish, and gets the book listed (after the release date hits, of course) in the Books In Print database. Basically, having that number means I have a real, honest to goodness book on my hands. As Victor Frankenstein would say, "it's alive... alive!"

With all that being said, here's the kicker: a release date has been set, along with a backup.

If things go well (fingers crossed they do), it will be released on April 19, 2016 for Kindle and Paperback, with epub versions for Nook, iBooks, and the like on April 22, 2016. The backup dates are exactly one week later.

I do have an extreme backup date, in the event things get seriously fouled up along the way, but I'm not announcing it since I'm hoping I won't have to. If things look like I'll have to push it until then, I'll let you know.

But for now, let's focus on the good. Look for more announcements in the coming weeks as it gets closer to escaping my eager hands. There's lots still to do, but I'm closer now than I was when I sat down in front of that blank page back in July of last year.

I can wait a little longer.

I hope.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Back to the Grind

My week vacation from working on anything new seems to have done the trick, only now I'm having to get back in the habit of writing every night again.

I still managed to accomplish a couple of things, though, which was the point of the whole thing.

Hidden Hearts is about 3/4 of the way finished on the second draft. It's a little less than I'd hoped for - I'd wanted to get something completely edited - but it's still a good chunk that helped get me back on track with the editing. It's one of the harder second drafts I've done, since I didn't realize what a lot of the secrets that would be revealed at the end were until I was nearly ready to write them, so I've had to go back and make sure characters acted consistently all the way through and those secrets were properly foreshadowed. Still, I should be done with it in another week or so, even with working on new stuff again, so I'm happy with how it's turning out.

Consequences is creeping closer and closer to independent publication with each passing day. If things work out correctly, I should have the notes from my editor this weekend, and should get to see the first pass of the cover by sometime next week. Provided things continue on this smoothly, I should be announcing a concrete release date within the next month. It hasn't been easy, but I know it'll be worth it in the end.

I'm purposefully not saying anything about the new project yet (other than the working title, which is obvious since it's on the progress meter now), mainly because it's already taken a bit of a turn from what I originally envisioned and I'm not sure how many more of those lay ahead. Well, maybe not a turn so much as a clarification of concept, but either way, I'll tell more once the story's a little more formed on the page.

I still haven't heard the final word on Journal of Jeremy Todd yet, but everything I've gleaned indicates that I should know something in the next few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed, and let's hope it's a really exciting month ahead.

That's about it for now. I'll post again once I make myself have time to or when I have information about Consequences getting an official escape date or Sinister Grin gets back to me about Jeremy Todd. Keep on holding onto that faith in me, folks; hopefully it will be rewarded soon!