The Hope of Memory [Update 31] Rom Tar Released!

Finally, the day has come.  The Hope of Memory is complete.

The book is available in both trade paperback and Kindle formats.  The trade paperback is a buck more than previous volumes, unfortunately, since there are more pages.  The additional pages are partly due to the timeline and glossary I added, which the first two volumes don't have (I didn't feel they needed them yet, but with Rom Tar, it was definitely needed).

Anyways, this has taken much longer to complete than I expected, and I have a much greater respect for authors who create longer fantasy and sci-fi works... it's a bitch to keep everything organized and all the details consistent across books, even when it's only three books.

If you were waiting to read it until absolutely sure than the series would be finished... wait no more!  Go buy it!  I'm proud of how it turned out and hope people enjoy it.

Peace.

The Hope of Memory [Update 30] Rom Tar Finalized

It's been just over a year since my last The Hope of Memory update, and I'm pleased to announce that Rom Tar is essentially finalized!  I need to create the trade paperback proof and do one more read through of that, but that's it.  I'm happy with how it's come together.

I've been working on it since September 2013, and it's great to finally check it as done.  This book was very hard to write, because it's like building a whole new world and society on top of the one we're already familiar with from The Distant and Wilders.  And with the jumping around in time that the series does, I had to spend a lot of extra time on the details, making sure all the proper world building was done before feeling comfortable releasing it.

After eight official drafts, Rom Tar comes in at 171K words, making it the longest of the trilogy.  That doesn't include the extra 20K of background notes I put together, nor the detailed list of named characters (257) in the trilogy, nor the huge spreadsheet of the complete timeline (that also details events before and after the trilogy for context) I had to make in order to stay sane.

In no way am I comparing this to popular epics of our time, like Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire, but I have a much greater appreciation now, after writing this trilogy, of what those authors have had to deal with in terms of world details and keeping track of characters and events, etc.  I thought it was hard for just three books.

Anyway, Rom Tar should be out about two months from now.

Hop Limit

Part of why Rom Tar took so long to release, was that I took breaks here and there to write something else.  I have to do this occasionally, I can't focus on the same thing for such a long time without getting burned out.  It's best to step away and do something else for a while, then come back refreshed and ready to continue.

I've been writing a novel called Hop Limit, which is a standalone about the afterlife and the internet.  I'm at 138K words of what will probably end up being 180K total.  Much longer than I originally envisioned (wanted to stay under 100K), but with the way I write, sometimes the work takes on a life of its own, and I go where it leads me—which is always a better place.

The Hope of Memory [Update 29] Rom Tar Fourth Draft

Wanted to make a quick post to start the New Year, and provide an update.

Rom Tar

I finished the fourth draft of Rom Tar last month, after three months of hemming and hawing and making various edits from the copious "Things to Remember" list that I maintain as I edit and re-read the series.  I use this list to make sure details and events stay consistent across books.  Like when I re-read The Distant recently, there were some details I totally forgot about, and wanted to mention again in Rom Tar.  So I have my "Things to Remember" list for that.

I also spent a lot of the last two months fleshing out a huge timeline for events before and after The Hope of Memory, so that the additional history presented in Rom Tar makes sense, and to pave the way for future expansions of the story, if/when I decide to do that (looking more likely every day).

The fifth draft of Rom Tar will be my "audio" draft.  This is where I read the entire book out loud and correct wording and dialogue that sounds wrong.  I started doing this with Wilders and it's very helpful to identify those trouble spots.

I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo as I alluded to back in October.  It was more important to finish the fourth draft of Rom Tar.

A New Novel

However... I have started writing a new novel that has been brewing for the last year.  Enough of the outline and notes have been written, so I finally stopped putting it off and set finger to keyboard.  It will be a shorter novel, perhaps half of one of The Hope of Memory.  And I'm not writing this one longhand, I'm typing it up.

The book is called Hop Limit and it's about the afterlife.  I would like to try and publish this one professionally... might be a little easier to do so with this one versus The Hope of Memory.

The Hope of Memory [Update 28] World Notes

First off, all versions of The Distant and Wilders are available again.  All issues have been fixed.  Yay me.

Secondly, I'm still working on Rom Tar, of course, though it's slow going.  I have tons of notes on details that I wanted to add into the book, but I'm having trouble working some of them in without it sounding forced.  Others I've decided to not bother with (not important enough).  Hopefully I can get them all taken care of by the end of the month and move on to the next draft.  At that point the content will be set in stone.

World Notes

Thirdly, I've spent a lot of time during the last few months writing what I call "world notes."  Basically the additional history and background that I hadn't outlined prior to writing the trilogy.

Most of this content will not be in the trilogy, but it's important that it's all there so I know where everything has come from.  I'm also outlining what happens after the trilogy is over... that way I can work clues in now.  So that way if I ever decide to continue the story (not out of the realm of possibility), it will make sense in the context of everything else and not feel out of place or tacked on.

NaNoWriMo

And fourthly, I'm considering doing this for the first time.  If you don't know what that is, check here: http://nanowrimo.org/

I generally like getting a first draft done as soon as possible, and I'd really like to get a jump start on the next novel I have planned.  But I also want to get Rom Tar finished so I can move on for sure and not have some other thing hanging over my head.

So I'm still undecided.

The Hope of Memory [Update 27] Status Report

I haven't posted in a while... not that anyone has noticed.  This is more for my own records and transparency than anything else.  But I've been working a lot on Rom Tar, don't worry.

However, as I was re-reading The Distant to ensure Rom Tar was consistent with it, I realized that some parts are simply bad.  Like cringe-worthy, and it was pretty upsetting, considering I went over that book so many damn times.  I thought it was good, but apparently my writing and editing skills have actually progressed a lot in the last 3 years.  And perhaps that's part of the perils of self-editing, I don't know.

As such, I've removed The Distant and Wilders from purchase temporarily while I work through a "second edition" of The Distant.  So you can't buy them right now.  The Distant will get a second edition update.  Very little of the storyline will change - one minor scene will be cut, otherwise it's a lot of cosmetic and wording issues.  Wilders will be largely unchanged, aside from a few inserted details and some Kindle formatting issues.

I figure if I'm going to make an update, I might as well do it now to both, since I hardly sell any copies at all.

If you've bought the Kindle versions of those books, you'll get any updates automatically when I publish them.  If you got a trade paperback, then perhaps one day that old edition will be a collector's item.  If you provide me with proof you have a First Edition copy I will send you the Second Edition for free.

They should be available again very, very soon.  I'm working hard to get them done.  Kinda embarrassed I let The Distant sit out there for so long with these issues, but we all make mistakes, I guess.

EDIT: Both ebooks are back online.  :D  Trades unfortunately will be another two weeks, due to the proofing process.

The Hope of Memory [Update 26] Wilders Released!

It only took 2 1/2 years, but I've finally released Wilders, Book 2 of The Hope of Memory.  It's now available in trade paperback and eBook formats.

The trade is through CreateSpace.  It's available both through the CreateSpace site and Amazon (US and many of their international sites).  Here are the US links:

CreateSpace - Trade Paperback | $11.99
Amazon US - Trade Paperback | $11.99
Amazon US - Kindle eBook | $2.99

For the Amazon version, I've enabled most of their features, because I can.  The book has:

Matchbook = If you buy the Trade paperback, you can get the Kindle eBook for FREE
Kindle Lending Library = If you have Amazon Prime, you can borrow the eBook for FREE
Lending Enabled = You can lend your copy of the eBook to other users
KDP Select = Occasionally Amazon may offer the eBook for FREE for a limited time as part of a promotion
No DRM = I don't care about DRM anymore

The eBook is exclusive to Amazon for at least 90 days, to be able to use these features.  If I get feedback that people would rather have the eBook in a non-Kindle format, I may switch it.  But you can get the Kindle app on any phone or tablet now, so it's not like it isn't accessible to virtually everyone.

Rom Tar

Yes, I know there are three books in a trilogy.  I've been editing Rom Tar for about a month now, and it definitely won't take 2 1/2 years to release.  Primarily because I don't need to write another book before this one is complete (I wrote Rom Tar before editing Wilders).

There are some sections I need to rewrite, but nothing major.  I'm really looking forward to getting the third book out... writing a trilogy is harder than it seems.  I'll have a preview of the cover up soon.

The Hope of Memory [Update 25] Wilders Finalized

I'm finally done with Wilders.  It took a lot longer than I had anticipated (writing on it began on 6/6/2012), but I'm happy with the final product.

The final word count came out to 153.5K words, which is 15K shorter than Book 1, The Distant.  This means with less page count and so I'll have to tweak the spine of the cover, since it will be thinner.  Shouldn't be an issue... but I could probably pad the text a little to inflate the page count and make the graphics work easier.  But I'd rather not do that.

Anyway, the novel should be out on trade paperback and Kindle eBook by next month.  Then it's on to the finale, Rom Tar.  Yay me!

The Hope of Memory [Update 24] Back Cover Summary

I'm wrapping up my final draft of Wilders before formatting it for publication, working through a few minor consistency details, and after a bit of toying around I finally came up with a summary for the back cover (which will also be the summary for Amazon, etc).

It's a pain to write these things sometimes... you want it to grab someone's attention and not give away too much, yet it has to be short.  For this series I'm keeping them under 100 words.  It took a long time to figure it out.  I probably wouldn't be a good marketing copywriter... I can't come up with these things fast enough.

Anyway, for Wilders, this is what I've got:

The Uses of Kutad

"Kutad should only be used as a last resort for sedation, prior to a mercy killing or breeding.  Some houlves will try to resist.  Kutad is necessary in these circumstances to relax them, make them pliable."

- from Keryca's Treatise on Breeding


The Moon Star has disappeared, and the winds have come, an omen to those who remember.

To the north, the winds glide across the waves of a narrow sea, where a houlf is waiting for her friend to return.

To the east, the winds whistle through the yawning holes of a crashed starship, where wilders are growing anxious.

To the south, the winds skip along the road between human cities, following an unlikely alliance.

And to the west, the winds dance over a mountain lake, where a beast has found a new purpose.

Like The Distant, it features one of the Tenets from Keryca's Treatise on Breeding, along with a vague summary.  There might be a few minor changes before final publication, but thought I'd share something to make it look like I'm making progress.

The Hope of Memory [Update 23] Wilders is Coming

So I haven't posted about my progress on The Hope of Memory in roughly 10 months.  I'm starting to feel like George R.R. Martin here, but at least it's only been a little over 2 years since my last book, and not the ridiculous 5 that GRRM has going right now.

But anywho... Wilders is almost ready for publication.  2015 was a year of great change for me, and a lot of things happened that took my attention away from writing.  But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

As I mentioned before, both Wilders and Rom Tar have been written for a while now.  The Wilders first draft was finished about 3 years ago, while Rom Tar was completed a year ago.  I'm about done with Draft 6 of Wilders now, and I think the next will be the last.

Over the years I've come up with my own process for writing and editing, to polish my work into shape without involving an editor.  Yes, I self-edit my books.  Many will tell you this is a mistake and you should NEVER do it, and I know it sounds condescending, but I'm telling the story I want to, MY story, and I think any writer worth their weight should know how to properly edit prose, even their own.  Don't make someone else do it for you... you can do it yourself if you take the time.

My Revision Process

Here's basically what I've come up with after self-editing a few books now:

Draft 1 = Handwritten draft
Draft 2 = Typing out first draft, fix content as I go along
Reading 1 = First read through, take notes on things to fix
Draft 3 = Hardcore line edit, fix content issues (adding / deleting)
Draft 4 = Audio reading (read the entire thing out loud)
Draft 5 = Grammar and spellcheck (via Word, etc)
Draft 6 = Checks (limit certain words & phrases, term consistencies, word stats)
Reading 2 = Second read through
Draft 7 = Any remaining fixes

In the future I'd like to add beta readers into the mix, just to get impressions and to make sure things work as written, but for now I can survive without it.

The initial draft aside, Draft 3 usually takes the longest, because I slowly go through every sentence and fix everything I see.  For Wilders this took me 8 months.  Hopefully it won't take so long for Rom Tar... I want to get it out before the end of 2016 and move on from this trilogy.  I have another story that I'm really excited about (and which I might start writing this year for a change of pace).

So stay tuned... Wilders is coming.

The Hope of Memory [Update 22] The Real Editing Begins

Quick update on my The Hope of Memory trilogy.  I've finally finished typing up the whole of the handwritten Rom Tar manuscript.  Took a bit longer than I expected.  I've had a week or so off from doing anything with the text of either book (Wilders and Rom Tar), because I need breaks from it on occasion, so now the real fun of editing will begin.

I know I mentioned in the past that I liked writing these books out shorthand first, then typing them up etc etc... well, I might not do that for my next work.  Just because at this point I wanted to get straight into editing but felt it would be better to have all of Rom Tar typed out first so it's easier to reference and search.

Editing Both at Once?

I've been toying around with the idea of editing both books at once, then releasing them roughly at the same time.  I'll probably edit both to a certain extent, but for sure I want to get Wilders done as soon as I can.  Definitely tired of sitting on it, because we really begin to get to the meat of the story in the second book.  There's a lot of set up in The Distant, which is completely necessary to the full arc of the series.

So I'm working on it.  I'll be glad to get it released... it's the first multi-volume thing I've done and it sure was tough.

The Hope of Memory [Update 21] Rom Tar Complete

It took a lot longer than I expected (14 months), but the first draft of the third book in my The Hope of Memory trilogy, Rom Tar, is finally complete!  

This was a tough book for me to write, tougher than anything I had written before.  It involved a lot of additional backstory and world building, and working out the details for multiple storylines definitely was a challenge.  I've blogged about that previously, so I won't go into it again here.  Suffice to say, I'm glad to finally get the first draft done and move onto revising and finalizing Book 2, Wilders, for release.

The estimated word count for the Rom Tar first draft is 174K words, which makes it longer than the final draft of The Distant (168K words), but that will certainly change as I go through revisions.

Yes, that is the symbol that will be on the cover for Rom Tar.
If you've read The Distant, you should know what it stands for.

Book 2 Release

This means that Wilders will not release in 2014 as I had hoped.  I'm reading through the second draft of that book now, and there is considerable work to be done cleaning up some of the text and plotlines.  Now that I know exactly where everything goes in Rom Tar, I can adjust accordingly and get the right details in there.

So I won't provide a date, but I anticipate it being another 2-3 months at least before Wilders is available.  After that, all that remains is revision of Rom Tar, so that will quickly follow.  Huzzah!

Now I have to type it all up...

The Hope of Memory [Update 20] Writer's Block

So it had to happen eventually... writer's block.  Though maybe not a true instance, where I'm stymied from writing anything at all for a long period of time, it's close enough.

Rom Tar, the 3rd book in my The Hope of Memory trilogy, is proving to be a challenge on many levels.  I started it in late September 2013, but I'm only now approaching the halfway point.  I've been toiling on the same 3 chapters for the last two months.  

Part of the slowdown has been due to buying a house, moving in and remodeling the kitchen (maybe I'll post photos at some point).  Along with being very busy at work, this has taken up a lot of my time.  Many days when I finally finish for the day and have some free time, the last thing I want to do is work more.  On those days I might eek out a page or so... but usually I'm just not inspired enough to get much done.  This is why there have been very few blog posts lately.  Busy bee!

The other part has been simple writer's block.  This book is much more complex than the previous two, and as I neared the end of the first Part of the book, I couldn't figure out exactly how I was going to get to the next major plot point in a believable fashion.  I didn't know what to write and most of it I had to force out.

Broad Strokes vs Detailed Outlines

I'm the kind of writer that outlines the story in broad strokes.  I know how everything ends and the major plot points along the way.  Once I know that I start writing.  I can't bring myself to plot out a story in minute detail, because that isn't fun for me and it's not how I create.  I discover better ideas as I write, so I always leave the details vague and usually everything works out.  If I get stuck on something, I go take a walk and think about it a while, and usually a solution comes to me.

Well... not this time.  This is the downside of "broad strokes."  You may eventually encounter a problem that requires rewriting, or produces a long delay.  And in the case of a series like this, if something is already published (The Distant), you can't go back and change it (for the most part).

But just the other day I figured it out.  Eureka!  A way to bridge the gap in the story.  Unraveling the Meereenese Knot, so to speak, though hardly on the scale that George R.R. Martin had to deal with.  Not that I'm anywhere near the same level as Martin, but when you go through something like this, you gain much more respect for authors who create vast, multi-volume epics like The Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire.  It's really hard.

Anyway, I'm at around 80K words now.  Close to halfway.  Need to get it done this summer so I can revise Wilders for release.

The Hope of Memory [Update 19] Rom Tar & Goodreads

Update time... currently I'm about 60K words into Rom Tar, the last book in The Hope of Memory trilogy.  It's coming along, though I've been really busy with work and real life things, so progress has been tempered slightly at times.  Not to worry, as long as I'm finished by summer I'll be on schedule to get Wilders released later this year.

One thing that has complicated the writing is the added scope.  I've said this before, but I'm essentially having to create a whole new civilization, with much more history than I had at the beginning of the project, as well as a plethora of new characters.  Because I generally write from a basic outline with the major plot points and some minor details, most of the content is created as I write.  So I go a bit slower when I suddenly have to create a bunch of new characters or add some history / exposition.

At the end of the day, though, I'm excited to finish this novel, as it's coming together nicely.  Things I thought would be problems are resolving themselves as I write, so the weight gets lighter with each writing session.

Goodreads

I recently set myself up on Goodreads as an author.  I've put all 3 of my current books on there, and will be updating what I'm currently reading, along with ratings for anything I've read before that I can remember well enough to rate fairly (which is a chore, as I've read a lot of books).  I doubt I will do many reviews... I don't really have time for them and usually someone else has already echoed my thoughts much more succinctly.

So here's my page:

Goodreads - Brad Murgen

If you're on there, feel free to add or follow me.  And if you happen to read my books and like them, please rate or review them.  I don't like soliciting for ratings/reviews, but sites like that and Amazon work better for authors when they have ratings.

Oh, and Practicing is available on the site for free.

The Hope of Memory [Update 18] Wilders Cover

Wanted to quickly post the Wilders cover after putting it together this weekend.  What does the symbol stand for?  Well, if you've read The Distant, you'll know.

Wilders will be out in 2014 for sure, but I don't have any date set it stone.  It depends on how much of Rom Tar (Book 3) I need write before feeling comfortable finalizing Wilders.

Rom Tar is coming along, at around 40K words now, 9 chapters done.  Definitely a bit harder to write than the first two...

The Hope of Memory [Update 17] Rom Tar Progress

Behind on my blogging as usual... super busy with work and real life.  But I still make time to work on my various projects, one of which is the first draft of Rom Tar, Book 3 of The Hope of Memory.

It's coming along - I'm at about 30K words right now - but I'm finding this one fairly hard to write, because of the first half of the book.  Without spoiling anything, I have to essentially come up with another "civilization" and a whole new set of characters, and this book has more hard science in it than the other two, so I have to spend time researching and making sure I get the details right (as much as I can without letting it ruining the story).

So it's been a challenge but I'm working through it.  The first draft is all about getting it down on paper - it doesn't have to be the best writing, as long as I get the ideas and major plot points down.

I'm typing portions of it up as I go along, which has actually helped quite a bit as I can fill in details that I didn't think of the first time, but which pertain to the section I'm currently writing.

I've also been very aware of "show don't tell" for this one... as I write a first draft I tend to do a lot of "telling" to get the details down, then convert to "showing" as I type it up.  This book has a lot of telling up front - which I'll need to convert and deliver to the reader in a different way.  No one likes to read a lot of info dumps.  I try to avoid them, but occasionally I'll go with one if I feel it's the best way to tell the story.

Anyway, I don't believe The Distant has sold much, but that's because I haven't been advertising it much.  Hopefully that will ramp up once I get the rest of the trilogy out.  Wilders will be out next year for sure.

In the next update I'll post the cover for Wilders.  I also need to continue my David Eddings retrospective... thanks for reminding me.

The Hope of Memory [Update 16] The Distant Released!

After many years, I've finally released The Distant, Book 1 of The Hope of Memory.  Yay me!  It's now available in trade paperback and eBook formats.

The trade is through CreateSpace.  It's available both through the CreateSpace site and Amazon (US and many of their international sites).  I'll add international store links to the Novels page eventually, but for now, here are the US ones:

CreateSpace - Trade Paperback | $11.99
Amazon US - Trade Paperback | $11.99 (though they already dropped it to $11.40)
Amazon US - Kindle eBook | $2.99

You're probably wondering... why bother buying it through CreateSpace?  Amazon is better!

Yes, it's better in terms of what you can get, but I will make a higher royalty through CreateSpace.  So if you don't care about eBooks or Prime shipping, etc, then feel free to go that route if you wish.

For the Amazon version, I've enabled most of their features, because I can.  The book has:

Matchbook = If you buy the Trade paperback, you can get the Kindle eBook for FREE
Kindle Lending Library = If you have Amazon Prime, you can borrow the eBook for FREE
Lending Enabled = You can lend your copy of the eBook to other users
KDP Select = Occasionally Amazon may offer the eBook for FREE for a limited time as part of a promotion
No DRM = I don't care about DRM anymore

To use some of these features I have to make the eBook exclusive to Amazon for at least 90 days.

The New Cover

You may have noticed the cover is slightly different than what I previously posted.  When designing the full wraparound cover for the paperback, the original format simply didn't work when it was right next to the spine.  It worked for an eBook, but not a physical book.

So I played around with it a bit and came up with a new version I'm happy with.  I also changed the background texture... I had to go out to the park and take some high resolution pictures of tree bark and stone that would fit the new size.

The Other Books

Update on the status of the other two books in the series.  As I've reported before, the initial draft of Book 2, Wilders, is complete.  Any further work on that has been put aside while I write the initial draft of Book 3, Rom Tar, which I started last month.

I haven't decided whether I'll do all of Rom Tar before going back to Wilders or not.  I really only need to first half written to feel comfortable finalizing Wilders.  We'll see.

For Rom Tar, I am trying something different when writing it.  I'm still writing longhand, but instead of waiting for that to be complete before typing it up, I'm typing it up after every chapter or so.  This makes me think about what I wrote and make any edits right away, rather than trying to figure that out with the whole book already written (which can be a pain, since changing something can have a domino effect... I had problems like that with The Distant).

The Hope of Memory [Update 15] The Distant Finalized

Alright, The Distant has been finalized.  I'm not making any more changes to it.  I managed to squeeze in two more drafts with another read through of the book during the last month and a half, so I'm ending with the Eighth Draft, around 168.6K words (which it's been hovering around since the Fourth Draft).

The eBook version is pretty much done, so now I need to format it for trade paperback, via CreateSpace.  This is a bit more work than I expected, as things have to be done in a certain order to publish the physical version.  So we're looking at a few more weeks at least before publication.  Either way, I'll be glad to move on, I want to get started on writing the third book, Rom Tar.

Oh, and in my last update, I was debating whether or not to have a preview of the second book, Wilders, at the end of The Distant.  I've decided not to do that... I'll let The Distant stand on its own.

After this post, the next The Hope of Memory update will be the publication announcement.  Yay!

CreateSpace

First, obviously, the text has to be complete.  Then I have to reformat the entire file with the page sizes, alternating margins, new fonts / layout for chapter headers, etc etc.  It can be a little tricky using MS Word, but if you know how to use the program it's not too bad.

So once that's finished, I make a pdf version which gives me my final page count - which I need in order to start on the cover.  Depending on the length of the book (looks like The Distant will be 500 pages or so), the spine width will vary and my wraparound cover image will need to be adjusted.  So I'll be creating a new cover for that - it will be the same as what I've already posted here on this site, but it may be slightly different (like the background image).

Lastly, I'll have to get proofs to make sure everything looks the way I want it.  Then the book will be done and ready for publication.

The Hope of Memory [Update 14] Outlines and Previews

An update on my The Hope of Memory trilogy.

Rom Tar Outline

I've completed the detailed outline of Book 3, Rom Tar.  I know you're wondering: Why I didn't have a detailed one from the very start?  Well, I did have an outline, but it was very high-level, without any real specifics.  I knew how I wanted it to end and the general way to get there.  Now I have a 21-page document with plenty of background and a detailed summary.

I couldn't have written this before finishing the second book, Wilders, since as I've mentioned plenty of times, I always come up with new ideas while actually writing.  So I adjust the story as needed.  The plot points of Rom Tar changed as a result, but the end is the same.  And now that I have that, I've been able to make a few adjustments to The Distant to reflect the future storylines.

I will say... writing an epic series takes a lot of planning and discipline.  Just doing a trilogy is tough, especially with the way mine is structured.

The Distant Sixth Draft

The sixth draft of The Distant is complete.  One more draft, I think.  It has taken longer than I anticipated, but that's okay... it will be ready when it's ready.  I hope to release the eBook version in August, at least.

I plan on doing a trade paperback version through CreateSpace.  I need to do more research on that; haven't done it before and don't know what to expect, or the timings and costs involved.

Previews

Something I'm struggling with, is whether to put a preview of the next book in Books 1 and 2.  I'd like to give readers a taste of what to expect in the next volume, but each starts from a different POV and contains revelations that change the way you view the story; I'm hesitant to reveal it right away like that.

So should I leave those to their respective books to kick them off with a bang, or entice readers to get the next book by giving them an interesting and unexpected taste of where the story goes next?  Can't decide... can't decide... brain aneurysm!

Of course, some would say the story in The Distant should be interesting enough that you don't need a teaser for the next book to keep the reader invested in the series.  And I do feel that it ends strong enough to do that.  But still... reading the opening for the next book right away would push them over the edge, in my opinion.

So still thinking about that.

The Hope of Memory [Update 13] Spring Cleaning

Haven't posted on my trilogy-in-progress since April, so wanted to write up a quick update for any who might actually be paying attention.  If you are, there will be a test later, so read carefully...

I finished my slow and brutal line edit of The Distant, aka The Fourth Draft, earlier this month and whittled it down from 186K words to 168K.  Most of that was simply from removing text that simply didn't need to be there.

Redundancies

For example, you might say something like "He lifted his arm up."  Well, that's  obviously redundant.  You can simply say "He lifted his arm."  You don't lift something down, so there's no need to specify direction.

So things like that, though not something as prosaic as the example above.  Anyway, I noticed some scattered throughout my text and made sure to clean them out.  It makes your prose flow much more gracefully.

Repetitions

I also noticed that I used certain phrases or words more often than others, so much so that they abruptly stood out when the text had been streamlined down to the 168K words (the shortest the novel has been yet).

The most glaring one is the use of "but."  So and so did this, but...  He thought he might go there, but...  When I write longhand, that's what happens, as I don't go back and revise while writing.  I'm just writing as the story comes to me and will worry about it later, during revisions.

Honorable mentions go to the following:

- really
- just
- pretty "something"
- a bit
- began / begun to
- a little

When you're editing your own material, always look for words / phrases like these.  I found that I used them a lot.

I Take the Fifth

Oh, and did I mention I also completed a fifth draft, as well?  I did that one over the last two weeks, essentially reading the text straight through and making more adjustments as I noticed them.  It wasn't a line edit, but I did reduce the word count by around 400 words.  So it's now down to 167,663, to be exact.

I'm not finished, though I'm very close.  I'm currently also creating a more detailed outline of Book 3, Rom Tar, and am changing a few details in The Distant to reflect that content.  Once that outline is done I'll be working on the sixth draft of The Distant, which will involve any final tightening of prose and keeping details consistent.  It has been quite hard getting this novel down - I even have to use a timeline to make sure events between characters (and novels) line up properly.

The Hope of Memory [Update 12] Of Estimates and Editing

A quick update my trilogy, The Hope of Memory.