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.