Writing Updates

Happy May Day! I can't believe we're 1/3 into 2018 already. It feels like the older I get, the faster time goes.

And the slower I move.

However, I also get wiser. That's something worthwhile about getting older and gaining experience.

With that comes the realization that I can do better. And I'm doing something about that, in many aspects of my life. One of those is in writing.

I've finally done something that needed to be done for several years--re-edited Tiger Born. I love love LOVE this story and this world (and Paul's art on the cover)! While the book starts out slow (as I was learning about this world while writing), it finds it's footing by the midway point and evolves into something tragic but hopeful and inspiring (at least for me). That's why I ended up writing Spirit Blade, to continue with this wonderful world. Now that I just finished another round on Tiger Born, I want to get back into that world. I've been wanting to for a long time, but then I'd get distracted by a shiny new idea that gets too big and keeps me away too long, like with what became The Luriel Cycle.

With cleaning up the writing, I've also dropped the price to $2.99. I feel that this story should be worth more, but apparently the market doesn't think so, even if it is a full-length novel.

I want to go back to other books and update them also as I have time (and enjoy them once again as I did while writing), which is part of the fun of being indie. I did Tiger Born now because it needed it--I wanted to do this for a long time--and it helped get my mind off The Luriel Cycle for a short time, just long enough to be fresh.

Now that I'm back into edits on Enlightenment after visiting another world, I am seeing the mistakes far more clearly in this one. It's so revealing to edit something else to take a break from something you've been deep into for a year or more. I've already made major edits to the story in the first draft. This is the middle edits, paring down language and refining action to something more concise, and adding descriptions where needed while watching out for any inconsistencies that might still exist (not many at this stage, if any, which is why they can be so troublesome and why I have to keep an alert mind).

I hope to finish Enlightenment in time for an end of May release, but don't hold me to that. I'd rather the book be good than committed to a date, which is why I'm not doing preorders on it. I'll be editing Eternal following Enlightenment to check the flow from one to the other and have the story fresh in my mind to avoid inconsistencies. I'd like to think that I kept them out, but having moments of less clarity while writing because of sleep issues can open the doorway for them to sneak in.

I hope to release Eternal by the end of June. In between, I'll be editing this and Spirit Blade, and then I don't know. I want to write more books--shorter novels--in the Demon Age series, but I get inklings on occasion to return to the Starfire Angels series.

It boils down to not letting myself develop any more worlds and sticking to the ones I have created and playing in those. I have enough toys. I just need to rotate them to keep them fun and exciting.