writing and publishing updates

Just a couple of quick updates for readers...

Rereading the series

It's almost not worth mentioning. I didn't find much to fix in Book 3, but it was fun to read it again. I made more notes for adding details to my wiki document for the series than any fixes. I really enjoyed the flow of the book and the events of it and the refresh with what has happened. I found some tiny issues but nothing major. There were two seeming contradictions that needed clarification but that was done with just a few words. Otherwise, it was a few scattered, almost nothing changes--more stylistic preferences than anything.

Art is never finished, just abandoned.

I can read my books innumerable times and always find something that I'll want to "fix". I'm never fully happy with it. But when you go back after a few years, you've grown and had other life experiences that change your perspective. In a series like this, you also know more about the characters, but you can't let that influence how you saw them when the earlier books were written.

It's still fun to read them, though, and they keep me occupied while I'm on the treadmill. I've started rereading book 4 now of the series and will continue through all of them until I'm caught up, which will be just in time going into the final books.

Writing Book 21

I keep discovering that maybe I know what I'm doing with this book. Don't take that the wrong way--it's the little details that really bring it all together that I worry about getting wrong. I get inspirations--while driving usually--that are exactly what I need. That happened again on the way to church Saturday morning. I discovered another piece that I hadn't considered but which was right in front of me. (My flip phone was going bad on me (after almost four years) so I decided to upgrade to an iPhone. I love Siri--I can tell her to make a note or a reminder while I'm driving and not take my attention off the road. And I never forget what I was thinking of by the time I reach my destination. That's always a danger--forgetting that incredible spark of idea by the time I can write it down. I don't how many times that has happened. Incredible inspirations gone forever... 😔)

At the present, Book 21 has about 20K words written, and I tweaked a few scenes based on the idea I had on my drive to church. It was brilliant and demonstrates L'Ni's intelligence so well. I couldn't have come up with it, however, if I hadn't finished the most recent scene, which was a catalyst to making me see this. It was always there in the back of my mind but not fully formed until the right moment. Now, I have one more piece to demonstrate how brilliant of a tactician and strategist that L'Ni is.

I'm making progress on this book. I can't believe that after this, I'll only have four more to go in the series. I'm sure I'll miss it when it's done, but at the same time, I will be ready for it to be done. In other words, it'll be the perfect timing. I just need to perfect the final climax of all this buildup throughout the series.

I'm excited to see what happens. I hope you are too.

Thanks for reading!