Round One

After a massive session lasting a full eight hours, I’ve completed the review of the first round of edits on Limbus. Despite the agony of it all, I must say I’m pleased. Through the pain, I feel the story is more streamlined, the necessary points are made, and the characters remain true to who they are. In all, it was a huge cut as the original 99,500 word story was cut by a full 7,000 words. For me, that’s nearly a full day of writing, but I can live with it especially since it was fluff. That’s not to say I wrote all that to increase its length, but rather to add depth, though it was depth I didn’t need. Most of all, however, was the fact I once again learned a lot. Unlike Jeremiah Stone, I'll not immediately send these edits back to my publisher. 

During the process of Jeremiah Stone, I was under a crunch for time. Because of that, I skipped through the edits quickly, perused the final copy, and marked it good without a thorough reading. I also didn’t use my most current version of software to edit the story with and thus later found hundreds of grammatical errors both me and the publisher should’ve caught. I have vowed this time will be different.

This time I'll create a hard copy of the book and go through all of it with a highlighter because I find it’s easier to see mistakes on the printed page then in its digital form. Maybe it’s because I’m old and used to reading and flipping real pages. Maybe it’s because my eyes are trained for it. Either way, I’ll be making my way to the local print shop and spend the thirty bucks to put my work in print. Then I’ll read every word again with the intent of making sure the story flows well, that nothing completely necessary is left out or the reverse, and give it my final okay. I'll do all of this prior to sending it back knowing another round of editing is in order.

Then, and only then, will I take what I’ve learned and apply it to the other stories I’ve written. I, however, will not work on Azazel. That book has made it to the publisher and may be in the middle of the editing process already which means any changes I make in Azazel will not matter to them. It’s obvious I have my work (and a lot of it at that) cut out for me, but despite my loathing of editing I know it only makes my writing a better product. And though I know I should be happy to even be published, I want my stories to be something I can be proud of. After these edit, I truly feel that way.

Editing Limbus

So I received edits back on my book Limbus and, though I have some disagreements with some of them, overall I think I'll accept most of them. After scanning through them all I see a lot that I am to cut out and even more I have to alter is some way, shape, or form. However, there are two items I want to discuss which are suggestions from the editor that I have a problem with: Too Many Changes in Point of View and my short synopsis at the end of some chapters to keep the reader abreast of a story-line concerning two primary characters. I'm going to address the second one first.

Not to give away the story, but by the blurb I published on my blog earlier readers here will know that Jeremiah is captured by Opus in the story as Limbus runs for his life. For a good portion of the book the central theme is the trials and tribulations Limbus and his girlfriend go through as they're being hunted. During this section of the story, however, I throw in a paragraph or two at the end of a few chapters to keep the reader abreast of Jeremiah's plight and Opus' cruelty. These short entries were suggested to be cut out, yet I disagree for two reasons. First has to deal with Jeremiah's struggles, his hopes, and his fears and how they take possession of him on this journey. Because of this I've decided not to cut these out, but rather expand on them. The second reason deals with Opus who's cruel nature truly begins to show as he tortures Jeremiah on their journey. I also like (and need) these entries because I've written another book focused entirely on Opus. In order for that book to exist, I believe I need Opus to have a bigger roll in this book so the transition from this other book into the Jeremiah Stone series will show his progression towards obsession. What I have to remember is that the editor doesn't know of this other book so she doesn't fully understand the reasoning behind keeping these short pieces intact.

Now for my constants changes of Point of View (POV) within chapters. Granted, for the most part people have stories focused on a single character or two and I understand that.  In fact, my book Beginnings is solely written from Jeremiah Stone's POV. It doesn't switch back and forth as the rest of the series does, but I don't believe I can do the same in Jeremiah Stone, Limbus, or Azazel. There's a lot going on and for the story to flow I believe I need these separate points of view. It also ingratiates the reader into some of the characters and their motivations, along with how Jeremiah influences those motivations. Little does Jeremiah know or understand how his ability changes these people's view of the situation. To continue, it's also suggested that if I want to show several points of view then these POVs need to be seperate chapters. I disagree with this. I try to keep the chapters based around time or action, not characters. Its a different type of writing, but I believe it works for these books. I also use separators between each POV, which I could also do by changing these separators into chapters, but I f

What I'd really like to hear back on is whether or not those who have read Jeremiah Stone believe these POV changes hurt the story? Thanks.

Immortality

So I’ve been working on a few things, namely the covers of two books: Beginnings and Ferryman. Here's what I’ve come up with so far though these are rough drafts and need some tweaking.

On another note now that I’ve been working on Burden, I’ve began to contemplate (from my character’s perspective) just how far someone would go to become immortal. Would you sin? Would you lie, cheat, steal, or even murder for it? Would you sell your soul for it? Personally, the more I think about it the more I believe I don’t think I’d even want the chance at it.

Furthermore, what I thought would be a simple question has raised questions on whether or not it’d actually be worth it to be immortal. I mean would you want to live forever just to watch everyone you know die or to have to worry about who you’d have to become in order to go unnoticed within society. Would you want to go unnoticed? Could there be some benefit to becoming known as immortal? Do you think a person could achieve god-like status from it?

In addition, what about the limits of that mortality? Could you still get injured? Could you be chopped up into little pieces and still live (as I saw in a Narato episode)? Or would you be impregnable? Would you have to eat or drink? And at some point if you wanted to die, could you? These are the thoughts which push about within my mind as I contemplate the infinite passage of time.

Of course all these questions only bring about the fact I wouldn’t want to live forever. But if you were desperate enough or cared so little about your life at some point in time, would you at least give immortality a chance? Think about it.

Limbus Blurb

Got some good news today: Limbus is being edited.This means I hope to have it in a few weeks for first draft approval. And this time I'm going to seriously take my time going through it.For now, however, here's the back cover blurb as I received it today. So excited!!!

For nearly fifteen years, Jeremiah and Limbus vanished, picking up and moving around the country every time Limbus used his ability. Now, just when they believe they have a grasp on a normal life, things go terribly wrong as they are found. Instead of packing up and running once again, they are requested by an angel to rid the world of some demons. Though they don’t feel comfortable about what they’re doing, neither of them wants to abandon their life just yet.

Unfortunately, their secret doesn’t stay hidden long as an aged enemy also finds them. However, this time Jeremiah believes he’s one step ahead of Opus Wright, but forgets just how resourceful the man can be. In a last ditch effort to rid the world of this menace, Jeremiah bargains for the release of Limbus and Melissa, Limbus’ girlfriend. As Limbus and Melissa take flight, Jeremiah comes at the Opus directly, hoping to simply survive with his life intact, but is captured instead.

Meanwhile, separated from his father and running for his life, Limbus can only follow his instincts on a journey back to where he began while hoping to protect his girlfriend along the way. The only question is--has Jeremiah done enough, trained his son enough, for Limbus to survive the dangers chasing him? Jeremiah Stone’s life literally depends on his son making it through this alive. 

The Passion of Writing

I must begin by saying that when the juices are flowing you have to take advantage of it. I did so this past weekend by writing 18,000 words in basically just over two days. Not only that, but I finished a story I was unsure of how to end. In all I think the endeavor turned out rather well, though I may end up tweaking it a bit here and there to reveal more of Opus’ cruel personality. On the other hand, I believe I captured his personality well enough that his character traits flows between this book and the others he’s involved in quite satisfactorily. Best of all the ending is a bit unexpected with a couple twists I doubt many will anticipate.

And now that its complete, I can set my mind at ease as I return to my other novel Burden. For a while there I lost interest in the story of Burden because of two things. First, my mind was intrigued by the book on Opus and I couldn’t properly focus on both endeavors at once despite how much I tried to do so. I guess I do have a one-track mind (lol). The other thing which turned me off from Burden is the fact the story wasn’t heading the direction I wanted it to. This is because the main character didn’t seem desperate enough to pursue the option given to him, but I think I can now correct that and continue on.

To accomplish this I have to do one thing which is trust my writing ability. Like with Burden, I was stuck for a few weeks on Opus, but I concentrated on the storyline and eventually worked through it while forgetting about the ending and just working on the next chapter, the next scene. And though I know where Burden will end, I must not think of the journey’s ending, but rather the mountain I’m climbing at the time. My only setback is I have to reread the last chapter of Burden in order to recapture the feeling and intensity of the story. From there, and with some dedicated time, I’m sure I can once again start up the story where I left off.

For now, how about an excerpt from a different series of books I've written where swords and sorcery replace angels and demons (well not completely): Mage of Chaos (unedited) from my Shadow Gods series.

"How would you like to help me spend some of this money, little lady," Froggle asked as he reached the bar.

"I'd like that very much," the whore responded.

"I thought you might," he said sliding a gold coin across the bar before receiving a room key in response. Lifting the key off the bar and dangling it in front of the wenches face, he said, "My room then?"

"Lead the way."

"No, no, my dear. After you! I insist 'cause I want to see that beautiful behind of yours waving at me on the way up the stairs."

"Thank you, mister," she smiled as she turned, grabbed his hand, and led him to the stairs with an added sway in her hips.

Good man, Froggle congratulated himself; winning poker and a fine woman both in the same night. Couldn't get much better than this he thought a moment too soon. Suddenly, Froggle stopped in mid stride nearly pulling the woman off her feet. Froggle spoke loudly, "I don't want to know, so you can just turn around and go tell them to get someone else. I'm not interested." 

Froggle wasn't facing the door or even turned his head toward it, but he knew Rolan was standing there. The rest of the patrons in the bar went silent noticing Froggle hadn’t moved an inch since this man had entered.

"It's urgent and Dohan wants you," Rolan stated in his usual monotone.

"Dohan! That pasty-white, lanky bag of pig manure,” Froggle cursed. “He can kiss my butt for all I care, but I'm not going. He can get someone else."

"He says you owe him."

"I don't owe him squat, except a good kick between his legs after what he did to me last time."

"He says you owe him!"

"Like I said," Froggle responded as he fingered the throwing knife he kept in his belt. "I'm not going," he stated forcefully, then with lightning reflexes he spun launching his knife at Rolan.

Rolan's head snapped back an instance later before it slowly returned to upright. "He says he'll pay you double," Rolan said as he reached up and plucked the knife out of his forehead, allowing a small dribble of black blood to ooze down his face.