A Little Late

So I'm a little late between posts, but you'll soon understand why.... I was working on AND finishing Burden over the past week. However, what I thought would be 5,000-10,000 words ended up being closer to 20,000. So at just under 73,000, Burden is complete. Now for the kicker, the ending changed three times today as words mixed with story line which mixed with expectations. Despite the frantic re-writes, I think it came out better than I'd hoped. Looking for a quick preview, then enjoy my quick write-up.

Burden of Immortality: Back Cover

Drazan Cvetko hates his life. He was meant for better than this, but pulling himself out of the gutter isn’t easy. This all changes when his father dies and an old acquaintance delivers to him his father’s encrypted journal. Yet, despising everything the journal means to him, Drazan begins to painstakingly unmask his father’s latest archeological discovery. Unfortunately, it’s not the only journal of his fathers out there and other people, people far beyond his understanding of wealth and power, want what’s contained within the scribbled pages. So, fighting his better judgment, Drazan launches himself into the middle of something he can’t begin to comprehend for the sake of what; a chance at immortality. Is it enough to risk his life for?

Maybe the better question is what does he have to give up to acquire it?

Estimations

So my estimation is off. I thought I'd be done with Burden within 5,000-10,000 words, but it looks doubtful now since I just surpassed 65,000 and still have a couple chapters to go. I would like to say the finale is looking up, especially since a semi-climatic scene (which some might think is the end) only continues into another. And with that, all I can hope for it that the story hasn't become lost in all the twists and turns. In fact, I hope the last few pages caps the book with a solid 'Damn, I should've gotten that' admission. Which, looking back on it, is what nearly everyone should realize without it being too obvious.

On another front, I'm getting the first drafts of the covers for Beginnings and they're looking great. The book Dream Savior will be next, which will be a project unto itself. And then there's the editing of both along with Ferryman which needs to be completed. Overall, a busy time for me, but my juggling skills are holding up for now.

One last thing for now. I've gotten a few questions concerning Jeremiah Stone, Limbus, and Azazel about which order they go in and/or can they be read separately. First of all, Jeremiah Stone is the first and can be read on its own. Limbus and Azazel are 2nd and 3rd respectively with Limbus leading right into Azazel and both need to be read after Jeremiah Stone. I guess the point is it's a trilogy and though the books are not numbered as such, they should be read that way. Maybe I'll get new covers made which state this more clearly, but until then this is what I've got for an explanation.

And thanks for reading.

Beginnings and an End

First off, I want to thank a very patient young man who developed the cover of Ferryman for me, Tyler Melhart. I say patient because I must've emailed him a dozen times with different suggestion concerning how thing were laid out only to reverse what I asked for the next day after seeing how horrible the implementation of my suggestion looked (completely my fault). Thankfully, he has a better eye than I do so it worked out for the best. And please, let me know what you think of it since you can compare it to my draft at the bottom of the page (for a little longer at least).

And if you look closely, the face in the eye is none other than from  the cover of Jeremiah Stone which, if you've read the book, you know to be Hades. Considering how this turned out, I'm similarly optimistic he can do the same for my other books, starting with Beginnings which I know my rough draft to be kinda plain.

Along the same lines of looking toward the future, I turned over both Ferryman and Beginnings to be edited while getting the first round of edits back for Dream Savior. As expected (because I haven't edited Dream Savior before) there were a lot of corrections, at least in the beginning. Starting about mid-way through the book, the edits thin out which I hope is a good thing. However, I do know one of the last scenes needs to be drastically re-written, along with all the dreams sequences in the book, a task my editor/co-author has decided to take on. Well see how it all turns out shortly, though I think Dream Savior will go through many more edits before being finalized, so it may not be out by August as I'd hoped.

Lastly, I've made some progress on Burden. Where I was once stuck is now no longer an issue and I've pieced together where the story is heading up to the finale. So far, I'm 58,500+ words into it and have another 5,000-10,000 to go, maybe more. Anyway, I'm working it and plan to finish it within the next month or so, depending on my travel schedule and spare time. Speaking of which, maybe I should hustle upstairs to write a few words now.

Going On

So I've only got a few things going on. First, my book Burden is still moving forward. It's slow going at times, but I'm at 57,000+ words and about 5-6 chapters from finishing. Hopefully I'll be done with it soon. Second, I'm getting my book Dream Savior back from editing soon which I'll have to go over completely and do a final edit. In the meantime, I need to start working on the cover for it. Then there's Beginnings and Ferryman which are going out for final editing soon also. Both are getting covers designed for them shortly, one is almost complete and the other should follow shortly afterward. All this means is by mid-June (cross my fingers), I'll have three more books coming out. After that, I think I'll take a break...LOL. Realistically, I think I'll get editing on Burden complete and maybe look into edits on my romance novel for early 2014 release.

Then comes the big task, editing my series of nine! This will be a huge undertaking, but its the reason I started writing in the first place and the story is sooooo good. And I love every single one of the characters, especially the woman Chalas. Her character is so strong and compelling, her confidence so absolute, there is just no denying her when she tasks those around her with things to do. The phrase 'utter, undeniable control' comes to mind. And she's only one of a dozen characters which drive the story forward. Its a grand adventure where the happy ending only means you've survived. Anyway, I think by the time I reach mid-2014 it'll be time to begin publishing those books - one every six months if I'm lucky.

And during all this time, I still plan to write. I know...it may be a bit unrealistic, but I have high goals I set for myself. Hopefully, one day, I can relax and just write without a deadline, but for now that's not a possibility.

So for now, I'm juggling with optimism.

Small Adjustments

Sometimes you think you never have time to do the little things yet we all know its the little things often make the biggest differences. Tonight I took the time to do one of those little things I've been meaning to do for quite some time. By this I mean I've edited my blog layout just a bit. By this I mean I've gone in an manually edited the HTML code to add a few items I've been wanting to do for quite some time yet haven't found the time for. Namely, I added widgets down the right sidebar for Limbus and Azazel, adjusted the picture for Jeremiah Stone in the sidebar so it fits better, and added links to each of the pictures so if a blogger clicks on the pic it takes them to the book listing on Amazon. I've also adjusted the page width and changed out the picture at the bottom to show all five titles which will soon be out. Again, these are simple things with took me about two hours, but its two hours I never seemed to find before.

Also, along the theme of little things, I have to admit even when I was feeling sick while squished in a center seat of a plane over the Rocky Mountains I was writing. I wasn't really in the mood, but I needed to finish a chapter so I put my mind to task and ended up starting the next chapter. Granted it was less than a thousand words, but every little bit counts. And I've always said words written down are ten times better than words written only in your thoughts. Besides, if they suck you can always go back and edit them. The best part of this writing, however, was the mental state of focusing and accomplishing even though my body didn't feel willing which gives me the confidence to forget about writer's block and just get to it.

Lastly, I want to give a shout out to those who've read my books, liked them, and reviewed them on either Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It's this type of encouragement which stirs my motivation to continue with my passion. Fortunately for the readers following me, I have a lot more books, both written and in the works, I want to get out to you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I love writing them.

Thanks, and good night.