On a Review for Kingsley!

So we have a review for Hector Kingsley that went up! Emily Mah Tippets was kind enough to read over the book and offer her thoughts on it. You can find her review on Amazon, Goodreads, and a longer verion on her blog. She liked it! Always a good thing. Thanks to Mrs. Tippets for her support, and I hope she enjoys the rest of the series! You know, once I've gotten to the point where it is published and all...

Also, I have now added the link to the Kingsley hardcover. Sorry about the brief delay there.

See you around!

On Baby Steps

So first off, and most exciting of my current news, is the fact that Sera has officially began to walk. She took her first steps on Friday, and she has been practicing every day since then. Her record so far has been four solid steps in a row. She is quickly catching on to the fact that this is a BIG DEAL, especially with her grandparents joining her parents in the congratulations. She is growing up way too fast, but every little smile she gives makes the entire journey.

Also, I am proud to announce that we have put the hardcover up for Hector Kingsley's first book. This copy has the excerpt that I included as bonus content for those buying the more expensive paper edition. Given that it is pretty much just an appendix with extra background material, those who choose to read the electronic version will not miss out on anything relating to Hector's adventures, nor on anything relating to Patricia, Benjamin, or the rest of the Kingsley crew. It is, however, pretty cool background, so if you like the world of the Distillation, then feel free to investigate a copy.:)

In all honesty, I plan on publishing all the excerpts, along with more material, in a companion book someday, but just not yet. So if you really want to read the stuff, you will get the chance to see it electronically. Just not until the series is done. Heh heh heh...

In any case, we are starting to get settled in here in Pennsylvania. My job has been going pretty well, and as I get adjusted to it, the oppoortunities I have to write and develop my ideas increase. Hopefully that will lead to some progress this week. I will let you know! See you later!

On A New Schedule

It's different when you get home in the late afternoon.

I knew that already, intellectually at least. I had braced myself successfully for the tiredness in the morning, at least initially. During high school I was a bit of a morning person, so I kind of hoped that I could recover and start to push back against my own weariness sooner rather than later. The work has been more or less what I expected.

What I hadn't anticipated was the wholesale shift in my schedule after work. It has been a bit difficult to adjust to having hours of free time available and still being able to get a good night's sleep. For some reason, that's thrown me off a little bit, but hopefully my befuddled state will wear off soon.

In any case, I am still plugging away on Social Contract, and my work on Badger's partial rewrite has gone well. I just need to get back in the swing of things, and I think things will go entirely well. Here's hoping I'm not overly optimistic about that; then again, optimism is something I have only rarely been accused of. :) See you around!

On A Successful Move...So Far

We made it! It was a frantic rush, especially near the end, but we've managed to get the stuff from the apartment all packed, the cars shipped, and the family flown to Pennsylvania, where we will now be working and living. Our hopes are that a change in situation will help encourage us in our efforts to both raise Sera and continue to publish. We have a new job up here that is offering a lot of opportunities we did not have in the emergency room, and I am hoping that a more consistent schedule might relieve a little of my own personal stress. But we will have to see!

In any case, as a quick update, the books are doing well. Wolfhound continues its march, and Kingsley seems to be finding its audience person by person. As I'm looking back on the move we just went through and the past couple of months, I can only be thankful for all the blessings we've enjoyed and the fact that in spite of everything, we've managed to pull it off.

Now if only we could find an apartment to rent...

On Moving Soon

In less then seven days, my entire house needs to be packed and ready to move cross country.




AHHHHHHHH!

On Revisions and New Stories

So I've started on the revision schedule that I had planned for February. The fact that I'm moving in less than two weeks has kind of complicated things, but not too badly. The plan is to do a quick readthrough of Badger, mainly to remove characters that shouldn't be in some of the scenes, refine some of the relationships, and organize the whole book a bit better. That part of the effort has gone well so far, and I am happy to say that I think I will finish that pretty soon.

Revision plan number two is to move on to Murders once Badger is done. Murders needs a pretty similar treatment, with a few more detailed revisions to iron out some of the inconsistencies. My hope is to finish that by the end of the month so that I can dive into a revision of Iron Angels after that.

As far as new stories, I've started Social Contract now in earnest. I guess a lot of my obstacles in that story had to do with what kind of a story the book was turning out to be. It's very hard to write a book that touches on societal conditions and politics without turning preachy, and the initial sections of the story seemed to be headed in that direction. After a few weeks of writer's block and a lot of pondering, I think I've got the direction of the story figured out, though, so hopefully I can dive right into the meat of things! My goal on that one is to have the first draft done by the end of March, so that I can start on Eagle, the third Jacob Hull book.

That's the plan for now, at least. I'm sure the move will require some...adaptations...but I remain confident that I can get all of this done on time. After that, it should be a pretty straight shot from here to the beginning of May, when Iron Angels will launch, and after that I just have Badger and Murders to get up in the summer and fall respectively. Meanwhile, I need to be working on the novels that will hopefully be ready to launch through 2013, namely Social Contract, Eagle, Airships Over London, and Iron Angels 2.

Sigh. When did the hours of the day get to be so few...

On A Bit of a Change

So, yeah. In two weeks we will be moving from Texas to Pennsylvania. We did not know this fact two days ago.

You see, I had been interviewing at a company in Pennsylvania. Friday morning they called and told me we got the job! We kind of start fairly quickly there though, so a crazy rush to move is now in order. We need to find a new apartment, organize our exodus, hopefully find a new renter for our apartment lease, pack our stuff, figure out how to get two cars to a state thousands of miles away with a baby in tow... You kind of get the idea.

At the same time, I'm trying to support writing and all that. I had even worked out a schedule on what I was going to revise and write over the next two months or so. :( My best laid plans may get waylaid a bit, but the best part about this new job will be the fact that it will give me more time to write and a much shorter commute. So hopefully that will go a long way to making up for the lost time in the next couple of weeks.

So both excited and nervous about the change. Wish us luck, and I will see you around!

On Progress and Cover Art

So Kingsley is off and running! It's doing well for now, but I am hoping that it starts to rev up and reach the level of success that Wolfhound continues to enjoy. I just need to find the mental energy and time to promote it a little bit more and I think it will catch on pretty well.

So on another topic, we have the cover art for Iron Angels! James Curwen was kind enough to provide the artwork, and he has done a wonderful job. Go check out his other work, and I highly recommend him to other authors looking for covers! He's great. Now I just have to revise the book itself until it has similar quality... At least I have until May this time! See you around!