4/14/19

I slept ten hours last night and I woke up feeling pretty good, so I'm going to do my best to buckle down on the edits for Ground of Resurrection.  I have a lot still to do for that and they're due next week.  Next week is also the start of Passover and I'm going to be incredibly busy.  Today is my last full day to really get these done and I'm going to do my best.

If I make a lot of progress with Resurrection, I'm hoping to start on Ge-Mi: Part Two today as well.  If not, Ge-Mi will have to wait until after Passover.  I know I promised I'd get the editing and formatting complete this month, but it's just not going to happen.  I will get it done next month.

The response for both If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Sentinel's Prophesy have both been excellent.  The reviews have been positive.  Thank you so much to everyone that has read and enjoyed either of those books. 

3/7/19

I want to start off by reminding everyone that If A Butterfly Don't Fly will be released next week!  If you want to pre-order the book for a 15% discount at LT3, now's your chance: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... It will be available on Amazon and all other major retailers by March 13th. 

I'll give you one guess as to what I'm working on now.  If you immediately thought "edits!" you're right.  I'm actually on time for all my edits, which is a nice change, but when I really want to be writing instead...  Anyway, here's what I'm working on right now:

First were the edits for The Coup and the Prince, which I have completed and returned to LT3.  I decided I liked the way the story ended as it was and I didn't want to muddle it up by adding an epilogue.  I instead added a couple of paragraphs to the last scene that should hopefully address why the editor was thinking an epilogue would be useful.  Next for this story are the copy edits, after which it will be ready for publication. 

Speaking of copy edits, I just received those for The Sentinel's Prophesy.  I've read through and for the most part they're very straightforward.  There are one or two minor tweaks I need to address, but overall I don't think they'll be a heavy lift.  Once the copy edits are completed, this story will be ready to go. 

The last set of edits I received were the first round for Ground of Resurrection, the second book in my Wizard Wars series.  I haven't had a chance to look through them yet, so I don't know how onerous they'll be, but they're going to be interesting either way.  I won't be able to get started on this story until Prophesy is back with LT3, so I'll give you an update on it soon.

I have also resubmitted Wounded Alpha to LT3.  I think (I hope) I fixed the issue, and I will find out in a few weeks whether LT3 also thinks it's fixed.  I'll let you all know whether they accept it this time. 

2/18/19

Good news first:

I have an official release date for The Sentinel's Prophesy: April 3, 2019.  You can also preorder it at LT3 right now: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...  All that's left before Prophesy is ready to go is the copy edit and the galley proof, neither of which should take too long, and the cover.  I haven't seen the cover yet, but I'm sure it's going to be as amazing as the rest of the series, so I'm definitely excited for it. 

If A Butterfly Don't Fly also comes out in a month.  If you haven't had a chance to pre-order, now's a good time: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... 

Now for the bad news:

Wounded Alpha was not accepted as part of LT3's Bound by Nothing call.  They were kind enough to tell me the two reasons why:  1, I wasn't as original as I hoped and they had too many similarly-themed stories.  When they had to choose which of those stories made the cut, mine didn't.  2, There was one scene that needed a bit of work, which is why mine didn't make the cut.  However, they did say if I fixed that scene they would reconsider the story as a regular release. 

I was originally planning to spend the entire long weekend working on the edits for The Coup and the Prince and  I made a lot of progress until I got that rejection email.  After reading the email, I had a good idea for how to fix the issue, so that's what I spent today doing instead of my edits.  (I wanted to get it down on paper before I forgot it.)  I've finished my fixing and I'm going to let the story sit for a few days, which means it's back to edits. 

Of course, all of that means I haven't had a chance to work on any of my waiting stories.  I was happy to have added about 1k words to Ge-Mi: Part Two, but haven't been able to get back to it since.  I also started fleshing out the beginning and basic outline for the third (and likely final) book in my Wizard Wars series, but again, I haven't had time to really dig in.  Hopefully once I'm done with this round of edits I'll be able to get back to it. 

And that is the last of my bad news.  Hopefully next week will only be good news to share. 

2/6/19

If A Butterfly Don't Fly is back up on LT3 for preorder.  Unless you got a refund, don't buy it a second time.  If you didn't get a chance to preorder before, now's your chance to get it for 15% off.  Check it out here: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...  It will likely become available on Amazon and all other retailers on the release date, March 13th. 

All the edits for Butterfly and The Sentinel's Prophesy are back with LT3.  That means Butterfly is 95% ready for release.  All that's left is checking over the galley, which will happen sometime in the next few weeks.  I made a lot of changes in Prophesy, but I'm not sure whether it needs to go back to the editor.  It might not go through a second round of edits and instead head straight to the copy editor.  I don't know what that means in terms of release dates, but the fewer edits I have to do, the better. 

Just today I received more edits for The Coup and the Prince.  I haven't had time to start working on it, but I glanced through and it doesn't look too bad.  A couple tweaks here and there, but I didn't see any major rewrites.  However, the editor did recommend I add an epilogue, which could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand words added (depending on how the characters speak to me).  Once I get into the nitty gritty of the edits, I will have to read through and reevaluate whether I agree with that recommendation

My Truest Love and Wings of the Stars are both supposed to get a quick edit, so I'm expecting to see something regarding those two stories sometime soon as well.  I am not expecting to hear anything about Ground of Resurrection for a few more months, which will hopefully allow a break between editing jobs that I would like to fill with writing instead. 

LT3's Bound by Nothing call officially closed last week.  It will likely be a few more weeks before I hear whether they accept Wounded Alpha, but they have started the process of going through all the submissions.  I will of course let you all know when I have news to share. 

1/20/19

I have new release dates for both of my postponed stories! 

• If A Butterfly Don't Fly: March 13, 2019
• The Coup and the Prince: May 22, 2019

I expect Butterfly will be back up on LT3's site for pre-order very soon.  When LT3 lists their May books, Coup will go back up too. 

Even better news is I already know I won't miss Butterfly's new release date.  I received the copy edits last weekend.  My plan was to simply look through them to see what I was in for, but as I was scrolling through I started fixing.  I managed to finish the edits, so all that's left is a final read-through before I send it back to LT3.  If I didn't already have edits I was working on, I would have this completed today. 

Speaking of those other edits, I'm making good progress on the first round of edits for The Sentinel's Prophesy.  I'm about two thirds of the way through and should get that last chunk done this weekend.  Then it's a read-through and back to LT3.  I'm glad I'm making good progress on both sets of edits.  The sooner I'm done with them, the sooner I can return to writing, which is what I really want to work on right now. 

Thank you to everyone that voted in the M/M Romance Goodreads Group awards.  Ground of Insurrection did not place, but I'm still really happy and honored to have been nominated.  I'm hoping you all will enjoy the sequel, Ground of Resurrection, just as much. 

1/5/19

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and a good new year.  So far, my new year is starting off well.  I have lots of news to share, but first I want to tell you my new years resolution for writing: Get all my edits done on time!  Conversely, if I'm struggling with the edits, contact LT3 well ahead of the deadline so we can work something out before it gets away from us both.  I'm not going through that again this year, and it's not right that I put LT3 on the spot like that.  2019 is a new year with a new start where I will juggle my real life and my writing life competently. 

With that out of the way, on to my news:

Edits have returned.  The Sentinel's Prophesy has arrived in my inbox to start the editing process, which I'm super exited about.  There's always a lot to do for the first round of edits, but nothing crazy jumped out at me after a quick glance through.  I started working on it already and I hope to get a big chunk completed this weekend.  By Sunday night I should know how crazy this round will be, and how many rounds of edits this particular story will need.  I want to get Prophesy back to LT3 quickly because I'm expecting edits for the two postponed stories to appear at any moment.  Both If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Coup and the Prince went back for more edits.  I don't know what the timeline is for either story, which means I don't know when to expect them back, and in the interest of avoiding overlapping edits (which is one of the things I had issues with last year), getting Prophesy completed soon is a high priority. 

Two of my stories have had their contracts renewed.  Road to Home, book two of my contemporary spy thriller series, will continue to be sold through LT3 without interruption.  I will not be making any edits or changes, so if you own the book don't worry, and if you don't own the book, you have plenty of time to get your copy. 

The other renewed contract belonged to Wings of the Stars, a short sci-fi story I wrote for LT3's A Loose Screw collection.  Wings of the Stars is technically the second story in a series I've always loosely called Space Stars.  The first book in the series, My Truest Love, was written for LT3's Rocking Hard anthology, and it went out of print a few years ago.  Therein lies the dilemma.  If I wanted to renew Wings of the Stars, I needed to do something with My Truest Love.  I spoke with LT3 and they have accepted My Truest Love again.  I would like to have new covers made for both stories that reflect the fact that they're in a series together.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. 

The last bit of news is that the voting for M/M Romance's Best books of 2018 closed.  I have to wait until next weekend to learn how Ground of Insurrection did.  There was a lot of competition, but I'm still hopeful.  Thank you to everyone that took the time to vote. 

11/18/18

I've seen some questions regarding where If A Butterfly Don't Fly is.  It was supposed to come out last week, and it has instead vanished.  The short of it is, the edits were too much.  I couldn't rewrite entire sections in the two week timeline before the story had to be back to LT3.  Missing that deadline meant the story couldn't come out in time, so LT3 had to pull it.  That said, LT3 is still moving forward with publishing, but are (understandably) not going to decide on a new release date until we are 100% certain the story will actually come out on that date.  I have since returned the completed story to LT3, so I believe the next step is copy edits.  I'm hoping to see them soon, and once those are done I should have release information to share with you. 

Given my working flat out on Butterfly for three weeks straight pushed back my ability to complete the edits for The Coup and the Prince, that story has also been temporarily pulled.  I returned the edits to LT3, where it will go on to even more edits.  I guesstimate Coup will now come out sometime in 2019, possibly second quarter, but again, no release date will be decided on until we're certain Coup will actually be ready for it. 

In happier news, I have had some writing success.  I submitted Ground of Resurrection to LT3 this morning.  I should hear whether they accept it sometime in the next few months.  I have also completed Wounded Alpha, the story I wrote for LT3's Bound by Nothing call.  All of my worry about whether it would be long enough or even get completed in time was apparently baseless and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  It's not due until the end of January, so I'm going to let it sit until after the new year, and then start editing and formatting it for submission.  I have also added over 5k words to Ge-Mi: Part Two, which means I'm getting to the finish line.  All I have to write is the last confrontation with the bad guy and the wrap up afterwards, and this story will be complete.  I'm hoping to get it done in 2018, but this last section might be the hardest to write so we'll see how it goes.  

11/3/18

You've got to be tired of hearing about my edits by now.  I know I'm tired of talking about them.  I think the last twelve plus months have been almost exclusively edits, with zero progress on writing.  The good news is, I am definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  I am very much looking forward to a break in editing so I can finally spend some real time on writing.  Here's where everything I've been working on lately stands right now.

I was finally getting to the end of the second round of edits for The Coup and the Prince when I had to stop.  LT3 sent me the third and final round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly and, given it comes out in just over a week, I have to get Butterfly done ASAP.  I would say this set of edits are easier than the previous two rounds, but a lot of it is time consuming.  For example, every time a space is changed to a dash, a deleted comment and a red insert appears in my manuscript's track changes.  That requires I accept the change for both, which is an extremely tedious and time consuming adventure in mind-numbing boredom.  There's a dozen changes like that on each page and for a 40k word story... You can see where I'm going with this.  Of course, there's also a few changes that will require a bit more effort as well.  My goal is to have all the changes fixed by the end of today, so I can spend tomorrow giving the story one last read through.  If I can get it back to LT3 tomorrow, Butterfly will be in good shape for release on November 14th. 

Which means I get to return to working on Coup tomorrow too.  I fully admit that if I had gotten Coup back to LT3 early, or even by the exact due date, there wouldn't be this overlap.  It's my own fault I'm stuck like this.  That said, I do need to get Coup back to LT3 also ASAP.  There's a little over a month before Coup is supposed to be released and I don't know if that's enough time for editing round three.  It's a little nerve wracking, but I'm hopeful. 

Writing, as I said earlier, has been sporadic and far between.  However, when my brain starts hurting from all the editing, I have been switching to work on my currently untitled story for LT3's Bound by Nothing call.  The story currently stands at 18k words, which means I will get to the minimum 20k word count required by the call.  It's a lighter story without a lot of twists and turns, which makes it easier to write and a nice change from the tangles my brain has been stuck in from the edits.  I have not had time to give Ground of Resurrection the final edit it needs before I submit it, so when I get free time again that story will have to be completed first, but my Bound by Nothing story is a close second.  Only when the edits are done and those two stories are off to LT3's submission box will I have the time and energy to return to tackling the bigger stories patiently waiting on my to-do list. 

10/18/18

As usual, I am behind on edits.  The second round for The Coup and the Prince are stuck.  I can't figure out how to do what the editor has recommended, so I think the unfortunate solution is I won't be doing it at all.  I can see how the change would benefit the overall story, but it requires 15k words added in such a way that it doesn't disrupt the overall plot.  I just can't figure out a way to finagle it without essentially destroying the story.  I've tried and failed, and, given the edits were due yesterday, I think it's time to move on.  I do think Coup is still good without the change and am really looking forward to December 12th when it finally reaches my readers' hands. 

Another reason I want to get Coup back to the editor is I'm expecting the next (and final) round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly.  We're under a month to release day, so it's getting to be crunch time.  I'm actually looking forward to seeing Butterfly again, as this round of edits is the culmination of a lot of work.  Seeing the story finally come together is going to be amazing.  I already know you're all going to love it, so mark your calendars for November 14th, or simply pre-order it from LT3 ahead of time. 

Ground of Resurrection, the story that has been patiently waiting for me to give it a last edit so I can submit it to LT3, will have to continue waiting for just a little longer.  All of my focus has to be on getting Coup back to the editor ASAP.  Only once that is done can I pull out Resurrection again.  I'm hoping this time next year I'll be complaining about editing it while eagerly looking forward to it being published! 

Due to a number of reasons (edits, holidays, real life intrusions), I haven't been able to get a lot of writing done this last month.  I have added a bit to the story I'm attempting to write for LT3's Bound by Nothing call, but I'm still not sure if, A) I'll have it complete by the deadline, and B) it will reach the minimum length requirement.  Still, the story is cute and fun to write, so I'm going to plug away at it for as long as possible.  Wish me luck!

9/15/18

Ground of Insurrection is 99 cents at LT3 this weekend only!  If you don't have a copy, now is the time: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...  Insurrection has been getting truly wonderful reviews and it has one of the prettiest covers I've seen.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it too, so get your copy today!

Heartbeat is now available on Goodreads. Feel free to add it to your to-read list if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41830430-heartbeat

I have completed writing Ground of Resurrection, book two in my Wizard Wars series.  I have set it aside to marinate for about a month, so sometime in mid-October I'll get it edited and formatted for submission.  I'm excited about how it turned out.  It answers some of the questions I know you had from book one and expands the world and the story.  I'm hoping you like it too!  Next for this series is book three, which I have the barest outline for.  I'm not planning on starting book three for a while (I have a few others I want to finish first), but I'm looking forward to it. 

Otherwise, I haven't done much the past few weeks.  I had a good new year celebration with my family, which was nice.  I'm behind on the edits for The Coup and the Prince.  I'm hoping to make some progress on it this week around Yom Kippur, but it's going to be difficult.  There will be more time to focus on the edits next week.  Once the edits are done I'll return to writing and will hopefully begin to make real progress on some of the other stories I know you're waiting for.