With the official release of my first novel Rise and Fall tomorrow, I wanted to take a few moments and look back on what it took to get this book published.

I first started writing around March of 2010. I got about 10,000 words into a story when I realized I didn’t have much of a story at all, just a mash up of scenes and characters with no clear path of where I wanted to go. I scraped most of what I had written and started working on the outline that later became Rise and Fall. The only things I saved from those first 10,000 words were half a scene I used in Chapter 2 of the book and several of the character/place names such as Kaz, Tobin, Jonrell, Bronn, and Elyse.

After spending a couple of weeks outlining, creating an ugly map, and doing some basic world-building, I started writing the book on April 27, 2010. Progress was really slow at first. Referencing my daily word count tracker, it took me about a month to write one of the early chapters.

Still, I wrote just about every day through the end of the year. Around that time, I went back and started revising the first 25 chapters to better solidify the ending based on some deviations from my original outline. I wrapped up the last few chapters of the book in the early part of this year.

Then I went through several revisions and around April 2011, I gave Leah a copy to read over. She made some recommendations which based on our discussions I then incorporated into my next round of edits. Then, rather than continuing with more edits, I decided to take a break from the book and wrote a few short stories that so far only family has read. I also wrote the first draft to Walk Through Fire, the prequel novella that will come out in April 2012.

I revisited the manuscript one more time with a fresh set of eyes (which helped tremendously) as I edited once more before Leah performed a line edit. Leah’s next pass helped me tighten things up greatly. Then the manuscript went off to betareaders and while they read the book, I outlined Divide and Conquer (the second book in the trilogy) and started working on that while also revising Walk through Fire, and securing an editor.

I got betareader comments back, made another pass through the book, and sent the manuscript off to my editor. I wrote Warleader while he went over the novel, worked more on Divide and Conquer, finalized cover art, and worked on marketing myself as a writer.

Next, I received comments back from my editor. Based on his suggestions I cut a bunch of stuff I didn’t need, added a few more scenes and information for clarity, all while tightening my prose.

After a very tiring yet satisfying year and seven months, it makes me very happy (and a bit nervous) to know my book is finally done.

Looking back, it’s surprising to see just how much I was able to do while working a full-time job and fulfilling my other responsibilities to both God and family. It’s also a bit daunting to think how much work there is to do in the next year and a half or so as I work to get everything else published in the Blood and Tears world (2 novellas and 2 books left to be published).

I guess it’s a good thing that I can get by on a little sleep!

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4 Responses so far.

  1. Anonymous says:

    So, how might one obtain this novel?

  2. I'll have a post tomorrow with all the details since that is the official release date I previously set for myself. The book will be available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Hey, I gotta wattpad app on my iPhone. Will your book be available on their site?

  4. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow you to upload to their bookstore unless you have a MAC and I use a PC.

    However, you can easily download the Kindle App at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8 which would then allow you to purchase the book through Amazon.

    Another option, is to find an appropriate file at Smashwords to use on your iPhone.

    Let me know if you've got anymore questions.

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