Category Archives: Fragments

Fragments, Writing

Fragments Released!

Fragments Cover - Final
After what seems like forever (and a thousand delays), I’m excited to finally announce that Fragments is finished and available for you to read. It’s available in most of the major electronic bookstores except for Apple and Sony, but they should be coming along in the next few days to a week, I expect. The print version is currently available from me, directly, and from Amazon.com. It will filter out among the other retailers over the course of the next couple of weeks as the distributors get ahold of it.

I’m pretty excited about it. It’s nearly thirty percent longer than Shattered, and I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks about it.

Read the first three chapters!

Denied Admittance
Six months have passed since Robert proved he completed his apprenticeship by defeating Orliss Kilore, yet the shattered Wizard’s Guild will not admit him to their membership. They claim they are protecting him, but he believes they have some other motive.

The New Academy
Angela has not seen Robert in months, not since the funeral for her old mentor, Monteous Roarke. Her studies at the new Wizard Academy consume all her time. Gerard only seems to have time for Nina, until his Uncle appears at the gate and informs him of his brother’s untimely death, and demands that Gerard return home.

A Wizard Apart
When a wizard long thought dead reappears to take his revenge on the Guild that expelled him, the apprentices must once again rush to find a wizard that can help them. Only this time, he does not want to be found.

 

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Fragments, Grim Repo Files, Minders, Shattered, The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Zombies Ate My Mom

Fragments Delay, Future Releases, and Other Notes

First, I want to say that I am very sorry that Fragments is not out, yet. It’s the longest book I’ve written so far, twenty-eight percent longer than Shattered, and it’s taking me time to work through it. Back in May, I started formatting the paper edition, and quickly decided that I needed to do another edit of the book, which took longer than I thought. The book is better for it.

I submitted the files for the print edition last week, and I had planned to release it next week, assuming all went well. Unfortunately, all is not well. I discovered that the font I planned to use on the cover and some of the interior, while listed as public domain, may not have been stolen by the “author” of the font, and thus not public domain at all. There seems to be some question, but if there’s a question, I’m not going to risk infringing on someone else’s copyrights. So, I’ve had to redo the lettering with a font that I DO own a license to, which means I will have to order another proof, and that will delay the book by at least another week. I am going to wait and check the proof that’s already on it’s way before ordering the new one, so that I can catch all the other issues that might have cropped up. That said, the target date for Fragments is now August first, give or take a few days.

This latest delay won’t have a huge effect on future releases. I expect Zombies Bought the Farm to be released around the third week of August, and Minders to release around the middle of September, with the sequel to Grim Repo in October. I’m not placing a date on Reworked, yet, because it’s not finished, and it will need a lot of time to edit. It looks to be about thirty percent longer than Fragments, despite what the word meter says.

Finally, I’m looking for a new tile for The Sacrifice of Mendleson Moony. My wife and I talked about it, and we’ve both concluded that, as cool as the title is, it doesn’t fit the book. The book is a fantasy romance book, and nothing about the title indicates that the romance between the characters is a significant driver of the story. If you’ve read the book, help me out. I can’t, for the life of me, come up with a title that fits. Please send me your suggestions. If you suggest a title and I use it, I’ll send you a free book of mine (your choice).

Fragments, Shattered, StoryBox

What’s Up With StoryBox 2 and Fragments?

Fragments CoverIt’s May 31st. Yes. I was planning to release StoryBox 2 today. I planned to release Fragments today, too. Neither of them are happening.

StoryBox 2 will go out of beta sometime next week. I had to do some updates to TrackerBox that were not planned due to Barnes & Nobles change over from PubIt to NOOK Press. Now, the only thing holding StoryBox 2 up is fixing up the help file. I’ve already done a bit of work on it, but it needs more, especially with all the additions and changes, including changes that occurred after version 1.0 that never got included in the help. I will work on that this weekend.

Fragments has a different story. I started the formatting (which occurs after editing) last Friday and quickly discovered there were things I didn’t like. These things were there despite having been read by four other people, not including myself. The book was written last summer, and I’ve written a lot since then, so perhaps it’s just me growing as a writer, but I couldn’t let the book go out with things I hated in it. So I’m running through it one more time in an attempt to clean out those things that just bug the crap out of me. I’m sure, if I read it again six months from now, there will be more writing in it that I don’t like, but I feel I owe it to you to at least like everything in it at the time I release it.

So you can probably add two or three weeks to the release date for Fragments. I’m going through it as fast as I can, but I’m not rushing it, and it’s a long book. I think I’ve said it before, but it’s nearly 30% longer than Shattered. Reworked is coming along, but it’s probably going to be another 20-30% longer than Fragments. And, though I had planned it as a trilogy (planned is a loose term, here – imagined is probably better), I have an inkling there will be a fourth book.

This also means Zombies Bought the Farm will be delayed, but since it’s far shorter than Fragments, I’m hoping it won’t be much more than a week later than my original plan.

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Today  (May 31, 2013) is the last intentional day to get Shattered for $2.99. It’s $2.99 at pretty much all of the retailers listed on the Shattered page.

Fragments

That Character Shouldn’t Know That!

Fragments Cover

There’s nothing like finding a major continuity problem in a book with only two weeks left before you plan to release it. Stress levels go up, the day’s planned writing output goes down.

While writing Reworked, yesterday, not twenty words in I wrote a sentence that exposed a problem that I had created in Fragments. A goodly number of conversations mentioned this particular issue in exactly the wrong way. It involved something happening in Gerard’s past that would have invalidated the way he behaved in Shattered, and that’s about as much as I can say without spoilering parts of two books.

Once I realized this problem existed, I couldn’t write anything more until I found all the places where this set of events was mentioned and created a plan to fix them. One scene will require a complete rewrite, and there are a few other places that will need minor edits. It will probably add a couple days to my planned publication date because I’ll have to get the scene looked at by at least one other third party before I can call it good.

I’m annoyed, to say the least, but it’s better than catching it after I’ve already published the book.

Fragments

Fragments Cover Reveal!

Fragments Cover
I’ve been waiting for a long time to show this off. It’s another amazing Joe Slucher piece. He somehow manages to figure out exactly what I’m looking for, even when I’m not sure what it is that I’m looking for.

I’ve had the art since January. I wanted to wait until I finished the initial edit, which would mean that there’s a finite amount of time left before I publish the book. The book is with my beta readers right now (an intrepid bunch). When it comes back from them, there’s another edit pass (to incorporate their comments), and then the process of publishing.

I know some of you have been waiting a long time for this book, and I can’t wait for you to read it.

Anyway, props to Joe. I hope the book lives up to the cover.

Fragments, Grim Repo Files

Grim Fragments Progress Report

It’s actually a Grim AND Fragments progress report, but I thought the title was more amusing without the AND.

Off to the right, you’ll notice that Grim Repo 2 looks like it’s done, with more words than the target. It’s not done. It’s on the border of being done, and I can see the other side, but there’s a minefield between here and there that I have to cross, first.

The Fragments edit is coming along. I have five chapters left to do, and I should be able to get them done tomorrow, barring any unforeseen circumstances. It’s taken so long, because I had to do some major edits early on in the book. Several people had to be written out. It was horrible. Don’t worry. You don’t know any of them, and they’re all mostly alive, I think

Another factor in the delay is that it’s nearly 25% longer than Shattered. I’ve hadn’t written anything as long as Shattered since Shattered, and I forgot how long it takes to edit something this long. I’m anticipating that Reworked (the third A Wizard’s Work book) will be longer, still, and I’ll have to adjust my schedule to account for it.

As soon as I’m done with the Fragments edit, I’ll reward myself by doing something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. I’ll show you all the cover (again, done by Joe Slucher). I think it’s fantastic, and I’ve wanted to show it off for a long time.