Been a while, huh? Some weird shit going on since my last update. World’s in a weird place. But I’m sure you’re spending a lot of time thinking about that, so I’m not gonna talk about it.
I’m gonna talk about endings, and beginnings. If you don’t care about recap, you can skip the next section and just get to the exciting part down below. If, for some pitiable reason, you enjoy reading my writing for its own sake, then I guess carry on.
Time for some recap.
Originally, I wrote a single manuscript. A single book. When I went back to do the first edit, I decided I wanted to split it up into two books in one volume. This was more for aesthetic effect, and organization. Since the beginning, I’ve felt Silver Mystic had a rhythm. A time signature. And that time signature is 2/2. Marching order. One foot, then the other. So it made sense to me to have two sections.
Belief.
precedes
Reality.
One, two. In part, I took this cue from examples. My favorite books growing up were the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and each of those volumes are divided into two parts. Dune, my now-favorite novel, is revealed in three books. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
Anyway, that was the plan through two more editing rounds. Publish one book in two parts. Then, once I was all finally finished with editing, I met with my friend, who is an expert at Amazon publishing. Once I told him the length of the finished product (over 235,000 words), he balked. The cost to produce a paperback of this length would likely be cost prohibitive. He suggested I split it up into two books, or more if it lent it self to that. Well good news, it did. In fact, there are four distinct locations in Silver Mystic, and they’re reasonably close to the same length. So I decided to do a four-part series, and eventually a compendium.
So I got started on that, and let you all know. Honestly, I expected some disappointment. I figured people would think I was doing it for money or something, or as a marketing gimmick. But you were all very supportive, and after I came up with titles, even enthusiastic.
During the course of all my formatting and uploading to Amazon, I decided to see just how much a one-volume edition would cost. Turned out, it was much, much less than my friend or I had expected. Reasonable, even. But I had already emotionally committed to the idea of a series, and put a non-insignificant amount of effort that direction. Still, I was excited to just publish one volume and get it done with. So I told you all.
And you know what? That’s when I encountered disappointment. Several of you reached out to me to express how excited you had been about the idea of the series. The titles sounded cool, and more books meant more of Nic’s cool covers.
Someone mentioned that providing that break in between, whether or not there was a time break, but even just a separator did something artistically. It creates more tension. More anticipation. And therefore, more fulfillment at the end.
I found that argument very compelling. So compelling, in fact, that I reverse-reversed course. Last email, I let you all know that I was going to go that route. I just needed finalized cover art and descriptions. Should be pretty easy, right?
Where We’re At
I feel pretty good about my ability to write this book. I feel good about editing my book. Shaping it, making it better. Adding, cutting, etc. But there are two areas of creation in which I do not feel good. Thankfully, I have wonderful friends. Not only wonderful, but super talented.
Cover Art
Thanks to my buddy Nic, I now have finalized cover art for the first book. And it should serve well as a template for the other books, with some slight tweaks (more on that to come). And in case my thoughts on his work haven’t come through strongly so far…
HOLY SHIT he’s awesome. I love what he puts together. It’s not only beautiful, but he’s so in-tune with what I’m going for that it comes together so well.
Descriptions
Okay this was just awful. I know I mentioned at the end of my last update that I might write up a whole post just for that effort, but HELL no. I worked on these for hours and hours. Trying to write descriptions for my books is maybe the hardest thing I’ve tried doing in this whole process. Yes, that list includes finishing the first draft. I would much rather write a whole new novel than write descriptions.
Ugh. I don’t know if my frustration and displeasure is coming through, but ugh. Anyway, cue up another-friend-saves-the-day music. Annie is a dear friend who has not only volunteered to read one of the early drafts, but is the only person who has read every draft. That’s right, you heard me. She’s read my book three times.
And as if that wasn’t enough to prove that she loves pain more than anything else, she agreed to try to write descriptions for me. Even though she’s never done that kind of work before. And let me tell you what, I think she nailed it. Admittedly, I am not the best judge, because I hate book descriptions, but even so, I think these are good. I had another friend Aryeh help me tweak the final version a bit, so thanks bud.
So… status?
Lots of words so far, eh? You still with me? Not catatonic? I’m not complaining, just surprised. So where are we at? I’ll frickin tell you where we’re at.
That’s my order of three proof copies from Amazon. Proof copies are the last step before you publish.
Hold up, I think I might need to wake y’all up. That’s on me, btw.
PROOF COPIES ARE THE LAST STEP BEFORE YOU PUBLISH.
MY PROOF COPIES ARRIVE MONDAY.
IF A, AND B, THEN…?
In case you’re having trouble with the math, it means I’ll likely be publishing book 1 in my series next week. NEXT WEEK.
I still need to tweak some things for both cover art and descriptions before I’m ready to publish all four volumes. So that means there will likely be some time between each one. Nothing egregious, just maybe a month or so. And I will try very hard to have the compendium ready at the same time I publish the fourth book, for those of you who just want to get the total thing.
Next week. Next. Week.
GET HYPED.
The next email likely won’t be THE ONE, but soon. I have a few housekeeping things I want to go over with y’all, that will be pretty important. STAY TUNED.
Also, since you’ve made it this far, I’ll even show you a preview of the cover and description.
City of Husks - Back Cover Description Tease
“Belief precedes reality.”
Zimmer was never a paradise, but at least it was a home. Of sorts. Now the husks are coming to take what’s left of it. Night after night, a man as broken and soulless as the city he lives in tries to stop them. Night after night, they keep coming and they are getting stronger. Rayner, caught between guilt and lethargy, has too many of his own demons to fight the ones walking out from the ocean floor. Alone, anyway. He needs to get help.
Fortunately, Rayner knows just where to go for answers. Unfortunately, he’ll have to dredge up an ugly past to get there, and it just might turn out to be more dangerous than fighting the husks themselves. If he can get through this, Zimmer might have a chance. Humanity—such as it is—might even survive. But first he’ll have to convince a sworn enemy to risk everything on the not-so-solid basis of his hunches and a sketchy plan to unbreak the world.
City of Husks - Front Cover Tease
Well that’s enough (more than) for now. Hope you enjoyed, and are looking forward to next week’s release! Thanks again for being part of this!
Sayonara,
Loren