Concept Art, Book Release News, and More

Please excuse the poor quality of these images; pencil does not scan very well.

These are the three scene I plan to use on the cover of The Daedalus Enigma. I’m thinking of using acrylic paints for this one. They are a medium I haven’t worked with in well over a decade, but I think acrylic will work better for my purposes than watercolor on this cover. Colored pencil is not an option. It doesn’t scan well, and even if I get a digital version to look good, the printout sucks ditchwater. I learned that lesson the hard way with the cover of Silent Fathoms.

I’ve been told to expect an October release for The Daedalus Enigma! Nice to know things are back on schedule with my publisher. There were a few hiccups last year which pushed the last book back a couple of months to December.

I don’t have any more conventions I plan to attend this year, but I think I will run a Red Shirt contest this September as part of my efforts to promote before the book release. I’ll post details next weekend for that on how to enter, how many spots are open, and how long the contest will run. I have a few other pre-release marketing ideas, but I need to get things in place before I can say anything official about them.

I also plan to get back in touch with my beta readers for The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe soon. I’d like to query a few publishers with the first few episodes and hopefully get a start-up date for the serial in publication by early next year.

If you’re going to dream, might as well dream big.

Off to the Editor!

The Daedalus Enigma has been submitted! At a current pre-editing word count of 91,950, this may be the longest book in the series.

There is one scene which will probably get cut and find its way to the Dungeon of Deleted or Altered Scenes, though. It is pretty graphic and not really important to the plot. It was just one of those scenes I had to write down to get it out of my head (the kind I really don’t want to know where they come from).

Now I have cover art to come up with. I had an image in mind when I did the cover for Hell’s Dodo last year, but I don’t think I want to go with that one now. I have another idea beginning to form which I like better and I believe will be more eye catching.

Approaching the Finish Line

Only four and a half chapters remain to be typed on The Daedalus Enigma. I had to read through chapter 34 fully before I could type it up. I’d marked about three pages to be rewritten, and I didn’t remember why or if I’d done so yet. The read through let me know I had rewritten that segment, and the rewrite flowed much better than the original version.

I should be able to finish the manuscript up and do a proofreading next weekend. After I’m satisfied with that, I’ll send it on to my editor.

Then comes the fun part of creating the painting for the cover art while I wait for the first rounds of edits to be sent back to me. I’m still trying to decide if I want to use watercolor again or go with acrylics.

Introducing Professor Write

If you are a writer or plan to become one, this will be a very valuable resource… and it’s FREE!

Big Owl's Tree

Welcome to Professor Write: Your Online Writing Classroom. This site will serve as your place to sharpen your writing skills, explore your imagination, and most importantly find your voice.

The central focus of this website will be the Professor Write Video Lecture Series.  Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow the series as we cover the essentials for developing your writing skills. Designed for college students and aspiring writers, the videos will cover the fundamentals for honing your writing skills at your own pace and on your own time. Each Monday, I’ll add links to the new videos.

Wednesdays will be devoted to vocabulary with 20 new words added weekly. I’ll cover definitions, etymologies, and usages so that you can build a world class vocabulary.

On Fridays, I’ll answer writing related questions that I receive through the week. You can leave a comment anywhere on the blog, and…

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Grace O’Malley and Writing Progress

While I’ve not gotten any typing on The Daedalus Enigma done during the work week, I did make good progress on the first draft of Maelstrom of Fate. That seems to be my current writing pattern: write on book seven at work breaks during the week, and type on book six on the weekends.

I’m currently writing chapter 24 of Maelstrom, with about half my plot points and notes for the book still to go. I’ve gotten four more chapters typed on Enigma this weekend; which puts the document at 197 pages, 28 chapters, or 63k+ words completed. I’ve only 11 chapters left to type to finish the second draft. I made myself stop tonight so I could write this blog post.

I’m at a section of the story which was fun to research. Viktor will have to deal with a fictional descendant of Grace O’Malley, the “pirate queen.” Please, I encourage you to click on the link to the wiki article on her. It makes for some very interesting reading.

I’ve named my fictional descendant Darcy.

Statue of Grace O’Malley on the estate of some of her actual descendants

Rock Fleet castle, one of Grace’s residences

 

Did You Miss Me?

Then you should adjust the sights on your gun.

Just kidding.

My work schedule this month has been…unusual; hence no post last weekend.

Let’s see: I’ve gotten a nice bit of typing done on The Daedalus Enigma. I am up to chapter 25. Granted, some of the chapters are short-ish. I’ve never been one to assign a specific word count to chapter lengths. I just put chapter breaks where they feel natural in the story.

I finally posted my photos from LibertyCon 29 to Facebook. You can find them here.

I want to welcome D.A. Adams , friend and fellow author, back to the blogosphere after an extended absence. Good news: he’s planning to turn his blog into a writers’ workshop/teaching tool! Whether you are a seasoned pro or a writing novice, this should prove to be a very valuable resource. I’m also happy to hear he’s writing on the fifth installment of his Brotherhood of Dwarves series. I’ve been waiting on this book for years now.

I also added a publisher to my to-query list for my The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe Steampunk serial. It’s a newly formed indie press, but I know a few of the staff and their dedication to pushing their stories when they were self-pubbed authors. They know how hard it can be to get a book noticed among the millions of titles out there, and they still managed to be successful at it. (I won’t name the press in this post, because they are one of several I plan to query.)

On the home front, we’ve been getting some little visitors to our yard I haven’t seen in previous years.

House finches. They’re tiny things and seem rather fond of dandelion fluff seeds. I’ve seen at least two pairs, but there could be an entire flock just visiting in twos or threes at varying times.

Of course, while looking for images (because I’m not gonna get something THIS nice with MY camera) I came across this and had to share.

That’s all I’ve got for this week.