I just emailed my revisions and copy edits on The Daedalus Enigma back to the editor. I expanded a few scenes, corrected a few bad writing habits I was unaware of until they were pointed out to me, and made a few corrections to my typing we both missed the first time around.
The next step will either be publication or further revisions.
This past week has been rough for comic book fans and fandom communities in general.
R.I.P:
Steve Dillon comic book artist
Michael Brown comic book columnist for Krypton Radio
Gerald Harris comic book dealer at Atlanta Comic Con
Kerry Gilley former LibertyCon Board Director
Each were established icons in their own right, regardless of if their lives touched fans all around the world or just within their own community.
They will be missed.
First, I would like to congratulate Michelle Oesterling for winning September’s Red Shirt contest…. She was the only entrant.
I blame my timing of announcing the contest for the lack of participation. That’s the bad thing about posting something on Facebook. If you do so when the people you want to see it are asleep, away from their computers, or don’t check their notifications regularly, it WILL get missed.
That being said, I still have three Royal Marines to give names to. Since this is for the book due out October 2017, I plan to hold drawings for one spot each at the three conventions I regularly attend: Chattacon, ConNooga, and LibertyCon. I will reopen the contests in December for the Chattacon spot to be drawn in January, in January for the ConNooga spot to be drawn in February, and in June for the LibertyCon spot to be drawn at the end of that month. If entrants of the first two drawings so desire, their names will be kept in the pot for the drawing for the final spot.
I will repeat this announcement in December as a reminder.
Now on to the cover reveal for The Daedalus Enigma.
I am surprised the texture of the canvas board shows so much. It didn’t show up that much in the print I scanned in and sent to my publisher.
I am debating making prints of the painting to sell at my table at Chattacon along with my books.
Not to be confused with news writer, which is what I originally intended to be my career many eons ago.
The Daedalus Enigma news:
The manuscript has been with my editor for a while now. The last I checked in with my publisher, there were two other manuscripts in cue for editing ahead of mine, but I should be hearing back about it within a week or two. I’m with a different editor this time around, and she has a different method of editing and working with authors; but I do not foresee this being any kind of problem. If I’m to have any hope of really making it as an author, I have to be able to work with different editing styles.
As far as I know, the ebook release is still slated for later this October. I expect the print version will be available in early November.
The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe news:
I’ve typed up two more episodes this week and plan to send them off to my beta readers soon.
There are a couple of snags with the primary publisher I wanted to query the serial to, but I don’t plan to let them stop me from doing so anyway. First: since there is no specific guidelines for submitting a serial, I will probably have to follow their short story anthology guidelines. However, none of the episodes are at their 6k word minimum requirement. Their website does mention shorter works will be considered based on quality of writing.
Second: They will not be accepting new series until 2018. However The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe is an episodic serial, not a book series. So, maybe they will make an exception on that, as well. I won’t know until I query.
If they won’t make an exception, this give me time to add more episodes to the story and/or query other publishers and/or agents.
Maelstrom of Fate news:
The scene/plot point I’m currently working on had me worried it wouldn’t fill many pages. That worry has taken care of it self rather organically thanks to the nature of the characters involved. I only had to ask myself how they would react, and the writing began to flow. Unlike the previous scene with Viktor and Commodore Critchfield, I don’t think I will have to rewrite the scene to fit the characters’ natures.
Lake Effect news:
The anthology I submitted this short story for, The Nameless, is still on the publisher’s back burner. It had originally been slated for publication this year, but the death of the main publisher and subsequent reorganization of the publishing house threw all their projects off schedule. I plan to check in with them periodically to see what’s up.
That concludes my writing news for now.
That title is not about selfishness but gratitude. You see, I just realized something about myself this weekend: I am a finder and keeper of lost happy thoughts.
All my life I’ve had a knack for finding little trinkets and treasures in odd and unexpected places. Some of these trinkets were once some child’s happy thought. For instance, years ago while living in Hagen, Georgia (right next to the fruitcake capitol of the World, Claxton, Georgia) I found several marbles in the yard over the span of several weeks.
I’ve found similar happy thoughts where I live now in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee. During my years at my current location I’ve found a broken toy Sherriff’s car, a tiny doll show (which has since started it journey to its next discoverer, since I’ve lost or misplaced it), a doll’s plastic boom box, a tiny plastic goblet, and just yesterday a little plate from a toy tea set with a goose printed on it. I’ve also found several small rocks with various crystal encrustations on them, my sparkle rocks.
I wonder if this gift is why I’m able to keep the magic from childhood alive in myself; why I can almost see Faerie all around me in its parallel existence.
So, when I find things like this, I keep them safe until it is time for them to move on for someone else to find and rekindle the magic.
Tamara Lowery's Scribblings 