A Writer's Week #128: The Circle is Now Complete

 It took a bit longer than I anticipated, but the Deliverers Series is now complete. Today, I submitted the paperback and Kindle versions of Book 4: Sparkling Mist of Time to Amazon. It will be published February 29. The Kindle version is available for preorder right now. Here's the cover--a big thank you to Emily Hurst Pritchett once again!

A lot of emotions flooded through me when I pressed the upload button. This series is something that has been a part of my life for over 15 years. When I started, I could not have predicted that I would conclude the writing journey here, now. If I knew how it would play out, I might never have started. It took over four years to write book one. It took 2-3 years to write books two and three. Then, I started book four. Book four was really the hardest test in the whole odyssey. 16,000 words in I kind of lost my religion, abandoned the task, and wandered about in the wilderness for about eight years. I had honestly thought the writing chapter of my life was closed. I had burned myself out trying to market my baby.

You see, I was under the impression that if I worked hard enough, I would be able to ditch my day job and make my dream of writing middle grade fiction full time a reality. When it didn't happen after three years of beating my head against the marketing wall at the expense of time with my kids, I gave it up. 

Now, I am older and (perhaps) a little bit wiser. I realize now that if some folks enjoy what I write, I don't have to be a best seller and make a mint to gain satisfaction from it. I owe a great debt to my father for reminding me of that, and for also suggesting refreshing the three existing books as I worked on the fourth.                                                                                                                                

So, a big thank you to all the contributors to the series over the years--Ana Vogel, Daniel Vogel, Jimm Singer, and Emily Hurst Pritchett. I could not have done any of this without your contributions throughout the years.

I also want to thank all of the fellow writers I've met along the way. You have always been one of my biggest sources of support. So, thank you Stephanie Robinson, Jessica Haight, C. Lee McKenzie, Karen Pokras, Margo Dill, and all the rest who have helped with reviews, feedback, and everything. I hope I've been able to return the favor.

What's next on my writer's journey? Look for a collection of inspirational short stories and poems later this year. They were my first foray into writing stories meant to be shared with others. After that, I think I will be revisiting the Dragon Islands, roughly 3,000 years before the events in The Golden Dragon of Ang. Seems like the inspirational well has not dried up after all. As things move forward, I hope you'll all come with me for the ride.

Peace.

A Writer's Week #108: Here's Proof

Things continued to move along this week. On Sunday I received the final files for The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang from layout artist Ana Vogel. That immediately triggered my countdown to the book's release on April 1st. 

I submitted the files that evening and Createspace made it available to be proofed on Monday. I ordered four copies, then sat back and waited. Today, the proof copies arrived. They checked out okay, and so everything is now ready for the release of both the paperback and the Kindle versions.

As we get closer to the beginning of April, things will get even more exciting. For those of you who may not yet have acquainted themselves with The Deliverers Series, the Kindle versions of the first two books, Sharky & the Jewel and Order of the Crystal Lion, will be on sale on Amazon in the U.S. for 99 cents apiece and in the U.K. for 0.99. The sale will run from Wednesday, March 26 to Tuesday, April 1. Get caught up on the rest of the series before book 3 comes out!

Also, don't forget the contest to name the two carriage horses in The Deliverers 4. Submit two names by March 31st and I'll pick the pair I like best. The winner will receive an autographed copy of The Deliverers 3 and a special thank you printed in The Deliverers 4! You can leave the names in a comment on this post, or message me on The Deliverers Series' Facebook page. Good luck and have a great week!

A Writer's Week #107: The Golden Dragon is Coming!

Things have been moving along lately. I just received the final files for The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang from layout designer Ana Vogel and submitted them to Createspace. Once they've had a chance to review them, I'll order a few proof copies to make sure everything is in order, then the book will be all set to release.


With that in mind, I've set up a special counter here on the website. The release is set for April 1st-only fifteen days away! I'm really excited. I'll keep you updated on how things are progressing. In the meantime, here's the complete cover, front and back.

Illustrator Daniel Vogel did a wonderful job. I'll be back next week with a progress report on the new book and my work in progress, The deliverers 4. Have a great week.

A Writer's Week #106: After a Slow Week--Contest!

This week was really slow. so slow, in fact that I almost decided not to write a post this week. But, the main point of the Writer's Week posts when I started writing them over two years ago was to share all the ups and downs in a writer's life. It's always fun to share the highs, but not so much when I have to share the lows.

The fact is, I've been feeling really uninspired for the past couple of weeks. There's no progress to report on the final files for The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang. The Vogels have run into a major bout of the flu, which means that I won't be able to submit the book cover and interior for a while yet.

Meanwhile, I was only able to write about 250 words on the Deliverers 4. I ran into a little sticking point in the plot that took a little bit of thought. That slowed me down big time. The weather was also bitterly cold. Come on folks, it's March, we should be done with temperatures in the single digits for goodness sake!

Anyhow, things they are a changin'. I think the coming week will be much better and I'll be able to get back on track. For one thing, Ana has informed me that things have improved greatly over their way and I should have the final files soon. I also hit upon a possible solution to my plot question, so I should be back to writing my usual 2,000+ words per week (don't quote me on that!). Finally, today the temperature hit 50 degrees. Yes, I definitely think things are turning around.

So, what's the best way to pick up a slow week? With a contest of course. Part of my plot solution included the introduction of two horses that will come in handy to help the Deliverers and their new friend Mathias Keller, or Matty, spy on the British. That's great, but they need names. That's where the contest comes in. I need you to help me name the horses. They pull a carriage at the colonial tavern that Matty's parents own.

To submit the names, go over to the Deliverers Series Facebook page, like the page and private message me with the names of the horses. At the end of March, I'll pick the names that I like the best. The winner will receive a signed paperback copy of The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang, and a thank you for naming the horses in The Deliverers 4! Put your thinking caps on, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

A Writer's Week #105: Lights, Camera, Action

This was a very productive Writer's Week. The thing is, I did absolutely no writing. Now how could that be? Well, while I did next to no work on The Deliverers 4, I got a lot done in preparation for the launch of The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang. 

Last week I received the interior layout of the book. This week was spent reviewing it and making changes. It's always amazing to me that with all the eyes that look at a manuscript there are always a number of errors that slide through unnoticed. It was the same way at the magazine I used to work for. We had everyone in the office rereading the magazine before going off to the printer and there were still one or two typos that would appear when we received the finished product.

It's one reason why I never read any of my books after they're in print. I know I'll find a couple of typos and it will drive me nuts. I also tend to second guess myself. I'm not the same writer now that I was when I wrote Sharky and the Jewel. I like to think I've improved. If I were to go back and read that book, I know there would be spots where I would think that I could have worded things better, or where I repeated the same word three or four times over a couple of paragraphs, or spots where i could have inserted a little more action and less back story--you get the idea.

Anyway, I should be receiving the "final" interior layout shortly. I'll review it to make sure the changes look okay, then I can upload it to Createspace. Once the interior is set, layout artist Ana Vogel will be able to set the spine width on the cover and I'll be able to upload that. Then I can order a few proof copies and we should be in business.

My other major project for the week was the writing and production of the book trailer for The Golden Dragon of Ang. I had already done a storyboard and a script, but it was long--almost two minutes. That's still an acceptable length for a book trailer, but only just. The thing was, instead of titles, I wanted the video to be narrated. Because of this, I tried to force too much information into the video. I completed a cut with a lot of pictures and some lengthy narration. It was okay, but I wasn't really happy with it.



I did some cutting and edited down the narration. The final version is a minute and twenty one seconds, which coincidentally is the same length as the Deliverers 2 trailer. It moves along nicely now. I like having narration rather than titles that the viewer has to read--it makes it more like a movie trailer.

 My goals for the coming week are to format the Kindle version of the book. I have all the elements I need to do that, I just have to add the changes that I specified in the pdf layout to the Word document that I'll be converting. I have Daniel Vogel's final artwork and maps. I'm toying with the idea of releasing the Kindle version ahead of the paperback, but I haven't made up my mind. I should also be able to resume writing book 4 at some point next week. I'll let you know how that goes. Here's the video. Peace.

A Writer's Week #104: "What's Cookin'?"

The title of this post is something I'd imagine Hallo Tosis the dwarf to be asking right about now. Since he asked, I'll update both you and him. The Deliverers have recently finished up an Assignment, number three to be precise, that I'll be sharing with you all in just a few short weeks. They are currently on Assignment number four.

Lots of exciting things have been happening in connection to Assignment three--The Golden Dragon of Ang. Illustrator Daniel Vogel has completed his work on the pictures and the maps, and brilliant stuff it is. Layout designer Ana Vogel sent me the completed front cover on Sunday. On Thursday she sent me the interior of the book. Now all that remains is for me to give it one more review, send it back to Ana to make any final revisions, then submit it to the publisher. That means everything should be in place in about two weeks! Exciting stuff.

This weekend, production will start on the book trailer. I've been experimenting with a couple of different techniques and I think I'll try my hand at some narration rather than the narrative tiles that I used in the first two trailers. I'm hoping things will work out, if not it will be back to the

Title Page

drawing board.

In light of all the production developments related to book three, The Deliverers 4 was a little neglected this week. I wound up writing 1,250 words, which brings the total up to 11,250 over 11 chapters and 49 pages. It's coming along, but writing will be on the back burner this weekend for sure and perhaps for the entire week. We'll see.

I'm still on the fence about whether this will be book four of five or the final book in the series. Things are still zipping along. The pace seems to be okay to me, it's just that their task is a little more straightforward than usual, so instead of the cliffhanger at the end of the book, I might make that part one while what I had envisioned as book five may wind up being part two of book four. Once again, we'll see how it goes. Have a great week!

Front Cover Reveal

Well now, this is my third cover reveal post since I started the Deliverers Blog. It's pretty cool that the Deliverers Series will soon be up to three books. The first reveal I did was for Sharky & the Jewel and it was the first post on this blog. The second reveal--for Order of the Crystal Lion--was last summer.

Last night, graphic designer Ana Vogel sent the cover for The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang over to me. She's now in the process of laying out the interior and I hope to have the final files soon. I've been looking at it ever since. Artist Daniel Vogel did another great job. I think he really took this one to the next level. Here it is:

This is a really cool cover. I'm so blessed to have such talented friends! I love the rust/orange colors and the orange byline. My mother is going to laugh when she sees it. I know just what she'll say--"Miami Dolphins colors!"

Back when I was in junior high school, I wanted to paint my room aqua and orange to show my undying love for the Miami Dolphins. Well, now I have a book cover that does the same thing! Thanks, Ana!

I am really excited about this installment in the series, but then again, I've been excited about all of them. I'm not sure exactly how long this one will wind up being--my guess is about 10 or 15 pages longer than the last one. It's going to have two maps, for reasons that you'll learn when you read the book.

Now that I have all the art I can start working on the book trailer. I'll let you know how that's going sometime next week. As soon as I have a firm publication date for the book, I'll start a countdown featuring character interviews, the video trailer and some giveaways. Stay tuned!

A Writer's Week #101: Visions--Past & Present

This week had a lot to do with visions. No, I was not hallucinating, but I did see a lot of interesting things. First of all, I received the almost completed cover illustration for The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang. That was really cool. Illustrator Daniel Vogel and his mother, graphic designer Ana Vogel, have done a

fantastic job as usual. I've been looking at it all week and just marveling at the depth.

It's a big change from the original pencil sketch that Dan sent for my approval a couple of months ago. Since then, I've watched it evolve into what I received this week. All it needs is a little sparkle added to the mist and it will be complete. Once it's done, Ana will add the titles and the cover will be set. I'm getting excited! I can't show you the whole thing yet, but I will share just a bit. I added the Deliverers Series title, but that's not the way it will be on the final cover.

This week I also had to envision the past. I'm at the point in the Deliverers 4 where Eric and the others are sent back in time by the Gatekeeper. It was more challenging than I anticipated because Eric's hometown of Candlewood Corners, CT is loosely based on a combination of the town where I live and the town where I grew up, which was the site of the only battle of the Revolution fought in Connecticut. It was difficult trying to envision what the towns must have looked like

during the time of the American Revolution. Talk about a brain exercise! Seeing the colonial Candlewood Corners through Eric's eyes was very interesting. When this book is done, I don't think I'll ever look at my town the same way.

I got a lot of writing done. I wrote over 2,700 words, which brings the total for book four to more than 5,000 words over three chapters and 24 pages. In the coming week, I hope to receive the finished cover art for book three and to continue work on book four. Once I get the final cover, I'll start work on the book trailer. I've got a couple ideas for that, but I still have to sit down and do the storyboard. I'll let you know how that goes next week!

A Writer's Week #100: Doing What I Love Best

Boy, I really feel good this week. Finally, after months of preparation, research and one false start I was able to get back to doing what I love best--write. The Deliverers 4 is now well and truly underway. This week, I wrote the first 2,336 words of the latest installment of the Deliverers Series. That's the prologue and most of chapter one in 11 pages.

I had originally started with Eric having a dream, which I've done in two of the first three books, but it just did not feel right. Instead, I used a scene I'd envisioned as chapter three as a prologue and it worked really well to set things up. It also made it easier for me to introduce other background elements in the first chapter.

So, all in all I'm really pleased with the way things have begun and I'm really feeling energized. I'm looking forward to getting Eric into the Hallway of Worlds and sending him and Stig, Kate and Hallo back in time to the American Revolution. Now that I've found the right angle, I'm excited.

During my research I discovered a plausible motivation for the British General who commanded the forces
that marched inland into Connecticut in 1777 to take things a step further than he actually did. It was a little eerie, actually, but it convinced me I was on the right track. More on this next week.

Things remain status quo for The Golden Dragon of Ang. Waiting for artwork and layout is always tough, but I know from experience that artist Daniel Vogel and layout wizard Ana Vogel will come through with a fantastically designed and illustrated finished product. Waiting--not my strongest trait.  We're on track for the book to be released in a little over a month! Hopefully I'll have an update for you shortly!

A Writer's Week #99: Book Four, Take Two

We're getting closer to the release of The Golden Dragon of Ang. Work is progressing on the cover and other artwork. The maps are complete. Illustrator Daniel Vogel and layout designer Ana Vogel are on
schedule to everything complete by the end of February. It's really exciting.

Earlier this week, I posted the first part of chapter one, then the blurb for the back cover. Soon, I'll be releasing some interviews with characters from the book. As I've said before, I'm really looking forward to the release of this book. It was a lot of fun to write.

The Deliverers 4, however, is another story-no pun intended. I've been going back and forth on the plot. I worked hard on it this week and I came up with some really good stuff. There are still a few plot points that have yet to resolve themselves, but I think I am ready to begin writing for a second time. The unfortunate part is that I don't think I'll be able to use the original beginning that I wrote right after Christmas. The good part is that I think the new beginning will be better than version one.

I'm planning to begin writing this weekend and I hope to have the first draft completed by Labor Day. At this point, I'm a little nervous about that goal. I can see the end of this book going two ways-either it will end in a cliffhanger, or I'll wind up combining book 4 with book 5 and having one long book. The latter option will happen only if I don't have enough material for the fourth book. As I said, I'm still sketchy on some of the details of the book, so if it winds up being 150 pages or so, I'll ditch the cliffhanger and go right into what would have been the fifth book. So, book four could be 400 pages and the final book in the series. We'll see what happens.

Finally, today the Character Book Club is holding its monthly meeting on Fairday's blog. I'm pleased to tell you that Fairday, Lizzy and Marcus of the Detective Mystery Squad interviewed Kate and Hallo. They had a blast. If you'd like to read what they had to say, click the link here. Have a great week!

A Writer's Week #95: Lots To Tell

Okay, where to start? This week has been just fantastic. First off, we capped off our book drive for the Salvation Army. We wound up with a grand total of 114 books! You can see a sampling of them in the picture below. On Monday and Tuesday, volunteers will be packaging the gifts and the books for the families. Distribution day will be Friday, December 20th. I'll update the blog with photos as things we move along.

A big thank you to all those who purchased copies of The Deliverers Series books. Thanks to you I will donate 67 copies. Thank you, too to my wonderful author friends who donated copies of their wonderful books. Here's a list with links to their books. Please support them. Not only did they answer my call for help, but they are very generous with donations to other worthy causes as well!

C. Lee McKenzie  Alligators Overhead               Karen Toz  Pie and Other Brilliant Ideas

Margo Dill  Finding My Place                          Kimberly Sentek  Oh Brother! A Nico and Tugger Tale

Celia Carlile  The Christmas Song

Another big thank you has to go to author Stephanie Robinson who donated a stack of books that she had purchased at her school's book fair. She and co-author Jessica Haight have written a wonderful book, The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow, that will be published by Random House/Dellacourt in the fall of 2015.

Speaking of Stephanie and Jessica, they were nice enough to feature me on their blog this week. On Wednesday they posted a wonderful review of The Deliverers 2: Order of the Crystal Lion. On Friday, they featured a nice interview with me. It was a lot of fun chatting with them about my writing and my plans for the Deliverers Series going forward. There is also a giveaway for you to enter for a chance to win a signed copy of Order of the Crystal Lion.

With all this going on, it was hard fitting in any writing. I don't think I'll begin work on The Deliverers 4 until after Christmas, but I have been busy making final edits to The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang. I should be finished with those sometime today (thank you snow!).

I was also a little surprised when I received an email from illustrator Daniel Vogel. It contained a new conceptual sketch for the cover of The Golden Dragon of Ang. I thought the original concept was fine, but apparently he wasn't satisfied. He ran it by his mother, graphic designer Ana Vogel, and she agreed. So, it was back to the drawing board--literally. He had rendered the original illustration on the computer, and as I said, I liked it. The handdrawn version was head and shoulders better than the first, though. It really blew me away. I quickly gave my approval. The good news is that we should still be on schedule for a completed cover in early January and a publication date sometime in February!

This has turned into quite a long post, but I have one more piece of news. For the next week, the Kindle version of both books in the Deliverers Series will be on sale for just 99 cents on Amazon! Please stop by and purchase a copy of Sharky and the Jewel and Order of the Crystal Lion before this deal goes away! Please share this with your friends, too. Thanks and have a great week!

A Writer's Week #91: A Golden Day

A lot of exciting things happened this writer's week. I worked out a big chunk of the plot and background information for The Deliverers 4. I met with illustrator Daniel Vogel to work out the concept for the cover of The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang. I'm preparing for a great show next weekend (see Appearance Alert at the bottom of this post). But all of that pale in comparison to what's going on today.

Today is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. It's hard for me to believe. We held an anniversary party for them at the beginning of August. We did that for two reasons. Number one was because we wanted it to be a surprise (it was). Number two because with children coming from as far away as Vermont, Florida and Montana, the logistics worked better in the summer than late fall, and we wanted all five children to be there. We're so far flung that the last time we were all together was almost ten years ago. I'm so glad we were able to pull it off.

My parents are really fantastic. They raised five children without any of us being seriously damaged. My father, Albert Slomba, is brilliant. As an optical engineer, he was a leader in his field and worked on many important projects including the Hubble Space Telescope. My mother is equally brilliant, but made the decision to stay home and raise her five rambunctious children. She did an outstanding job and even managed to find time volunteer frequently and spent several year as the Director of Religious Education for our parish.

I can only imagine the trials of raising five children. My wife and I have two and the challenges of that are

The entire brood

huge enough to me. I couldn't imagine having five. Still, my parents managed to pull it off and made it look easy (to us). Along the way there were challenges, both mundane and extraordinary.

They had a son (me) who was so hyperactive that he danced on the desks of his first grade class when his mother came to visit. They bore the weight of a daughter who was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of six (she made it through with flying colors). They had a three year old son (not me) who decided to run around the neighborhood naked. This does not even cover the usual cuts, bruises, stitches and teenage angst that all parents deal with.

Through it all, they kept their cool and were always loving and supportive. They made it look so easy to us that we took what they did for granted. I was probably the most guilty of this. As the oldest, it was all just business as usual to me. I didn't appreciate it until I had children of my own. I try to follow my parents' and my in-laws' example (they've been married 51 years), but I am not always successful.

Whatever I do in life, through all my successes and failures, my parents have always been my yardstick. They set such a great example. Now that we're all grown and out of the house, it's nice to go over and see how much they enjoy just being together. They truly are best friends and that is the key, I think. All of us kids own our parents so much. Thanks,Mom and Dad for always being there and always being supportive. We love you and hope God blesses you with many more years of happy marriage!

Appearance Alert:  My next show will be November 2 & 3 at the Santa's Arts & Crafts Festival at the Coco Key Resort in Waterbury, CT.

A Writer's Week #90: Fun Times

Another fun week has come and gone, but not before leaving me with a great feeling. First off, I had a very nice interview published on the New Fairfield Hamlethub. Kate Mattiace was such a pleasure to talk to. That's one of the cool things about being an author--I get to meet so many nice people.

All set and raring to go

That was never more evident than today when I exhibited at the St. Mary's Harvest Tag Sale and Craft Show in Stamford, CT. I met a lot of great kids and had a chance to chat a bit with most and quite a lot with a Couple who were really interested in finding out what it's like to be an author. Then, I was fortunate to be placed next to some lovely ladies who were a pleasure to talk to. Anyone who has spent seven hours sitting at a show knows that it can be pretty tedious if the people in the space next to you aren't too friendly. Thanks for helping the day roll by, ladies!

Another nice thing that happened to me today was a surprise visit from a very old friend of mine--Mike Argenio. We went to high school together and he lives and teaches in Stamford. He brought his daughter, Emma, to meet me  right after her soccer team scored an impressive 4-2 victory. I'm looking forward to possibly visiting his 6th grade class sometime after the holidays.

On the writing front, I did not have much chance to work out any more of the plat for book 4, but I did submit the completed manuscript of The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang to layout artist, Ana Vogel. I hope to meet with artist Daniel Vogel next week to check out the initial concept for the cover and discuss next steps. I'll let you know how things are going next week.

Appearance Alert:  My next show will be November 2 & 3 at the Santa's Arts & Crafts Festival at the Coco Key Resort in Waterbury, CT.

A Writer's Week #89: New Paths

Things were jumping all over this week. At work I found out my department is switching locations to a nearby town. This will entail re-configuring offices ad training space to fit the new location. This is both a daunting task and a wonderful opportunity. My hope is that we can design a space that will better serve our department's role and personnel. Our bank is now bigger and having some extra training space all in one location will be ideal. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

On the writing front, the rewriting and editing of The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang is complete. I will now send it over to layout designer Ana Vogel. Artwork will take a few months, but illustrator Daniel Vogel will work it in between his schoolwork. At this point, we're still on schedule for a February release.

I have begun mapping out the story line for The Deliverers 4. There is one thing that is disturbing me about

the plot for this book. I pretty much know how it will go--at least the basics of the story. The problem is with the villain--I don't know who he is. I introduced him, or the idea of him, at the end of book 3, but I really don't know who he--or she--is. I know what they're supposed to do and why, but that's it. I have a feeling that I amm going to find out the particulars along with the characters. This always winds up leading to the best results, but it's nerve-wracking.

Finally, I have formatted an ebook version of Sharky and the Jewel that has been published on Smashwords. I had fiddled around with Smashwords last summer, but became a little frustrated with the process. This month, however, I dropped my exclusivity agreement with Amazon and decided to tackle it again. I now have versions that are compatible with Kindle, Nook, and other Epub formats such as iBooks, and Kobo. I'm not totally satisfied with the layout on the Epub version, so I'll probably tinker with it a little more. Once I get it set, I'll tackle the formatting of Order of the Crystal Lion. 

Appearance Alert:  I will be appearing at St. Mary's Harvest Craft and Tag Sale in Stamford, CT on Saturday, October 19th from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Please stop by and visit is you are in the area. I would love to see you!

A Writer's Week #78: Busy, Busy, Busy

Oh my, where to start? This was the busiest Writer's Week I've had in a long time. I'm so excited, because everything is coming together at once! On Monday, I received the final versions of the cover and the interior of The Deliverers 2: Order of the Crystal Lion. They looked great. Ana Vogel and Daniel Vogel did a great job with the layout and the artwork, respectively. That's the cover to the left if you haven't had a chance to see it yet.

I immediately uploaded them to Createspace and ordered a couple of proof copies. Those arrived today. It was so cool to see the book in person for the first time. We were in the middle of a week-long power outage caused by a freak October snowstorm when I received the first copies of The Deliverers: Sharky and the Jewel, so my first glimpse of that book was by flashlight! Seeing this book for the first time in daylight was so much better.

Then yesterday I had the pleasure of being interviewed by author and blogger Karen Pokras Toz

Proof copies of The Deliverers 2

on her blog. It was great chatting with her about the new book, my computer preferences, and my cats!

Yesterday I had the day off and I spent some time bowling with the kids, which was fun and relaxing. Sandwiched around that, I put together the book trailer. That's always a challenge that I enjoy. Usually I have limited artwork, photos, etc. to use. Then, there's the challenge of finding just the right music. I use a site called Incomptech which run by musician and composer Kevin MacLeod. He's got a lot of royalty free pieces that he will let you use if you credit him. You can also make a donation if the spirit moves you. Check it out.

I usually find something that works with the video I'm making, but the process can be rather mind-numbing. You can search by mood and type of music, but I find that the piece that ends up working is not the one I would expect. This time it took a while to find the right piece, and I had to cut part and loop it so that it was the right length, but it wound up coming out pretty nicely. Here it is:

On top of all this, I managed to come up with an idea for The Deliverers 4! It involves a little bit of time travel back to the American Revolution. Eric will find out a little about his family and have to try to find out why someone is trying to change history!

While all this was going on, I was still able to get a decent amount of writing done on The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang. I wrote 3,100 words, bringing the total to 50,100 words, 51 chapters and 219 pages! I am shooting for a publication date sometime in January or February of 2014. So, what's in store for the coming week? I'll let you know next time!

A Writer's Week #77: Front Cover Reveal

Well here we are at the end of another fantastic week. The Deliverers 2 is getting closer to completion. I know I've said that before, but this time I'm as sure as I can be. I have the final front cover. Ana Vogel sent that to me last week. She just has to sort out the dimensions for the spine and change the color of the font on the back cover. So, while I don't have the whole cover to reveal yet, I'm going to reveal the front cover today. Here it is:

I think it looks fantastic. Illustrator Daniel Vogel did a great job, and layout artist Ana Vogel did an awesome job with the title! Please let me know what you think in the comments below! I'm really excited about this book and I hope you will be, too.

The interior is just about ready to go as well. It just needs some tweaks to the map and the table of contents. Once I have received everything, it will only be a couple of weeks before the release of the book! We're almost there.

While things have been moving along with book two, The Deliverers 3 is also progressing. This week, I sent Daniel a sketch of the map of the Dragon Islands. He's going to use that to begin work on the main map for The Golden Dragon of Ang. The third book will be more ambitious, mapwise. There will also be individual maps of the five Dragon Islands, so Dan's going to have his talented hands full.

I also made some great progress on the writing front. This week I wrote 2,500 words, bringing The Golden Dragon of Ang to 47,000 words, 48 chapters and 205 pages.

Everything keeps moving along. If things continue to go as planned, Order of the Crystal Lion will be out by the end of this month and The Golden Dragon of Ang will be out by January or February of 2014! I'll let you know about any new developments next week!

A Writer's Week #71: Back in the Saddle Again

It's been a couple of weeks since I checked in with an update on my writing activities. The reason for this is twofold: first, Eric and Stig hosted the May meeting of the Character Book Club when they interviewed Millie from Millicent Marie is Not My Name, secondly, there just has not been a lot happening on the writing front of late.

Version 1 of the map

That changed this week. While I still did not get any writing done, I did receive an updated layout of Order of the Crystal Lion from layout artist Ana Vogel. This version of the layout included the map and the illustration for the chapters by illustrator Daniel Vogel. It was my first glimpse of these and I really loved them. I also received the first version of the cover. The artwork was great, but I did suggest some changes/tweaks. Now the ball is back in their court, but it should not be too long before I'm ready to send everything off to the publisher.

I also paid a visit to my son Christian's 5th grade class. A big thank you to Mrs. Mleczko and all the kids. They asked some fantastic questions and were really attentive in spite of the fact that it was right at the end of a really hot day. There were some aspiring authors in the class and they asked a lot of fantastic questions about the craft of writing. 

Whenever I visit a class I am always blown away by some of the questions they ask and their story ideas. Whenever I talk about The Deliverers, and ask them what they think will happen next, some of their answers have me wishing I had come up with those scenarios.

I have also confirmed that I will be at Preserve New Fairfield's annual Strawberry Festival at the New Fairfield Senior Center on Sunday, June 9th from 1 to 4. I'll be signing books and taking pre-orders for Order of the Crystal Lion. I hope to see you there!

 In the coming week, I'm hoping to receive version 2 of the cover and the final version of the interior of the book. I am also planning to resume work on book three in the Deliverers Series, The Golden Dragon of Ang. I'll let you know what happens next week!

A Writer's Week #70: Editing

I think the title of this week's post says it all. There was not a whole lot of writing going on this The Golden Dragon of Ang a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a good idea to do a little editing work on the manuscript. That's what I did this week.
week. Instead, editing was at the fore. First of all, since I decided to slacken the pace on writing

I have to say that as I reviewed the 158 pages I've written so far that I am pretty pleased with the way the story is unfolding. I even think there might be a girl who's interested in Eric. That just kind of came up out of nowhere. What was even more surprising was that there is someone who

doesn't seem to be very happy about it. Eric's almost 14 now. These things happen. As I was reading the story, I found a lot of things that I could improve, writing-wise. So all in all it was a productive week. I can't wait to start moving the story forward again.

On Thursday I got a little closer to doing that. My friend Ana sent me the layout for Order of the Crystal Lion. While the artwork is still undergoing finishing touches, I took some time to review the preliminary layout. It's looking pretty good. Now all that remains (hopefully) is to slip in the artwork and map and get the cover ready and we'll be all set to publish. Exciting stuff!

I'm including some more pictures of last week's visit to Mrs. Robinson's class. I was supposed to visit my son Christian's class this week, but I had to postpone it for a few weeks. I'll let you know what transpires on the writing front next week.

A Writer's Week #68: Writing Break

 I have to admit, that this was not a very exciting week writing-wise. In fact, I almost hesitated to write about it at all. I have been at work on an exciting publicity opportunity this week. Unfortunately, the answer that I had expected to receive today has been delayed until early next week, so I'll have to wait until then to see if I have anything worth announcing.

One thing that I know I'll be able to share with you next week will be my first school visit of the year. Daniel Vogel, the illustrator for the Deliverers series, will be accompanying me on the visit. It will be the first time he's done that, and I'm really excited about it. I'll have a full report, and some pictures, after the visit.

On the writing front, I decided to take a bit of a break. Last weekend I returned the fully edited manuscript of book 2, Order of the Crystal Lion back to Ana Vogel and she's in the process of laying it out again. Daniel has just about completed the map and the illustrations, so it should not be too long before the book is ready to go to press.

Still, I'm just about halfway through book 3 and it's been going pretty quickly. That's great, but at this rate I'd have to start Daniel working on preliminary sketches very soon. He's got enough going on as it is. So, I decided to take a writing vacation for a couple of weeks until the second book is all set. I'll keep you updated on everything as it unfolds!

A Writer's Week #67: Nitty Gritty Time

Another busy week has come and gone. I'm so excited because there is so much going on! First of all, my friends Jess & Stephanie over at Fairday's Blog contacted me to ask if Eric and Stig would like to join the Character Book Club. I asked them and they were thrilled. The Character Book Club is this cool club where fantastic characters from great middle grade novels hang out. Needless to say, Eric was extremely excited. Stig took it all with his usual calm reserve, but I could tell he was pleased. I'm very flattered that they were asked. I mean, who doesn't like being part of a cool club?

This month, Millie from Millicent Marie is Not My Name by Karen Pokras Toz interviewed the DMS (Detective Mystery Squad) from The Secret DMS Files of Fairday Morrow. Next month, May 17th to be exact, Eric and Stig from the Deliverers will be interviewing Millie right here. Stay tuned, it's going to be a lot of fun!

Then on Monday, my friend Ana Vogel sent me the preliminary layout for book 2 in the Deliverers series, Order of the Crystal Lion. That was really exciting, because it means I'm getting closer to releasing the new book.

It also meant that I had do a little bit more editing. Several of the chapters did not cooperate and were one or two lines too long. The result was a mostly blank last page for those chapters, which would not only be kind of funky looking but also a waste of paper.

As a result I spent a good deal of time finding ways to shorten things up. I wound up cutting a line of dialogue here or combining two short paragraphs there. While I was doing that, I couldn't help but notice several typos. Okay, no problem. I took care of those. Then, I noticed some missing words. Geez, I had edited this thing a few times. Others had, too. How could I have missed this stuff the first half dozen times? There was nothing for it. I grudgingly came to the realization that I was going to have to give the whole book another reading.

What I had expected to take an evening or so wound up taking the rest of the week. I only have about 45 pages left to review, then I can send the manuscript back to Ana for her to reflow. Arrgh! Oh well, it's going to be much cleaner now, but I'll bet you anything I still missed some typos. After you read the book you can let me know if you spotted any!

Since I got sidetracked with my unexpected editing task, I did not make any progress on The Golden Dragon of Ang. That's okay. This is the first week since I began the project where I did not get at least 1,400 words written. Still, right now my highest priority has to be getting The Deliverers 2 ready for publication.

I received a report from illustrator Daniel Vogel that the illustration of the crystal lion that will be the heading for the chapters is just about done and that the map is coming along nicely. Once the artwork is complete, I'll be able to upload everything to CreateSpace and order a few proofs to review. Will that be next week? I'll fill you in next Friday!