Sharky and the Jewel New Cover Reveal

 Hello, everyone! The time has come to share the new cover for Sharky and the Jewel with you. Many thanks to Emily Hurst Pritchett for her great work on the cover art and design, the map, and the chapter heading illustration. She really has knocked it out of the park if you ask me. 

Here is the new cover:

The 2nd edition of the Kindle version of the book is live. The paperback version is, too, I'm told, but the old cover is still showing on Amazon. However, if you click on that, the "Look Inside" has the new paperback cover and interior. I'm told that it might take a few days for the cover to appear on the product page.

I have updated the book trailer as well. Here is the new version:

Emily has started knocking around ideas for the updated book 2 cover. I hope to be sharing more news on that sometime later this month.

Please let me know what you think of the new cover in the comments below. Also, please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested in checking out my books. It's a great series, but I'll need all the help I can get in spreading the word. Have a great week!

A Writer's Week #120: An Illustration in Progress

 Hey there, everybody. As I've noted here in my previous posts, I've partnered with Boston illustrator Emily Hurst Pritchett to produce new covers and maps for the first three books in the Deliverers Series. I'm hoping to have the completed cover any day now, and I'm on pins and needles with excitement and anticipation. So much so, that I've let my writing completely slide.

I'm finding it hard to concentrate because I'm thinking of everything I'll have to update once I have the finished cover. First, I'll be redesigning the blog to whatever color scheme will match the cover. I'll also have to change the blog's title and graphics. I'll also have to update the interior of the book, the cover and interior for the Kindle version, and the audiobook cover. I'll also have to redo the book trailer. I've always been proud of the original as it's the first video I ever produced:

Actually, while all this is true, I have to admit the real reason I haven't been writing is that I've got a massive case of writer's block. I've never really had trouble in this area before. Usually I'll puzzle over a sticky situation for a couple of days--no more than a week--and get back on track, but this has been going on for over a month. Part of it is due to distraction, but most of it is because there's a major plot twist, and I just can't work out exactly how the rest of the book will play out. Hopefully, I'll get it sorted out soon and will be able to move forward quickly.

Anyway, here is a look at the final two cover choices I picked out of the half dozen or so that Emily presented to me:

These are both extremely rough, but you get the idea. I won't tell you which one I picked. We'll save that for when I have the final version!

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 #29: Videos & Reunions

This week, while not as successful writing-wise, was still a good one. How can that be? Well, it's because I was makin' movies! No, Disney has not bought the rights to make The Deliverers: Sharky and the Jewel into a full length feature film, but I have made a new book trailer.

This video is called The Deliverers, Sharky's Vengeance. I took some footage from a couple old (ancient) movies that are in the public domain, combined it with some video footage I shot at Mystic Seaport last weekend, added another great piece of music by Kevin MacLeod, and voila! Video! Anyway, I've embedded the video below. Check it out and let me know what you think.


On the actual writing front, I did okay, I only wrote 1,000 words, well below my weekly goal of 2,000, and extremely short of my 3,000 word output of last week. However, I did manage to write a very tricky escape and a reunion--two very key points in The Deliverers 2, so I don't feel so bad about not making my weekly goal. Anyway, between last week and this, I'm still averaging 2,000 words a week, so I'll take it.


For those of you keeping track, that puts me at 36,000 words, 42 chapters, and 162 pages. We're getting closer every week, but after the writing will be the rewriting. I'll update you on my journey's progress again next week. Here's that video:

A Writer's Week #13: The Middle of the Marathon

This was a fantastic week! It had the best of all possible things; a busy, productive work week, fun with the family, a decent amount of writing, a satisfying marketing accomplishment, and even a few book sales.

The writing came pretty easily this week. I wrote about 1,500 words, and I would have written more, but I started a project that took up some time. I'm at the point in the book where I'm just keeping at it, plugging away. I'm having fun writing, but at this point it's like a marathon where the exhileration of the start has given way to marking the miles as they go by. Sometimes I feel pretty good, like the guy on the right in the picture above. At other times, I'm feeling kind of flat, like the flapjack next to him (yes, that's a flapjack--it said so in the caption). I'm working on delivering (no pun intended) a great story, while gearing up for a strong finish. We'll see how everything turns out.

I was able to write and produce my own video book trailer this week. It turned out very nicely, and I'm like a new parent right now, full of pride and optimism. I've posted it everywhere I can think of, including at the bottom of my blog, and in yesterday's post. Here's a link to it on YouTube. Please share it everywhere you can, and let me know what you think.

This week was also great because it marked the seventh anniversary of Gotcha Day, the day we picked up Abigail in China. We celebrate it every year. I wrote a post about adopting Abby a while back. Every day, we can't believe how incredibly blessed we are for having Abby and her big brother Christian.

So, as you can see, it was a truly spectacular week, but now it's back to the marathon. I can't wait to find out what's around the next bend.

New Book Trailer Released

It's been a busy week. Work has been a scramble, with late nights and early mornings, but it's all turned out well, so I'm happy. On Tuesday, one of my coworkers showed me a video of one of our corporate events on his iPad. It was done in a movie trailer format, and looked really sharp.

My brain immediately began working, and I thought, wouldn't it be great to make my own book trailer. I don't have any fancy Mac equipment, but I thought maybe Windows had some software. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had Windows Movie Maker already on my computer! Just goes to show how much of a techie babe in the woods I am.

I spent Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning looking for decent, public domain royalty free video to use, and writing the script. On Wednesday, I talked Christian into acting like Eric peering into the drainpipe under our driveway, but it was partuially blocked with logs, and I didn't get a good shot. It didn't matter anyway, as I later found that I had been holding my iPod Nano the wrong way and the footage was upside down!

It was then that I decided to scrap the video and go with stills. But how could I make an exciting video without video? The program features a bunch of different efffects. I played around with a number of different ones for each shot until I was satisfied.

Once that was done, I had to add music. There's a very talented composer who has scads of short compositions of varying genres that you can use for free as long as you credit him. His name is Kevin MacLeod. Here's a link to his site. After a number of tries, I found the right piece and, voila! First class book trailer. CreateSpace can do a minute long trailer for you for $2000, so I'm that much ahead. Not a bad job if I do say so myself.

So, here's the trailer. Check it out, and let me know what you think!