C...B: Blog

OK. Because I have just been bitched at and accused of profit mongering. When I said in my previous blog entry to go to Bookapy and get a corrected version of a book you already bought. This means you can REDOWNLOAD a fresh version. You do not have to pay for it again.

Geebuz!

just go to your bookshelf on Bookapy. This lists your purchases and has the download links. Just download the book again! all done. No need to be mad. Saul Good

Long winded March update.

For my dozen fans and the three who actually follow my blog, here is a bit of news and a few observations. WARNING Bitching and name calling will happen below! Even shameless begging!

First, what's new: TLDR? Just read the next three paragraphs.

Book one Make the Cut has been republished on Bookapy as a second edition. What does this mean? Well, it means that I finally got off my duff and incorporated all the revisions readers have sent me over the past five months since it was originally published. Nothing substantial story-wise had changed but if you are one of the suc... I mean, honored loyal fans who have purchased the first book, I'd recommend you download a fresh copy.

Book two Cutting a Swath will get the same treatment probably in a month. This will hopefully be a few weeks after it finishes posting here. There are two chapters left to go as far as posting progress on the free sites. Sales of book two on Bookapy are strong and currently sit at around ten to twenty sales less then book one. This means most of the… honored loyal fans who bought book one stayed hooked to get the second book. Sincerely thank you!

Book three Final Cut. All the edits are in. ARC on bookapy will be patched with a few more typo fixes and offered as the first edition in a few weeks.

More on book three and the trilogy in general follows. It's pontification and/or bloviation mostly so feel free to stop right here.

You've been warned.

Still here? OK then...

Last night, TeNderLoin sent me his corrections. I wasn't sure if he would have the time to proof my book as he is so busy. Seeing his corrections arrive it time to make the first edition was a pleasant surprise. I have already released the book in an ARC version on bookapy a few weeks ago. The great news is that his final edit pass will not change the story at all and was mostly additional typos and a few word choice suggestions. I will be updating those into the official first edition and offering that for sale in a few weeks.

His addition as a proofreader came at the last minute and probably makes the book almost over-proofed. Still, that means fewer oopsies for the reader to catch so that's good. I've been lucky and blessed to find a great bunch of helpers on this trilogy.

The first to reach out to me was Zen Master. He offered me the first encouragement when I nervously posted my first chapter last year. He also politely said that the story's editing sucked, and that I should look at asking some of the volunteers to help. I twisted his arm and told him to put up or shut up and he became my first editor. As payback he has aggressively questioned my details and plot choices ever since. I think he takes joy in increasing the stress level of the writer. But, for all that, I value his input highly.

I then followed with Cei-Mel and Cassie63. I found them by searching the volunteer list and looking for proof readers who liked science fiction. They answered the call and both fit the bill and have served well.

Zom became a proof reader after first becoming a vocal fan. He is the one who prompted me to get my first book out on Bookapy as the per chapter releases were too slow for him. Who can ignore "take my money!"? It was then that I realized he was a proof reader on many of the best stories I've read on this site. I quickly moved to beg for his help. He stepped up and I exploited him further by making him do the grunt work and have the joy of the first proofing passes on books two and three. He says he's seen worse first drafts... maybe. Thanks pal!

TeNderLoin sent me unsolicited changes for my first book as messages on SOL's sister site SciFiStories. I sent him book two to read as thanks not expecting an edit. He then replied that he was an editor and not a reader so where the hell was the damned editable file? OK… I then coerced him into doing a full pass on book three. I was nervous about this not knowing his editing style and I expected a bloody mess and canon altering changes, but it proved to be not too bad. I suppose being the fourth pass helps.

But, to all these helpers goes much of the credit and I am in your debt. I'm proud of how the trilogy finished up and I am eager to get it into your (the reader) hands. Now, before you accuse me of an inflated ego, know that I have my editing team to thank for making the story somewhat palatable. They are the true heroes on this site, especially in the case of my writing. I'll take credit for my crazy ideas and being too long winded on the details. That is what I like to write so that is what you get to read.

I'd compare my writing venture to that of a young kid wanting to build his first hotrod but not quite sure how and lacking good tools. I had the dream and the original idea. My proofreaders and editing helpers are the guys and gals with the engine skills, the body finishing skills and the courage to bring a big hammer over and beat the dents out of the old, rusted shell to make the dream hotrod come forth. You the readers are the folks at the parade enjoying the show when the shiny cars drive by.

I've also had more fun than I expected writing these three books. It's been hard but I imagined it would be hard. Hell, I imagined I'd never be able to do it in the first place so everything beyond that is gravy. I love the feedback I have gotten from my readers. Most of its had been positive. A few negative. Some of the negative I expected as I am writing what I like writing rather then what I expect will appeal to the most readers.

Some of the negative feedback is actually amusing. I understand that every reader is different but sometimes you just have to laugh. A few months ago, I got messages from two readers on the same day… one said, "Although the story is good you need to describe things better…". The second basically said. "I love how detailed and descriptive your writing is. I can visualize everything so easily." You have to love it.

The story scores have been decent and I am happy with them. I'm no where near the greats of the site but the reasons why are self-evident. I've been simul-posting the story on SciFistories along with this site and the story scores are much higher there. This is to be expected as the story is SciFi and lacks much sex. The tradeoff is that the reader numbers there are a lot less then this site but oh well.

Before I forget, I have to thank the kind soul (pity? I'll take it) who nominated me for a Clitoride. Make the Cut is in the mind control category by one nomination. Yes, one whole nom. That it got nominated in the first place surprised me but I guess my story does have mind control elements and does have one sex scene. I fantasized about being nominated in the best first-time author category but... I guess I did not meet the standards. Oh well, maybe next tim.. DAMNIT! What do you mean I can only be new once?!>! Sigh.

Anyway... regarding my one nomination, I am proud to say that I am thus TIED with the least number of Clitoride nominations. Take that much more popular writers! I was even more surprised to find that my one nomination allowed my story to make the voting round. Thank you sparse category! Because of that, I voted for myself! Yes, no shame here! Though I was righteous enough to not nominate myself, I'm too weak to resist not voting for myself. LOL. At least Make the Cut won't be skunked on the voting.

A month ago, after I finished the bulk of the writing on book Three, I took a break from writing and wondered if I wanted to continue or go back to my other idled hobbies. The thought of trying to come up with another idea worth writing about was daunting. Then, the memories of how much time I would need to devote to write another full story was intimidating. I resisted writing for almost two weeks until the muse kicked me in in my ass.

What's next? Well, it's something new and it's being proofed now. I will say that it has much more sex then I have written in the past so I hope it will appeal to more readers. I'll probably cock it up with my weird style though and piss off a good faction of my readers.

Thanks for reading this blog post this far and if you did, I apologize for the lack of a cream filled center.

Go away now! Plenty of good stuff to read just a few clicks away.

CB

Chapter 11 of Cutting a Swath will be posted Wednesday. Chapter 12 will follow on in the normal weekend posting slot. So, the first week of March is a bonus week!

I will also be discounting books one and two on Bookapy for the rest of the month. Here is your chance to get the conclusion of book two a bit early.

As a reminder, the advance reader copy of Book 3 is up on bookapy if you want to jump ahead a few months and get some answers!

Some of my readers have expressed an interest.

I've spent the day finalizing and I have put together an ARC version of book three and will be listing it on Bookapy tomorrow.

If you are desperate to get the next installment, there you go. I plan on doing a final proof and polish pass and then relisting it in a few weeks. The price then will probably be a few $ less so if you are frugal, wait. I still plan on posting it by chapter but that will be towards the end of April after book two is done posting.

February Update
I happened to notice that the chapter released today for my second book is about the middle of the story (size or words wise) if you group all three books. If you are enjoying John's tale so far then you have about as much remaining as you have already read.

What does that mean? Nothing really. The good news is I wrapped up writing on book three a month ago and its now in the final stages of proof reading and corrections. That means that book three will be available on schedule in early March. That also means the story is complete and the ending is set so you don't have to worry about it being incomplete or going inactive.

I've read back over the overall story a few times but for the past few months my focus has been on book three. I thought it turned out pretty well when I turned it over to the proofers. The responses I have gotten back have been really good and I am excited to release it.

Thanks for following my story. Thanks for the comments, criticisms and praise. Thanks for your support on Bookapy.