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Over the past couple of weeks, I've been doing a thorough edit and revision of A Good Man, the first book in the Paul Robertson Saga.
I've just completed the revision of chapter 20, which is almost halfway through the story. The edits and modifications do not alter the narrative or characterisation, but they modernise and generally improve the prose and dialogue. I'm a better writer now than I was 14 years ago, and I hope I'm bringing that experience to the story.
I'm particularly pleased with the revisions to chapters 19 & 20. I believe I've completely transformed these from something of a dry infodump into genuine and worthwhile character work, enhancing the mentor-mentee-surrogate father-son relationship between Will and Paul. The whiskey tasting scene in particular is something I'm really quite proud of now.
Of course, I'm only halfway through the book, and I'm posting revised chapters as they are posted. This means that right now, the story will feel a little disjointed as you read through it and encounter the original 2011 text. I know that many people are reading this story at the moment, with the release of A Healing Love, the fourth book in the series. So, whether you are reading it for the first time or reading it to remind yourself of the story before tackling A Healing Love, please be aware of the situation.
I really hope that the revisions are well received.
Chapter 3 of A Healing Love was posted today. It features a song by Kayla Valentine.
I wrote the lyrics to the song, and you can hear an AI-generated version of the song, using my lyrics, on my website right now.
I've begun posting the 4th Paul Robertson boo, A Healing Love, here on SOL. It, of course, remains available on ZBookStore.
My plan is to post chapters every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Chapter 1 is available today, with Chapters 2 & 3 already queued for tomorrow and Wednesday. I'll try and make sure I stay ahead of the queue so I don't miss a posting date, but life is hectic, I've got to strip the style classes from the HTML, and make sure I get the song lyrics, text messages and notes formatted properly for SOL, so it's quite a task.
Wait, did you say "Song Lyrics"?
Yes. I did. You'll see.
I really hope you enjoy this book. It's been a labour of love. Please don't forget to leave comments, I'll try to respond to them, and feel free to drop me a message to let me know what you think of my efforts.
I posed a question in the SOL Forums the other day – “How would you feel about an 'Author Commentary' in the story comments?”
The essence of my questions was to see if readers would be interested in my posting my thoughts in the reader comments section of “A Healing Love,” chapter by chapter, as it is posted.
The general feeling was that, while it is a nice idea that could give readers insight into what the author was thinking as they wrote the book, the reader comments probably are not the best place for it due to their design.
So I devised another plan – a separate “book”, posted alongside the main story as a “companion piece.” I really like this idea, so I’m going to give it a try.
If it doesn’t work, I can simply have it deleted without any harm done.
Now, having completed “A Healing Love", I really need to give myself a break from creating. As much as I want to crack on and finish Paul’s story, I’m all out of creative juice at the moment.
So my next project is to revise and refine the previous Paul Robertson books, starting with ‘A Good Man.’ I’m going to do this in the same way I completed the edit for AHL by utilising the AI tools available. I’ll input each chapter into the tool, request feedback on what needs to be revised and refined, then amend it and return it to the tool for further advice until it appears polished and ready.
It worked well with “A Healing Love,” so I don’t see why it would be any different with ‘A Good Man.’ Mind you, AHL was already a far more polished and ‘mature’ piece of work. The fourteen-year gap between their productions has made a significant difference to my writing.
I’ve already completed the prologue and chapters 1-5, and they have been posted here at SOL. Once I’ve finished the entire piece, I’ll publish a revision of the ebook as well. I don’t intend to alter the plot or the characterisation, just refine and polish the prose, perhaps add some additional dialogue, that sort of thing.
As I complete the revision of each chapter, I also feed it into a separate chat to obtain some “analysis” of the book. It is this analysis, along with my own commentary as an author, that I am now posting here as “A Good Man: Author Commentary & AI Analysis.”
I’m slightly catching up, as I’ve only posted up to chapter three of the analysis so far. I have to use the site's text tagging to achieve the format I want, and it’s a PITA to use, so it's taking me longer.
But I’m getting there.
I’d be very interested to see if you find this exercise engaging. It’s interesting to me and also useful, which is why I’m doing it. However, it would be intriguing to know if any readers take anything from it. If the two individuals who have already rated it a score of “1” are anything to go by, then probably not. But, honestly, I’m not posting this one for the scores; I’m sharing it because it’s an engaging exercise for me, and I’m enjoying it.
I’m delighted to announce that “A Healing Love”, the 4th book in the Paul Robertson Saga, has been submitted for publication at ZBookStore. Here's the link to purchase the book
The Paul Roberston Saga has been a labour of love for me for fourteen years now. Fourteen long, difficult years. At 212,000 words, A Healing Love is the longest book I’ve ever written and, I believe, the best. In the next few days, I’ll write more freely about the book now that it’s ‘in the wild’, but for today I’d just like to share with you the blub, to give you a flavour of what to expect. You can also see the cover on my website.
Blurb
Paul Robertson’s journey continues as his past and present collide in an epic tale of healing love.
Paul Robertson is finally taking control. He’s building a business, finding his purpose, and leaving the ghosts of his past behind. But at a star-studded movie premiere, he comes face-to-face with a ghost from his past: the girl he shared a brief, intense romance with while running from his grief in America. A romance that scared him so much, he ended it with a note. Now, she’s on the cusp of international stardom, and he must finally confront the heartbreak he caused.
Their connection that once terrified him reignites with a passion that threatens to consume them both. For the first time since losing his great love, Paul feels that wound he thought was fatal is finally healing, built on shared vulnerability and trust. But their rekindled love is a fragile thing, threatened by the prospect of global fame, the watchful eye of a protective manager, and the ghosts of their painful history.
Even as he’s pulled back into her orbit, Paul is fighting to forge a new future for himself. He’s determined to stop drifting and finally take charge of his life—navigating a fledgling business empire and making the difficult decisions he once ran from.
To keep her, he might have to become the man he’s always been afraid to be. To truly love her, he might have to let her go.
A Healing Love is a beautiful and bittersweet continuation of the Paul Robertson Saga, exploring grief, social responsibility, the power of love, difficult choices, and the discovery that true healing sometimes means learning to let go.
New Covers Coming for All Paul Robertson Books!
The cover for A Healing Love depicts Paul standing on the seafront in Westmouth with the woman he ran from in Nashville two years earlier. He is pose is one of protection. Both of them have an air of vulnerability about them.
Vulnerability is one of the central themes of A Healing Love, and I’ll write more about it in the coming days as I discuss the novel in more depth.
The main image for this cover was generated using the AI tool Fotor. I then heavily edited, most notably the colour levels, and added the text, all using GIMP, to produce the cover. At the same time, I generated new images for the first three books in the series and was even able to ensure that the model on the cover had the same face throughout by using the “face swap” tool in Fotor.
I’ll reveal the new covers for ‘A Good Man’, ‘A Tortured Soul’, and ‘A Wounded Heart’ in the coming days as I try to update the books to match.
I Hope You Enjoy the Book
‘A Healing Love’ has taken me just over two years to write. I think it’s my best work to date, and I really hope you feel the same. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking, bittersweet story, with a fantastic new female lead. It also lays the foundations for Paul’s ultimate endgame, which we will see in book 5, tentatively titled “A Loving Light.”
We also see Paul begin to step up and show the signs of the man he will become—a business leader, a philanthropist and a political influencer. This book really marks the beginning of Paul’s political awakening, which I found very exciting to write and am even more excited to continue.
I really hope you enjoy this next instalment of Paul’s journey. Please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know what you think of it. I welcome feedback and am happy to discuss the story and characters with anyone who has an open mind.
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