One thing I noticed while working on the first draft of ‘A Healing Love’ is how much my writing has evolved since 2011, when ‘A Good Man’ was completed. Fourteen years is a long time, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.
Of course, ‘better’ is subjective, but to me it means that my writing is more ‘mature’ and less naive. Additionally, having spent a considerable amount of time with these characters, I now understand them much better than I did previously.
So I decided to improve the quality of the writing in ‘A Good Man’ to match the standard of ‘A Healing Love.’ I can do this, of course, because I am not ‘traditionally’ published, so I am in complete creative control over my work and can do with it whatever I like.
It’s a challenging task. I don’t want to alter the narrative—the story’s plot. My aim is to enhance the ‘quality’ and ‘maturity’ of the prose and dialogue, while also adding some details that foreshadow future events in the series where possible.
As I write, I’ve reviewed and updated forty-one of the forty-seven chapters in the book (excluding the prologue and epilogue). I’m truly proud of some of the revisions I’ve made.
For example, the scene between Paul and Will in chapters nineteen and twenty is now much more emotionally impactful and portrays Will more convincingly as Paul’s “surrogate father.” The whiskey tasting, in particular, has been completely transformed into something truly profound.
Similarly, all the intimate scenes between Paul and Clarissa are now more rooted in the emotion of each encounter, rather than the mechanics of where body parts went, which, to me, makes them much more satisfying.
You can find the updated chapters on SOL. When I’ve finished updating the whole book, I’ll issue an updated copy to Amazon and the other e-book stores. I can’t wait for you to experience this enhanced version of the first steps on Paul’s epic coming-of-age journey.