PREPPING LUSITANIA GOLD

Wow! After 21 years of writing, one book under my belt, I’m deep into the stages of gearing up for the publication of my second book…that’s second book! In many ways, I have to blink just to get over the shock, but at the same time, I can feel and recall every moment of struggle it took to get to this point. It comes as no surprise at all.

On the other hand, I’m also counting my lucky stars. There are so many writers out there who aren’t authors yet. I differentiate the terms as writers haven’t been published yet. Nothing derogatory or superior between either term, just a definition. I was, after all, a writer for a loooong time!

Since I’m lucky enough to be in the author category, not only with a second full book coming out, but because I’ve published numerous short stories and articles, plus technical publications enough to make me an author, I can move on and get busy with the mechanics of the process.

My sincere hope is that you, my readers if not already, can soon be in the same boat as me. Hopefully, it won’t take 21 years and my oft quoted 689 rejections to get to that point. However, I also hope that some of you, if not all, write because you have to, not because you’re in it for mercenary reasons. This should be a passion, not a hobby. I’ve talked enough about that in the past.

EDITING

I just went through a major edit with one of my editors. Keep in mind that this was after a multitude of edits over the 20 years since I wrote the original draft. As I’ve said in the past, I’ve trimmed the story of a lot of bloat, but essentially, it hasn’t changed one iota from the original plot. All I’ve done is updated and tweaked details I’ve learned about due to new books written on the subject, new dives on the ship, much better Google maps, etc.

Now that the major edit is done, it’ll go to a proof reader, then another final edit. Even then, there’s the possibility of something slipping by. The hope is to keep anything major out of the story and as close to a perfect book as possible. With such a massive undertaking as a novel, even with so many eyes on it, there’s bound to be an occasional slip. We do our best and hopefully, that’ll show through.

LAST TWEAKS

I’ve decided to add a reality-versus-fiction section to the back of the book. Sure, it contains spoilers, but I like those and think it’s warranted. The reader can “cheat” if they want or, just read the story first, then continue on to find out why I wrote what I wrote. My buddy James Rollins does this as well as Steve Berry and several other authors I’ve read over the years. I don’t use that in all my stories but for my adventure/thrillers, why not?

I’m also going to add my thank you section, which I do for all my novels. In this case, I have to do extensive research. I had names, dates, places saved on my older computers but lost it all when they crashed over the two decades since I wrote it in Tipton, Oklahoma back in 1996. As it is, I’ve already had to call an old workplace through a convoluted phone system to get hold of the few that still worked there, find out the guy I wanted no longer worked there, but someone remembered the name of his wife, who read an early draft of this story! That, folks, is what I’ve had to do to dig up some of the names of people I want to thank for helping me along the way.

As for maps. There’s a current discussion on the fantasy web site on Facebook about maps and their relevance. In this case, I’m sticking to fantasy for maps. I don’t think it’s needed in this case, though plenty of thrillers have maps in them.

A WEB PAGE

Eventually, I’ll have to set up a web page tab on my web site for the Gold series and Detach’s adventures. Detach is the main character and hero of the series. I so far have six books in the can, so if this series takes off, I already have a backlog of manuscripts to go to. I haven’t decided what to call the page yet. That will come pretty soon, as well as what the Facebook page will be called.

ARTWORK

That’ll be up to the publisher. I think they already have something brewing and as long as it has a bit of green in it, I’m happy! I loved how Treasure Of The Umbrunna turned out!

PRE-PUBLICITY

I’ll have to be gearing up for that pretty soon as well. Since this is not the sequel to Treasure Of The Umbrunna, and since it’s a completely different genre, I have to think in a different box. I’m using my real name, of course, no pen name. I’ve talked extensively about that in the past. To avoid genre confusion, I’m just going to plainly state this is a different genre.

It will involve different channels, I suppose. To be determined later.

SUMMARY

Folks, if it hasn’t happened already, if you’re a writer, one day you’ll be faced with these and many more issues. If you’re conventionally published, your publisher and/or agent will help guide you along in all this. If you’re self-published, well…you need to research and figure it all out on your own.

In either case, get ready for a busy time!

Happy writing!