Friday, April 23, 2010

...and the editing goes on... and on... and on.....

Greetings, fellow Bearers!

Well, as my title suggests, the first round of editing for Old Velt goes on, as I slog through and make corrections here and there to the text.  Fortunately, I have somebody waiting in the wings for the second round of editing, so that way things that I missed the first time will be spotted.  I did all of the editing myself with Clade Josso, and while I'm happy with the overall result, there were still a few literary smudges and cracks here and there which I see now in retrospect-nothing major, mind you, but little improvements that could have been taken care of had somebody else read the manuscript.   With Old Velt, such a problem will be easier to avoid, as another pair of more objective eyes will be scanning this manuscript.

On another note, I'm prepping another short story for Smashwords, entitled "A Walk in the Woods," which is a little bit of a left turn for me.  I'm writing something from the viewpoint of a woman, in part to challenge myself on style, and also in part because this story works better from a feminine point of view.  That in and of itself makes me a little bit nervous, as I don't consider what I write anything near "chick-lit" in substance.  But the story's coming along well, and it shouldn't take too long to get the meat and potatoes of it down and refine it with a once-over.

And Kran is coming along, although not as quickly as I'd like :(.  The advantage of writing at home is that it can be very relaxing and easy to churn out words-when nobody else wants your attention.  The bad news? Well... everybody wants your attention.  That's great for family building, but it stinks when it comes to getting further in the novel!  But I've got an idea or two that should guarantee me a little bit more of a window to write, and the pages should be filling soon. 

So, hang in there and spread the word about Clade Josso to your friends, relatives, neighbors, and extra-terrestrials!  And thank you again for your support and reading!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean
 

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Editing and working

Greetings, Bearers!

First of all, the good news: Clade Josso has been getting some good download time for the past few weeks!  Again, as always, a big welcome and thank you to those of you setting foot in the Vein for the first time! I hope you enjoy this world I've created as much as I've enjoyed making it!

Old Velt is in the process of being edited-by yours truly, of course.  That's the drawback to self-publishing: editing your books means that, unless you're getting a LOT of business or have a substantial amount of money, you have to edit your own books.  Believe me, I'd rather pay somebody else to do it: it can be tedious.  But seeing as how I can't, well...

On another good note, though, I'm starting up the third novel, and Kran will be arriving soon in the Vein to start his journey to the Vein.  This one's going to be a fun one to write, and I'll be putting up an except soon for your enjoyment.

So keep reading, and tell other people about the Vein! 

Until next time, see you in the Vein!

J. Dean

Thursday, April 1, 2010

OLD VELT is Done!!!!! (Well, sort of..)

Greetings, fellow Bearers!

And what a great day it is!  The sun is shining, birds are singing, snow-blowers are being put away for the season, baseball's almost ready to start... And The Summoning of Old Velt is now fully written!!  Of course, it still needs to be edited, but hopefully I'll have an assistant with this one.  We've not finalized anything, but I'm in a pretty generous mood, because to be honest, editing a book can be as much work (if not more) than writing one, and I'm not so sure I want to tackle that by myself again.

Besides, I'd rather be spending the time working on the next novel, which I intend to do this coming Monday.  The next character coming up will be Kran, who will be a VERY different character, one that is a bigger departure from Clade and Old Velt, because Kran's motivation for coming to the Meridian is not as... shall we say, pure, as the motives of the first two.  (Insert evil twirled mustache smile here).  But let's not spoil too much before we begin.

So, until next time, once more I thank you for supporting me in the purchase of Clade Josso, and welcome the new converts to the world of the Vein!  I hope you enjoy the ride!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean