My primary editor Tammy Salyer reminded me that I started this writing adventure just over two years ago with the objective of doing three books (then a trilogy) by September of this year. And, thanks to a lot of people, I can get there as planned. I may move the
launch of Book 3 (Search for Help) out a month or two depending on a few things, but I’ll talk about that in another post.
When I started two years ago, I knew next to nothing about fiction writing. I had done a non-fiction book, Leaders are Made Not Born, but it was not the same as fiction. I started the Host Saga by having an idea in mind and then letting the protagonist, Van Childs, do what I would have done in the same circumstances. I did that for about 30K words and then went to my first workshop, Write on the River with Bob Mayer. After the workshop, I threw away almost everything I had written and started over. Bob instilled in us (four at the workshop) a greater sense of organization and ways of looking at characters. With a good development editor like Tammy, I managed to hammer out 87K words that made some sense in Future Discovered. I immediately started on Book 2, Immortal Guardian and followed the same path as Book 1. Following that, I started on Book 3 and got perhaps 75% done before I realized I was way off track, so back to Tennessee I went for another session with Bob and his wife Deb.
It wasn’t until this year that I actually had Book 1 in publishing shape and I entered it into the Kindle Scout competition. My numbers were very good, but I wasn’t selected. So, with the help of author LG (Liz) O’Connor, I did a short rewrite of the first three chapters and published in April. I then turned around and put the finishing touches on Book 2, Immortal Guardian, which launched at the end of June. In parallel with the prep for Immortal Guardian, I started the editing process for Book 3. That book was initially going to be called Search for the Host, but got changed to Search for Help as the story evolved.
In the editing process of Search for Help, I realized that the comments from my editor were less about plot and timing as before and more about characterization, body language and introspection by the characters. I took that to mean I was learning and maybe getting better.
Much to my surprise I have been rewarded with new friends and followers. The reviews are better than I hoped averaging four stars out of five for Book 1. Haven’t seen reviews for Book 2 yet. I’ve also been surprised at where my books are traveling. I received positive notes from Great Britain, Germany, Belgium in addition to the USA.
So, many thanks to all you readers out there for your support and following. I’m most happy that people seem to be enjoying the books. And yes, there will be a Book 4, probably called New Horizons.
What do you think?
