THE CHOSEN: First Cover Sketches & Two Chapter Quotes

THE CHOSEN

I've almost completed the fourth and final draft of my new adult science fiction novel, The Chosen, and Greg Opalinski has started sending me the first sketches of the cover. I'm really pleased. As usual, Greg is doing a wonderful job. It will be fun to see the cover develop as the process moves along.

On October 21, 2014, I gave a preview of the first paragraph of each the first five chapters of The Chosen. If you'd like to read that entry, Click Here. In this entry, I'm going to give you the first two paragraphs of Chapter 23, which I've provided below. There are 26 chapters in the book.

You can also read a complete excerpt of the first two chapters by clicking on the the Bob's Books' tab above.


THE CHOSEN: First Two Paragraphs of Chapter 23

    "Bodo’s living space was warm with the lights dimly lit but comfortable. The early morning sun on M-78 had just touched the horizon, setting off a golden glow in the distance and casting the soft light of morning onto the lifeglobe surrounding The City.
   Bodo had been the first to open his eyes and sit up on one elbow. He blinked away the sleepiness, yawned, slowly inched his body out from under his soft blanket, and gazed at his three compatriots. Each of them was still asleep, curled up and breathing quietly. He thought about how vitally important today was, yet there was a part of him that didn’t want to alter this calm, serene moment – a part of him that wanted to go back to sleep."

Latest Review of BEATRICE From Amazon

Below is the latest review of Beatrice from Amazon.

5 Stars

Quite a good read

Quite a good read. Twists and turns and expertly told.

Books I've read, Disappointments, and the Future

I've been reading books for the last two years with a different eye than ever before. Being a working author, I see and read them with a much more concentrated fervor. I look at the plot, characters, setting, phrasing, words, and many other aspects of a book in much more detail.

Also, I've chosen the books that I'm reading much more carefully. I've read more Stephen King, Tom Robbins, Ian Rankin, Suzanne Collins, Tana French, Hugh Howey, Sheri S. Tepper, Margaret Atwood, Patrick Rothfuss, George R. R. Martin, Lois Lowry, Mary Stewart, Brian Jacques, and I just finished The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings again by Tolkien as well as several others. They all do things much differently and have varying strengths that I can learn from.

I was particularly excited to read Tolkien again. It had been a long time, and I also read more about his thoughts behind the book, which were very enlightening.

A great disappointment recently was that Amazon decided to discontinue their Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. They didn't publicize that they were going to discontinue it, and I know that many thousands of writers, including myself, had spent a lot of time preparing only to find out very late that it would not happen.

However, Amazon has started something new that they call Amazon Scout. It looks like a promising venue for indy writers, and I'm going to look into it after I finish The Chosen.

Also, after I get The Chosen published, I will be looking at some other contests, contact more agents, and pursue some other promotional avenues for my works. I will need some time off from writing, as I've been working 6-10 hours, five days a week or more, since April of 2013.

The next project that I will work on will be a sequel to Beatrice. I already have a lot of it planned and ready, but the chance to do something else for a while will be good for me. I would also like to write some poetry again. It's been too long!

To all those who have been reading my blog, I again want to say thank you, and watch for The Chosen. It will be completed and published in March!

THE CHOSEN: Third Draft Completed & Work On The Book Cover Has Begun

Cover Art By Greg Opalinski

I competed the third draft of my new adult science fiction novel, The Chosen, today. It looks like it won't be published until early in March because I need to edit it one more time.

Also, Greg Opalinski still has some work to do on the cover; it will be different than what you see above, and I'll be excited to see it when he's finished. I know Greg will do a wonderful job, as usual!

I'm very, very happy with the novel, and I feel it's my best work to date. It will be published, as my other works have, on Amazon.com and on other Amazon sites around the globe.

It's also the longest book that I've written. Rooms was about 82,000 words, and The Chosen will be almost 88,000.

I've also updated the excerpt of the first two chapters from the book. You can take a look by clicking on the Bob's Books' tab at the top of this blog page or by clicking on the link below.

The Chosen Excerpt: Chapter's 1-2