Update: Boxes & Writing!

 

Busy!

“Moving boxes” by ViewPix69 licensed under CC by 2.0

“Note Book Writing - Credit to https://homethods.com/“ by homethods licensed under CC by 2.0.

I wanted to let all of you know that I’ve been extremely busy! I’m still revising and rewriting my books, and I’ve been getting ready to move and leave for Europe in March!

Crazy, fun times!

I’ve completed the revision of my 5th novel and will provide a blog post in about three to four days indicating that it has been republished and available to order. Once that is done, I’ll only have one book left to go through and update. It’s time consuming but really worth it!

Once that’s done, I’m going to start writing my seventh novel. It’s going to be a dark fantasy that takes place in medieval Ireland! It’s based on a short story I wrote some years ago.

So, stay tuned for all that! Once I get to Europe, I’ll keep you up to date on what I’m doing there!

Talk to you soon!

Letting You Know What's Been Happening!

ROOMS HAS BEEN REVISED
Well, it's been a very busy three weeks since my "Writer's Block" post. Yes, the writer's block went away, and I decided to finally do a major rewrite and edit of Rooms before starting on the sequel to Beatrice. The rewrite is done, and I'm very pleased.

After I completed The Chosen, my writing skills had improved by then, and I wanted to bring Rooms up to the same level as The Chosen. Since they are companion books, it was important that they match up. That's the reason for the rewrite of Rooms. I worked hard on the whole book with special emphasis on the first four chapters. I think the two work together better now, and I'm especially pleased with the new first chapter of Rooms.

I will let all of you know when the changes are published on Amazon in both the paperback and Kindle versions. If you have Rooms in the Kindle version, I would recommend that you wait for the post indicating that the updated version is live on Amazon.com in order to update it on your Kindle. I'll even tell you how to upgrade to the newer version in that post.

If you'd like to read the first three chapters of the new version, just go to the BOB'S BOOKS link at the top of the blog. You'll see the link to the revised chapters.

FIRST AMAZON REVIEW OF THE CHOSEN

An Excellent Read!

I was excited to read the author’s sequel to Rooms, and he did not disappoint me. I was thoroughly impressed by the author’s capacity to not only successfully weave an intricate plot, but to create a variety of complex characters and societies that enriched and promoted that plot. I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time as I read of the struggle between the Loonites and The Chosen to gain control of the Earth’s newly regained resources, the tiny outposts scattered throughout the galaxy, and the human’s who inhabited them. Which society won the right to change the course of human history? I will never tell. However, I will say that it was worth reading the entire novel to find out.

HOW ARE THE AGENT QUERIES GOING?

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that a few weeks ago I sent out a lot of agent queries for both Beatrice and The Chosen. This is my second time to do this, and I've received a lot more responses than before. Also, the responses that I have received have been more instructive and personal. It's been more encouraging, but I still have no takers. It's just the nature of the business, and in the meantime, I'm doing my best to improve as a writer and storyteller. It's not easy to be rejected, but it's part of the process, and I'm determined to succeed. I'll keep writing, thinking, dreaming, and creating!

BOOK PROMOTIONS AND GIVEAWAYS
Also, recently I have run some promotions for all of my books on Amazon. Those promotions have not only increased my readership, but I've received more reviews, and I believe it has kept my books in front of the public because I've continued to sell books every month.

I will do more in that area soon. I'll let you know when that happens and what the nature of the promotions will be.

Thank You!
Thanks to everyone that has one of my books! I hope you have fun reading them! When you finish, if you could write a review, comment on my blog, or send me an email, I would really appreciate it!

And...if you haven't been to my Author's Page on Amazon, take a look by CLICKING HERE.

New Book: Second Draft Completed

New Book: "Beatrice" - Second Draft is Complete

(Forest)

The second draft of my new book, Beatrice, is finished. This draft went from 72,000 to 76,000 words, and there are now twenty-eight chapters. As I thought, the book got bigger with each edit. That seems to be a trend.

Ever since I started this book, the ending was something that bothered me. I just wasn't sure what I would do to end it. The rest of the book had been very intricate and each chapter seemed to almost write itself, but not the ending.

I finished, but wasn't satisfied. The final chapter just didn't work. It obviously was bothering me because one night I dreamed a different ending, and that was it. I got up that night and wrote down the idea. The next morning, I was finally excited about how I would end it, and then I spent time adding and changing to make it right. I'm very pleased now. I'm going to publish the book within a couple of weeks, and then I'm going to stop writing for a while. I'm a bit burned out.

I've planned a sequel to Rooms and now Beatrice has a sequel as well. That wasn't planned from the beginning, but now I know it has to happen.

After I get Beatrice published, I'm going to concentrate only on my agent/publisher search and writing in my blog, and as I mentioned in my last post, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to enter Beatrice in this year's Amazon Breakout Novel Contest. I'm looking forward  to it.

When Beatrice is finally finished and published on Amazon, I'll let you know. I'm really looking forward to it. I think my writing is improving every day, and it will be fun to see how it does.

Also, if you haven't yet, please don't forget to check out Rooms and Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy on Amazon.

Tree/Moon Image from:

Forest Blue Moonlight Wallpapers.. Digital image. Travelization. N.p., 30 June 2012, Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <www.travelization.net>.

Rooms / Agent Search / Beatrice Update

Cover Illustration and Design by Greg Opalinski

Below are some of the first reviews that have come in from Amazon and Goodreads for my science fiction novel, Rooms, since it was published about three weeks ago.

*****
I started Rooms one evening and found the story line engaging and the characters interesting. The next day I picked it up again planning to read for a bit. A third of the way in I couldn't stop--reading all day until finished. The characters became more and more real. The diversity and fullness of the plot held me.

Stegner touches on many issues--environmental, political, social, moral & spiritual. In the process he has also created just a darn good story. It engaged me in ways I did not expect and left me wanting a sequel!

*****
The story line/plot found in this novel grabs you from the very beginning and holds your attention to the point you cannot put it down. It has twists and turns that will take a reader by surprise. The book highlights many important social and cultural concerns that really need to be addressed today as our world moves forward through time to an uncertain future. This novel is destined to become a movie - Order it now --- you are in for a very interesting ride through time and space.

*****
Beautiful, deep story that captures your imagination. As you read the book, more and more elements of the plot come into play. The unique feature of the book is that it is not only a story written to entertain a reader but is also a deep, wise and touching story that will make you think about the world that we live in, what it is and what should be really important in our lives.

*****
What a great ride and adventure! You see people give books reviews all the time where they say they couldn't put the book down, well don't start reading unless you want to stay up all night with this one. Excellent writing style, you really get to know and care about the characters. It also really makes you think about what if. Love it!!

To find the book on Amazon, you can click the links below.

Paperback on Amazon
Kindle eBook on Amazon

Agent Search: This has finally begun
It has taken me a long time, but I've finally started to search for an agent. I completed my agent query for Rooms and sent out six of those the other day. I'm going to try to send a few out each day. If anything happens with that, I'll let you know.

New Book: "Beatrice" - First Draft is Complete

(Forest)

The first draft of my new book, Beatrice, is finished. The completed draft is about 72,000 words. As always, when I complete the editing process, I'm sure it will be longer.

Right now, I'm just reading it through without making any changes, and I'm getting ideas about what I want to do to improve it, but I'm very happy with how it's hanging together and the story as a whole. It's fun and changes tempo and focus throughout, while telling the overall story. I'm learning my craft, one day, one page at a time!

As I've mentioned before, the climax was really fun to write, as well as the last chapter, wrapping everything up. I will publish Beatrice when I'm done on Amazon, and my catalog of books will begin to grow.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to enter Beatrice in this year's Amazon Breakout Novel Contest. I'm looking forward  to it.

Tree/Moon Image from:

Forest Blue Moonlight Wallpapers.. Digital image. Travelization. N.p., 30 June 2012, Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <www.travelization.net>.

EDITING NOVEL

ROOMS

(Trish Steele)

This has been a great week.  I've edited about nine chapters of Rooms.  Since this is the second major re-write, the changes are fewer and more targeted.  I'm re-reading every paragraph for meaning and connection.  Connection, not only with what is in that particular paragraph, but the whole book and what came before and what will come after.

The small inconsistencies are less and less, and I'm working on simplifying the phrasing.  I've found that in my writing, I tend to try to describe too much sometimes.  I think this gets in the way of the easy flow of the story, and I've been doing my best to describe when needed, but only when it's important to do so.

I think I've also helped make the conversations more real by, again, changing some of the phrasing, thinking about how people speak in more casual ways.

I've also found that I tend to use some descriptive words more often than others, so I'm doing my best to create more diversity there and yet keep some normal phrasing, too.  It's not always the best thing to try to find "a different word" to say something.  Sometimes normal phrasing is the best.

I'm learning a lot! 

Image of Door:

Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Editing and re-writing Rooms

I'm spending a lot of time editing and re-writing sections of my novel, Rooms.  It's laborious at times and at others interesting and even exciting.  I know that I'm growing and changing as a writer because of the amount of time that I'm able to spend at it.

I'm working out the small inconsistencies that I've discovered, am doing a lot of just basic "fixing", and doing my best to make my words and phrases smooth and clear and interesting.  I really enjoy putting words together that create pictures and feelings.

I think I'll probably finish this re-write by January and then I'll read it once more and  see if I can get a publisher interested.

I'm enjoying the whole process more than I thought I would, but I'll be glad when I can say I'm done.