Hi there,
It's been a long time since I have made a blog post and I just want to say my efforts to become a publisher, write, and illustrate books is still an active project. I have been suffering under a remodel which will give me much needed modern office space for the birthing of my book creation efforts. I've had to do a great deal of design work on this remodel and manage the day to day work on it. It has been a major source of stress since I have had to do some structural, electrical, and networking design as well as aesthetic design. As my company evolves, it's use of the space will evolve and planning for all possible eventualities is quite taxing. Working in this environment of sequential tasking and precise yet evolving timetables (I cannot control the schedule of the people doing the work) basically destroys the parallel/creative environment. I have done a good bit of writing but not nearly as much as I would have accomplished in an undistracted environment I can totally control.
By the end of January, I will have enough money to do the first professional edit of the "Sophistan Children of Earth". This book will an enormous advance in writing depth as it will be my first book written completely in a literary fiction style (#scifi, #fantasy, #magic subcategories). What that means is that you will get to know the characters as if they are your close, personal friends. What it doesn't mean is a fast paced, plot driven book. For that style of writing, I would suggest the publisher Baen.
I know that changing to this style of writing will not be popular with some people, especially those who want a very fast read. If you are looking for an extended experience with the characters as if you are there with them, this book will be for you. If you like seeing kids who feel they are trapped into a particular fate, seeing them contemplate, then try to bend their fate to something they like better, then you will like this book.
When I say professional edit of this book, I don't mean an English major who has put out their shingle but someone who has had significant industry experience and will understand this writing form. For me, it is not just a cleaning up of the book, but an in-depth course in writing in this style. The editors I use are usually pretty good about getting to the heart of the matter and giving excellent advice. The net result is not just a significantly improved book, but a significantly improved author.
"The Owl from Oblivion" has had one professional edit and those changes have been incorporated into the book. I put out a limited run of that book to get feedback and see the thoughts of people who have read it. The book needs some tweaking to bring it line with the "Sophistan Children of Earth" and stylistically a little more orientation toward the #literary #fiction style. Following that, it will need two more professional edits before it can be released for general consumption. I will need to do a Kickstarter or other crowdsource funding effort to raise the money for those two edits. The real pot of gold will be if I can, in a separate campaign, raise the money to do an initial print run of the title. This book will serve as the bootstrap for the publishing company. These books are written to be as independent as possible so that either book can be read first. "The Owl from Oblivion" represents the furtherest extent of the timeline so far and the "Sophistan Children of Earth" represents the beginning of the timeline or one of the prequels to "The Owl from Oblivion". There will be several prequels which occur between the "Sophistan Children of Earth" and "The Owl from Oblivion". If you have read the first four books of my original series, those books vaguely serve as the outline for the new books. The new books contain lots more material and are not plot driven like the original books were.
At the beginning of the year, I will get started again on my two other projects: illustrations I create myself for the books and a new website for the publishing company. I have the beginnings of the site located here: http://www.cospublishing.com .
This site is far from complete and some pages are just template pages. But there is enough there to get a little glimpse into things to come. When completed, the site will have complete information about the books, a private discussion area for people who signup on the site, and an ecommerce area for individual readers to purchase books, posters, and possibly T-shirts from the publishing company. I also plan a private site for bookstores to electronically submit payment for books they have sold. Books for the bookstores will be orderable through the standard channels. All this will require a lot of work and in some sense, I am probably getting ahead of myself telling you these plans. To my current readers, all I can say is bear with me and give me your support, and you will receive books that are far better than my previous books and likely unlike anything you have read before.
One last note: You may see me post stuff about #gifted kids and adults. These postings do not imply that you must be #gifted to read these books. However, metaphorically, these books do contain some situations similar to what some gifted kids (and possibly their parents) may face. These kids (and adults sometimes) have difficulties navigating through the social eddies of society and it is always nice for them to see someone they can identify with in fiction---a source of comfort if you will. From time to time, I may point out the similarities. Like any #scifi author, I may also point out some new scientific developments which allude to a possible scenario in which parts of the story/technology could be transformed from fiction into fact. And of course, there are many situations, such as #bullying which certainly have relevance to today's society.
