Tag: Duilleog Page 4 of 6

Duilleog is Back with the Editor

On May 20, 2015

In Duilleog Volume One, Editing, The Art of Writing

Duilleog: A New Druids Novel, Volume One

Duilleog is back with the editor. Nikki Rae over at Metamorphosis Editing Services did an excellent job at cleaning up the typos, syntax and formatting errors and helped me identify some really serious point of view issues I had failed to recognise. I’m such a noob. It only goes to show that writing takes practice and without it you suffer.

If I am lucky I will have the second look-over completed in a couple of weeks, made the last corrections, and then I will be able to publish for the Kindle. This will be followed by the ~~Nook,~~ Smashwords and Kobo versions. eBooks are extremely easy to create and having a program like Scrivener makes it more so.

For those wanting an actual paperback of the story, I’m sorry, but you will need to wait a little bit as I sort out the formatting. When you self-publish the author has to do all the work for formatting the book and creating the cover. You could pay for someone to do that for you but that is just more money. And, anyway, I consider my designing skills to be “not too bad” and I am proud of my designed covers. Formatting for Amazon CreateSpace is a simple process but it takes time, attention to all the little details, and it is all online and you won’t really know if you got it right until you get your hands on the author copy to verify the product before letting it go to print. All this takes time, time, and more time (and the delays due to snail mail). So maybe mid-July for the paperback version?

So exciting!

Ciao!

The Final Revision Is In The Works

By donald

On May 9, 2015

In Duilleog Volume One, The Art of Writing

Red ink sucks!

The final revision is in the works! My editor returned my manuscript and I am digging in. The revision is not too bad. Less work than I thought except for Part Two. That section has a point of view flaw that I need to fix and it will be a timely one. No worries though. That is what revisions are all about: making sure the story is ready for print.

Best case scenario is looking at perhaps a month of work. Then I need to decide if I return the manuscript to the editor for a last ‘once over’.

Anyway, I have a move back to Canada to plan. School work to focus on. A new job to consider in Ottawa. Many things on my plate. So say we all.

As always check out my Facebook page!

Ciao!

A Third Volume in A New Druids Series

By donald

On April 25, 2015

In Craobh Volume Two, Duilleog Volume One, Stoc Volume Three, The Art of Writing

Duilleog: A New Druids Novel, Volume One

Craobh: A New Druids Series, Volume Two

Stoc: A New Druids Novel, Volume Three

A third volume will now be added to the New Druids Series. It seems that it is growing in size in my head. I had epiphany flying back to DC Friday night while I was working on what I thought was the second volume, Stoc, when I realised that I had enough storyline in my head to push half of what I had forward into a third volume.

This has the added benefit of making the book progression more in line with the journey that the protagonist, Will Arbor, is undertaking.

It should make for a better tale in the end. Otherwise, the story would be too rushed. You see I have an outline of where I want the story to finish up with Will Arbor. As I was writing Stoc I realised that I was flying through his discovery of his powers and I needed to spend more time exploring that aspect before I rushed willy-nilly to the conclusion of this part of the tale.

So now I get to introduce the “new” second novel, Craobh, and the “new” third novel, Stoc.

As an aside: If anyone is wondering where I came up with these titles well wonder no longer. In old Irish, the parts of a tree are named duilleog for the leaf, craobh for the branch, stoc for the trunk (think stalk), and freamhaigh for the root.

It is so easy to write a story, surprisingly. It takes time. Yes, it does, but, it is a labour of love. Imagine you have a hobby you love to do, like trains, or reading or video games. You crave doing that hobby. It makes you happy. So it is with writing. But, it is hard to get it right if I want to let others see what I have done. To make sure that what you set up a hundred pages ago still makes sense to a reader. When you write you are supposed to create an outline and work from that but like any confrontation with the enemy your original, well-reasoned, outline will not stand up. You need to adjust and manipulate. And adjust and manipulate. Go back time and again and rip out what you thought was brilliant writing and throw it away. Those moments hurt. But, the good news is that it is YOUR story and YOUR imagination. There are no limits to what you can achieve. Then find a good editor to file away the rough edges. Then publish and get your armour on.

Ciao!

New Druids Series: New Covers for Volume One and Sneak Peek at Volume Two

By donald

On April 19, 2015

In Duilleog Volume One, Editing, Scrivener, The Art of Writing

Duilleog: A New Druids Novel, Volume One

Stoc: A New Druids Novel, Volume Two

The New Druid Series has new covers for Volumes One and Two. Minor changes to Duilleog and a sneak peak at the cover for Stoc! For those still interested in the process, I have learned some new things about Scrivener specific to supporting multiple eBook formats and paperback formats. In case you didn’t realise each company has their own unique requirements for eBooks. Amazon requires specific formats for their eBooks’ (Mobi format), Kobo and Nook require specific formats for their eBooks (ePub format). And CreateSpace on Amazon requires some very specific formatting to ensure that the printed novel looks professional. It is all very, very time consuming for a noobie author like me to wade through. All perfectly fun for an anal retentive, OCD-ish, Navy officer who likes everything prim, proper and shipshape. What a fun hobby this is!

Today I also waded into the realm of royalties and the rules and trying to intentionally lower my expectations. It is further complicated by my living in the US, but not being a US citizen who pays US taxes, and trying to register my novels as a Canadian without a Canadian address. Bleah. Thank you, mom and dad for unknowingly letting me use your address as a temporary Canadian one until I move back this August!

Duilleog is still with the editor and I hope to get it back in a week or so. Luckily I discovered that I had unintentionally deleted Chapter Ten and so my editors didn’t have it in their hands. That was quickly fixed after a moment of panic when I saw it truly was gone from the Scrivener binder. But no worries! Have I told you how wonderful Scrivener is? Well, there was my chapter, sitting in the trash bin. Scrivener never truly deletes anything. I am obviously not the first author who has done something equally stupid and Scrivener is ready for that.

Ciao!