Well it took long enough, didn’t it?  Between fighting depression and insomnia, and having a world full of other stuff piled on me all at once that I felt like I could never get out from under, the 2nd edition of Exploration is finally done, published, and available in paperback for the first time!  I have to edit another book for someone else before I can get started on the 2nd edition of Revenge, but I’ll try to get started on it as soon as possible.

Words added in 2nd edition: 26,000

Synopsis: With their mission to rescue Jarrod’s family now behind them, the group begins to focus on other things, like Jarrod’s birthday, learning more about their blue fin friends, and testing the boundaries of their relationships with one another.  However, before they do all that, they have a little unfinished business with Diedre, the girl responsible for Derek’s brother’s suicide.  After her attempt on Tina’s life and her psychotic behavior at the trial, she’s been secured in a hospital psych ward for evaluation and treatment.  Unfortunately for her, when the people who are looking for you possess the ability to travel between dimensions and go out of phase, there’s nowhere she can hide, and no one who can save her from the consequences of her actions.

Also, when their blue fin friend Freddie expresses a desire to visit the human dimension, the group is more than happy to take him home for a cultural exchange.  It started off well enough, but when Freddie shows an unbelievable capacity for learning and retaining new information, they begin to realize that they may have inadvertently opened a Pandora’s box by exposing him to the wonders of the human world.  Life on the island will no longer be enough for him, and they’re all left with some hard decisions to make about his future.

So, where have I been? I’ve been editing books for someone else, because working on my own stuff wasn’t helping to pay the bills. I just finished editing one, so last night while I was sitting here awake all night, I went back to the 2nd edition re-edit of the third book in the series and got chapter five done. I’m going to start mixing in getting this re-edit completed along with my other work. I can’t just set it aside like I’ve been doing.

Aside from that, our dog Buddy passed away. He was diagnosed with cancer, and died about three weeks later. We did everything we could for him, but it was inoperable, and it was too far progressed by the time we found out to do anything to stop it. Buddy was the absolute center of our lives, and to say that his passing was devastating would be the most colossal understatement I could possibly make. Naturally, working on anything during this time, and in the weeks following, was about the last thing on my mind.

What really helped us during this time was playing carrom. We have a carrom board set up in the living room, and we would spend hours and hours playing, just to distract ourselves. When we weren’t distracted, all we did was cry, so we were just trying to do whatever we could to be strong for Buddy in his final days.

Things are finally gaining some semblance of normalcy again. We’re getting a new border collie puppy as a brother for Rusty this coming Saturday. His name is going to be Kiyoshi, and he’s absolutely adorable.

Aside from that, nothing special to report. Just waiting on my invitation to purchase from the waiting list for the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III. That should be coming this week I hope. Gotta clean up around here and get the fence fixed up and ready for the new puppy. Tell you what I’m NOT looking forward to is the time between getting the puppy, and the time when he’s finally house trained. I don’t mind picking up turds so much, but having to get out the steam cleaner every time he pees somewhere is going to be a massive pain. Oh well, it’s all part of the fun of having a puppy.

So that’s it for now. I’m back at it, and I’m still alive…at least for now. I’ll post again when I have another update.

Just a quick note to say that I had to take a break after I finished the first editing pass on the 2nd edition of Exploration to do some paid work for someone else.  That’s all been taken care of now, so I’m back at the re-edit, and I just finished chapter two today.  It’s coming along quite well, though I don’t have an estimate yet for when it’ll be finished.

I’m back at it though, so the 2nd edition print and ebook are coming. 🙂

It took a while, but the 2nd edition of The Hunt has now been published in ebook and print form.  The print version is currently available on Createspace, and will be available on Amazon as well in the next day or two.  It’s also been published in ebook form on Amazon, Smashwords, and Google Play, and it will soon be available from all of the Smashwords premium distribution channels, such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, etc…  All the purchase links are the same, except for the Createspace link for the print version, which is new. – https://www.createspace.com/7444150

These 2nd edition re-edits are enhanced versions of the original books.  For example, in the 2nd edition of The Hunt, I added well over 19,000 words (about three chapters worth), and the first book, Origins, was greatly expanded as well.  I’m publishing the 2nd editions over the top of the first editions, so that anyone who purchased the first edition e-books can simply just re-download them from the account they bought them on, and have the updated version for free.

Work on the 2nd edition of the third book, Exploration, has already begun.  I’m having to combine it with two other books that I have to edit for someone else, so getting through it will take a while, but hopefully I can adjust my work load to get all three done sooner rather than later.

This is a labor of love for me, and eventually I’ll work my way through the entire series.  It’s fun revisiting my early work, and bringing it up to date now that the series is finished (probably), and I have full knowledge of what’s to come.

Here’s the print cover for The Hunt, just in case you’re curious.  It’s basically the same as the ebook cover, only expanded to fit a print book, and it includes the new 2nd edition synopsis on the back, which is vastly superior to the original.  The new Origins synopsis is vastly superior as well.  People say that writing a book is hard.  Well, it is, but encapsulating the contents of that book into just a few paragraphs that will catch a potential reader’s attention without giving too much away is even harder.  In my opinion, writing a good synopsis is about the hardest part of publishing a book.  Anyway, that’s it for now.  I need to get back to work.

The ebook and print versions of the 2nd edition of The Hunt are coming soon.  I’m almost done with the 2nd pass on the re-edit, and I’ve already added well over 18,000 words to this new 2nd edition version.  I’m really happy with how it’s come out, and I can’t wait to get it out there.

Just as a reminder, all the 2nd edition versions of the ebooks will use the same ISBN/ASIN number, so if you purchased the 1st edition copy, you’ll be able to update your ebooks to the 2nd edition copy free of charge.

I plan to have the 2nd edition fully published in ebook and print form by the end of this coming weekend.  That’s my goal anyway.

I’m done through chapter 14 on the re-edit, and it’s like a night and day difference in the writing.  I’m super happy with how it’s turning out, and I’m really looking forward to getting it out there so I can get the print version out as well.

Now, be aware that most 2nd editions will have a new ISBN number, and I know technically you’re supposed to do that, but I’m not going to.  I’m just going to reupload the new version on the same number it had before.  That way anyone who’s purchased the books in the past can get the new versions for free just by redownloading them from wherever you bought them.  That way you can get the best of what I’m capable of at this point in my career, without having to pay for a new copy.

As I said before, the later books in the series won’t change as drastically in the writing style, because my style was already well established by the time I got to writing those.  These earlier books however will show a marked improvement.

Also, I’m going to take this opportunity to change a few character names.  Unfortunately, I used the name John twice, the name Mike twice, and the name Billy twice, though the second Billy wasn’t a character, it was just some kid that was mentioned in a memory.  It always bugged me that I did that, and even though I differentiated between John (Derek’s father) and Johnny (Heather’s brother) by using different forms of the name, Mike Hammond, who was introduced in Travelers, and Jeremy’s friend Mike both use the same form of the name.  This was actually not really a flub on my part, because I was planning on making Travelers into a spinoff series when I wrote it, so I didn’t think the two characters would ever be in the same place at the same time.  Well, that all changed, so I’ll be changing Mike Hammond’s name to something else when I get to Travelers, and then I’ll have to change it in whatever subsequent books he appears in.

To be honest, people in real life meet up with people who have the same name as them all the time, and while I like to have a high level of realism in my stories, there’s no excuse for doing that in a book when you have so many different names to choose from.

The nice part is, since there were never print versions of the series, all the print versions will be good to go right out of the gate since they’ll be published after each of the books have been re-edited.

This series is my flagship as an author, and the characters in it are like family to me.  That’s why this 2nd edition project is so important.  I want the entire series to be the best example of my work that it can be, so I’m dedicating the next ten months or so of my life to make sure that happens.