It’s been another busy week in which I feel like I’ve accomplished so much, so I best get started.

WORK IN PROGRESS

I completed the review and implementation of my beta reader comments for BEGINNING OF THE END and decided to send it off for a professional manuscript review. It’s a novella so it’s relatively cheap to have done. My reasoning is that despite Laura doing a great job as always, I really need to make my novellas as good and as polished as I possibly can. They will be my loss-leaders with which I hope to draw in readers to my paid books.

With that in mind I have also decided for the first time that after the copy edit I will have both novellas professionally proof read. It’s an understatement to think my grammar is where a professional writer’s should be so I have to be realistic about how much I can do myself and by those who are not trained. I take heart however that with every comment from Laura and the various people in the editing team, my writing improves just that little bit more.

I have also received back the manuscript evaluation for CAPITAL ACTION which was overwhelmingly positive and provided a good number of minor points which I could correct, even outside of the scope of the service I requested. The reviewer commented that she thought I was either in law enforcement or had been, which is a great compliment for someone who has just written from research over the years. That book is now with the copy editor. Once it is back in a month or so, I’ll make the updates and have it professionally proof read.

When these books have completed production I intend to get both printed as A5 stapled booklets. The intension is to have something very low cost that I can either give away at events or by post, or even sell at a low price point. I will of course be offering both through the normal channels. I’m also considering a single book with both in as introduction to my writing.

I’ve written the very first draft of the blurb for CAPITAL ACTION which I’m happy to share. Once I’ve run through a few more revisions I’ll be sending it off for review and coaching.

CAPITAL ACTION BLURB (DRAFT)

Agent Carrie Harris has been seconded to the Metropolitan Police, but she doesn’t know why. Could it be to hone her skills at breaking down doors and catching bad guys? Or is to become accustomed to working as a team, so used to operating alone?

No matter what she thinks, Carrie leans into her new team, taking pleasure as the tip of the spear for a special task force who put the worst bad guys in prison. That is until her world is turned upside down, within a blink of her eye her colleagues lay dead and dying around her.

After saving those that she can, she can’t sit around and do nothing while others look for those in charge, the people who supplied the booby traps and shotguns. Determined to put what she’d seen that morning to use, can she rally against her grief and survivor’s guilt, and those up high who want her to have nothing to do with the investigation? Can she make the right choices to bring justice for her friends when everything, even those she trusts, seems to conspire against her?

I have the blurb for BEGINNING OF THE END as well and then I can get the covers produced.

GOING COMMANDO

With only the next round of edits left to do on the Carrie Harris novel, FROM THE DEAD, I have instead turned to outlining my next post-apocalyptic novel series. I’m setting about this project with my commercial head fully on. I’m taking all of my experience of publishing so far and putting it into this project. That means I plan to determine the length of the series from the start and I’ll be outlining the books and the wider series arc.

To do this I’ve been researching novel and series outlining and have read most of a really useful novel called TAKE OFF YOU PANTS by Libbie Hawker. The book describes the steps Libbie uses to go from pantsing through a novel (i.e. having no plan and the way I have written all of my novels so far) into planning a successful novel before actually writing any of the plot.

So far with one read I have produced what I think is a great outline for the book which follows a well trodden formula of how successful stories are told. I won’t go into the detail, but if you write and want to sell your books, then it’s recommended reading. The outcome of the book is not only a solid construction framework, but also provides the ability to produce the rest of the novel much quicker than if flying by the seat of your pants with no idea where you might go.

With this in mind, I have already started writing the opening chapter. I’ll work on this until I feel like a break, then jump back into editing FROM THE DEAD.

That’s about it for me now. Onwards and upwards.