Thursday, December 29, 2011

It's been a while since I checked in; just haven't been in a blogging sort of place. :P So what's new?

My new novelette Night Light II: The Trial of Ooga Booga is out as an e-book, and a paperback is available through my Web site. I'm really happy with this story. For me, part two of the "Night Light" story is the story, with part I serving as the setup. I'd hate for one to be read without the other being read as well. So, as you can see, this is not just a tack-on sequel. The full story consists of both installments. I do have an idea for "Night Light III," but that one's just for fun, if I choose to write it. :)

The Kindle/Smashwords e-book conversion is continuing and going pretty well. A few bugs have shown up in some of the Smashwords conversions, and we're working to get those corrected ASAP, but the books are still readable and it's only happened with a couple of them. Meanwhile, the Amazon e-books are perfect. We're seeing more sales in general through Amazon.com, with The Legends of Nod #1 "The Dragons of Nod" clearly in the lead. This is a thrill for me, since I'd assumed the story was largely ignored by my readers when it first came out in 2008, since I received absolutely zero feedback from fans. Having finally checked the original download numbers, however, and with the added sales from the Kindle re-release, I now know it to be one of my most widely read stories. As I said, this thrills me!

Speaking of Nod, I've been struggling with #2 for some time, but finally have it going my way. The story's been there, the outline's been there. The trouble I ran into was with the characters. I started out, thinking no one had noticed the first one, trying to move some of the supporting characters in a new direction, hoping readers would respond to them better. Then, upon learning that the first story was popular with my readers, I felt a need to be more consistent with the original in my characterizations, but I still felt some extra spice was needed. I've finally rewritten the dialogue in the draft-so-far in a way that I think meets both needs, and just feels right for the series. So I should finally get that written fairly quickly now. :)

That's the update for now. So what are folks doing for New Year's? I've yet to make any plans myself, but I should really try not to be working for once, don't you think?