Project Update: Book two is here!

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Hello again Reader,

I once again must apologize for falling short on my promises. The PDF is yet to be formatted, but the good news is that I’m giving you the first chapter of book two, no matter how little I like it. The first draft of book two is very, VERY, raw. There are a lot of contradictions and weird plot threads. The pacing is wonky, and it only really gets good near the end.

I think the reason for this comes from the fact that I sat on book one for almost a year before doing anything with it. I’d kind of forgotten a lot about the story and the characters, (especially details on the world building), and while it helped reading through book one while writing book two, I feel as though I made too many mistakes.

I’ll still release it as is, for it would take way too much time to give it the massive rewrite it needs. That is reserved for when the first draft of the entire novel is finished. I just have to cringe and let it out there and hope for the best.

Book three on the other hand has had a strong start! Even though book two is what it is, it helped me get back into the groove. I feel comfortable in the world again, and I don’t need to look at my notes as much I did when writing book two.

Next week is a bit more chill with regards to school, so I’ll have more time to work on the Chronologies.

That’s all on the project update front.

The Other Project

If you recall, I mentioned that I’m sitting on a finished sci-fi novel manuscript. That has not changed. The only change in that endeavor is the rising number of sent (and rejected), queries. As of now I’m on 36 sent queries of which 8 are outstanding and 27 rejections that are either formal rejections or CNRs (closed/no response). I did have one positive response, asking for more of my manuscript to review, but that was followed by a rejection as well.

When I’m not writing TLC, I’m wracking my brain in efforts to polish my query letters and synopsis. And MAN is the latter hard, especially when the novel has a multiple POV storyline, kind of how I hop between perspectives in the Chronologies, (i.e. Buddy’s and Jaques’, also Unit Five-One). The worst part is that it is a difficult novel to sell based on a synopsis because there aren’t any conventional plot points or beats that popular fiction tends to employ. Or maybe I just wrote a bad book, and I can’t tell it’s bad because I’m so close to it.

There, I said it. Honestly, it’s something that weighs down on me heavier day by day. I want to believe it is good because I’ve read it many times, and, of course, I wrote it, and I believe I’m a good judge of quality. But the long months of silence, broken by short emails which tend to begin with: “Thank you for considering us, but…” chip away at my hope.

That really is the most silent of all silent killers. Silence, I mean. Hell, I’d take stinging criticism or fiery haters over that cold silence. I just want someone to read what I’ve written. I just want to hear the words, “yeah, I read it, it was alright”, If nothing else.

If there are any prospective authors and writers out there, you know what I mean. You don’t do it for the promise of money or fame. You just want to write a story someone will read. Hell, you’d give it out for free if you could, if you knew someone might crack it open and enjoy at least some of it.

Hence why this idea of releasing a novel on a blog, (granted it’s not an original idea), was so appealing to me.

I see you only as numbers. There aren’t many of you, but I hold each digit close to my heart. Please know that I offer the most deepest gratitude to you for spending your time reading through my goofy story of a cyborg bounty hunter and a talking dog.

But I’m not one to give up. I’ll keep going, no matter how slow my pace. And if you, reader, have a dream you struggle to attain, don’t give up. Keep going even though you might be alone.

Thank you, once again, for reading.

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