Ohlen's Bane is now available

Ohlen's Bane is coming soon!

I am now in the process of publishing my second novel, Ohlen's Bane. It is the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow. It is currently available for Kindle from Amazon.com, and will soon be available for Nook tablets at Barnes & Noble, and for iOS devices through the iTunes Bookstore. Stay tuned.

I have made a free preview edition available in PDF. You can download it here.

Ohlen's Bane on target for Thanksgiving release

I have finished all revisions to Ohlen's Bane and released it back to my editor for mechanical editing -- grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. -- and am on target to have the book ready for release by Thanksgiving.

Ohlen's Bane will be available for sale for Kindle at Amazon.com, for Nook at Barnes & Noble, and for iOS devices at the Apple iTunes Bookstore.

In additional news, I have begun the concepting phase of the third book in the Ohlen's series, which is as of yet untitled.

Could Ohlen's Arrow turn into a trilogy?

Ohlen's Arrow is published. The rough draft of Ohlen's Bane is completed and is now in the revision-editing phase. That was my original intention, just the two books. In the meantime, I had an idea for a new book that would be completely unrelated to the Ohlen's series and it has been bursting inside my head, eager to get written.

A friend gave me the idea of modifying my new story idea so that it can begin where Ohlen's Bane ends, effectively creating a third book in the Ohlen's series. After brainstorming some ideas, I found a way that I think may work. I am going to spend the next two weeks nailing down the overall plot points.

Once that is done, I will finish my revisions to Ohlen's Bane and move it forward into editing, then I will create a plot event list for the third book and move ahead with that.

Hiatus

I am currently on hiatus from writing while I get my new post-divorce life situated and settled. Stay tuned.

Ohlen's Bane status update

This is just a quick update on the status of my second novel, Ohlen's Bane. Two out of four beta readers have provided feedback. Based on their comments, I am on the fence about how to proceed. The book has promise but needs some work. I may revise the story based on that feedback, or I may scrap the book I have written and start over with a brand new story.

Stay tuned.

Ohlen's Bane goes to beta readers

This past weekend I completed the first round of revisions to Ohlen's Bane and released it to my team of beta readers, one of whom has never read the prequel, Ohlen's Arrow. Their feedback in particular will tell me if Ohlen's Bane can be read on its own without the reader getting confused by not having Ohlen's Arrow under their belt. That was my intention when writing it.

When I receive the feedback from my beta readers, I will make another round of revisions based on what they tell me, then I'll hand the book over to my editor for a final edit -- this time focusing on the mechanics of the words: punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc. This is often called a line edit.

Then I'll proofread the book one last time before publishing it and making it available for sale. My goal is to have it online for sale by March 31st.

And so it ends

I have reached the end of Ohlen's Bane, having written the last scene over the weekend. I still need to go back and add some parts to fill in a few plot holes, but the first draft of the book is more or less finished.

The next step will be to read what I have from front to back, notebook in hand, and make notes of things that are wonky, missing, extraneous, or erroneous. Writing is the exact opposite of carpentry. The woodworker measures twice and cuts once. The author writes numerous times, and then measures once, right before publication. And sometimes even after publication.

As I discovered with Ohlen's Arrow, the revision and editing phase of a book project can often take longer than the writing phase. This is where the rough stone gets polished, hopefully into a diamond. And this is where my editor and beta reading team really come into play. Without them, every book would be nothing more than wasted paper (or electrons).

And so it begins

This is just an update on my progress on the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow, Ohlen's Bane. I've written 39,000 words and expect the completed book to be about the same length as Ohlen's Arrow (which finished at roughly 64,000 words). These books aren't quite as long as some authors think they should be, but they have a lot of action at a decent pace, so by the time you're done reading them, you will have the same sort of breathless "Wow, that was fun!" reaction that you'd get after a roller coaster ride.

Thanks to designer Steven Novak, I also have a tentative cover design completed for Ohlen's Bane. I'll release it when I get closer to finishing the book, just in case the story takes an unexpected turn that influences the cover design itself.

Stay tuned.