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I have set up a poll on my FB group page to help determine the title for Book III. Please follow the URL posted below and vote. Get any interested friends to join in too, even if they just enjoy taking polls.

Here is the link: Book Title Poll

Thank you for your time!

Okay, before you get your hopes up too much, allow me to bring things down a notch. The rough draft is finished as of this past afternoon. I stared at it a long time not quite grasping the reality of the situation. It’s a huge step, but I want to be clear, this puppy needs editing. As I mentioned in my last “real” post, the thing turned into a monster, so I’ve decided to strip out two story lines. That will be part of the editing process, and it’s possible that the removal of those story lines will require I finesse some sections of the remaining story in order to keep folks from scratching their heads over references to missing material. I also know one of the fight scenes needs to be amped up.

Even the Shadow doesn’t know what else may lurk in the heart of my story. Let’s face it, I’ve been working on this thing for three years, and so a good half of the book I haven’t read through in over a year. I may find some surprises awaiting me. There could be a few situations where I contradict myself. It happens. Even when you plan things out like I do, there is a certain amount of spontaneity that occurs during the writing process. Things that seem perfectly logical at the time suddenly clash with something that morphed later on into something entirely different.

Some pseudo fun trivia now. The big fight scene that I thought was the last difficult section I faced (you remember, I celebrated it in my last post and acted like the thing was nearly done because I only had this one little dramatic scene to finish up) – yeah, well the fight scene turned out to be the easy part. I rewrote the entire “easy” piece five times. I have never faced such a dog of a scene. It was supposed to be relatively short, a wrap-up of sorts that leaves the audience able to nod and accept that enough threads have been tied up to be satisfying while leaving enough unanswered questions that they’ll look forward to Book IV.

The *&$%$ thing dragged on and on. I started over. Ooh, much better this time. And then blammo, the verbosity monster struck again. Made adjustments. Started again. Made a lot more progress. And … well, you get it. Each time I made it a little further before I realized my original plans were just too much. Then today, I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized the perfect stopping spot was staring me in the face, and the bit I was trying to shoe-horn in would work much better as an ending for Book IV. Happy dance. I started and finished the Epilogue in about an hour. It’s simple and to the point. It’s there to remind the reader that, even though the Dragon Queen story line has been resolved, there is still a bad guy lurking about who needs a good comeuppance.

So, tomorrow the editing process begins. And I’ll make my final selections for title choices and get them posted to my FB group page. I’ll drop in here when it’s live and post a link.

In the meantime, here is a WIP of my updated look for Raven. It still needs some work. For example, that sword has got to go – it’s lame. And it needs a nifty golden glow added to it.

Cheers!!!

It’s funny, after all these years of putting words to paper, I never really analyzed the difference between antagonists and villains. Nor did I really consider motivations for bad guys. After reading this, I can definitely point at K’hul and say, yeah, he’s a pain in the ass, but he’s not a villain, he’s an antagonist. Historian on the other hand, jumps off the cliff into true villainy. Yes, that continues on into Book III.

So, I thought it might be nice if I popped in here and wrote a real live post for a change. The nice folks who allow me to repost their blogs are a godsend for folks like me who really aren’t all that great at keeping up a blog. However, it isn’t fair to leave people hanging as to what is going on with me and my writing.

The biggie is that book three is getting near completion in terms of its first draft. I finished up the last big fight scene about a week ago, and I’m now finishing up the last story-line which will funnel into the dramatic (I  hope!) ending. As usual, I have determined that I have written way too much for one book, so I will be stripping out one (maybe two) story-lines and shifting them off to a fourth volume. Yes, I have determined that there is enough material for a fourth book. However, rest assured that the ordeal with the Dragon Queen will be concluded in book three.

With the conclusion of the first draft imminent, I have some additional items I need to seriously start futzing with. One, and this is a bit embarrassing, I still have not settled on a title. Obviously, it will follow the pattern of the first two books and be “Exile’s”, well, something. I have a page of possible words to use, but none of them jump out as “the” word to use.

That brings me to my next item. I’m looking at turning my author page on Facebook into a group. It is my understanding that groups can do things like run polls. I thought it might be fun to set up a poll with possible titles and see what you guys think. Along with that, I’m not completely settled on who to feature on the cover. I know the dominant color will be red, and I know that one of the characters will be Foxfire. I’m leaning toward Kela as the second character, but I may run a poll to see if a different character might be more popular.

The final piece of work which must be completed before the book actually shows up in the store is the back copy. This will also serve as the copy for Amazon to lure in potential readers. Since my first book, I have learned that I’m doing copy writing all wrong. I’ve taken a few online courses and read a book now on how to do it, so I’m hoping I’ll do a better job this time around. Once I get the third book out I will go back and update the copy for the first two books, but that is something for later. Right now my focus must remain on completing volume three before all of us die of old age.

I hope this information proves to be good news for everyone out there. Completing this update will allow me to check off one of the to-do items on my list as book three nears completion. I appreciate everyone’s patience, and am crossing my fingers that the wait will prove worthwhile.

Cheers!