Redemption for a Discarded Title: Lost Serenity (Cover Reveal) #redemption #scifi

Once upon a time...I wrote a story. It came from a dream and I scribbled it down the next day, then it sat in a folder for years, forgotten. Scroll on a decade and my third child had reached the stage where he was old enough to play outside with his siblings. I sat at my computer, bored, possibly depressed, and wondered what to do with myself. That forgotten short story called to me. I put on some music, and a few weeks later that short had become...somewhat longer. In 2012, it became my debut published novel.

original cover

current cover

Book two had some serious issues. I learned a helluva lot going through edits with book one and knew the sequel wouldn't pass. At the time its working title was Lost Serenity, but after a major rework 'Serenity' was no longer lost and I couldn't just call it Serenity. Instead, I completely binned the title and book two became Keir's Fall.

Book three had similar issues, with a completely unrealistic plot line that needed ripping out and reworking. In 2017 I sent it to my editor for assessment. She liked it, but not the fact that it was set a decade after book two. After repeated comments on where this missing book was between two and three prompted me to dig out an old collection of notes basically covering that missing decade - never intended as more than a guide book for me about that missing time. Not for the first time, the random collection of information for my eyes only was going to go public, and with a curiously familiar title...

How could a moment's anger destroy so much happiness? 

It is a question that will haunt him. When an old enemy comes to Kasha-Asor to kidnap their daughter, armed with a weapon that could end everything, Keir is forced to leave an injured Quin on Lyagnius. But his quest for a cure and their missing daughter will come at a terrible cost.

You can find the details up at Goodreads. I don't yet have a release date as I have two more pieces set for edits next month, one of which is a winter solstice story that I'd like to release in time to coincide with the time it's set. so I'll have to let you know. In the meantime, I'm happy to have been able to give a discarded title a second shot at its own bit of limelight. 

Writing Update

Lost Serenity is currently with me for one last round of edits (hopefully). An angel short and a scifi mystery novella will be off to my amazing editor and cover designer Dani next month (Hades knows how she's put up with me all these years now). These three pieces will be all my releases for 2020/21, so don't go holding your breath for Redemption book three until 2022...

Kitty Update

My girls are both indoor cats - for their own safety, and that of the already under pressure wildlife - but during the pandemic I managed to put together a cattio for them to give them some outdoor space, to which they have free access via a cat flap. They are loving it!

Chook Update

Sadly I had to take two of my girls to live with a friend yesterday. Unfortunately their squawkiness was aggravating my SO's anxiety (in overdrive now thanks to the pandemic), and one had decided she liked to crow of a morning, something I'm not willing to subject my near neighbours to. I know they'll love the extra freedom my friend's chooks enjoy even though I will miss them deeply. In the meantime, my remaining seven girls are a lot quieter with my two top hens out the way, and hopefully it will give the more timid ones a bit more freedom to find the best tidbits without getting ambushed and robbed. Got to find the silver lining somewhere...

On a more personal note, my eldest has just turned eighteen and is off to university in less than a month. I'm so proud, and so terrified! But I know she'll work hard to achieve her dreams, and I'm not going to get in her way.

Her 'The Babe with the Power' unicorn birthday cake

The Long Hard Road to Reunion #amediting #scifirom

Jasmine: I help you, Hand that Feeds!
I do tappity tap on keys, you fetch me treats, yes?

It. Is. Done. The edits on Reunion at Kasha-Asor. I finished last Thursday, despite Jasmine's attempts to help and even though I dropped my laptop on the floor and had nothing but a black screen for a heart-stopping two minutes. I sent it off to my trusty proof reader for a check over.

This has taken an eternity to complete - well, it feels like it, lol. The original story is ancient, and mostly written as notes to myself about what happened in the year between books one and two of my Redemption series.

It was never intended to be a published piece...until my editor proposed starting her own publishing house and offered to publish book two - at that point rejected by then my publisher (Lyrical Press) who had published book one - as part of the launch. Since she was planning to use crowdfunding, I offered up Reunion as something to add to the bonus material for donors. Unfortunately the publishing house had to close due to personal reasons before the launch had really got off the ground, but by this point I figured maybe it was worth continuing with Reunion. I'd got the rights back to book one during a buy out of Lyrical Press which gave me the option to leave, and had decided to go ahead with self publishing both books. Reunion would be an added bonus...or so I thought. Checking back through my emails, the first correspondence I have with myeditor Dani on Reunion asks for more content. That was the 22nd of October 2015, so four months shy of THREE YEARS! Three years for a novella!

So maybe you can understand the overriding relief to have it done. Reunion has changed a lot from those sketchy notes to a story that, while not as tumultuous in the telling as the two main books, has certainly been traumatic on my side of it! And my poor, poor editor too. At 39K it's not the short bonus story it started out as, and I hope it'll satisfy those readers who have had to wait for more books, since I originally promised book three by 2017. Ooops?

Reunion was originally due for publication in May last year on the five year anniversary of Keir: Book One of Redemption. Now I'm thinking of an autumn release, to tie in with the season the book is set in. Being as it's already more than two years overdue I figure two more months won't make much odds. It'll be there for when everyone is back from their summer holidays and the monsters are back to school. ;) And since I know for sure it'll be releasing this year, I'm going to share a little teaser (this has kept me going with Reunion on the days when I just wanted to chuck it in the virtual bin. Which was most days).

And that's all you get. Bwahahaa!

Writing Update
And there's more. Not only is Reunion done, but I've set my Christmas short story off to my editor. A Very Merry-traxian Christmas is going to get a proper edit and an official release instead of being a winter freebie as it has been for the last two years. Hopefully it'll be ready for release at the start of December, but I'm not promising. I hate breaking promises...

Chook Update
The chicks will be eight weeks old tomorrow. Already! They're so big and fully feathered, and a right bunch of mischief! I am both happy and sad to say I have already found homes for four of them, with a lovely lady who adores the d'uccle breed and that I got talking to about them through a mutual group on Facebook. Knowing that they're going to a fabulous and caring home with a real enthusiast makes letting them go a bit easier, though not completely. The runt of the hatch - currently called Tiny Two-Toes because she has two toes fused together on one foot, though it doesn't stop her giving me the runaround - will be staying with us. I didn't want to sell on a bird with a deformity, or let all of my babies go. I've been so lucky that all of them were female!

With the roasting weather, I felt safe enough
giving two of the chicks a bath for their yucky mucky feet.
Not only do my girls sound and run like velociraptors -
get them wet and they look like them too!

Mama Firefly with her babies 

Tiny Two-Toes, venturing off alone again!

I spy...

...a feather out of place on my foot!

Littlies out with the big girls!

Quick preen

Backdate
I've missed posting about a few things. One was the first Colchester Geek Con, a new event to our town and hopefully one that will return. I got a selfie with the lovely Hattie Hayridge, who played the female AI Holly in the long-running UK comedy scifi series, Red Dwarf.

What a pair of Hollies!

Eldest got a shot with the chatty James MacKenzie, who played magical warrior Raven in the CBBC adventure game series of the same name.

13yo finally found a chair worthy of him, bwahahaa!

And yesterday I met my Doctor - at least, the one I grew up with - and one of my two favourite companions of that era (the marvellous Liz Sladen has sadly passed on): Tom Baker (4) and Louise Jameson (Leela) at London Film Fair. I've now met all four of the remaining Classic Who Doctors, but unfortunately it looks like my plan to meet Eccleston and Capaldi won't be happening after all, as will my hope to have met Jewel Staite (Kayleigh) to increase my Firefly cast collection. I just can't afford it. O well!

All that matters is the story (in the first draft, anyway)

I'm in the process of responding to my editor's comments on my latest WIP, and re-learned a lesson I had clearly forgotten. And that is, when it comes down to it all that matters is the story.

I quite often read blog articles about writing. After all, I'm a writer. When I worked in IT I read articles about IT. It's important to keep up with what's happening, and there is always room for improvement.  But there's an important difference. In IT, technology changes rapidly. If you don't keep on top of the wave, it moves on without you. That's not really true of writing. Sure, there are some changes in expectation to take into account. One example is the need for description. In the book Moby Dick apparently Herman Melville went into tedious detail describing a whale – because most readers would not have seen one. That's no longer an issue these days. If you haven't seen a real one, there are plenty of pictures, so too much explanation is tedious and boring

There are changes in reader expectations and taste that may merit consideration. I've heard it said that The Lord of the Rings would not have been published if it had been offered to a publishing house today. Too long, too rambling (Tom Bombadil and the Old Forest) and a bit archaic in style. Readers generally are more accepting of graphic sex. But really, all of that is a nonsense. It's a matter of taste. Many people still don't appreciate erotic stories, or even those with coarse language or blasphemy. But many readers love Charles Dickens, even more love LOTR and even more loved Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Most writing advice on blogs is about 'how to do it better'. Many of them repeat the dogma everyone else has offered about self-editing, words to watch, avoid adjectives and adverbs etc etc. One blog I read recently was about writing in what's known as 'deep third' – you describe what your point of view character sees and feels so the reader can be involved in the experience. It's the difference between saying something like an example from this blog. There are plenty of others - just google 'deep POV'.

Out of Deep POV

'At last the tremors subsided and the earth stilled. Maggie wondered how bad the earthquake had been. She looked around and saw the deep black gashes in the ground where the pavement of the road had cracked. She knew that it must have been at least a 7.0.'

In Deep POV

'At last the tremors subsided and the earth stilled. How bad had this one been? All around, wide gashes cut into the pavement as though it were soft as flesh. Maggie shivered despite the heat. A 7.0 at least, perhaps even higher.'

The basic idea is to take out the 'filter' words (wondered, looked, knew) and show what Maggie feels to offer description of what's happened.

But you see, it isn't as easy as it looks. I do try to write in this way, but unless you're careful, you can end up confusing your reader (or yourself). In a first draft the most important task is to get the story down. There's time to add the deep POV detail in the second or third draft. And that is what I didn't do. In my draft I spent too much time on method and not enough time on story.Confusing your editor isn't a good look. Sorry, Di.

Now I'm paying the price, fixing up the inevitable plot holes. When I sent it to my editor, I knew in my heart it wasn't really finished. Trust your heart, writers. It KNOWS stuff.

And now for some pictures.

Flying butterfly (because I like taking picture of flying things

A noisy miner bird - a little Aussie honeyeater

What I said earlier

It can get a bit chaotic at afternoon tea time - rainbow lorikeets