Wanderers

This is a short science film that became an internet sensation about a week ago. I've watched at least a dozen times, because it's such an inspiring, visually awesome film about humanity's journey. It's such an inspiring vision of the future.

One of my goals in writing Embassy and Resonance and the rest of the Recovery Series is to inspire a love for space exploration, and this film truly captures the spirit of that endeavor.

Revisions for RESONANCE

This weekend I revised the entire PART ONE of Resonance, and today I reached Chapter 20, meaning I'm a little less than halfway through revisions!...in the course of about 5 days.

Wut.

Part 1 of Resonance

Things I've noticed I need to adjust:

• Chapters 1-6 and Chapters 16-18, I need to slow the pace down. Things fly by (or maybe I'm just reading really fast). No, I think the story is just hopping and skipping during these parts and not taking the time to develop. So I need to fix those up.
• The Archives Program is a bit shaky in terms of what the new program ACTUALLY does. I toss in all this jargon, but I feel like there still isn't a clear sense of why they need to revamp the program.
• Conferences and interviews for the archives program. Stuff happens -- important stuff -- but again, it flies by and isn't totally clear. I need to slow some of that down and let the program develop.
• Characters. Some new characters are introduced!....but I think the pacing forces them to run across the stage and say goodbye in the blink of an eye, particularly in Chapter 3. I'll be working on that.
• Personalities. Lon, Lon, Lon. He switched personalities halfway through the story, so I need to get him back on the original track. Gah. I hate when I mix characters' personalities up.

Those are the biggest things I've noticed revision-wise so far. I should knock out another few chapters tomorrow, hopefully hit the end of Part 2 before Friday. I'm loving it! But I also need to work on those few things....

Make sure you grab your copy of Embassy! Read, review, and share it with friends! Resonance will be available December 2015 or January 2016, so mark your calendars. You'll be able to pre-order during the summer.

First Draft of RESONANCE is Complete

August 26, 2014 -- November 20, 2014

86 days. 300+ hours

126,106 words

250 MS Word pages

RESONANCE is finished.

Now I know those numbers aren't impressive as my 10-day, 140-hour, 151k-word writing sprint back in January 2013 that produced the first draft of Embassy....

....but it's still pretty good.

Now I get to chill for a few weeks. Let my brain unwind. See this with fresh eyes sometime in mid-late December and tackle the beast top-to-bottom. I plan to use a different, more efficient editing method than I used to work on Embassy. Whereas I dug through Embassy front-to-back for multiple drafts, picking out every little thing every time, I'm gonna let some things slide and focus on content for the second and third drafts.

Reason being, I know of a few places where as changed my mind about things a chapter later, or I wasn't satisfied with a section, or I blatantly skimmed through a scene because I couldn't think how to develop it at the time.

But no worries! That's what revisions are for :D

I'm excited to put Resonance out in the world...sometime. I'm planning for an early 2016 release date, (holy cow it's already 2015???), so we'll see how that goes.

So while I'm working on Resonance, you should go ahead and purchase a copy of EMBASSY to prepare for the sequel!

The 90k Milestone in RESONANCE and other news

I hit 90k yesterday and it was okay so I had to say, "Hey, what a day to hit 90k. What a way to finish the day."

Well, can't say I didn't try to make a snazzy rhyme on a dime that time.

I'm past 90k now (almost to 93k, actually) and I'm closing in on the final pages of Resonance. My heart is starting to go knowing that I'll be finished in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

In other news, several book blogs are reviewing Embassy in the upcoming weeks! If you haven't already, grab your copy at Amazon, Smashwords, or the Book Depository! Links are in the sidebar to the right! Things are heating up!

RESONANCE Update

Just a quick update about RESONANCE, the sequel to EMBASSY.

I reached 70,000 words yesterday! Woohoo! There's anywhere between 40-50,000 left, so it's flying by :D

Remember to purchase a copy of EMBASSY 

Book Signing at Delanie's Coffee

You could say my book signing this weekend was a success! Pre-orders not included, I sold 22 copies of Embassy across the two days...a total of about 8 hours. Not bad for a little coffee shop in the Pittsburgh Southside!

I still have a few copies left over if anybody would like one. Just shoot me a message and we can arrange to get it sent out.

Here are some pictures from the signing!

If you haven't gotten a copy of Embassy yet,

you can do so HERE.

Some Updates in My Life

I haven't posted in almost two weeks, so I wanted to give some updates going on in my life right now!

First and foremost...I have TWO book signings this weekend in Pittsburgh, right in my coffee shop where I've been hard at work blasting through the sequel to Embassy.

Speaking of the sequel, I hit 60,000 words in Resonance on Wednesday! That puts me well over the halfway mark, and I have about 50,000 words I'd still like to write. Oh, and Part 2 is the same length as Part 1....and I'm expecting at least another 25,000+ words in Part 2. So yeah, it's a loooooong section.

Last weekend, I got to see my puppydog for the first time in about two months. She was very excited, and I'm going to see her again next weekend.

Moving on....a few weeks ago, my roommates and I got two kittens, Onyx and Ollie. Onyx is a black cat, and more importantly, he's MY cat.

Taken at 1:30 a.m. on a Thursday because that's what cat people do

Last, but not least, the Baltimore Orioles are playing the Kansas City Royals today! I've been a die-hard Orioles fan since I was born, so you can imagine how exciting this is to see them sweep Detroit in the ALDS and move on to the ALCS. (Last time they were in the playoffs, the Yankees beat them 3-2 in the ALDS....and the Yankees Suck). So here's to a win against the Royals today!

If you haven't already seen, there's a giveaway going on right now on Goodreads. If you enter, you have a chance to win one of two signed copies of Embassy! (must live in the USA). That giveaway ends October 24. Details are at the top right of this page.

So yeah, that's what's been up with me lately. Life is good, I'm happy (and excited for the book signings tomorrow) and I've gotten some fan mail/sent out signed books to fans across the country! Texas, Michigan, and, believe it or not, Canada! Shout out to you!

If you haven't already, grab a copy of Embassy. It's YA/NA science-fiction. Think Star Trek mixed with John Green. Details can be found HERE.