Returning to the blog, now with 100% more cover teases!

Oh, hi there! It's Dave, that writer guy that you all may or may not remember. My last blog post was...my birthday last year? Time really flies when you're in the depths of trying to do something you've never done before.

What's that thing, you might ask? Well, it's working on a series! Something I've been hesitant to do for a few reasons. After Bound To Parish, however, I decided it was finally time, and let me explain why.

When I started this writing thing, I read a TON of things online about "how to make it as an independent author". One of the big things that always came up in those posts was how writing a series was a way to build a reader base efficiently. If you write a book that people enjoy, and then continue that story on in subsequent books, readers are more likely to come along because they're invested in the characters already. They know they world. It's comfortable, and easy to drop back into the story. If you write stand alone books, there's a chance the new story doesn't resonate as well as the last one. That makes sense, but it wasn't for me.

For one thing, as a new author, I was trying to find where I fit in. I knew I wanted to write thrillers and possibly horror (still working on this one as well), but I don't think I was sure of what exactly I wanted to do. I had ideas, all wildly different, and I needed to find where I felt comfortable. Fall Winds was a serial killer story to get my feet wet. Psyconics was a supernatural type story. Path was a techno/cult situation. All of them were fun to explore, and I like them all for different reasons, but as I look back on them, I think they were all just tests to learn the ropes of writing. What works for me, what doesn't, and how to blend those things into a good story.

Then I wrote Bound To Parish, and it all came together. I think a large part of that was finding and working with an editor that helped me refine the story into the best version of itself. I'm forever grateful to her for all the help with pacing and structure that she provided. Another part of it was the amount of passion I had around it in general. It was the first story that I did real research for, and tried to make sure I had accurate information, even if it was just in passing to add flavor to the atmosphere. The entire process was all-encompassing, and I could tell that when it was finished. Add to that a cover that fit perfectly, and a marketing plan that actually had some structure to it, and it did well all around.

But beyond all that, it got under my skin.

To stay on track when working on it, I started cooking Louisiana style dishes for dinner. This led to finding even more recipes, and now I have an amazing gumbo from scratch at least once a week. My desire to take a trip down there has grown to levels of necessity that have made me firmly consider a vacation away from home for once. Beyond all those things, the characters stayed with me. I found myself thinking about Alphonse, Marcie, the girls. I wondered what they would get up to after the finale in Bound. I kept picturing the Pointe, with all its small town flare, the bayou spreading out around it. I wondered what other secrets it might hold.

Eventually, I remembered the advice from the writing blogs I'd read when I started. A series will draw people in. It will help establish a base. If someone likes the first book, they're more likely to buy them all. So I decided to give it a shot.

It's been tough, I can't lie there. Between dealing with the world at large and all the things associated with everyday life, the writing was hard to come by. That's why I've been away for so long, because I was struggling though the process. I came up with a new story, something with depth that Al and Gary and Marcie could get tangled up in. But the problems started right away. Because I'm not a planner by any means, a lot of things come to me in the moment and get added to the book. They don't get marked down somewhere, they don't get tracked. So, when I fell back into the world of the Pointe, I had to trace a bunch a small details. I ended up rereading Bound myself, just to make sure I knew what had taken place.

Then came the plot, the meat of the story. I needed something that wasn't tied up right away. I needed something that could expand into a final book, but at the same time, act as a complete story in itself. Again, when you're not used to planning things out, that turns out to be a bit difficult. I forced my way through it, though, and eventually ended up with a draft. Knowing I had a wonderful editor to work some magic on it, it was more rough than it should have been, and I expected a healthy edit.

The edit was more than I expected, however. It came back with massive changes. Now, they're all wonderful, and I'm loving the story it's shaping up to be now much more than I did the forced draft, but it's a full rewrite. And full rewrites take time, even with the newly found passion I have for crafting this one. I was already planning on a fall release anyway, so it works out, but it still feels like ages.

Now, however, I'm to a point where I feel comfortable sharing some bits and bobs about it. If you follow me on social media, I've already thrown around the title, but for the sake of the post: Refining Ties. I wanted something simple, but with the layers that Bound To Parish had. The story centers around a murder of a refinery worker, and it explores the ties of family and sense of self to a job, so I think it hits the right notes. Being the second book in the series, it focuses a lot on diving deeper into Alphonse and the gang, trying to explore some more of what makes them who they are. I've been having fun getting to know them even better than I did for Bound, and that's something that's been driving me to get through this draft. If you couldn't tell as well, I've got a cover and I love it, so the teases have begun. Be on the lookout for more of those in the future as we get closer to a finished product.

Along with all this, I realized Fourth of July is swiftly approaching, and that means it's time for the Bound To Parish free book week! We did it last year and it honestly was a great success, so why not try it again. Especially with the sequel slated for later this year, the more people that can come down to the Pointe, the better.

So, that's what's been up with me. If you're wondering if you can expect this disappearing act in the future as well, let me be the first to say you can. I have a tendency to fall off the map for a while, especially when I'm drafting a new story, because I can't share much about it before I know how it comes along. Is that good for a social media presence? Not at all. Is it good for marketing? Again no. But it's how I function, and I don't foresee it changing anytime soon. At least until I hit big and am able to write full time. Then, things might be different. But we'll just have to wait for that to happen to see.

Stay tuned for more Refining Ties news!

-Dave