What's To Come From This New Year!

Happy New Year y'all! It's wild to think it's 2026. 2030 is four years away, and 2030 sounds like sci-fi time. That's the year missions to Mars get attacked by aliens, or the sun begins to die out, not the year quickly approaching reality. Nevertheless, time indeed keeps moving on, and with that, things keep happening. I figured I'd jot some of those things down for you all.

First and foremost, book news! Refining Ties is ready for release! Well, in some sense of the word at least. The covers have been finalized, the manuscript completed and reviewed within an inch of it's life (or my life, I'm not sure which) and everything has been uploaded to Amazon and scheduled. As a reminder:

Refining Ties will release March 2nd!

It's been such a journey to get to this point. When I first decided on a sequel, I was excited. I love the setting and the characters and exploring the swampland of Pointe DeLeaux. I love the story of Bound To Parish, and all around that book still makes me very proud. Most of all, I love the feedback I've gotten from all the readers, the people who have come to love the characters just as much as I do. I thought it would be easy to jump into a sequel. To make a series from something I considered a standalone novel.

One thing life has always been good about is humbling me on what I think is "easy".

It took me nearly six months to finish the first draft of Refining Ties, and to be honest, I wasn't all that happy with it. A lot of the time, it was a struggle to get words out on the page, to know what I was trying to go for, and when I read through it, I could feel that. I had overarching goals for the plot and where it would lead, but I was missing a lot of the finer details. But I'd spent so long on it, I wanted to give it a chance. So I sent it off to the editor anyway.

She agreed with me completely. Instead of spending a month with it, she sent it back in three days with a letter that basically said "You have some good bones here, but this needs work. Bring me a second draft and I'll gladly work on that." I knew it when I sent it, but hearing it really made it sink in.

Pardon me for this, but it needed...refining.

So I went back to work. It was easier now that I had some direction from the editor. She knew what worked and what didn't, what needed more meat and what needed to find its way to the trash. When I got settled into it, it actually started becoming something I liked. I started finding the characters more. When I'm forcing the words, they become a lot of stage direction and action. I forget to internalize things, I leave people's thoughts unexplored. Getting into the second draft, I started finding more of their voices, their motivations, and giving them more life. Some things also found their way to the surface by themselves. Things that apparently want to be explored in the finale.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The second draft went back to the editor and she retouched the things I agreed were still a bit shaky, and with her notes, the third draft was much better than it started. By now, I'd realized my fall release date wasn't going to happen, which hurt, honestly. I had already made a big show of releasing in the fall. It matched the books timeline, and all around felt right for me, but sadly the nature of art is always shifting. I had to shift with it.

The best time to release a book is early spring, March through May. Also, best results come from marketing three to six months ahead of time to build the thoughts in your readers minds. I could have rushed a release in fall, but with next to no marketing and due to the time frame, the odds were stacked against me. So I pivoted to March 2nd, locked the date firmly into my head, and took some extra time.

I did two additional edits of the manuscript after the third draft was finished. I knew there were things I still needed to polish - refine, if you will - and with each new read I found something else that needed a little touch. I also wanted to try very hard for the least amount of typos possible, as I always seem to have a problem catching them all. I'm sure I still haven't, but I'm pretty confident they're minimal. I have the extra time to thank for that.

I'm also thankful for the extra time in term of book design. This will be one of the first books I have uploaded and able to order author copies of with ample time before release. I'll be able to read through it once again - in actual print, as it's meant - and see if it still sits as well as it did all the other times. I also can't wait to see the cover in front of me. This cover design was again a labor of love, and myself and the wonderful cover designer I've worked with on BTP and RT went through about 8 different versions before we found the one that hit just right. I think it's gorgeous, and I want to bask in it when it gets here.

So that's where we stand currently. The proofs/author copies are expected at the end of the month, and then I have a little over a month after to finalize any changes I might want to make before it goes live. I plan to spend that time reconnecting with my social medias, making more posts here, and generally trying to get back in front of people. As Stephen King says in On Writing, write with the door closed. Once you have something, then you can open it and show the world. I tend to be very "door closed" when I'm working, but now its time to open the door and get back into the world.

So, what's next for this year? Well, as I mentioned earlier, some things in Refining Ties kept coming to the surface, and I wasn't sure what it meant. I also struggled to think of a way to bring this series to a close and make it satisfying across all three stories. However, I think I've come up with a plan, and I think those things in Refining Ties showed up for a reason. My job now is to get to work on the final book, and make it all come together. I've started dabbling with it already, and as we get deeper into the year, I'll get back to my actual working routine every morning (if Harley will let me ignore her for that long). I also have a horror-ish short story book I want to continue playing around with, as well as a few other short stories I've had for a bit that I think could use a fresh draft to see what they're actually made of. I keep shopping them around when I think of it, so we'll see if 2026 is the year one gets picked up. Until then, I'll just keep chugging along on this writing journey and bringing you all along with me, if you'll have me.

I hope you will, because I have a lot left in the tank, and a traveling companion always makes the trip better.

-Dave