I am endeavoring to get back into the habit of blogging regularly, but until I master the art of writing a simple, elegant, stand-alone, paragraph, that goal looks like remaining elusive. I shall continue to try, just the same. A writer should always be faced with challenges, and, better yet, fresh challenges.
What do I mean by ‘regularly?’ I’m still working that out. Ideally, I’m like to write something virtually every day, but when that is combined with my other duties, it seems a high bar; though a worthy objective.
Anyway, I took a couple of weeks off from blogging to do some high octane editing in order to get The Blood Of Generations ready for publishing. This exercise involved ten to twelve hour days, virtually seven days a week. In all, I made several thousand minor changes, and rewrote a dozen or two passages. It was unbelievably hard work, but extremely satisfying. It’s amazing how much one can improve a manuscript when one has the perspective of time.
I used to hate editing. Just writing the book just once seemed to be hard enough work. Actually it’s the easier part where I am concerned. Re-writing is when I put the edge on the blade.
I attach great importance to the visual look of a book – even in manuscript form. Strictly speaking, that shouldn’t matter at the manuscript stage, but since I have a decidedly visual mind (and imagination) it matters to me; and, on a practical level, I find I am motivated by good presentation.
My final tasks yesterday were to add ‘Front Matter’ and ‘End Matter.’ These terms refer to the material at the beginning and end of the book – such as Author’s Note and Dedication – which are not directly part of the story.
So when will The Blood Of Generations be up on Amazon? I’m not going to give a date for another couple of weeks; but shortly is the answer for the moment. It is the fourth book in the Hugo Fitzduane series and is located in Ireland, Israel, and France.
I think you’ll find it worth the wait. It’s a classic Big Thriller and runs to a shade over 500 pages. I have described it as:
THE BLOOD OF GENERATIONS
A Novel Of War, Terrorism,
Love, & High Adventure.
I’d say that describes it pretty accurately.
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