New Year, New Look – Part II
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been updating the covers of my existing books. This month, I’m proud to reveal the new cover for my second book, The Reluctant Agent:
I’ve just spent the afternoon updating the covers…everywhere. Everything should be processed in a few days.
What Else Is Going On?
I’ve received most of the feedback from my beta readers and I’m making the final tweaks. Once I do that, I’ll take one more editing/proofreading pass and then it will be ready to start the publishing process. Given the lead time for getting a new cover (which I can’t do until I know exactly how big the book will be), I think that the actual release day will be in April – date to be determined. Watch this space for news of when the pre-order will be available.
Join the Crew
Once again, I invite you to join my email newsletter – You can do that over on the right under the “Join the Crew of the Daedalus” box. Members of the newsletter get early notifications about what’s going on and extras. Recently, I’ve shared some images I generated using Mid-Journey (AI Generative Art) to highlight some scenes from both The Reluctant Captain and The Reluctant Agent.
Until next time,
Happy Journeys!
Mike
New Year, New Look
Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2024 brings you health and happiness!
2023 was certainly an interesting year. I finally finished the writing and editing of the newest Malcolm adventure. My daughter has started her own adventure with her new husband and my wife and I are adjusting to an empty house. And 2023 ended with the start of renovation of our kitchen. As I post this, we no longer have an oven. It won’t be long before the stove and sink are gone as well!
But 2024 is a new start – As part of that new start, I’m “re-releasing” my existing books with new covers. While I love the artwork on my current covers, they don’t match other steampunk books on the market. So I’ve commissioned new covers that I plan to roll out over the next two months. Although I have already shared the new covers with members of my newsletter (you can be a member as well by clicking the link on the right to join the Crew of the Daedalus!), I present to you the new cover for The Reluctant Captain:
I will update the new cover on the various ebook stores soon – it will take me a little longer to get them in place for the print editions.
I’m still gathering feedback from my beta readers to see if the new Malcolm novel (which still doesn’t have a title) to see if it needs any changes before I publish it. I’m shooting for publication in March (fingers crossed).
If you want to be notified as soon as the new book is up for pre-order, I encourage you to join the Crew of The Daedalus, my sometimes regular e-newsletter.
Until next time, Happy Journeys!
Mike
Anticipation
Greetings! The good news is that Malcolm’s new adventure is in the hands of my beta readers – the bad news is that it didn’t make it there until November! Before I sent it out, I had Siri read the book to me to catch any mistakes I made (and there were plenty). That process took much longer than expected. As a result, the new book won’t be out until early in 2024. I’m also working to get new covers for both The Reluctant Captain and The Reluctant Agent as part of a relaunch of the series. In the meantime, I’m continuing to work on the fourth Malcolm book.
In other news, I dipped my toes into the world of audiobooks. I have an AI narrated book from Apple books for The Reluctant Captain nearly ready. However, the AI narrator mistook the St in Joan de St. Leger as Joan de Street Leger instead of Joan de Saint Leger. It’s being re-recorded and when it’s available, I’ll let everyone know.
Music, Music, Music
In the meantime, I’m working on the next book of Malcolm’s adventures and also gearing up for the many Christmas concerts. As an early birthday present, I bought myself a new trumpet – a Shires TRQ10S. I love my new trumpet and it’s even got me practicing regularly. Although playing in so many bands takes time away from writing, music has always been a big part of my life. When I was in high school, I seriously considered going to college for music, but got into computers instead. I figured it would be easier to be a computer person who played music than a musician that played with computers. Playing in the various bands gives me a view of what my life would have been like if I had gone the music route.
Happy Holidays
Let me close this update by wishing you the best for this holiday season!
Until next time,
Happy Journeys!
Mike
Status Report
Where have the last six months gone?
It’s been a whirlwind of activity here… both with the book and life. I’m happy to report that I sent the newest tale of Malcolm’s adventures to my editor… and it didn’t suck! I’ve had a very hard time judging if this book would work and I was thrilled to get objective feedback about the book. My editor assured me that the book was in pretty good shape, but needed some tightening up and to explore the world more fully, which was something I thought might need work. To that end, I spent a weekend in an RV at a local KOA for my annual writing retreat and concentrated on it for two and a half days. Here’s a picture of my home away from home:
I’m still making tweaks for the next two weeks, but I’ve decided that other than copy editing changes, I’m going to send it out to beta readers at the end of September. I hope to take the feedback and get the book ready for publication by the end of October, so that it be available in time for Christmas. I still need to decide on a title, but be on the lookout for future announcements!
Music, Music, Music
As if I didn’t have enough going on between working full time and working on the book, music consumed me summer. From May, I played in four concert bands and two Big Bands. This translated to something like four parades, twelve concert band concerts, 10 Big Band gigs, and playing in the orchestra for a musical (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)! That doesn’t count rehearsals, that’s just the actual performances. Things have settled down on the music front for the time being, but rehearsals start soon to prepare for the Holiday season!
Roam If You Want To
We also did some travelling this summer (besides the writing retreat). At the end of June, the whole family spent a week in Lake Placid, our last family trip together, as my daughter has now left for Nova Scotia. My wife and I spent a long weekend in Canandaigua – originally to see Pat Benatar in concert which was cancelled. Instead, we took a cooking class at NY Kitchen where we made our own dinner. After spending the morning wondering around downtown Canandaigua, we stopped at a distillery owned by a winner of the Discovery Channel show Moonshiners and at a farm stand where we picked up blueberries.
Our big trip will happen later this month when we travel to Nova Scotia for my daughter’s wedding. We’re taking our time getting there and we plan to spend a day in Bar Harbor, Maine on our way home.
That’s all for now. Expect radio silence until I return from our excursion to Nova Scotia!
Happy Journeys!
Mike
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The Long and Winding Road
And before I knew it, almost a year had passed, and no updates to my blog…
Where Have I Been?
The last several months have been very busy as, with my sister, we cleaned out our childhood home and got it ready for sale. It’s been a long process, but I think we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I’ve been slowly working on the new novel, spending my time revising the next Reluctant novel. I still don’t have a title yet because I can’t find one that resonates with me. The revision process has been slow and arduous, but I have completed a draft that is fairly readable. I spent most of the time on my annual fall writing retreat revising it.
Right now, I’m shopping for an editor to help me whip the book into shape because I’m at the point where I honestly do not know if it’s good or not. I enjoy reading it, but I’m looking for an objective opinion on the book because I can’t judge it at this point. I will say that in my search for an editor that the initial response has been encouraging.
As a result, it’s likely that the book won’t be ready for publication until later this year. I usually try to publish in June, but I hope I can have it ready in the October – November timeframe, but don’t hold me to that. I’m also looking at refreshing the covers for The Reluctant Captain and The Reluctant Agent, which I will probably do with the launch of the new book. While I love the current cover art, they don’t really match the style of other books on the market and I hope that a new cover will make them more attractive to new readers.
While I wait to get the new book edited, I’m going to start on the next Reluctant book. My original plan had been to start a new series featuring Nigel Sinclair from The Reluctant Agent, but I have an idea for Malcolm’s further adventures so I’m going to strike while the iron is hot.
What Else Have I Been Up To?
As the pandemic restrictions have loosened, I’m back to playing trumpet again. Right now, I’m a member of four concert bands and two big bands. I know that if I wasn’t at band rehearsal as often, I would have more time to write, but playing regularly honestly helps keep my sanity. In my current job, I work from home so band rehearsals are a chance to get me out of the house. And I’ve rekindled my love of swing and jazz which I’ve realized I missed playing.
The other project I worked on this year has at least a tentative link to Malcolm. In my dad’s garage, he had an old radio (an RCA 5T1 complete with vacuum tubes) that my great-grandmother had painted canary yellow. The radio had been in my dad’s garage for as long as I could remember. I stripped it and refinish it. Since my electrical engineering skills have long since atrophied (and I’m pretty sure we never covered the vacuum tubes in Electrical Science), I decided against trying to repair it. Instead, I turned it into a Bluetooth wireless speaker. I gutted the internals and replaced them with a Bluetooth amplifier and a single speaker capable of stereo output. I’m thrilled with the result and frequently use it while I’m working:
That’s the current news for now. My cat reminds you that my books are available (see the links on the right):
Until next time,
Happy Journeys!
Mike
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