Dec 10, 2015

Well, things got interesting lately. Had too many everyday-life things, several other things that were horrifying to deal with, and a couple of genuinely good things, all of which kept me too distracted to keep working on this book. Not going into detail again here (I did that on my blog and in a recent update over on Project Revenant) ... but basically I almost ended up homeless several times in a three- or four-month period, so as you can imagine, I had a lot on my mind.

But things have started to turn around in the last month or so. One very positive development is the official publication of my novel Chaser by an actual publisher, Keith Publications. It was released on November 28, and I've been focusing a lot of attention on promoting it on my blog and on Twitter and Facebook. There's a lot more I need to do, when I can figure out just how to go about it -- I'm thinking about blog tours and things like that.

I was also approved for a Goodreads Author Page, and spent some time this morning updating several of the books with their new cover images, which for some reason still had the old, bland covers.

Another bit of good news is more directly related to Uncharted Territory and the short story that it's based on, Mission to Bellatrix. This novel is a sequel to a book I wrote and published last year, titled Game Over. The characters of Cora, Dylan, Grishnag, Syala, Nishara, Zilaka, and Ayastal had their debut in that novelette, and I had so much fun writing it that I wanted to continue their adventures and make Mission to Bellatrix a sequel so I could bring them back. I had to leave most of them in the background in that story, just putting a brief mention of them being busy with other tasks somewhere else on the ship, and have only Dylan, Grish, and Cora in supporting roles, because it was a short story and would've been too crowded if I tried to keep them all in. But now that I'm expanding the story into a full novel with Uncharted Territory, I can bring all of them into it and give them something to do.

So, the good news -- a few days ago, a five-star review and interview was posted on Deneale's Book Buzz. The reviewer absolutely loved the story (she also did reviews/interviews for Mission to Bellatrix and all the stories that appeared in Lucky Stars, the sci-fi/paranormal romance anthology it originally appeared in), and seems particularly fond of Cora. In the interview section, I was able to mention and link to a lot of my other works, including Chaser.

The reviewer also asked me to send her another book, so I sent her a copy of Chaser, since it's just been published and this'll really help get the word out. When the review is posted, I'll put an announcement in an update on Project Revenant because it's more closely connected to that novel than this one.

So, after a rather horrible 2015 (there were many good things that happened this year, but overall I consider it a net-negative), things seem to be turning around and I'm able to close out the year on a positive note. But I was so distracted for a while that I wasn't able to work on Uncharted Territory ... and then, when I had time to get back to it, I finished chapter 8 and posted it only to notice that there were only seven chapters. That's right, I'd completely forgotten to post chapter 7, so chapter 8 ended up where 7 should've been. I rushed to fix it, so now both new chapters have been posted tonight, in the proper order. I almost didn't catch the mistake, though. O_o

Sorry for the delay and the confusion, and I hope you enjoy the new chapters.

I'm hopeful for what 2016 brings. As the late, great Monty Oum liked to say ... keep moving forward.