Hey everyone,

I hope your summer is going well and that you’re able to take some time to relax, eat some good food, and read some good books. I finished Stephen King’s If It Bleeds and am now about halfway through Michael Crichton’s The Lost World. So far, it’s even better than Jurassic Park.

I just wanted to drop in to say that Adam has finished reading Showtime and is pleased with the amount of developmental revisions that I’ve done with Sarah. Because of this, I’m thrilled to say we’re finished with macro-level editing (plot, character development, pacing, etc.) and moving on to the next stage of production: line and copy edits!

“More editing?” you might say. “What’s the difference between line and copy editing? Isn’t all editing the same?”

I’m glad you asked, because no, it’s not!

Line editing involves combing through the manuscript at the sentence level, focusing on the use of language—Is it clear? Is it easy to read? Does your diction convey what you originally meant? Good stuff like that to hone and polish the prose.

Copy editing, on the other hand, covers the mechanics of writing like spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

I’m not sure when I’ll have a new line edited draft to look through (I’ll send out another update when I do), but I’m optimistic that these next two stages will take less time than the previous rounds of developmental edits since we’re funneling down into the smaller pieces of editing now.

Showtime’s release date (like all Inkshares books in production right now) is still uncertain, but we’re looking at fall of 2021, which is pretty much what I expected when Showtime was greenlit for publication last summer. Regardless of the publisher, it takes around two years for a book to get from manuscript to finish product. Fall of 2021 puts it around that mark. If it weren’t for COVID, it would undoubtedly be released into the wild earlier. Oh well, that just gives us time to cast the movie. Any takers? ;)

Thanks again for your support, and enjoy your afternoon!

Ricky

Well hello there readers and good and fine folks! I wanted to give you a little update. Some good, some less than good. The less than good is that COVID-19 has, maybe unsurprisingly, found a way to wreck even more havoc, by putting a hurt on the book market. While fiction sales are up, and notable authors are doing fine, bookstores aren’t seeing the summer traffic they normally do and us independent authors aren’t getting the same exposure. Inventories aren’t being ordered with the same gusto. So it is with a heavy heart that I say that Training to be Myself won’t hit bookshelves in 2020. We’re looking at an early 2021 release so whatever you can do to help the world from imploding until then, I’d appreciate it. On the scale of bummers for the year, this one isn’t so bad, but it still stings a bit. The good news however is that my book is in the best shape of it’s life with huge thanks to my editor Sarah, and its now on its way to the copy edit stage, so we’re closer than ever despite the release date being pushed. I can’t thank you enough for helping me get here, even if here still feels like just a nudge further than the middle of nowhere. I am that much closer to claiming author as my vocation without the guilt that follows so I gotta say, that’s pretty neat because I manufacture guilt like an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Thank you for helping to lift that burden! A real team effort there. I’m working on some ways to release some of the book while at the same time not embarrassing myself with a lack of readability and/or an eyesore of grammatical errors and also not to keep bothering you. So for starters, here’s a prescient brief excerpt I rediscovered. In the meantime, if I can help you out during these times, I’m an excellent grocery getter, a generous app login giver, and a decent script consultant so hit me up. Thank you everyone. I hope you’re carrying on and carrying for yourselves. 

Despite their best efforts, they hoist their pathetic bodies on their own petards. It’s effortful failing, my personal darling, and It’s comforting to know those ahead of us haven’t unlocked eternal elation. L.A. can often make me feel quarantined. It’s as if everyone around me is doing well, and I’m rolling around in this bubble of self-doubt and incompleteness that is successfully preserving me from any professional success or interpersonal growth.

***At least this year has given everyone a chance to slow down and let me catch up, or let them catch up with me depending on how you look at it.***

We made it, friends - thanks to my dear friend Amy, we crossed the finish line at about noon today ... we’re in production now!!!  I’ll keep you all posted as we go - I can’t believe it!  And thank you all SO SO SO MUCH ... your belief in me and your support mean EVERYTHING.  This has been my dream since I was a little boy clacking away on a big hundred pound slate-blue typewriter my mom brought home from the school library sale.  And you’re all making it possible.  I love you and thank you!

Hey all! If you have not heard, I signed with agent Lynnette Novak a few months ago. She would like to sell my new book, THE ENIGMA VARIATIONS, as a debut. So, sadly, HOW TO REMEMBER will have to wait. Please sign into Inkshares and make sure your bank account is up to date so you can get your refund.

I’m planning to independently publish HOW TO REMEMBER at some point, though it could be far in the future since we’ll need to wait for a sale of ENIGMA or some future book. Please e-mail me at carolyn.dubiel@gmail.com if you would like a copy. I will make sure you get one.

Thanks to everyone for taking this journey with me, and to Inkshares for all the support. 

Death as a living update

We wanted to update everyone about the publishing status of our book Death As A Living. We were set to go to final copy edit this spring when events overtook us.

The first event was the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down businesses across the country. The publishing business, and the businesses that support it, are not exempt. Printing shops have been shut down. Book reviewers have been laid off. So have buyers for the major bookstores. All of this has caused bottleneck problems for InkShares, our publisher, which has been forced to move back production dates for several projects, including several ahead of us in the pipeline.

The second event, really a series of events, was the death of George Floyd, followed by the protests and the conversations that are happening nationwide. We believe this book, designed to give readers an inside look at how police and homicide detectives do their work, is more important that ever. This has caused us to take the summer to do another edit. Given the perceptions and misconceptions surrounding policing right now, we’ve got to get this right.

At this point, we’re likely looking at a publishing date in 2021. We’re disappointed, in that we’d hoped to get this published in 2020, but we’re not going to dwell on that. There’s more work to be done, and we’re already working on it.

Lastly, as we’ve said before, we deeply appreciate all of you. Purchasing this book was an act of faith in us, our publisher and our project. We appreciate your patience and your trust in us. Thank you so much.

Doyle and Lou