Back In The Saddle

It's been a few weeks (probably more) since I've really done much of anything besides write. I was hoping to go kamikaze on my draft of Black Earth: The Broken Daisy in the hopes of getting it finished so I could hand it off to my editor, but alas, no dice. This novel seems to be a greater undertaking than I originally perceived it to be.

When I wrote Black Earth: End of the Innocence, the first novel in my Black Earth series, I set the stage for an apocalyptic, sci fi/fantasy epic. In doing so, I seem to have set the bar higher than intended for the second book in the series. Not to mention that this series actually takes place chronologically before my other series, Expired Reality, leaving me with so many dots to connect that this isn't just a simple story that needs to be written. It's the most challenging novel I have ever worked on and promises to be one of my best to date.

That being said, I realized about a week or two ago that I can't completely neglect my other projects for as long as it's actually going to take me to finish the novel. I'm still trying to convert Black Earth: End of the Innocence into an ebook which is more challenging than it sounds. I miss the days when most ebooks were in PDF format. Now there's the Nook, the Kindle and the cell phone apps. Taking me four weeks to try and convert it on my own just to Epub, I have decided to try my hand at publishing my ebook through Smashwords. With instructions provided by them, I simply format my Word document to their specs, upload the file and their technology will push the novel out into multiple formats for me. They simply take a small percentage of my sales, which is no skin off my back since there are no production costs associated with creating an ebook.

Another project that I just recently finished was a revamp of my website, www.davidnalderman.com. I realized that I needed a website that reflects my genre and my style of writing, so to go with the sci fi/ fantasy theme, I chose a nice starry backdrop, along with which I added cleaner navigation and a more streamlined web experience.

Once Black Earth: The Broken Daisy is finished and handed off to my editor, I am going to start on the revised editions of the Expired Reality: Endangered Memories and Expired Reality: Lost Birth. Not really rewrites, but I want to add some more scenes and get a more thorough edit on them and rerelease them with the brand new third book in the series, Expired Reality: Crystal City. Should take me a few months to get those done, allowing me to release them in the winter of this year.

As far as Black Earth: The Broken Daisy is concerned, I am aiming for late July for a release date. I've created a 'Current Projects' page on my website where everyone can go to see what I'm currently up to, with info on each project and target release dates.

Anyway, back to work. I have lots to do and it seems never enough time to do it. Glad to be back in the saddle though. Yeeha!