Publishing and Projects

Everything is done on COAST OF SPEARS, aside from finalizing the cover — final print dimensions are needed to finish that up. Editing, formatting both print and ebook, registering the ISBNs, etc, is all taken care of. I'll be able to start uploading files pretty much whenever I feel like it. Probably after this weekend, when I still intend to make it to the Florida Folk Festival.

For one day, anyway. Which day may depend on the weather and if looks bad every day, I just might cancel it out and save the money. I do still intend to get to Nashville in July. I should look into some other places and people to visit as long as I'm on the road. Maybe even do a very short 'open mike' tour.

But, the book — MY official release date via Arachis Press is July 1 but, of course, it will be available in some places and some formats before then. When I assigned my ISBN I put the official date down a month earlier, June 1. It can take weeks for books to show up everywhere, especially the print version at places like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Much sooner at Arachis Press (and our Lulu store).

So, will I start writing the sequel now? I admit that it is not all plotted out, even in my head, though I have the basics. The whole thing may need to ferment and bubble for a while before I do more than jot down my ideas. And I could try shifting gears and working on something else — it does take a little while to get one project out of my mind and another into it.

The sequel, by the way, is likely to be titled VALLEY OF VISIONS. I haven't a name for its sequel yet (and there almost certainly would be one — I'm thinking a trilogy here). We leave book one with our protagonist pursuing his rival and hostage (hey, there has to be a damsel in distress) into the mountains, so there should be a homecoming to the tangled politics of the Mora nation in the final book. And to his own tangled romance.

But first, I must completely redesign and replace my current website, for a variety of uninteresting reasons. One of them being the software I have used for years, Yahoo's Site Builder. Great for people who like to design rather than write code, but frustratingly buggy. The other is the need to get with the times and have a mobile-friendly site.

I will NOT do a responsive site, at least not now. I'm going for the separate 'm' site with redirects. This lets me control the look of both versions much better and not be stuck with a cookie cutter site. And most responsive sites I have seen look horrible on a big screen.

So that's the big project for a while. Then on to other stuff.