A Writer's Week #59: Back Home Where I Belong

Another week has gone winging by. Where does the time go? I spent a lot of time this week moving forward and also moving back. First I'll talk about the backward bit.

As you may or may not have noticed, since Tuesday I have been posting on The Deliverers Blog rather than my new, spiffy author's site. Why the change back to my old digs? To tell you the truth, it felt kind of weird to be posting on a new site. I kind of like the design of the original blog, and I've built up a nice following over the year plus that I've been posting. The only drawback was that I had used the name of my first and so far only book, The Deliverers: Sharky and the Jewel as the blog title and address. Now that my second book is almost ready to be released, having the blog named after the first book did not feel right. I figured I'd start an author blog, but like I said earlier it felt strange, almost like I had moved to a new house, but still loved the old one.

So, I've moved my posting activity back to this blog and cut out the Sharky and the Jewel part of the name. I also decided to get a custom URL that was not quite as long as the old one. Unfortunately thedeliverers.com and deliverers.com are both in use, so I decided to go with thedeliverersseries.com to reflect my growing collection of books. I've still got gregorysslomba.com standing in the wings waiting for a day when I will find the proper use for it--maybe as a site for the historical middle grade novel I'm planning when the Deliverers series is complete. Stay tuned!

Now to things that are moving forward--the book writing and publishing fronts. I have received the last of the feedback  on The Deliverers 2: Order of the Crystal Lion from my test readers! Thank you so much all of you who dedicated so much time to reading and evaluating the book! The group was made up of both children and adults and their impression of the book was mostly favorable. There were one or two areas that I'm shoring up based on their feedback.

Now all that remains is to finish editing, write the back cover blurb and the thank you page. I'm planning to get all that done this weekend. The cover is almost complete and then Daniel Vogel will start on the map. Once that's done, I'll send the manuscript over to his mother Ana to lay out whenever she can fit it in to her busy schedule. Depending on the timing of the artwork, I'm thinking I should have some proof copies by the last week of March, first week of April. I wish it could be sooner, but I know it will be worth the wait.

The Deliverers 3 is coming along. I only managed to write 2,100 words, but that's still more than my weekly goal of 2,000, so I guess I should be satisfied. It was slow going. One of the characters talks about himself and the relationship he had growing up with another character in a conversation with Stig and Hallo. I'm worried I may have slowed down the pace of the book, although the information given will be important later on. I'm going to see if my wife can read it and give me some feedback. She's always brutally honest and this genre is not her cup of tea so she won't sugarcoat it.

Anyhow, here are the stats on the book thus far: 22,100 words, 97 pages, 21 chapters. With all the work I'm going to do on the second book, I'm not sure how much writing I'll get done in the coming week, but I'll be sure to fill you in next Friday. Have a great weekend!