Category Archives: The Darkest Winter

My first novel!

The Darkest Winter

The Darkest Winter

It’s been about 3 months since I “finished” writing my first novel, The Darkest Winter. In that time I’ve looked into getting published through the traditional market and self-publishing it. I decided to go with self-publishing and found a great professional to work with. Wil Mara is now my editor and we will be bringing my book to market together.

I’ve had many alpha readers from my writers’ group and a few beta readers to whom I sent the entire manuscript to. I’ve gotten all of that back along with the first 10 chapters back from Wil.

So the past four years are coming to a head. I’m starting the final editing pass now, I’ve got a ton of reading and consideration ahead of me to make The Darkest Winter the best I can make it.

It’s a very exciting time for me and I’m looking forward to the end product. I have a lot planned and I’m going to learn a ton from this. I’m aiming for a late March release, April at the latest.

I’m going to make updates about the process here over the months. I’d like to have a record of this experience and I think it could be interesting to share my thoughts with other upcoming authors. So stay tuned, you’ll be able to get all the scuttlebutt on THE DARKEST WINTER right here.

Updates

Life, The Darkest Winter, TV

Okay, I thought I’d be up to the “sending out query letters” portion of “Get THE DARKEST WINTER” published but book proposals are not something you can put together correctly in less than a week. There are many parts and it’s got to be done right. So I’m still working on that (and doing more edits to the manuscript as a result of going through my work).

Outside of my writing, the new season of TV has started. South Park and Broad City came back together and while the premieres were good, episode 2 for both were hysterical.

The other treat for me so far is the return of Gotham. I liked season 3 a lot and 4 is off to a start. Bruce is hitting the streets as a vigilante, Penguin has “cleaned” up the streets by making a crime license scheme, Selina is rolling with Tabitha and looking more and more like Catwoman. Tabitha is teaching her how to fight and it’s straight out of the comics. They’re skewing Victor Zzasz to be funny which is a big change from the books but I think it works. And the big bad as emerged! Scarecrow looks absolutely amazing (go,Charlie Tahan! He’s getting major screen time this year).

And that’s just the start, lots to look forward to.

I Finished My Novel, “The Darkest Winter”

Life, The Darkest Winter

A major milestone. A solid 4 years in the making, I did it. I finished my first novel. I’ve put in a tremendous amount of time into it and in all honesty, part of myself. The seeds of the idea came from hurricane Sandy and it morphed into this 90,000-word story that’s full of characters I created.

I finished the story last Tuesday, September 5th. My writers’ group read the final two chapters after that and yesterday I completed the last edits. All of that and I still didn’t break 90,000 words which was one of my goals from the start.

I’m really happy with it now. It’s the story I wanted to tell and it reads complete. I can’t believe all the beats I thought of in these years all came together and turned out to be the perfect length. So now, the next phase.

Finding a literary agent. The manuscript is complete. I need to write a book proposal (I rather robust document) and then send out query letters to agents who are looking for action, adventure, thriller, manuscripts. With all of the feedback I’ve gotten so far, I really think this story is one that will sell and find a fan base. It’s modern, it’s driven by strong characters, and it relates to the world we live in today.

So my next step to becoming a published author starts this week. Time to get my work out there and noticed by the right people.

Onwards and upwards!