Saturday, 2 February 2019

My Journeyman Project: OF THE DARK

If you drill down through the archives, you will find the occasional mention of my series OF THE DARK, from talking about its beginnings to its eventual publication.

The ideas for OF THE DARK (fondly known to me at OTD) started when I was in High School in the 80's. What would become "God of the Dark" was the third novel I'd ever written, when I was still figuring myself out as an author.  I used it to work out everything about the craft, from how to outline, how to develop characters, and how to develop plots (which is why OTD ended up being a trilogy). It took me years.

Towards the end of university, I discovered the [then] Del Rey Online Writing Workshop, and spent many years there refining my craft. While I did work on other novels and plenty of short stories, the majority of my work ended up being on the OF THE DARK series. I went from being an apprentice author to a journeyman in skill, capable of being published (albeit short stories, etc).  I networked and got to know lots of fellow authors, many of whom have gone on to make writing careers for themselves.

While working on OTD, I worked on other projects as well. It's not good to devote so much time (aka years) on a single work. I wrote and published "As Good As Gold", "For Richer, For Poorer", "Marry Me" and "The White Feather" through The Wild Rose Press and released "Her Endearing Young Charms" as an indie project. I've got lots of other projects on the burner in various completion stages. I anticipate having at least one, and possibly three novels released in 2019.

Thanks to all my hard work on OTD, I was able to successfully and efficiently write other novels in a fraction of the time it took to get all three OTD books completed. I've managed to gain some mastery over the craft.

I attempted to get OTD published through traditional routes, but while many an agent liked my manuscript, none of them loved it enough to take it on. But I loved it and I knew others would as well, so I went indie with it.

Have you read God of the Dark? Get thee to the retail bookseller of your choice and sample the first chapter for free.


God of the Dark -  Amazon | Smashwords | Books2Read | Google Play | KoboBooks | Paperback (via Amazon)
Bride of the Dark - Amazon | Smashwords | Books2Read | Google Play | KoboBooks | Paperback (via Amazon)
House of the Dark - Amazon | Smashwords | Books2Read | Google Play | KoboBooks | Paperback (via Amazon)


While I would love for you to buy my books, if you can't or don't want to, please, by all means, ask for them at your local library (aka make them buy my books). OTD is available to libraries in both Trade paperback through IngramSpark and ebook form through OverDrive and other library distribution platforms.

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