August 2018

I am working on my daily writing prompts as well as outlining three adventure novels and working a full time job, so my original publishing date plans have changed. Book one was planned for early December, book two for late January, and book three for March or April. Very optimistic, but I was expecting to have a final draft of book one go to editing by early October. I want to start writing the first draft of book one on September 1st, with a goal of a complete first draft by the end of October. I will write book two in November, for NaNoWriMo, and then I plan...

The Official Tom and Piper Adventures website has been setup, a design is in place, and I have been experimenting with various forms and page content. I am happy with the design, but writing good content is difficult when the books are not complete and the author does not want to give too much away. The main landing page will include the sales copy from the first book, so it may be the last page to be completed. The "Their World" page will discuss the character's world and will feature are from the first book. There will be a "give-away" section for ARC registration...

I registered a pair of domains today, and had them point to my existing hosting account. The Official Website for Tom and Piper Books: tomandpiperadventures.com This will be a marketing website, primarily to promote the books among potential readers. I have a lot to learn about publishing, but most successful authors say that marketing has to start long before the book releases. I do not have any content or a design at the moment, but that will change as I work on the site over August. My goal is to have a basic site ready in September so that the official website is well established...

I have been giving a lot of thought to the title of my "untitled middle-grade" adventure. I did not worry about it before; I always assumed the title would jump out at me as I wrote. Adventures for children, even older children, need to have a title that clearly tells them "Read me, I am exactly the kind of book you want." The original story was going to center on a male protagonist named Bill, but when it became an adventure for younger readers I felt I could write about a boy-girl team more effectively. A coworker suggested the name "Piper" for the girl, and...

I placed my second order with the artist, and once again he did not disappoint. The illustration turned out much more cheerful than I expected, and it did not really match how I imagined the scene, but I was blown away nonetheless. To my eye, this is the kind of art that sells books to children and young teens. I am left with a dilemma, though. My book was really targeted at adults and young adults. By leaving out swearing, sex, and unnecessary violence, I thought I could appeal to a wider audience. I started reading adult science-fiction and fantasy at the age of twelve, and...

 I have selected an artist to work with! The winning entry is pictured here, and I was very happy with how it turned out. The centipede is larger and more menacing than I planned, clearly showing the danger. This artist uses an anime-like style to his work, which suits my taste and should make the illustrations appeal to a wider audien I will not post the losing entries because one of them was terrible. Well, terrible is probably unfair, but it appeared to be targeted at a pre-school audience. The other losing entry is quite good, so I will probably work with the artist...