Monday, July 4, 2016

I Used to Wish I was a Vampire, but Now I'd Rather Just Have Clones

As I sit on the edge of my couch, not enjoying its cushioned comfort due to an obscene excess of fireworks booming just outside my door, I contemplate my otherwise lovely holiday weekend. My husband had the day off and we spent the day playing with our 1-year-old daughter, strolling her around the mall and such, and discussing our various projects. We are both very creatively involved. We each have multiple creative pursuits to pull our attention at any given moment.

For my part, I'm working on my new novel, a YA dystopia, of which I will say very little at this time, while also doing some light editing of Lone March, for a quiet second edition release at some point in the future. This clean-up is mostly for formatting issues, however, after careful consideration, I have decided to revise bits and pieces, mostly in Book One and mostly in the first chapter. I have toned down March's menstruation ignorance and made less of a show of her whole experience there. Most of that was written before I really knew who the character was. At the time, I was in the midst of writing my first novel, a funny confessional, and was still very much in the humor mindset, so naturally it leaked over into Moon-Linked. Even after I did learn who March was, I kept all that because I staunchly believed in the importance of the earliest possible opportunity to fit some humor into my otherwise bleak tale. But after some time, I've come to realize how much some of that stands apart from the rest of the series and the rest of March's characterization. So I have eliminated a few things. They are small and you probably wouldn't notice, if you were to re-buy Moon-Linked, which is something I don't know why you would need to do. But the book will be better, in my opinion, for future readers and strengthen the series as a whole. So there, I'm glad I got that off my chest!

I'm also finishing up some post issues with the paperback version of Book Seven and hoping to be done with it once and for all very soon. That will feel good.

My big news is that I have begun the recording for the Moon-Linked audio book! WooHoo! I have wanted to do the audio books since I first started writing the series and have thought often about it and I'm so excited it's finally happening! My husband helped me set up my own private little recording booth in my closet and got me set up with all the gear and told me how to work it and I've already gotten nearly 1/3 of the way through the first book. I can't wait to read the really fun bits! My plan is to release them chapter-by-chapter on Youtube, with a new chapter coming out every week, but for those unwilling to wait, I will also release them through audible and iTunes. I don't know how long the recording and editing process might take for each book but I would imagine it will be a while. Book One is the shortest in the series so hopefully the turnaround there won't be too bad, but I will keep you all updated on our progress.

I feel a bit bad for taking up so much of my husband's free time on his day off to help me with this, since he has so much on his plate already, but he is very supportive and always happy to help. Besides working full time to support us and our baby, he has occasional side projects that demand his attention and a web series with his friends that he produces, directs, and edits himself. If you are familiar with D&D, and especially if you're NOT familiar with it but would like to know more about it or perhaps start playing, you should check it out. We are also concocting a couple of ideas for some other web series we want to do so that's demanding a bit of our time as well. So I really just wish we could have clones, like that movie, Multiplicity, with Michael Keaton. And I could send one off to work on the new book, and Travis could send one off to his day job, and we could send a couple more off to work on all these web shows, and the audio books and so on, and we could just hang out with our daughter all day. Actually, wait, I really want to read the audio books. I don't want a clone doing that--I didn't think this through! Hmm...Maybe we just need to get better at time management. But no matter how you slice it, our plates are Thanksgiving-Feast-Full.

So some exciting things on the horizon over here! I hope you guys are as excited as I am! If you have thoughts one way or the other about audio books, read by the author, not read by the author, reading books/series more than once, reading books/series in multiple formats, like digital, audio, paperback, let me know in the comments. I'm very curious to see where other people stand on this and I'm really interested in finding out how people feel about author-read audio books. In fact, I've even put up a poll on my Twitter page, so participate if you are so inclined!

Happy 4th!
xxErin