Benjamin Medrano's Blog, page 52

September 3rd Update

Good news! I finished the re-write of Born a Queen, and it’s currently sitting at a little over 93,000 words. The bad news is that, depending on the opinions of my first-line readers, some of that may get axed. Currently half of them have gotten back to me, and they are recommending it get left mostly as it is. Still waiting on the other half, including my wife. Consider this a teasing reminder, Jessica.

Once I have feedback, I’m going to go through the book on another editing pass to fix any...

Mid-Week Randomness!

So, several things to update people on, most of it random. First off, the re-write of Born a Queen is going well. Apparently I needed the potential panic of not being able to use the same editor to light a fire under my arse. I expect to finish this week, at the rate I’m going, at which point I’m contacting my Alpha Readers to look it over and tell me what needs to be nuked from orbit.

Now, on to the random! First off, I’ve got a commission of Sistina in-progress that should be done in the ne...

August 27th Update

So, Born a Queen is coming along well in editing. I’m halfway through it, and trying to accelerate things. This is at least partially prompted by news that if I don’t get it done quickly enough, I may not be able to use my usual editor, which is going to make things… interesting on my end. I’m not sure yet, a lot’s up in the air. The sooner I finish, though, the more likely I am to be able to get it edited by the same person.

I’ve also found the length of the book increasing as I write. A lot...

Stars & Shadows: An Overview

So, this week I thought I’d give an overview of the Stars & Shadows Universe I’ve been building. This is the universe where Born a Queen is set, so it’s a superhero-based setting, and it’s very distinctly an alternate universe. I will add that nothing I’m writing here should spoil any plots for the stories in question, it’s pure setting history. I’ll likely be editing something along these lines for inclusion into the book.

Also, I focused on the United States because that’s where I live, and...

August 20th Update

Today’s update is coming late, because I felt like crap last night and went to bed without writing it up ahead of time. So, Born a Queen is coming along nicely so far. I’ve edited 8 chapters out of (currently) 35, and the document is showing me about a third of the way done. I don’t believe it, as so far I’ve actually added nearly 7,000 words to the original count of 76,000 words.

I will also add that I’m not even to the points that need the full re-writing yet. I’m just barely starting to ge...

Thoughts on Halls of Power

So, it’s been a week since Halls of Power released. At this point, I’ve gotten some feedback from people not among my ARC list or beta readers via reviews (I don’t read them myself to avoid destroying my motivation, I get it from my wife summarizing recent reviews for me), some of it useful, some not. One of the concerns I’d heard was that I intentionally rushed the ending, and I want to address that.

The concern both is and isn’t true. In all honesty, if I’d had an idea of everything that wa...

Project Lists: 8/16/2017

So, first and foremost, I now have an Upcoming Projects page, where you can see vague summaries of the projects I have intended in the pipeline. If you don’t want even vague summaries, I’ll list the order of series below, and how long I anticipate them being.

Born a Queen Before the Godsrage – This is an anthology about the Ancient Dreams series. Down With the Queen – Sequel to Born a Queen, at the moment all that’s confirmed. This may continue onward, unknown at present. Through the Fire –...

August 13th Update

Not much progress to report on the writing front, I’m afraid. My wife started her new job, and the release of Halls of Power on Friday distracted me. Besides, some people pointed out that I do need to take something of a break, so I’ve been playing Final Fantasy 14 a little, as a character from Halls of Power, Arise Enarra.

Speaking of Halls of Power, I’m floored by how well it’s done. For the first day it was enormously up the charts of Amazon’s Bestseller list. Even now it’s in good shape,...

Halls of Power Releases Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the release date for Halls of Power. Depending on where you are in the world, it may be releasing any time over the next 24 hours… in fact, it’s possible it already released in some regions. I really don’t know. I’m probably going to be trying to avoid the internet tomorrow out of sheer anxiety, but I’m almost inevitably going to fail.

However, I’m also putting the kindle Ancient Ruins on sale tomorrow, to more easily allow others to read the first book.

For anyone who reads the b...

Hallls of Power Releases Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the release date for Halls of Power. Depending on where you are in the world, it may be releasing any time over the next 24 hours… in fact, it’s possible it already released in some regions. I really don’t know. I’m probably going to be trying to avoid the internet tomorrow out of sheer anxiety, but I’m almost inevitably going to fail.

However, I’m also putting the kindle Ancient Ruins on sale tomorrow, to more easily allow others to read the first book.

For anyone who reads the b...