Michael Selden's Blog, page 13

Hiking Near Divide Colorado

I took this picture last fall, just as a thunderstorm was moving in—I was on top of Grouse Point, and about a half mile form my motorcycle at the time—maybe 12 miles from home. Both the motorcycle and I got wet, but it was still a nice day.

 

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Cover Image for The Balance

This will be the front cover image for The Balance, although the background may change as the cover design is completed.

 

The Balance, a Young Adult Novel, takes place 200 years after Armageddon. Phoebe, the last genetically engineered “Sensitive”, struggles to survive in The Land, ruled by the Council of God.

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The Balance Kindle Edition Available for Pre-Order at Amazon

The Kindle version of The Balance is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. When the paperback and hardcover editions become available for pre-order, I’ll post those links as well.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X087A4S

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The Balance—Undergoing Interior Layout, Counting Down to Release

The Balance is with the designer for layout. This is expected to take about 2 weeks. After that, it will be sent to the proof reader for a final review. While the book is being reviewed, the cover design will be completed. I have 2 images for the cover, one for the front and one for the back.

 

I plan to release three formats:

—Softcover

—Hardcover

—Kindle

 

At this time I’m not planning on an e-pub version, but will revisit this later.

 

M

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The Balance Revisions Complete

All of the chapters have been revised and all but the last 50 pages have already been through copy editing.  Progress is being made on the cover image, and a proof reader has been lined up to do a last minute editing review, after the interior design is complete.

 

I’m planning Kindle and softcover editions for sure, and I’m toying with the idea of a hardcover version as well. I’ll run contests on GoodReads and on Beachbound Books for sure, giving away 10 copies for each contest.

 

The first ten pre-proof  sections (Intro + Prologue + 8 Chapters) are available as a free excerpt here:

http://michaelselden.com/the-balance

Right now, it looks as though the book will be out in Mid-May

 

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Status Toward Publication of The Balance

On the final stretch of chapter revisions for The Balance. I’m working Chapter 43-49 & the Epilogue.

My process since Beta Read is to go through each chapter 6 times, prior to transmitting to the editor (John) for a single pass there, then another pass when the chapters return. After that I’ll go through the entire book one more time to confirm all of the physical descriptions and the timetable. After that I’ll send it out to another set of eyes for a quick proofread—before going to design and then a second proofread, to look at the post-design look of the book. I’ve received a portion of the drawing from Paola for the cover image. We’ve discussed the image a number of times over the past year.

In 2011 I created a calendar for the book in Excel and mapped each chapter out on a grid to make sure the dates and durations make sense. Since then I’ve had to adjust a few dates, since I added more to the plot in the middle. I’ll go through the grid again to make sure the dates were properly adjusted. Also, I created a history, a map, and an economic model of the Land.

I also went through the science and seemingly supernatural elements of the story to make sure that they are either consistent with physics as we know it, and / or consistent within the context of the book. I call this Rational Speculative Fiction.

The main character, Phoebe, has certain capabilities and I struggled to create a more scientific basis of what she’s able to do in my own head, and I made a few modifications (tweaks really) to some of the descriptions.

Samuel was another character I had to deal with. For example, in the story, he’s both a universal blood donor and receiver. At first blush, this didn’t make sense, but then I researched some of the things happening today and discovered that people are already experimenting with this—successfully, although via drugs rather than genetics.

Matthew is the most speculative of the bunch, but at least I think I’ve defined the rules by which his abilities function, even if I have no clue how the fundamental ability might work—that’s TBD.

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New Excerpt for The Balance Added

I added the mature draft of Chapter 8  (The Sister’s Eyes) today (March 12).

 

Progress on the final edits continues and I am still working toward a May release of The Balance. I’m planning (at least) paperback and Kindle versions for now, and am considering a hardcover edition as well, although that won’t be decided until later. Suggestions are welcome on this. I’m also debating whether to create an E-Pub version or not. I haven’t had good experiences with E-pub, although I intend to keep an open mind.

The word count for the final editing keeps changing, usually downward, although this depends on the chapter. Since the Beta Read version, I’ve cut about 5500 words from the book and broke Chapter 25 into 3 separate sections—This was the longest chapter in the book and had two natural break points.

 

The book was originally 86K words long (first draft), written between Thanksgiving 2011 and New Years Day (Jan 1) 2012 (over about 6 weeks). Afterward, it grew to 150K words before I started separating out more of the backstory sections taking it down to about 135K words. Later, I gradually trimmed the writing, eliminating redundancy and then I removed 3 chapters that I thought would, eventually, be better situated in the second part of the story. Currently, there are about 112K words in the book, although this may increase or decrease. I’m actually considering pulling a portion of one of the cut chapters back into the book. The intent is to offer a complete story without delving into the meat of the next part of the tale.

 

I plan to write the story of The Balance as three parts ( parts of book 2 are already written and the plot is fairly mature), although this book can stand alone. The second part of The Balance will be finished after I complete two other books: I AM (A Sci-Fi story set in the not-too-distant future) and DISOBEDIENCE (a supernatural thriller that spans more than one time period).

 

I welcome feedback.

 

Michael

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Last Preview Chapter of “The Balance” to be Posted soon

I Plan to post the final portion of the preview of The Balance this next week sometime: Chapter 8, “The Sister’s Eyes”.

I’m working revisions and editing reviews of Part 4 of the book. Part 4 begins with Chapter 34, “The Call”.

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New Sample Chapter Added to The Balance Excerpt

I added Chapter 7 (The Promise) to the on-line excerpt from the upcoming book, The Balance.

I still plan to release the book in May 2015. Currently I’m working on polishing chapters 30 through 33, before sending them to John (in England). He’s working  Chapters 24-29 now.

 

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Status on The Balance

I’ve been working to revise Chapters 24-29 this past week. While I could revise from now till eternity, I’m limiting myself to 6 additional pass through each chapter, then I’ll send them to John Hudspith (England) for an editing pass, after which I’ll apply most suggestions and then take another pass through each chapter and then another through the whole book.. There are now 52 sections (chapters) to the book. The Editing should be done by the end of March, or early April.

After this editing step, the book will go to Belle Étoile Studios (North Carolina), for Jamie to do the interior layout. Meanwhile Paola Sbriccoli is drawing the cover image in Rome. Jamie will then create the cover design(s), while the interior book goes through proof reading / editing.

Finally, I’ll take another look at the book before giving the proof editor and my comments to Jamie for inclusion, and then several versions of the book will be created:

Soft Cover, Kindle, E-Pub, and (possibly) Hardcover. ISBN’s will be assigned to each format and then a test printing will happen through Lightning Source, before releasing for publication and distribution through Ingram, and the Kindle through Amazon. I used Smashwords for the E-Pub for The Boy Who Ran, but may reconsider.

Copyright registration with the US copyright office, while not actually necessary, is already in process—it’s usually better to register, I think.

 

I plan to release the books in May 2015.

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