The ISLAND OF FOG fantasy series

I've been quiet on the blogging front lately, but I've been busy behind the scenes. I went to England for a couple of weeks this month and caught up on reading and editing every chance I got. Obviously I was editing Fog Book 6, Chamber of Ghosts, which is scheduled for release on April 24.

But what was I reading?

Why, I'm glad you asked. For the first time, I'm reading my own Fog series from start to finish. Naturally I read each book numerous times while writing, editing, proofing, and publishing, but I haven't read any of them since other than dipping in once in a while to check facts and continuity.

For the most part, I'm pleased. I found Island of Fog to be a little rough around the edges in places -- sentences that I'd write differently today, a number of minor technical faults and typos, that sort of thing. Nothing major, but I still managed to come away with a list of 69 tiny edits. Most of these were missing or incorrectly used hyphens, or repeated words, or clunky phrasing. Anyway, I went through the book and put things right.

I also noticed on Amazon recently that a certain phrase in the book has been highlighted by readers. Kindle users can do this. They can highlight something they liked or disliked and make their highlight public. In the case of Island of Fog, four people highlighted one particular sentence. Taken out of context, I have to admit it's pretty funny:

Clever readers will know that this is a scene in the classroom when Hal spoke to his friends right after he belched up fire and burnt the back of Lauren's chair. It made sense when I wrote it, but okay, I admit, it's a funny comment for Hal to make when taken out of context like this. I've altered it slightly to avoid ridicule, and this new version of the book (sans typos) will be live in the next week or so. I'll be interested to see if the highlight remains on Amazon once the text is altered!

Overall, I liked the story. It's not perfect, and I do see it for what it is -- a debut novel. But I stand by it and have no plans to change anything other than those minor typos mentioned above.

Labyrinth of Fire is, I think, better written, at least from a technical point of view. I breezed through page and page without finding a single word out of place (in my opinion anyway). That's not to say it's a literary masterpiece, just that I'm really happy with my own work.

Someone recently mentioned that it was slow to start, and it is a little, but I think that's a problem more for older readers than young. I recall reading Enid Byton's mystery and adventure books when I was around 9-12, and I loved all the stuff that happened before the story got going. The young adventurers would spend a good quarter of the book just reuniting and going on a picnic and catching up, and infuriating the village policeman, and so on -- all before the plot kicked in. It was brilliant. Today, all that stuff seems superfluous. Similarly, in Labyrinth, I guess older readers might be less interested in the initial scenes where Hal and his friends are checking out the village and settling in. That said, I didn't really spot anything that was unnecessary.

The action scenes with the harpies and dragons were (again, in my opinion) top-notch! Hehe. And then there's the glass faerie ball. Two much-respected readers suggested this was a case of deus ex machina, where a seemingly unresolvable plot problem is solved by a lucky break. I never saw this when I wrote it, nor later when it was mentioned, and not now either, having read the book fresh. So although I understand and respect the point of view, I still don't agree with it. The reason is because I planned it this way from the very start, and there are plenty of references to the glass ball from early on. So it doesn't feel forced to me at all. The trick, though, is convincing the reader that it was planned. It really was, and it makes sense to me, but... well, that's not to say I'm right about it.

Anyway, again, so far I'm pleased. I can't wait to get stuck into Mountain of Whispers, and I have it all cued up and ready to go on my Kindle.

All this re-reading, by the way, is something I always planned to do before I launched Chamber of Ghosts. I wanted to make sure there was nothing I'd forgotten, no threads left untied. In re-reading the books, I'm finding small details I'd actually misremembered, or details that have since evolved, and there's one thing in particular -- fairly minor -- that I want to adjust in Chamber to avoid a continuity problem for sharp-eyed readers.

So as much fun as it is to read my own books for a change, I still consider this work, work, work.