Paul’s Comments (group member since Jul 15, 2012)

Paul’s comments from the Q&A with Paul Vincent group.

I finished chapter 2 a few days ago - easily the most emotional (and probably powerful too) piece I've written to date. I love it when I read something back not only can't think of any improvements but also feel that it's better than I could write if I had to start it again.

Today I finished chapter 3. It's a sort of plot-developing aside, different characters in a different location, but critical to the overall plot. I think readers are going to find that one to be quite a surprise, in more ways than one.

For now I'm skipping chapter 4 and working on 5. Some of the details of 4 aren't clear until I've tied 5 down in full detail.

Strangely I've found one of the toughest things with Book 4 is character names. As all the characters this time are Eridani and not a single character is from Earth, it's proving tricky to come up with a decent spread of names that all have a recognisable sound about them, without them all sounding the same.

On top of that, I need each of the lead characters' names to be readable and memorable. Not an easy combination to hit. I thought the epic space battle in the first chapter was going to be the biggest challenge, but that came together really well on the first draft.

Book 4 is progressing very well indeed. This is definitely going to be a most sci-fi of my books to date, and by far the most emotional. The motivations of my characters are better than ever before. I think that's making it easy to write too.

Hmmm...seem to have ended up writing my own episode of the Outer Limits! Not sure if that's a bad thing?

Is there any way of finding out if anyone's read a short story published here on GoodReads?

Changed my mind. Decided to take a couple of days off and create some short stories instead. They'll still be based in the Astronomicon universe.

Is there a good/ideal length for a short story?

People are buying it, let's hope I get some reviews/ratings soon!

Wow - spent 14 hours today on announcement related work today and I'm not much more than half way through my list!

The worst thing is that I'm sure I don't even know a fraction of the places I should announce it, yet. The list keeps getting longer.

Good news - Today the previous book Distant Relatives was published on Amazon, so now I can begin to turn my efforts towards writing Book 4.

It's too early to have any kind of deadline set yet, but I'm hoping to have this one written, proof-read and edited before November(ish).

Distant Relatives is finally out!

Currently only available in Kindle format (so all Kindles, PC, Android & iPad too).

I've handed the book over to Amazon.

By the middle of tomorrow morning, it should be available to purchase.

This one is just over 20,000 words longer than Book 2. That should please anyone who said that Book 2 was a little short (and very few people did).

Looks like I'll be spending my weekend announcing the launch in many place. Then I can start book 4 in earnest. That's going to be a lot of fun to write. It's a brilliant story and a little different to the books I've written so far.

I believe this should be the best Astronomicon book so far. I've barely put pen to paper (finger to key?) yet with the actual prose, but the entire story is planned out chapter by chapter from start to finish. The start is good, but the finale should be amazing.

This time the story is much more emotional, sometimes scary, sometimes action filled. There is sadness, love, hope, heroism, rescue and sacrifice (not necessarily in that order).

It follows key characters left behind when the evacuation fleet leave before an invasion against which they stand no hope. In some ways it's going to be different to what I've written before, in other ways it simply goes further. I don't think anyone is going to be able to claim that the novels in the Astronomicon series are copies of each other (like some best selling authors I could mention!).

Another thing I find interesting with it is that whilst it is most certainly an important part of the Astronomicon story it will be entirely able to stand alone. Even if you don't read any of the other books in the series, you will be able to enjoy it.

Just a couple of hours left to apply the finishing touches tonight, and then it's off to Amazon tomorrow. I know I won't be having a launch party - I'm just too exhausted!

I tried, right from the outset, to ensure that, whilst Book 3 was very much part of the ongoing series, it would also work as a distinct novel on its own. Making sure that there is no critical need to have read the previous books in order to enjoy this one has been no small task.

To this aim I have just written a very short prologue, sort of a refresher of the main events in Book 2. It will remind those who haven't read The Discovery for a while, but also give an very quick run down for new readers of what they need to know that I could not really include in Book 3. Those who are coming direct from Book 2 can just skip to Chapter 1.

The big launch day is just one week away now. I think I'm still on schedule, but it's going to be a lot of work to be ready in time.

Another round of error correction today - nowhere near as many now, but amazingly a few STILL getting though!

Not much of a safety margin now, but still on schedule for global launch on the 18th of August.

Sorry about leaving it a few days before giving everyone a progress update. It's all coming together quite nicely now. The last few chapters are in editing so the end is in sight.

Soon I need to decide whether it would be better to write Astronomicon book 4 (Holy Earth) next or jump to what was going to be book Astronomicon book 10 (Those Left Behind). I've just plotted out the secondary story line for book 10 and I believe it's going to be an amazing book. The primary storyline is amazing, completely above what I usually achieve, and the secondary is almost as good.
Or should I wait until I have completed another couple of books and really honed my skills to "perfection"? Decisions decisions!

Of course I should just be more disciplined and properly finish the planning for Book 4 and tackle that one next.

The editor has pointed out a hefty overlap between chapter 18 and chapter 20. Both were necessary, vital even to the storyline, but not working as they were. So I've combined both chapters into a newly rewritten chapter 18. Difficult work but I think the result is well worth it. Of course now I've got to shuffle down all the chapters above 19 to fill the space left by 20.

Sorry I haven't posted any updates for a few days - been kind of busy!

I think any structural changes up to Chapter 16 are now complete, just waiting for the proofreaders to recheck the new version. With luck all corrections should be complete before the weekend, or at least very soon after if not. The big question is: Will I meet my launch deadline?

Thanks for your support.

Don't worry about not having read any of my books yet! So far there doesn't seem to be much of an overlap between GoodReads and my readers. Maybe my ongoing presence here will help rectify that?

All changes required up to the end of chapter 9 are now complete! Just another 15 chapters to go :(