Rhodar and other news about my writing

I've published a different version of this on my author facebook page, but I have no idea how many people actually look at that.

As of today I've reached 55,000 words with my Rhodar novel and there is much more to go. I do have sort of an outline, but that changes as the story and the characters develop.

My next release with Melange Books will be in October of this year with Book 4 in my Spider Wars series. Actually, the book is the fifth book in that series, but the first one 'Outpost Epsilon' stands on its own and when I wrote it I didn't know it would develop into a series.

Melange Books is also designing a new cover for my already published mystery novel 'Bullet of Revenge'. I’m looking forward to that new cover.

My self published books number 7 and number 8 in my Xandra series have also been accepted by Melange to be published next year. They aren't selling well with Smashwords. I should never have self-published them, because they are part of a series and they should be published with the same publisher, which is Melange Books for me. But at that time Melange wasn't accepting any Science Fiction. I didn't know that was meant for only new authors. My publisher Nancy Schumacher told me later that I am one of her Science Fiction writers and she will always accept my stories.

It is nice to know I have a home for my stories. Writing is lots of fun but part of that fun is to share the stories I write, to share my imagination with people who want to escape the daily grind and live in a fantasy world for a little while. That's what I supply and I hope the readers enjoy my stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Even though writing for me is a pleasant pastime and my passion I do take it seriously, especially if I want to publish it. As I write I also learn and grow. I make sure my grammar is correct and I try to avoid spelling mistakes. When I’m done with the story I read it probably half a dozen times, each time looking for errors like inconsistencies, spelling mistakes and sentence structure and yet—there is always something I miss. That’s why it is so important to have an editor. My new editor at Melange is going over my stories with a ‘fine-toothed comb’ and she has a sharp pencil. I’m always amazed how many errors she finds, but I take her advice to heart.

Writing is fun, but if you want to publish it is also hard work. Most of us authors don’t make any money on our books. We don’t get paid for all the hard work, but that doesn’t discourage us from writing the next novel, always hoping this is the one. If we don’t get rewarded with money for our efforts there is still a payoff. We enjoy dreaming our dreams, living in the worlds we create and we learn. That’s what living is about, experiencing and learning and growing and using the gifts we received. Doing nothing with our lives is a terrible waste. We were meant to create; even it is only in our minds.

Enjoy this day. Perhaps read one of my stories.