So last year about this time, I wrote a novel in the Gaia Nova universe. \u00a0Usually when I sit down to write a novel, it falls apart about midway through the first draft, or I have some kind of a break down, or something else comes up and I have to put it on hold for a while.<\/p>\n
From start to finish, this one came out in about six weeks.<\/p>\n
Even the title,\u00a0Stars of Blood and Glory<\/strong>, really seemed to stick (usually, I go through three or four lame titles before finding one that works). \u00a0It took a lot of energy to write it, but the writing process itself was\u00a0fun<\/em>. \u00a0Seriously, everything just came together and the story practically wrote itself.<\/p>\n However, writers can often be notorious judges of their own work. \u00a0For that reason, I set it aside and tried not to touch it for a few months (I did rework the first couple chapters, but later ended up cutting out most of that stuff and going back to the original version, which was better). \u00a0Over the summer, I picked it up for the first revision, and while the scenes were out-of-order and a few of them were missing, but for the most part, everything that was there seemed pretty good.<\/p>\n Just to be safe, I sent it out to some first readers and laid it aside for another six months. \u00a0I didn’t hear back from everyone I sent it to, but those who did read it said it was pretty good. \u00a0The problems they found were relatively minor, or could be fixed relatively quickly, without having to overhaul the story.<\/p>\n To be perfectly honest, this blew me away. \u00a0My first drafts are usually really messy, and require a lot of work before they’re any good. \u00a0But this one…this one seems different. \u00a0This one, I might have just nailed it <fingers crossed>. \u00a0And if that’s indeed the case, it’s probably better not to risk revising it to death, or polishing the voice right out of it.<\/p>\n It’s always a scary thing to send a book out into the world. \u00a0However, I think the time to send out this one has come. \u00a0I’m going to do one last revision pass, just to make sure there isn’t anything too egregious, and then I’ll send it out to my editor and commission the cover art. \u00a0If all goes well, I’ll finish the revision next week, and publish it in ebook and print-on-demand sometime in February.<\/p>\n As an indirect sequel to\u00a0Bringing Stella Home<\/strong> and\u00a0Desert Stars<\/strong>,\u00a0Stars of Blood and Glory<\/strong> has a lot of recurring characters. \u00a0Here are some of them:<\/p>\n Besides that, here are some of the other cool things you can expect to see:<\/p>\n\n