Tomorrow will mark four weeks since submitting a query on The Shunammite Woman and still no reply which surprises me. In the meantime I have finished editing my The Vanishing Shed novel by eliminating most all of the words "now" and "then" which I did because of an article in my RWR (Romance Writers Report) magazine. This magazine comes from RWA (Romance Writers of America) of which I am a member. They have an option where I as a debut author can submit my first novel information and appear in RWR. Also RWA will be requiring members upon renewing to prove they are pursuing a career in romance writing. One way of doing that is to submit proof of a novel which has an ISBN number and I can do that late next year when my membership is up for renewal. If not accepted I'll lose full membership status which will result in not being able to vote. I can submit my Change of Heart information and hopefully that will fill the bill. I am once again going to seek an agent for The Vanishing Shed.
That is my update for now.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Friday, November 13, 2015
Sales Track Stats
Today marks two weeks since I submitted a query on The Shunammite Woman. I have revised my novel The Vanishing Shed and now it numbers 84,400 words, not much reduced from 85,000 words. After another read through I'll decide where I'll submit it. I have given away two more copies of my religious publication which I did via CreateSpace to two folks in our congregation. Its title is In Remembrance Of Me. I only paid a bit under four bucks for each print copy of that and am selling it for five dollars. I wanted to show you the stats of my novels/anthology below. I don't have the figures on the actual sales via the publisher, only my own efforts at selling them.
The Silver Dart seven copies
In Remembrance of Me four copies
2014 Summer Anthology three copies
A Change of Heart twenty-one copies
Actually, I do have records of some of the sales beyond the above numbers. Some kind folks downloaded the ebook version of A Change of Heart.
My mother, Stella Hammersley, passed away almost eleven years ago and I have her book on which she worked fifteen years gathering information and photos for it. Its title is White River Memories. It has gone through numerous printings via a copying shop in nearby Bloomington, Indiana. She sold it down through the years and now I'm selling it. This is a non fiction book about Williams, Indiana. It covers the local school at Williams which I attended grades two through twelve. The school burned down and was rebuilt in 1944. The school's first graduating class was 1911 and the last class was 1963, my sister-in-law, Brenda graduating that year. My wife graduated in 1957 and I graduated in 1956. The book contains all the available class photos and information about the small town of Williams where I grew up. It is available from me and the local museum in Bedford, Indiana. I have copies if anyone is interested.
The Silver Dart seven copies
In Remembrance of Me four copies
2014 Summer Anthology three copies
A Change of Heart twenty-one copies
Actually, I do have records of some of the sales beyond the above numbers. Some kind folks downloaded the ebook version of A Change of Heart.
My mother, Stella Hammersley, passed away almost eleven years ago and I have her book on which she worked fifteen years gathering information and photos for it. Its title is White River Memories. It has gone through numerous printings via a copying shop in nearby Bloomington, Indiana. She sold it down through the years and now I'm selling it. This is a non fiction book about Williams, Indiana. It covers the local school at Williams which I attended grades two through twelve. The school burned down and was rebuilt in 1944. The school's first graduating class was 1911 and the last class was 1963, my sister-in-law, Brenda graduating that year. My wife graduated in 1957 and I graduated in 1956. The book contains all the available class photos and information about the small town of Williams where I grew up. It is available from me and the local museum in Bedford, Indiana. I have copies if anyone is interested.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Shunammite Woman query submitted
I have submitted a query of the Shunammite Woman to a publisher who published my science fiction novel The Silver Dart. That was about a week and a half ago. I've not heard anything yet. The poem by my preacher friend, Fred McKinney I had decided not to include because I didn't think he would want his poem to be under a copyright of my story in case it sees publication. I've since received word from him not to worry about that and go ahead and include it.
If I don't hear anything or it is rejected I'll probably go with CreateSpace like I did with my religious publication In Remembrance Of Me. That way it would go into print. Otherwise, a publisher might not put it into print because at just over 18,000 words it doesn't even reach novella status.
I have read through my old novel The Vanishing Shed with the intentions of resubmitting it in hopes to gain an agent or publisher. I've noticed some of my segments are "over the top" in Nina's response to Buddy and so will shorten that part. I estimate that will probably drop it from 85,000 to 84,000 words. This is the novel which I received a rejection but a handwritten note from the agent that I was on the right track. She wanted me to revise it a certain way. I refused to do that but later decided to and resubmitted it to her. I never heard back from her. After putting the finishing touches on this and submitting it probably several times I'll probably start revising another novel that suffered numerous rejections. Its name is A Reason For Rescue. There will need to be some changes to it as well.
My poor blog needs some comments and I'd welcome that, even negative ones. If that happens, positive or negative please do me the courtesy of reading my answers. I would appreciate it.
If I don't hear anything or it is rejected I'll probably go with CreateSpace like I did with my religious publication In Remembrance Of Me. That way it would go into print. Otherwise, a publisher might not put it into print because at just over 18,000 words it doesn't even reach novella status.
I have read through my old novel The Vanishing Shed with the intentions of resubmitting it in hopes to gain an agent or publisher. I've noticed some of my segments are "over the top" in Nina's response to Buddy and so will shorten that part. I estimate that will probably drop it from 85,000 to 84,000 words. This is the novel which I received a rejection but a handwritten note from the agent that I was on the right track. She wanted me to revise it a certain way. I refused to do that but later decided to and resubmitted it to her. I never heard back from her. After putting the finishing touches on this and submitting it probably several times I'll probably start revising another novel that suffered numerous rejections. Its name is A Reason For Rescue. There will need to be some changes to it as well.
My poor blog needs some comments and I'd welcome that, even negative ones. If that happens, positive or negative please do me the courtesy of reading my answers. I would appreciate it.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
The Shunammite Woman in editing mode
I have been through the Shunammite Woman story twice. It numbers over 18,000 words including a wonderful poem by my preacher friend, Fred McKinney. He verbally gave me permission to use this in my story. I have included it at the end of the story, right after a glossary of name meanings and scripture references. I'm thinking I also need perhaps at the start of the story some statements about using miles instead of furlongs as the Bible uses for distances. However the New Testament uses the term mile in one place. In Bible times the mile was somewhat less than our English mile being 0.9 mile. Coins were not known in the Shunammite's time but the form of exchange was rings of gold or bands of gold so I have employed that in the story. I feel I need to use miles so the reader can understand distances better. I have mentioned many times distances from one town to another. I have relied on a book of Bible Lands by J.W. McGarvey who traveled these lands back when he lived in the late 1800s.
Unfortunately, The Shunammite Woman story doesn't even attain novella status which is 30,000 to 50,000 words. So I will have to settle for publication in ebook form if I can find a publisher who will do that. Francine Rivers who wrote five novellas on the five women listed in Christ's lineage number a bit over 50,000 words, at least the one I checked. I've read two of those five novellas: Ruth and Tamar.
Unfortunately, The Shunammite Woman story doesn't even attain novella status which is 30,000 to 50,000 words. So I will have to settle for publication in ebook form if I can find a publisher who will do that. Francine Rivers who wrote five novellas on the five women listed in Christ's lineage number a bit over 50,000 words, at least the one I checked. I've read two of those five novellas: Ruth and Tamar.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
New story begun: The Shunammite Woman
I was surprised to see I've not posted since one day before my 77th birthday. Since then I have started on a novella about The Shunammite Woman. Her story is found in the Bible 2 Kings 4:8-37 and 2 Kings 8:1-6. Of course I've written much fiction for her story so far but have remained accurate for that period of time covered in the above mentioned scriptures. She is unnamed in the Bible so I am calling her Bina which means intelligence, understanding, wisdom. I'm up to ten thousand words now and at the point in her life where Elisha has brought her son back to life.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
New SF Novel The Silver Dart
My new science fiction novel, The Silver Dart has released recently. See an earlier post for the buy link at Amazon.
Jade Cromwell cannot understand why his genius wife, Darla, left with aliens two years earlier leaving him and their daughter, Missy. He knew they would eventually return and take Missy too as she was nearly as smart as Darla. Six men appeared on Mars as Jade and Missy were headed for the breakfast diner. Jade, Missy and their dog, Spike had the six men beaten when a seventh appeared and bashed Jade and Spike with a club. After they recuperate Jade and Spike leave on a journey fraught with dangers to find Darla and Missy. Darla's high tech ship the Silver Dart gives them hope to find them as they apparently left for a disant galaxy. Along the way they meet militant people and people who are friendly. They learn why Darla and Missy have been abducted. A menace in space threatens millions of people and the explosion resulting sends Jade into a parallel universe. Will he find his way back to our universe?
Leave a comment for the short synopsis and after May 8th I'll make a drawing by random number generator. Later I may have a print copy as a prize after I see how this goes.
Jade Cromwell cannot understand why his genius wife, Darla, left with aliens two years earlier leaving him and their daughter, Missy. He knew they would eventually return and take Missy too as she was nearly as smart as Darla. Six men appeared on Mars as Jade and Missy were headed for the breakfast diner. Jade, Missy and their dog, Spike had the six men beaten when a seventh appeared and bashed Jade and Spike with a club. After they recuperate Jade and Spike leave on a journey fraught with dangers to find Darla and Missy. Darla's high tech ship the Silver Dart gives them hope to find them as they apparently left for a disant galaxy. Along the way they meet militant people and people who are friendly. They learn why Darla and Missy have been abducted. A menace in space threatens millions of people and the explosion resulting sends Jade into a parallel universe. Will he find his way back to our universe?
Leave a comment for the short synopsis and after May 8th I'll make a drawing by random number generator. Later I may have a print copy as a prize after I see how this goes.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
The Silver Dart released in ebook form.
The price is $2.99 and there is already a review of four stars posted at Barnes and Noble nook. Hopefully, the print version will be out in less than two months.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Silver Dart novel accepted!
My novel, The Silver Dart, has been accepted by Victory Tales Press. They already have selected a cover for me, with my approval and with two images I supplied. They selected an image of a space ship and nebulae as a background. The blond woman represents Jade Cromwell's genius wife, Darla who built the high tech ship, Silver Dart. The dog, a photo of our dear departed pet and Australian Sheep Dog, Roscoe represents Spike in the novel. Rebecca tells me the novel will only require light editing since it is "clean" and I did read through it five times making corrections each time. If I can get the image in here I'll show you the cover which will be in 6x9 format. Well, it made it but I had to do something different to accomplish it.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Marcy's Struggle and The Silver Dart
The cover is great showing the conclusion of Marcy's Struggle for romance with the quarterback, Ross. Rebecca at Victory Tales Press has done this for me along with Laura Shinn. Josh Shinn did the cover and included a purchased photo of mine of the old laboratory.
Another spot of good news is that Rebecca has accepted my new science fiction novel The Silver Dart. Work on editing and the cover will begin shortly on that. Stay tuned.
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