Ahhh...Finally Published!

Greetings and salutations!

December 1st has arrived - or rather, November 30th has passed meekly into the night. National Novel Writing Month is over, and today brings relief to those of us that tormented ourselves by trying to cram 50,000 words into 30 days.

It was a mad rush, but I did manage to pull off the last 23k over the final ten days, skipping through at the end (more like early evening). Hopefully the results will actually end up in the finished product (Enemy Calling: Deception - late 2007), but more likley than not I'll end up trashing half of what I wrote. I guess that's the fun of it, right?

Other big news today (at least for me) is that last night Amazon.com finally made the Enemy Calling:Descent available for sale on its website. Within a week, it should also be available on Borders.com and most bookstores (via special order). Woo hoo! Exactly 365 days since I finished my first NaNoWriMo month, and the results are out there. I'm not sure if that's a good turn around time or not, but it was kind of a pain in the ass to do all of the rewrites this past spring, so it better be worth it!

A quick thank you to my wife Jennifer for reading (and rereading, and re-rereading) the manuscript in its entirety before final editing and approval was completed. Also, if you didn't know, I wrote in a backkwards way, starting off with the final chapter, and jumping around to whatever parts of the story I wanted to write on certain days. So the fact that she was able to read it AND understand the disconnected story lines in the early drafts makes it that much more impressive (and appreciated) that she kept reading and offering ideas on how to switch some things around.

Now the hard part - finishing up what I'm hoping will be a much more fulfilling and interesting book than the first. The basic elements for a more exciting book are there, and I have a great idea for the climatic finish, but there is so much more to add into the story to set up the final culmination that should tie together so many of the storylines that developed in EC:Descent.

A few things to mention before signing off:
1. The Enemy Calling website should be up soon. Currently the beta version is being worked on, with a home page and links to characters, star system information, ideas on the next book, and general info on the story.

2. If you purchase the book, please go to Amazon.com and leave a review (hopefully positive, but be honest!). The more reviews, the better it will help me with the next book.

3. There are clues in the Descent that give you an idea about the final chapter, as well as setting up some things that will be happening in the Deception book. I'm waffling about whether to add a spoiler section to the website for readers to go to and find out what clues they saw (or missed). Post and let me know if you'd like to see that on the website.

Thanks again for reading, and for your support (should you buy the book). Looks like Amazon.com already has a used copy for sale. Is that a good thing?????

Later,
Erik