Parallax: Genesis, Lighting the Fires

I’m settling in today to work on Parallax: Genesis and I’m finding it easier than expected to walk (metaphorically) the decks of John Pratt’s ship, Artemis, as I kick off this latest installment of Pratt’s odyssey through Space. I’ve decided to approach this particular story a little different than I did with Parallax.

(Side Voice): You mean you got more organized this time?
(Me): Quiet!

Anyway, this time around I’m preparing both ebook and paperback manuscripts simultaneously which is proving interesting since both use different formats to accomplish the publishing process. Still the same story, obviously.

Sequel stories, at least to me, are unique in that they have to achieve not only a continuation of the current storyline but must also be able to stand on their own. After all, not every reader approaches a series from the same starting point so grabbing and holding their interest becomes very important from the getgo as well as getting them caught up with what’s already happened without overly explaining what happened in the previous story. That would be redundant in my opinion and defeat the purpose of writing the first book.

I finished a rough outline of the book recently and since I use outlines mainly as guides to help me tell the story, they are subject to change as the plot dictates. Suffice it to say that Pratt is on a quest for answers with the bad guys in hot pursuit and the rest of the Galaxy dealing with their own problems in the meantime. The plot’s focus will shift this time around from the borders of known space to taking place mostly on Earth, which should be interesting because up to this point I had only made vague references to it in snatches of dialog between characters.

It is already a fun ride. 🙂

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Good Tuesday To You

After a few abortive attempts, I’m once again running a month-long pair of advertising campaigns through Amazon Marketing Services for Parallax while I write Parallax: Genesis. I say abortive because setting up a stable writing budget to fund this endeavor proved to be something of a challenge and I prefer to err on the side of caution with respect to these things.

But I did it and I’m glad I did because despite all the romantic notions I’ve ever held as a writer, making a living at it requires some sacrificing and hard work. After all, you can’t eat fun though you can eat FOR fun. Of course, it costs me very little on average to put out a book even though I would prefer to have some kind of return on my investment and have my books pay for themselves (and me) over time. Balancing a Day Job and a Writing Career isn’t as fun as you would imagine.

I’m still coping with the effects of putting Lights and Shadows on hold but anything is possible with it including revising it later as a future episode of a new series I’ve thought about doing after The Parallax Trilogy is complete involving John Pratt and his merry band of wandering do-gooders.

Anyway, that’s what I’m up to at the moment. Back to outlining Parallax: Genesis so have a great day. 🙂

Pulling The Plug on Lights and Shadows (For now)

It’s never an easy decision to pull the plug on a long-term project, even if it’s only for a brief time.

Lights and Shadows started off as a filler project to kill some time while I was winding down from getting Parallax off the ground. Unfortunately, now it’s a year later and it seems that both my interest in it and my progress has slowed to a crawl. That tells me that I need to evaluate how much of an investment I should continue to contribute to it. No, I’m not abandoning it altogether, merely putting it on hold in favor of Parallax: Genesis.

Of course, putting Lights and Shadows on the back burner means that my goal of getting a new book out this year will go unfulfilled. Goals are funny things because they don’t always get accomplished when you intend them. I still believe that Lights and Shadows is a good story that deserves to be put out there, just not at this point in time.

That being said, it’s time to devote my energies and resources to revisiting John Pratt and The Parallax Universe.