A few minutes ago, I completed the final draft of Buk Tu (ie “Book Two” or the sequel to The Tale of Telsharu). Sam and I will submit the manuscript to our publisher tomorrow. After this, we move into final revisions, editing, and…publication! This draft has taken a surprising and incredible amount of work. Last night I tried to describe to a friend what it’s been like, and had difficulty explaining. First of all, no chapter of the book was untouched in this revision. In ever

Yesterday evening I received a text message from a dear friend of mine. She and her husband have been apart for some time, and it’s going to be awhile before they will be reunited. It’s been a real struggle for her, continuing on alone while he is away. In her text message last night, she told me that she is reading Telsharu, in the part where Daryun and Aisina (a married couple) are reunited after being apart for a time. After quoting some pieces from the text, she said, “Th

My roommate came in the other day and looked around. Currently I have a craft table set up. My laptop sits in the middle, surrounded by manuscript pages that have been marked up by beta readers. I was sitting, working on revisions of Buk Tu. She looked at me and said, “That looks hard.” Revisions can be incredibly challenging. It’s a lot different than composition. To revise, you have to carefully trim out the pieces that didn’t work, replace them with new material, while sti

There are a number of stages that we go through as writers to prepare a manuscript for publication. This differs slightly from writer to writer, though I imagine many of the pieces are similar. The process that Sam and I go through is as follows. Step 1: Brainstorming Step 2: Composition Step 3: Self Revision Step 4: Editor read-thru Step 5: Revision Step 6: Beta readers Step 7: Revision Step 8: Editing Step 9: Revision Step 10: Copy editing & Proof reading For those of you w

I love reading The Tale of Telsharu. Is this weird? I’ve heard of fellow authors who cannot look at their works, once they are published. More often, I’ve heard of actors who won’t watch their own movies, and musicians who won’t listen to their own music. But the principle seems to be the same. Perhaps it’s vain to admit, but I love reading my work. Not all of them. Many of my old stories are utterly pathetic, absurdly trite, and nearly intolerable. But some are worth at leas

I always have to laugh a little when I hear people discuss the solitary art of writing. Talking about writers who holed up in an office/cave/hotel room/cafe/what have you to write their great works. Clearly, in order to publish a book, other people get involved. Sometimes dozens of other people.Writing very quickly turns into a group effort. Yet for me, the group project begins very early on–starting, of course, with Sam, and often his wife Ashley. Working with a coauthor nat

To our dear friends and family, It is exciting to hear that many of you are receiving your copies, and even more exciting to hear that many of you have started reading the book! It is a nervous excitement, as we eagerly await to see what you think of TELSHARU. When you have finished reading, it is our great hope that you will share your thoughts with others. We are seeking to spread word of the book, and spread our names as well. A key component of our success as authors are

TELSHARU is now available! You have a couple of options to purchase the books, as follows: The Tale of Telsharu The paperback is available right now on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. If you cannot wait another day to read TELSHARU, this is your best option. These sites are listing the book at retail, plus shipping. The paperback will also be available at our promotional website in a few days. We will be offering a discount off the cover price. We will make the link available as s

As I have ventured out into the world as a writer–and now as a soon-to-be-published author–I have been astounded again and again by how many people in the world think of themselves as writers. I wish I could have a dollar for every time I hear a phrase like, “Yeah, I’ve thought about writing a book…” By now, I would be rich. There is a vast leap between those who have a story in the back of their head, and those who actually commit their great work to the page. And of course,