Getting caught up...

I have been a little neglectful here lately. I have finished writing and editing book 2 of The Juno Letters series, Cross of Fire. It is the story of Gela Pientka who appears as a minor character but a major turning point in The Juno Letters, Book 1.

We also finished the first book in audio format - we, because it was Gary Regal, my narrator, who did all the work. What it did point out to me was there were some errors in NOCK on Wood, the first book in The Viper Chronicles, that had to be fixed. I took the opportunity to rework all three novels in a slightly different but standardized format. I also made some adjustments to Juno book 1 to make it match with the story as it emerged in book 2.

That meant reediting and reformatting for all of my media, including print-on-demand. It has been a huge task, but I just posted the revised editions online today. I'll put the POD versions up later in the week - don't want to miss Cyber Monday.

We are going to start the audio version of Juno after the first, and plan to have all three of The Juno Letters books done by June. That said, I have also started on book 3 - The Story of Ariele. I am toying with the story line and right now I think a great title will be The Black Sun, based on the story as I see it. That may change, however, so don't hold me to it.

That said, as I went to print on Cross, Apple pulled a fast one and gutted my favorite word processor PAGES, and took out the ability to do facing pages - critical for print-on-demand. I tried to do it in Word - big mistake. There were so many times that changes I made were not reflected in the saved version (I actually did a SAVE AS in three different file names and had 3 different sets of errors in the final product .. go figure) that I wasted almost 8 hours trying to format for POD. 8 hours is a lot, and at my billing rate ... well, that was the last time.

I switched to Mellel for my final product, a powerful word processor I had looked at once before. It is from a small software company in Israel, and the product is optimized for large manuscripts. It is NOT for the weak kneed, but once I got the rhythm of the interface, I fell in love. It is fast, powerful, and stable. I was able to reformat all 3 documents for print in 4 hours (as opposed to 8 hours for 1 in Word).

I still write in Pages - Cloud synced with my iPad, which is important to my work flow. I transfer to Mellel for the final document.

Google 'Mellel' if you want to see what a REAL word processor is like. They will give you a 30-day trial.

The D-Day 70th Anniversary Edition

The D-Day 70th Anniversary Edition of The Juno Letters is now available in all the e-outlets and Print-on-Demand. This is Book 1 of the series; Book 2, Cross of Fire, is going live by week's end. I have the copyright registered and received the Library of Congress number today so I can publish. There are always little thing that hold up completion - tomorrow I have to be out of town all day, so looks like Friday is publishing day.

Publishing Cross of Fire

The agonizing is finally over - the editing done (at least until someone finds another typo!). Cross of Fire is available online for free in iBook ePub format and PDF for a limited time while I complete the process of publishing. I hope to have the newest of The Juno Letters books on Amazon by November 12 and through SMASHWORDS to all electronic outlets by November 15. The Print-on-Demand version is expected by November 20. Cross of Fire was more difficult, mainly in carving down the story to fit within a realistic context. I hope you like the characters, and the story keeps getting a little darker with each new entry in the series. The next in the series, Ariele, will tear back the lid even more on the corruption of the French Holocaust... I hope to have it available by March, 2014. Download a free version for a limtied time at The Juno Letters - click on the CROSS OF FIRE icon.

Cross of Fire - Manuscript Completed

I have finished Cross of Fire (once titled The Money Train) and put the prerelease version out for comments and edits to a select list. Even though I have spent the past month editing, there are ALWAYS some things that slip by - speling erors, missing words that when read fill the blanks, and minor ædjustmënts that need to be mayde. I hope to be able to publish by mid-month. I am also waiting for permission to use one of several photos on the back cover.

Bonjour - Je m'appelle The Juno Letters

I just sent a shipment of The Juno Letters Print Edition to the museum bookstore on Juno Beach - The Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer. It will be on the shelves for the 70th D-Day Anniversay next June. Too cool!

Twitter in the age of Unsocial Media

My Twitter account has been the object of repeated hacker attacks this past month. I have reset my password several times to try and stop it, but I am concerned that this technology is so poorly implemented that it make represent more of a threat than an asset to my book promotions. If it continues I am going to probably drop Twitter altogether.

The Juno Letters on sale at The Juno Beach Center soon

I am pleased to report that I have just received a purchase order for The Juno Letters from The Juno Beach Centre, the Canadian museum honoring the soldiers who invaded Juno Beach on D-Day. I visited the Center last year at this time. It is in the commune of Courseulles-sur-Mer, one of the most delightful places you can visit on the Normandy coast. It also is the location of the climax of The Juno Letters. If you visit Normandy, please stop by The Juno Beach Centre and Courseulles - you will remember your stay always.