Six More Weeks

Hey y'all,

Well, summer's over, my daughter's back in school and the wife's back to work. We had a really great summer, this being the first time we've all been together for the entire summer. We squeezed in a few trips to the coast, twice to Beaufort and once to Charleston, to visit my wife's two kids. We worked side by side in the garden and had a really great crop this year.

I'm about 75% through with the writing part of Fallen Mangrove and 100% through my own editing, up to this point. I'm taking a large chunk of this month's royalties to invest in a new professional developmental editing service. Until now, I'd relied on proofreaders and copy editors only. My new developmental editor will spend a few weeks scouring the pages of my manuscript, to help develop both the plot and the characters, on top of looking for misspellings and improper punctuation and grammar. I should be able to submit it to beta readers in three or four weeks, then to the editor about 9/24.

As always, I'll utilize specialty beta readers also. I've found these people to be extremely valuable in finding discrepancies. For instance, in Fallen Pride, I'd written a lot of interaction between the pilot, Dave, and air traffic control. Two of my beta readers for that book were pilots and one was an air traffic controller. We wound up scrapping 70% of the dialogue and polished up what was left to make it a whole lot more realistic. I choose my beta readers, usually ten to twelve, by their expertise. Since much of Fallen Mangrove will take place on the island of Elbow Cay in the northern Bahamas, I'll be asking people who are very familiar with Elbow Cay to read it prior to release.

This will be very important, because Fallen Mangrove will be the first book I've written with a location I've never been to. Sure, I've visited the Bahamas, I've even been to Great Abaco in the northern Bahamas, which is the main island that Elbow Cay is a barrier island to. Until now, I've kept my writing to places I've been to. Well, except for Cuba. But Fidel can't live forever and I WILL dive the Cuban reefs one day.

Because I've never been to Elbow Cay, I spent a lot of time early in the writing of this book researching this location. Fallen Pride so far has taken the longest to write, nearly four months start to finish. I started writing and researching Fallen Mangrove in April, nearly four months ago. At publication, it will have been over five months. A friend from high school owns vacation rental property on Elbow Cay and her property will be featured as part of the setting and she will be one of my beta readers.

My other books have been pretty straight up, as far as plot goes, with a single protagonist group and a single antagonist group. Fallen Mangrove will be a bit different, with more than one antagonist group coming at Jesse and friends from several different directions, a new familial character, and secret help from more than one unknown source.

Here's a forewarning. Fallen Mangrove will be just a bit racier than previous books. Nothing graphic, but the extracurricular activities of several characters will be explored.

I still expect it to be available in early October, which will be the anniversary of the release of my first book, Fallen Palm. I should be able to narrow down a date in the next few weeks. The very first print copy I receive from the printer will be signed and given to one person chosen at random from my newsletter mailing list. Also, those on the mailing list will have the exact time and date of the release special, where Fallen Mangrove will be reduced to only $.99 for Kindle users for one day only. You can sign up on my website to be eligible. I usually send out an email about every ten to fourteen days, but ramp it up to a couple of emails in the last week before the release.

That's it for now, back to writing.

Semper Fi,
Wayne

Cover Reveal and Change in Donation Recipient

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long since I posted. Summer's are really busy around here with harvesting and we've made a few trips to the coast. School starts in a few weeks, so we're home for a while now.

After going back and forth for weeks on the title of my current work in progress and a lot of contests on Facebook to see what my readers liked, I've made a decision. I contacted my photographer in Florida, told him what I wanted and asked him to search through his files for a photo. Again, Tim Ebaugh has knocked it out of the park. I've known Tim and his family for nearly forty years. His dad, Bob was a photographer for NASA before retiring. Tim has learned a lot from him and coupled that with his natural affinity for light, color, and composition. Tim was the photographer for the cover of Fallen Hunter and did the graphics on all four titles. What do you think?

 

Another friend in central Florida is retired Paratrooper, David Isnardi. Snard and I grew up together in Melbourne, Florida. Not long ago, he was instrumental in creating Space Coast Paratroopers Association and through that Home for Warriors, a non-profit organization dedicated to remodeling and adapting new homes for central Florida's Wounded Warriors. 

I'd been donating half the profit of Fallen Pride to Wounded Warrior Project, a nationwide non-profit, but after seeing what Snard's doing on a local basis, I decided my money could do a lot more in the community I grew up in. To that end, I changed the Fallen Pride donation to go to this charity. I plan to go home from time to time and help with upcoming projects they're involved in.

I'm roughly half way through writing the first draft of Fallen Mangrove, formerly Fallen Coconut. Jesse has bought the seaplane featured in Fallen Pride, which belonged to a friend. One of the great things about writing is the research. This plane, a 1953 deHavilland Beaver, is a beautiful and very versatile aircraft. I've been communicating with Tripp Wacker, of Ryan Aviation Seaplanes in Palm Coast, FL, getting details about the plane just right. I may go down there and take a flight in Tripp's Beaver. They're one of the few places that provide training in this aircraft. This video features Tripp and his DHC-2.

I'm still planning an early October release for this book. I should have the first draft completed by mid-September. Then it'll go through a week of beta and proof reading, before going to the editor.  October 8th will the the anniversary of the publication of my first novel Fallen Palm. I'd really like to schedule the release of Fallen Mangrove for that date. 

I just downloaded Just Needs Killin, by my friend, Jinx Schwartz. It's the sixth book in the Hetta Coffey series and I'm currently reading the fifth, Just the Pits. I highly recommend this series about a woman who lives aboard her yacht in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico and all the trouble she runs into. The first book in the series is Just Add Water (Hetta Coffey Series Book 1). 

Semper Fi,

Wayne