HEARTSTRUNG
Book 3 of the Invisibles Series
My new book is a sequel to Return to Lerici, Book 3 of The Invisibles series. I’m now in the process of finishing the manuscript. The story follows Daniel, a young man who was sort of adopted into the Greene family of The Invisibles and Return to Lerici. Daniel is n love, and he travels with his girlfriend Lara on an adventure to India, following what Lara calls her Map to Enlightenment.
Can a young couple falling in love survive the perils of a journey to India?
Daniel is going off on a road trip with his new girlfriend, Lara. She’s on a quest for truth and spirituality. He’s on a quest to secure their relationship and to make a career writing songs. They head to the far corners in India, following Lara’s Map to Enlightenment, a tour of spiritual communities she found online. She doesn’t know exactly what she wants, but she’s confident she’ll know when she finds it. He only knows that he has to follow Lara and create a life in music. Will their journey carry them on different paths in different hemispheres, or will love and music find a way?
Getting to Know Your Characters
Getting an idea for a story is one thing. Fleshing it out into a full-length novel is quite another. I find the most challenging and also fascinating part is to get to know my characters, especially the main characters. For fast-paced, action-oriented novels, the next step after getting the idea for the story is to work out the plot. For character-driven novels, the next step is to get to know your people and their WHYS. What do the main characters want, and how flawed are they in going about getting it? Those flaws in pursuing their dreams will contain the plot of the story, whether they’re successful in achieving their goals or not. Whether the goal is romantic, ambitious, vengeful, or heroic, the why-and-how of getting to the end result is what interests readers who like character-driven stories.
Finishing the book
Some people wonder about the whole process of writing a book. There’s the writing — and then there’s so much more than the writing. Once the book is drafted, self-edited, and spell-checked, it’s ready to go through these steps:
Early (Beta) readers & their feedback
Cover design
Professional copy editing
Interior formatting
Writing back matter (bio, other books, acknowledgements, etc.)
Create launch plan
Final proofreading
Publishing
I’m three-quarters done with having a full draft. Then I’ll send it to readers who sign up to give me feedback. While they’re reading, I’ll ask my cover designer to work out the front cover and full wrap for this book. Then another editing pass based on early readers’ feedback. Then I’ll hire a copy editor (a wizard on usage, spelling, grammar, and punctuation). Then a proof read, and then the manuscript will be ready for interior formatting. But before I can finish the interior, I have to write the back matter. In my books, I now include links to my other books, a preview of this one (chapter 1), and of course acknowledgements to the people who helped me write this book.
Creating a Book’s Landing Page
During the past editing process, after the cover is designed, I’ll create the Amazon product page. This involves some of the hardest writing in creating a novel: writing a short blubr (250 words or less) that summarizes the story in an enticing way to encourage browsers to buy.
Once I have a good blubr and cover, I revise my website to include the new book. I can then begin dropping mentions of the book on social media — the more platforms the better. I no longer bother with pre-orders, because I’m busy with all these steps. I’m guessing this book will be available in January 2025.
For more on my writing and self-publishing steps, check out my Writer Resources Page.
This will be novel Number Seven for me, and I’m already thinking about Novel Eight. I have ideas for sequels in both the Timegathering and Invisibles series, but other ideas as well. I like to be working on several projects at a time.
Happy reading and writing!
