It’s coming along. As I mentioned in a post a week and a half ago, my next project is to overhaul my self-published second editions. I guess it’s no longer my next project, it’s my current project.
I’ve now officially unpublished the books from all vendors. It might take a few weeks for them to disappear from all the Smashwords distributors, but it’s just a matter of time.
The overhauling process has only just begun. It’s been a while since I’ve had the gumption to reread those old stories, and I’ve got to say, it’s eye-opening. Clearly, I’ve learned a lot about how to properly tell a story since I first started putting words to paper.
I’ve only completed the overhaul on two of the short stories so far. The Dreams overhaul might end up involving some more significant changes affecting the storylines, but the shorts will remain mostly the same in essence, although the telling of the stories will be improved.
Born to Be Wild was the first to be reworked. Cute story…I really do like it. But, damn, it was one of my earliest efforts. Let’s just say that many changes were made to my wording choices. King Kong vs. The Skinny Pirate, on the other hand, was the last thing I ever wrote before my long hiatus. I’d already worked with the wonderful development editor (at that time) at Loose ID as I whipped Cultivating Love into shape. I learned so much from that wonderful woman. Anyway, I only tweaked maybe two dozen words in the King Kong short. It was already in fantastic shape. I still love that story.
I’m going to miss a few of the covers I’d made for the short stories. I always thought the Moving Along cover was cute, and I really liked the one for Dropping Quarters. The ones I was most proud of were King Kong vs. The Skinny Pirate and Photo Shoot. Those were each made from three separate images…the backgrounds plus two forward images (as well as some fun with lighting and framing in Photo Shoot).
The apps I have now won’t allow me quite that much manipulation–or if they will, I haven’t figured them out yet–so I’m going with single images for the new ones. I’ve already had fun mocking up covers for those future releases, but I haven’t purchased the images yet. I’ll share them once I’ve made my final decisions and put them together.
I really liked “Cultivating Love”, which is the only book of yours I’ve read except for…well you know 🙂 The MC’s are really likable and I really love that when they decide to fully commit they go all in, in a lovely way! Yeah, I love that book!
Do you plan on expanding it, or is it “just” re-edit? 🙂
I’m glad you like that one. It was my favorite of my stories until recently. That one’s not on the overhaul list because it’s still under contract at Loose ID. They’ve been renewing it every year, and I’ve agreed to it each time. Probably will again. There’s one typo I noticed a while back that bothers me, but otherwise I mostly like that story as-is. I haven’t reread it in a while, so I’m not sure how much I might want to reword or expand. The story itself, though, I don’t think I’d change. 😀
I’m happy to hear that. I like the story as-is. Maybe I’d like a sneak-peek of their lives a few years down the road, but no changes to the current story 🙂
Oh, yes. An epilogue would be a nice addition! Or maybe I could think up a full story’s worth of drama for them. 😉
I had to re-read it since we talked about it, and I just wanted to say that I love the scene in the car when Joe tells Ed he’s more important than having his own farm. They’re so awkwardly adorable 🙂
😀 Thank you!