Hello folks, more time has passed than expected once again. Between blog posts I mean. The standard flow of time has otherwise been maintained, at least in my vicinty, as far as I can tell. Observational bias and all that.

Anyway, updates. The Long Road to publication continues. Strangely enough my proofreads turned into another one-last-edit-no-this-time-I-mean-it! experience. Which was completed a couple of weeks ago. The final proof has been returned to me now, with some corrections for me to work through. That will be done this week. As people always say in their acknowledgements page, any and all mistakes that remain in the published text are mine and mine alone. My most profound thanks go to the friends, readers, editors, and proofers who have helped me get this far!

Proofing round 3 will of course be me checking the formatting on the book. There is always more proofing, right up to the moment you press “Publish” and be damned. However, I think I have crossed the Rubicon of diminishing returns at long last, and no more editorial activity is required or desired. This story has at last been mentally set aside as an active topic, and I have engaged with new and old projects instead to keep the creative fires burning – projects that I’ll discuss in future blogs.

What remains for The Killer and The Dead is the business of becoming a book from a manuscript. Decisions remain to be made, and marketing and advertising should be done, which I freely admit I shall not do enough of, in common with many authors who do not do as much as they perhaps should to promote themselves or their brand. I am currently okay with that, as two books is a beginning, not a brand, and I’m prepared to be patient, having experienced the high of first book publication and then the realization that my book is just one of millions, and that finding an audience is probably harder than writing the book in the first place. The writing, while difficult in places, is still preferable to me than the act of courting an audience, so in pride and timidity I shall languish in obscurity. I am at ease with this, for now. There shall come a day when I am not, and hopefully by then it will not be too late for me to finally work harder on the business side of books!

The SPFBO I mentioned in my last entry has reached its climax, so go here to see the final standings. Congratulations to Justin Lee Anderson and The Lost War! Looks like it was a nailbiter at the finish!