Saturday, July 2, 2011

Publisher offers contract for 'Thief's Coin'...

Well, that was fast.

The finished manuscript for Thief’s Coin went to Wings ePress in Mid-June and within a week or so it was accepted for publication.

The contract came via email. I printed it out, signed it and sent it back by snail mail. Wings ePress wants to release Thief’s Coin in October.

As the publisher’s name makes clear, Wings ePress is an online publisher. The company’s lean and does things fast. While a traditional publishing house can take to a year to get a novel to publication, Wings ePress does it in three months.

Thief’s Coin is the second of my novels Wings ePress will publish. The publisher released The Emperor’s Mistress in August 2010. The novels make up books one and two of the Larenia Shadow Trilogy. Some of you may have bought The Emperor’s Mistress. If you did and liked it, consider purchasing Thief’s Coin. Some of you may not know I’m an author. Why not consider purchasing books one and two of the Larenia Shadow Trilogy? Then you can critique my novel-writing skills?

The third book, Assassins’ Lair, is underway—barely. The first seven chapters have been written. It’s only about 20 percent complete.
 
These books are fantasy novels. The trilogy is about two teenager lovers – a prince and a thief – on a quest to thwart the ambition of a thousand-year-old sorceress to rule an empire and take revenge on the royal family who imprisoned her deep in a glacier. The lovers, Derrius and Stealth, can pull off their quest by “stealing” a magical sword – Larenia’s Shadow – and using it to negate the sorceress’s magic.

The novels are set in an alternate world similar with aspects of both Ancient Rome and Medieval Europe. In The Emperor’s Mistress, the action takes place in the countryside. Thief’s Coin is mostly an urban adventure. The plot puts Stealth back in the warrens of her hometown where she has to use her cunning to rescue Derrius from the clutches of her archenemy Jarn Sork, the sorceress’s master spy.

I tweaked the plot of Thief’s Coin after evaluating a critique by fellow author Jeannette Cottrell. By focusing on Stealth’s actions, I weakened Derrius’s personality, Jeanette said. I went back through the novel and toned down places where Derrius might have come across as a wimp. I finished tweaking during a visit to Las Vegas in late March to visit my friend Sharon. Once back in Wilmington, I read through the manuscript a final time to make sure my editing changes meshed with the plot and then emailed it to Wings ePress.

I’ve still a couple of things I must do. First, I have to provide some suggestions for a cover. Artist Richard Stroud did the cover for The Emperor’s Mistress and it’s quite stunning. Go to my website at lareniashadow.com and check it out. I hope he does the cover for Thief’s Coin.

I also have to provide a back cover blurb, a 25-word plot summation and a three-paragraph synopsis.

Come October, folks, think about ordering the book. You’ll be able to order directly from the Wings ePress website, Fictionwise or Amazon.

Some of Wings ePress’ romance writers have half a dozen or more published novels. They spit them out like Henry Ford’s assembly lines spit out Model Ts. They must get some very nice royalty checks. Maybe someday, eh?