Derek Palmer's Blog: Derek's blog

November the 16th will be the date. Podium Audio sent me an email in which they informed me that it would be the day when 'The Merchants' comes out as an audiobook! So, there will be e-books, paperbacks, and now audiobooks.

Seriously, never in my wildest dreams, I believed that there would be so many people reading my books; after all - I'm not a real writer, I think. Yet there were those people, people who even liked my books and told me so. Thank you all! Thanks also to all those people who offered criticism - whenever possible I try to learn and do better next time. Especially since I'm writing again. After finishing 'The Hidden Heritage' -series there was some time when I just couldn't make myself write. All those ideas were there but I just wasn't able to get the words out, at least not in a way that would have felt right.

At some point, I will also collect all my courage and start fixing the errors inside 'The Hidden Heritage' -series - since there are way too many.

Those numbers above are from the paperback copies - those 'real' books and it looks like a trend, does it? Either I wasn't able to finish it - or Stian just didn't want to give up. Whatever the reason, now the trilogy is finished and we can both continue our lives. Oops, I probably should not have revealed even that much. No spoilers here.

Most likely it will take a while before I publish anything new - even if I DO already have another book outlined. Not another trilogy, though - just a single book. Fantasy, but something different. However, right now I'm going to enjoy this feeling for a moment longer before really starting anything new.

'The Hidden Heritage book III - The Merchants' will be published on Friday, the 6th of May. Well, at least the Kindle e-book will be out that day and also the paperback will be out as soon as the lazy editor manages to get it done.

I had hoped that I could get the book out sooner, but all kinds of things happened during the last year. The book became a bit longer than I had planned (Can you really plan that?), the editing took longer and so on. But now the book will be out, almost exactly two years after the first book was published.

My editors. Thank you. A lot. And a bit more. There's still some more reading and checking to do as my helpers point out all the loopholes I managed to create there (since I created the universe there just can't be any, right?).

However, at the moment it seems that the paperback might be close to 500 pages long, if not a bit over. I have no idea how THAT happened. Maybe I should blame some of the characters for doing things I hadn't thought they could do.

So, just a little bit longer. I just asked for a new ISBN number and I should have it in a few days. While waiting for the number and the last comments I can only enjoy the March snowstorm we have here.

When I just checked I noticed that my first version of 'The Hidden Heritage' -trilogy and 'The Guardians' is from 2016, the beginning of 'The Scholars' from 2017 and the first notes of 'The Merchants' from 2018. Quite a lot has changed since then - and more than a 1000 pages has been written. More than a 1000 pages! When the idea of this series came to me I didn't really understand the enormity of the task. Writing, editing and publishing more than 1000 pages of text.

It's not just me, but all my editors and the other people who have helped me. Thank you!

The first version of 'The Merchants' is now finished. There's still a whole lot of editing, lots of changes to be done and quite a many tasks before the trilogy is fully ready. But that's different kind of work.

Almost 700'000 characters. Over 130'000 words, 40 chapters. Not quite finished yet - but getting there.

I have no idea if this ever happens to other writers, but sometimes I get a persistent idea in my head that refuses to go away. I know that I should just concentrate in finishing the book III of 'The Hidden Heritage', but... - what can you do? I've never been able to write something short - or to me 'a short story' has meant something about 20 pages - or almost 10000 words. Now I got an idea that I could put in less than 2000 words - so I had no other choice than write it out of my head in order to silence the voices there.

The Hidden Heritage book III? The first chapters have gone to my editor while I'm still writing the last chapters. Getting there!

That 'Hallofeel' story? See my Facebook page.

The good news is that Book III is getting thicker day by day! Now more than two thirds - maybe even three fourths - has been written and I'll make sure to write at least a bit more every day. So, just a moment longer and 'The Merchants' will become available.

Then there's something else: tomorrow, September the 15th Podium Audio will release the audio book version of 'The Guardians' via Audible! The pre-order link has already been there for some time and I'll add it to these pages, too. That's something I could never even imagine to happen, but I now I hope that this way this trilogy will find some new readers - or in this case listeners.

Half-way there. It also seems that I'm developing certain writing habits since I just spent the last few days reading through the first half of the book III (...a task that I really hate, reading my own stuff...), making corrections to the story itself. Exactly the same what I did with books I & II, but I didn't really understand the pattern until now. I guess I can be a bit slow every now and then.

Why did I want - or rather need - to do that? Well, the simple answer is that my characters refused to behave and decided to do things I hadn't planned. I should be the originator and I should have the complete power over them, but it seems that the characters can still decide to do something different. Something I hadn't planned and suddenly I notice that I have documented certain things all wrong and I need to fix them. Once again.

However, now that has been done and the story continues.

The good news is that it is coming out, there is no writer's block and sometimes I'm even able to control Stian from straying from his mission. The bad news is that as I started to work remotely I also stopped commuting and then I also lost some 'private time' I had been able to use writing. Luckily that just means that I need to learn some new habits in order to finish the book. At the moment approximately one third of the book III is written and I should have an idea where it's heading. Unless Stian does something stupid.

There are also some other things happening, but I will probably add something about them a bit later. Just something to boost my writing.

Some more info will be available in my Facebook page.