Swords of Secunda has just been sent off to my three test readers!

I’m so bloody excited. Shield of Secunda took me almost a year to get to this point and now I’ve arrived there in four months. And what a four months it has been. Now I just need to wait for Simon, Eliot, and AB to get back to me with their thoughts and I can get this thing finished and off to my new editor (Expensive; but hey, some guys spend their money on cars, others on every new video game that comes out, and others at the pub. I spend mine on my story-telling passion… and the pub).

Listening to my test readers was one of the major lessons I learned from Shield of Secunda. I had edited and proofed and edited it so many times before I gave it to them that when one of them suggested a storyline arc change, I pretty well responded with, “Yeah, that’ll happen as soon as Tor Publishing discover my self-pubbed work and laud me as the next JRR Tolkein.” Mistake.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Shield of Secunda just the way it is (except for some of my grammar), its significance in my life cannot be expressed, but it could have been better. This time, I’ve gone to them earlier. They now have the first draft, with one edit to get all those little tie-ins finished. I can’t wait to see what they’ll come back to me with.

Then I just need a cover, a blurb, an edit, and off it goes for formatting!

In the mean time I, all of a sudden, find myself in the unenviable position of trying to work out what I can start on next that I can get pretty close to finishing in the 3-4 weeks I estimate it will take the three amigos to wrap up their test reading and feedback.

A few options:

Chapter plan for an action/political thriller novel; or,
An entry into the black library window that just came to me while I was having lunch at work today (it’s pretty bad-arse); or,
A couple of the Thale Rook short stories I spoke about in my last post (Looking at you here Sean Kelly!); or, finally,
Find a writing competition or two and see if I can get my work in a magazine or something.

I’ve got notes aplenty for all four options. Just need a decision. What do ya reckon?