Once upon a time... the first novel-length story I wrote was a space opera called "Treasure Hunt" (also sometimes called 'Flight of the Zephyr'). It had no anthropomorphic characters, instead having an esper and a telepath who take a trip across the stars on a ship with a mutinous crew. This has long been tagged as The Neverending Edit, since I can't seem to stop changing things every time I read back through it (yeah, kinda like George Lucas and Star Wars). You may or may not have read the original story when it used to be posted on Dennier.com, but I've never really been satisfied with the opening of the story and have long wanted to completely rewrite those first chapters. No, I don't mean to go back and edit them, I mean to totally dump the original chapters and write them from scratch with different scenes, reactions and attitudes. Over the years, I have rewritten the first two of those chapters, but the other three have sat dormant for ages -- until now. Before I sit down with Sunset for my big read through, I have resumed work on Treasure Hunt once again. However, once that's finally finished, I am hesitant about posting the story here on this site. As mentioned, it has no anthropomorphic characters, so it really doesn't match the rest of the tales I have archived here on this site, so I may make the finished tale available only via another Lulu Press paperback. Once TH is finally finished, my plans are to resume work on Sunset and then I have another Blue Horizon story I've started that will need to be completed before I try my pen at something else altogether. The final chapter of Sunset of Furmankind has been posted to the library. I began this story in early October 2008, so with its completion tonight, it has taken me almost three full years to write this tale. I want you to know that I greatly appreciate all the kind words and encouragement expressed to me during this time. There were moments when I felt like shelving the entire project, only for someone's uplifting words to come along and ease me back into production. If not for those times, this tale may never have been written. I understand that it was probably overlong in places, but everything came together to tell the story I wanted to tell. I want to express a special Thank You to author James R. Lane, my gracious Beta Reader who helped me over rough areas and made suggestions and recommendations when something just didn't flow right. Thanks, Jim! "What's next?" you may ask. I plan to take a break to read a book I just picked up from the local library, and once I'm finished with that, I will be re-reading Sunset of Furmankind from the beginning, likely making corrections, edits and additions along the way. When the manuscript has been cleaned up a bit, I will format it for a Lulu Press publication. Whether or not anyone else wishes a physical book of this tale to hold in his or her hands, I want one for my own library, so they will be made available through my bookstore. Thanks for coming along for the ride, my friends. Good night. Working through the weekend, the archive website is almost all in place now. The only section I still have left to copy, paste and format into its new home is Jeff's Born of Heroes chapters, and I am hoping to have those finished within the next day or two (depending upon how much time I have to work on it). Once those forty-three chapters are in place, I can resume work on the final chapters of Sunset of Furmankind. |
News & ANNOUNCEMENTSArchives
February 2016
Categories
All
|