Stay tuned. Cover art from Sam_Designs on Fiverr will be revealed 5.20.22.

Doesn’t mean I won’t like the review anyway (or disagree with it).

I think this honest review is right on the money. Check it out for yourself…

I love reviews like this… It helps me with blind spots in character designs, hopefully will lead me to produce a better story the next go around. (Not that this one wasn’t a good story:)

Overall 3 out of 5 is not terrible. Average I guess. I still greatly appreciate the time taken to write a lengthy review.

SLS4AK has a ton of novel views posted, most of them are 3 out of 5 star reviews, some are 4 out of 5 star reviews, others are 2 out of 5 (the ones generally not enjoyed).

First, Discarded: A Marathon Torres Novel exploded in popularity last week, reaching #4 in Noir Crime and almost breaking the top 200 in Fiction & Literature. (Amazon’s sales charts).

The second thing that happened, a burst of reviews came in. Three total within days of this sales explosion. Now three doesn’t see like a lot, but I can truly say three is a big number based on how hard it is to get unsolicited reviews. These three reviews came in this morning. Two of them 5/5 stars, and one 4/5 stars. a complete win for my first novel!

Please stay tuned for further updates. Betrayed: A Marathon Torres Novel will be released this calendar year! It’s shaping up to be Marathon’s greatest challenge yet!

The next installment of the Marathon Torres series will take place later this year. Release date to be determined. However, I have decided name a theme from the book as the next title. Here it is…

Betrayed: A Marathon Torres Novel

Stay tuned for more updates, including cover art and release date info.

The rough draft for the 3rd book is complete. I was able to finish the Prologue and Epilogue this morning.

I get nervous when I put everything together. All the chapters into one document. Is the story long enough, but not too long? What’s the word count? Is it in line with the others?

I try and stick to a formula. Keep the chapters between 2,000 -5,000 words. Keep the novel to 110,000 words. Keep the readability score at or about between 100-85 (easy read). Keep the grade level at about 6 – 7th grade.

Microsoft Word and Apple Pages provide all these details and I use them to develop my novels.

I don’t have a release date set in mind, most likely fall 2022. I have a lot of editing to do, and some plot holes to plug. Getting the rough draft done is a major step of many more steps to come. Now the hard part begins.

Tomorrow, I will release the title of the book and revisit Fiverr for a cover design. I hope to get the same artist, Sam, to design the third book’s cover. I really enjoy his work and is able to take my vision and put it into a beautiful design.

I have a few ideas for color scheme and scenes, but ultimately I am going to leave it up to him to decide the initial art direction. Stay tuned! More updates to come.

Today, Abandoned reached #4 in Crime Action Fiction genre. In a flooded genre with 1,000s of titles out there, Abandoned broke the top 5.

Additionally, Abandoned made the top 5 best selling novels today in Noir Crime. Which is a first for this book as well.

These types of sales rarely lead to reviews, which is odd, but understandable I guess. Hopefully more reviews will come in and we’ll see some more success.

Today I hit a daily sales record. The previous record, Discarded, was 285 copies sold in one day. Today, I surpassed that mark and hit 300+ copies moved in a single day (and the day isn’t over yet).

Next week, I am going to release the title of the upcoming Marathon Torres Novel. It will be book 3 out of 3 for her current story arc. Also, some upcoming announcements are on the way.

Until then, the narrative for the 3rd book is nearly complete. It’s got some intense action. I’ll be reaching out to artists for the cover design soon and I will share that progress with people when the time comes.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Cheers!

The rough draft of the new novel is coming along nicely! I also narrowed down the title and I’ll share that in an upcoming post.

A theme developed as the rough draft of the first half of the book came together. I found myself using a certain word over and over again and I didn’t want to use a thesaurus or find a synonym to replace it. It’s a theme, and it needs to be reinforced like the way it was done in the first two books. Discarded was the theme of the book. Abandoned, was the theme of the book. Now this new title is shaping up to be the theme of the book.

The first half of the book is intense, and then it drives a lot of story lines together. Events from the first book play a major role in the development and plot lines of this book. In many ways, this trilogy will come to an end, and in many ways it may continue. You’ll just have to read to find out what happens…

I am also introducing a new character. This new character caused me to rewrite a lot of the plot lines because she demanded more page time. Her character is that good. You’ll see what I mean.

I got another review for Discarded. Another 4 out of 5 stars on Amazing keeping the rating at a solid 4.7 stars out of 5. It says something when a complete stranger reads your book and rates it according to their experience with it.

My first book is far from perfect, it’s got mistakes, formatting issues and maybe some grammatical errors here and there. But the feedback I have gotten and continue to get is that the plot, the characters, and the theme is solid. It’s a mystery, with conspiracy elements, and some pretty solid characters to go along with it. The third book aims to drive all those story lines further and get down to business to finally address what’s happening in Marathon’s New York.

My next post will hopefully be the title followed by some artwork for the novel. I need to let the title marinate a little bit to see how it plays out with the ending. Until next time!

I recently wrote about trashing many chapters of undeveloped work for my new book. I am happy to report that I made the right decision. The third installment for Marathon’s story is coming along nicely. It’s grounded, focused, and promises to wrap up many storylines that have been in development since the first book.

There will be some new characters and surprises along the way, but I am confident that I made the right decision by starting the narrative over. Maybe one day I can repurpose those lost chapters into something worthy of release. Until then, Marathon’s third book is going to not only wrap things up, but also set the stage for future adventures and story arcs. Please stay tuned for further developments!