Book 3 Cover Reveal - Part 1

 Welcome everyone!

Today, we get to begin the march toward the launch of the third book in my Hunter’s Rose series! This book has been the most difficult for me to finish. I can’t wait to share it with you because I think you’re really going to enjoy it.

Out of all the books I’ve written so far, this one is the most personal. I think I’ve mentioned before that I keep a dream journal. When I started putting together ideas for The Huntsman and the She-Wolf, I opened my journal and started pulling anything that would fit.

The further I got into the writing process, though, the fewer and fewer of my dreams could make it into the first book. In fact, the only two entries that made the cut for Book 1 were the She-Wolf hoisting the huntsman into the air in Chapter 1 and Tristan falling through the porcelain wall in Chapter 15. I had to keep putting them off.

The Huntsman and the Vampire, likewise, had very few of my dream entries. When I sat down to begin Book 3, I decided it was finally time to share my visions with you. These are the stories I really wanted to tell, but I’ll expound on them in the future.

You’re more interested in seeing my cover, I bet. So, what I’m going to do is reveal a little bit of the cover at a time over the next few weeks. It will all lead up to March 2. I’m happy to announce that, that’s the release date for the book!

So, without further ado, here is the proof of life for Book 3:

It exists! Take close note of how it matches the covers of my previous two books below:

For me, this small strip at the bottom of the book is a HUGE deal. I’ve well chronicled how I’ve had to struggle to find new cover artists for this entry in the series. Finding a capable replacement has been extraordinarily difficult and contributed to the delay of launching this book. I’m very pleased with how well this new artist was able to capture the elements of the first one.

More reveals will be coming quickly, so stay locked in. I’ve got mountains of wonderful things to share with you!

Peace,

-Troy

They Had Me Scared, For a Minute

 Welcome everyone!

For the last few days, I've had swirling around me the dark and panicked question that I think all authors face as they near publication: "Did I do something wrong?" Last Friday, I uploaded my covers and layouts to the printer. In the past, when I uploaded my files, they would be processed and ready to go a few hours later . This time, however, that was not the case.

Saturday and Sunday went by, and my books were still pending processing. That was a little odd, because for the most part, stuff like this handled by machines. Algorithms, software, AI, all that stuff usually takes care of this sort of thing automatically anymore. There's hardly any use for humans, so despite the fact it was the weekend, I figured my files would still upload just fine.

They didn't. By Monday, the files were still not processed. Worse yet, when I checked them, the covers looked all askew, and the pages weren't visible. I started to worry. It was, though, a holiday on Monday - at least in America. The parent company of my printer is based in Canada, but perhaps it was the long weekend that was somehow delaying the finishing touches on my books. I took a deep breath and decided to wait until Tuesday.

Tuesday came. There files were still messed up! Worse yet, my hardback version still had a red X by it indicating it was not processing. I pored over my cover and layout files. Everything looked fine to me. The margins and alignments were correct. The sizes looked correct. I couldn't figure it out.  

I was in very dismal spirits. I wondered if I would have to delay my launch and have the books and covers redone because I missed a small detail somewhere. It was hard enough going through all this the first time. I didn't want to have to do it again. I resolved to call customer service the next afternoon.

I sat down to lunch on Wednesday and pulled out my cellphone to browse the news. Instantly it buzzed alerting me to an email in my author account. Praise be! It was a notification that my paperback was fully processed, and the digital proofs were ready for viewing. Not only that, processing had begun on the hardback.

WHEW! The digital proof of the paperback looked great, and I hope to view the hardback in the next day or so. Even then, I'm not out of the woods. I won't feel 100% confident the quality of the work until I'm holding the physical proofs in my hands. However, things are looking much better today than they did 48 hours ago.

Once both of the digital proofs are available, I can proceed with the cover reveal, title reveal, interiors, and so on. Stay tuned! There are a lot more updates coming over the next couple months.

Peace,

-Troy

P.S. I haven't forgotten about project X. I'm making good progress on it and hope to share more about it in the near future as well. Heh heh heh.

Layout is Done and I'm Ready to Upload

 Welcome everyone!

Finally, after all this time, the last and final step toward producing my book is here. The writing, editing, revising, layout, and cover are all completed and now all I have to do is upload the files for final assessment by printer and ebook companies. WHEW! It's been a long time coming.

I hope to do the initial uploads this weekend. Then the folks at Amazon have to check my files as do the folks at IngramSpark, where my books are printed. With there being a bit of a paper shortage now-a-days (what isn't there a shortage of anymore, right?), it will take a little extra time to get my proofs back, but by the beginning of February, I think everything will finally set.

So all that's left to do is choose a publishing date. I'm thinking early March before spring starts. That way, as winter lingers on longer than any of us would want, everyone will have a nice new book to read. I like the sound of that.

We're almost there, everyone. Hang tight, you're going to enjoy the ride!

Peace,

-Troy