Last week, I posted the last section of Immortal Wars: The Summoning. It’s been running since January and I was kind of hoping it would make it to the end of December. If for no other reason than I don’t know what to do on Thursdays for the rest of the year, so I’ll have to think of something. Anybody have a book they want to promote? I could just make it random Questions 3 about this year or something simple.
I should think back to this experience, but it was surreal. To be honest, I only scanned through the old book. There was too much of a temptation to clean it up before posting and that wasn’t what this experiment was about. I wanted to put my first book up here totally raw and untouched from what it is. Compared to how I write now, it’s definitely clumsy and inconsistent. The chapter section lengths and pacing is all over the place to the point of comedy. I really do hope people didn’t read this thing and think it was what I do now.
Then again, not many bothered to keep up or give it a chance. Got a few messages from people saying they weren’t interested and they would be skipping the posts. Guess I should say thanks? I’ve never really understood what that tactic is besides trying to get the author/blogger to change course. Kind of passive aggressive there. Anyway, I totally get why people wouldn’t touch it. The posts were difficult to read if you take it seriously and some of them were huge. Surprised any people made it through . . . Most of those likes are reflex, right? Oh well.
Now, I come to the next decision. Immortal Wars: The Summoning went to an On-Demand Publisher and got a small treatment. You might have noticed that editing stopped halfway through. Part of that is because you get a certain amount of changes for free and the rest require that you pay money. So, I had to pick and choose the typos that I fixed because I couldn’t afford to go above the freebie level. So, a book I wrote in high school that didn’t get any professional overlook and I never published, so I don’t even know if I edited it would be really raw . . .
Do I spend Thursdays in 2021 posting Immortal Wars: Light, Blood, & Tears? It’s about the same length, but I don’t remember anything about it. Once the first book failed to sell, I junked the whole thing and never looked back. I vaguely remember them going back to Earth for something and maybe a museum. Anyway, what do people think? Should I do it all again?
For that matter, what did people think about this posting of my first book in general? Did you see anything that may have carried over into my other books? From the outside, does it look like I’ve changed a lot or a little in terms of being an author? Yeah, these are personal questions, but this was a very personal event. Might as well ask them.
Legends of Windemere 
Charles, I didn’t read your first book, however I can answer the question from a newbie experience. The first draft of my first historical fiction book was edited professionally line-by-line. (Yes, $$$). The editor told me it was a good story, but a practice book. Rewrite it with what you learned from our work together. That’s what I did. The new story has more action, tension and all that I learned to improve the story. Why wouldn’t it be the same for seasoned writers, like you. The more you write, the better you write. You build on your experience. You have what it takes. Maybe your Beta readers can help with the editing part. Letting you know what’s not clear or what sounds off. Good luck. 📚🎶 Christine
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This had editing where I had a basic amount and then had to buy packages that included changed word amounts or something. So, I stopped editing about 2/3 through because I didn’t have the funds. I’m not rewriting this thing though. Honestly, have no reason to revive this one because my newer stuff holds more interest. I’ve cannibalized ‘Immortal Wars’ and moved what I liked to Windemere. So, this story and the sequel I’ll put out next year are going to stay as they are.
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Sounds like a good plan, Charles. Happy writing. 🎶📚
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Thanks. You too.
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I really enjoyed the book. It was creative and fun, and reminded me to never underestimate what a teen can accomplish.
The humorous banter between the characters, inventions, entertaining battles, and some character types have carried over to your later series. But yes, I see growth. Your books are tighter and more carefully planned. We seem to know much more about your later characters–what they think and feel–than we did about the characters in Immortal Wars. This is not to say that we didn’t know those characters. But the ones in Legends of Windemere and Ichabod’s stories and War of Nytefall seem more developed and layered. If that makes sense.
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Thanks. Funny thing is that I planned this out a lot, but not in the same way. I created a lot of surface information such as appearance and cool visuals. As you said, I didn’t do any layers. Characters where what you saw and nothing more. That’s a big reason why it’s really impossible to go back. It will be funny when most of the immortals show up in an Ether Thief story as the original creations of the gods that were locked up for being failures. Taking a few jabs at myself there.
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I think you were pretty brave to let people see your very first book. I might still have my first one around somewhere, but I’m not sure why. It isn’t like I plan to ever let it see the light of day.
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It’s an odd relic to hold onto. I think it shows us our author roots.
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