So work continues on The Seer of Grace and Fire book 1. We are currently in beta and almost half way through the chapters. The book has twenty chapters in book 1 and we just got through the beta edits for the high court session in chapter 7 that occurs in the Jahnae Faerie kingdom at the capital in Kannon.
I have been enjoying the beta reader process so far. This is the first time that I have had a beta reader for one of my books and so far the process is going smoothly. I have a different process for the grydscaen cyberpunk series, but I wanted my debut into Fantasy with The Seer of Grace and Fire to be more traditional since this is a cross-genre work since grydscaen is SciFi.
Right off the ebook release of The Alchemist’s Ranger which is the prequel novella for The Seer of Grace and Fire, I have learned something about the main character Timorn. He is more stubborn that I thought he was and a little naïve even though he has been working as a Ranger for about a year by the time The Seer starts. His gullability plays out in The Alchemist’s Ranger when he gets caught in the stables not really thinking about being on royal grounds and the offense of trespassing that would come about because he is a commoner. His reaction which we see on the cover of The Alchemist’s Ranger is aloof, as if he were not really aware what he has done by trespassing which is a major offense. Chalk it up to his youth and the fact that he just can’t accept that he might be other than human in that we see his childishness. He has a good heart and is kind but that youth gets him in trouble which we see on a larger scale in The Seer trilogy where his actions have a devastating effect once he starts playing an adult level game.
The beta edits are coming along and I am happy so far with the process. We should be getting into the second half by the end of 2016 and then we can expect to be wrapping up beta by February 2017. We don’t have an exact release date for The Seer of Grace and Fire book 1 at this time but we will be going through the official editing process which also is a new experience for me.
I have learned over the past months that most writers go through beta and edits as a normal process. As this was new to me I wanted to also go through the editor experience for this book. Now I know that this will add to the production time for the galley but I wanted to feel what the official process is like and decided that this would be an opportune time.
One of the changes that this book has is the different Point of View sections. I have section breaks in grydscaen but the story comes from a more omnipotent narrative style. The Seer has a different take on POV. We shift from one character to another in chapters and the scene breaks note this. As this is a new process, I did use some of that knowledge for grydscaen: dissonance which also had an edit after the proofreads and initial self edit. Dissonance went through a special editing process. grydscaen has a scholarly tone and is based in science. The Seer will have a market approach and will be more mainstream even though it deals with some LGBT characters, specifically Ethesian, the dream seer.
All in all we are moving right along with the process of getting The Seer of Grace and Fire through beta. I just wanted to leave an update so that readers are aware of where we are and that we are on track in the editing process. I hope you will stick around for more updates as we go forward towards submission and the formal editing process with a professional editor. I will definitely let you know how that goes as this will be my first experience with that as well. I hope that you enjoyed this update. I will be sure to keep you appraised of the progress on this fantasy series.
I know readers don’t usually like waiting a full year to get the next volume in a release cycle of a trilogy. I am currently working on this for The Seer and we don’t have a total official release plan yet. At this time The Seer of Grace and Fire book 1 is scheduled for a Q1 2017 release. I will have to work with my beta reader to see where we are when we get into book 2 and book 3. There is more artwork to do and we will be graced with chapter art for all the chapters in book 1 and book 2 which is ready at this time. We are still working on the chapter art and cover art for book 3 as of this week. So check back for more as we keep working on the series. Black and White lineart is posted on instagram and you can find the links to that site on the homepage un the “Follow Me” section if you want to see some of the art from the series before publication. Just know all three manuscripts in the trilogy are done and 85% of the artwork. It is just the beta and edits that are in front of us as well as the production process for book 1.
I will keep you up to date and any new news I will be sure to let you know. Thanks for your interest as we get The Seer of Grace and Fire book 1 ready for release for early next year. Thanks for reading. I hope you check back soon.