Saturday, August 6, 2011

Half-Vampire Is Ready To Format

In October of 2003, I created the character of Eric the half-vampire -- before Vladimer Tod was published and before Edward Cullen sparkled anywhere.  I gave it a very long title, now shortened to Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire.  But the title was inspired by James Hogg (The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner), not by Sherman Alexie (Part-Time Indian was not published until 4 years later).
The manuscript was first handwritten in a Mead spiral-bound notebook, then typed on an old, non-internet Mac.  (I had a Mac with internet capabilities, but it had a lousy printer, so I used the older machine.)  In 2005, I re-typed the entire manuscript yet again, this time onto an iBook.  After that, I lost track of how many times I revised the story.  Last spring, I had to update it to include cell phones and texting, the latter of which didn't exist when Eric first did, but without which kids can't seem to exist themselves these days.
Finally revising it to solve the problems created by the fact that I originally had Eric follow in Dracula's footsteps, with no reflection and no shadow -- things that bothered scientifically-minded readers, I asked a fellow teacher to proofread it this June.  He finished early last week, and TODAY -- darn near 8 years after I began the thing -- I finished what I hope is the last revision of the manuscript.
Tomorrow I will contact another teacher friend of mine who is good with computers, and we will set a date to format the thing.
My current plan is to e-publish the prologue and then the whole book on Amazon, the former priced at free and the latter at 99¢.  Once I get the sequel revised (oh yes, there is a sequel!), I intend to price it at $2.99, following the pattern set by other successful folks who've self-published.  I also hope to get both Half-Vampire books formatted for the POD paperback form eventually.
And what else is in the works?  Well, Becoming Brigid went through thorough beta-reading this June and is now in the hands of yet another capable teacher for editing.  Once she finishes, I will revise again and format that for e-publishing and POD as well.
My current WIP is a novella with the working title of The (Dis)Appearance Of Nerissa MacKay, and the twinklings of a sequel idea for this have already appeared in the far recesses of my mind.

5 comments:

  1. I'm working at the Chevron tomorrow from noon to 8PM, then Tuesday from 7 to noon. Other than that I just need some time to make some room for us to work in the office, but then anytime this week will work for me. Give me a call, if I don't answer it's because I'm either at work or trying to get my new car legal.

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  2. Good to see you taking this step!! Hooray!!

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  3. A-formatting we will go, Max!
    And, thanks, Liz, for signing up and dropping by.

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  4. Good luck. I hope you become rich and famous. Or at least famous. :)

    WV (This is kinda funky): Nessa. It's not quite Nerissa, but it was close enough for me to go "hmmm"

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  5. I considered using the name Nessa at one point, but I finally decided on Shakespeare's Nerissa instead (Merchant of Venice, she's Portia's lady in waiting-type person).
    As for odd word verifications, the strangest I've ever had was "fords" on Max's blog -- and he's an absolute Ford freak (he owns 5 Fords right now).

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