Literay Titan have awarded The Book of Davoth: Ofelia, their silver award for 2021!
It’s great to see Ofelia recognised. This is a book I’m particularly proud of. You can see Ofelia and some of the other books given the award this year here:-
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What do you think? I love the proof, but it needs a couple of minor tweaks.
Really, really chuffed with this. This shows that all the effort was worthwhile. I feel like this is the sort of verification that I was getting it ‘right’ I really needed!
Please visit the URL and give it a ‘Like’ and a ‘Share’!
It’s definitely a WIP now!
My editor is reading through the first draft. These are the draft cover sketches so far:-
The good things I like about the book:-
More conflict with Melchiot and the church apotheke-zag.de.
Exploration of ‘The Children of Avanti’ another Torean religion.
Exploration of more of Vashni’s, Elden Roth’s and Brael’s past.
My new character Vexis Zaelwarch – former Low Priestess to Avanti.
Things I don’t know about:-
Because there’s so much new stuff going on – I don’t know if there’s enough of the old stuff. Some of the characters seem a bit side-lined in this book and it worries me.
Also the ending feels a little anti-climatic. But then maybe it should given the circumstances?
Well, it’s closer – it’s a LOT closer.
I’ve written nearly 70,000 words and started the process of self-editing. I’ve also commissioned a cover from my illustrator Isis Sousa. Here are her early sketches:-
So what now? What is the rest of my process for making it ‘ready’ ?
Well, I use software to help edit for localisation. I use the same software to edit for consistency, word-overuse, writing style, grammar and spelling.
Once I’ve done all that and I’m happy with it – I read the whole thing out-loud and listen to a computer text-to-speech of it to pick up problems I’ve missed.
Then, it goes to a beta-reader / Draft editor, then if goes to a proof-reader.
After I’ve implemented all their suggested changes I agree with I go back and start again. I repeat the process several times until I’m happy with it.
I also still need to write out two major events. However I want to start the polishing process now so there’s less of a mountain of editing to do at the end.
Interestingly I’ve recently read a few interesting articles on writing fantasy and thought I’d share.
If you want to write fantasy, these are all worth a read. On self-publishing, I don’t agree that you SHOULDN’T self-publish, but that if you do you should put as much effort as a publishing house into perfecting your book! I wish I’d done this when I started out. I published far too early and paid a price in having to release updated versions! Be 100% sure it’s as good as you can get it before you release and DO NOT rely on self-editing alone!