Return – The Survivalists Chapter 1 (Part 1)

“Did you hear that?” Joshua whispered intently. “Trucks. Heavy. A lot of them. Let’s go.”

Esther dropped another tuber in the bag, shaking a bit of dirt off her left hand. Out of reflex she cupped that hand over her forehead and scanned upward into the blue horizon then down toward the enormous forest lining the opposite tree line, about five kilometers off—left to right—in a pattern that didn’t miss any areas.

The only things she could see in that blue sky were a couple of swooping brown hawks. On the ground was the usual scenery: an unnaturally flat and desolate clearing extending into a vast forest of aspen and pine in the far distance. The air was almost warm, but she could feel that warmth surrendering to a fading sun in the western sky. The shadows of the pines were growing longer, brushing their backs.

Soon enough, it would be dusk.

Return – The Survivalists – Prologue (Under the Obelisk)

She held the rifle steady for him. He was barely conscious, propped against the unforgiving stone, unable to feel his legs.

She was leaning back on his chest, and felt each of his shallow breaths giving way to a slump. He could feel her warmth rapidly fading.

The entire world seemed to be turning red—the burning palace, the sky, the stars, even the light in the sky sweeping the ground.

The light in the sky, approaching.

The Survivalists 2nd Edition and Blog Changes

I’m about one-third the way through this re-edit of Return – The Survivalists, and while it is going smother then I expected I do not regret the decision pull the first book from publication. I’m taking advantage of this opportunity to make more changes–so many that the next release can be considered a second edition. I have already struck down the old preview chapters and the new material will be forthcoming. Any comments, criticism and participation is welcome.

And on that note, have any other authors with WordPress blogs notice that they receive a bunch of likes and follows on posts from people who aren’t actually bothering to visit the log or post comments? To nip that problem in the bud I’m turning off the Likes on posts for now. I see no point in receiving self-promoting drive-by likes from the WP Reader.

Thank you for your patience and I look forward to your comments and support. -JK

Novel Fail 2

I had a chance to pick through the manuscript and it’s not quite as bad as I thought. There’s a few typos and some pronoun deficiency but nothing completely hackish.

Still, it’s going to take several weeks to finish and republish in all the stores and even more time to make it free on Amazon.

I’m also using this as a chance to rearrange some deck chairs on the front and back matter. So, there are no more crazy rants in the back matter, for now.

I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for waiting. -JK

First Novel Fail

Three months after publishing, I took another read through the manuscript and I’m not at all happy with what I’m seeing. I also appeared to have completely flubbed the launch and store set-up.

I will relaunch the first book someday, but I can’t make any promise when that’s going to happen.

Once I re-publish, the first book will stay free as a favor to anyone who has already read it and hoped for better.

Finally, I may well take down this entire blog. No one seems to care about this one and I want to set up a new blog on my own server.

Please accept my most sincere apologizes and have a Happy New Year. -JK