Monday, May 5, 2025

Creating a Novel: From Initial Draft to DeLuxe Hardback

 


Are you intrigued by the process of writing a novel? I was a late started, although now I have published 28 novels or novellas as well as several short stories.

I published my first novel, The Lady is Blue, in 2014. However, I wrote the initial draft some decades earlier. This sci-fi romance / alien invasion story has more than 100,000 words. I wrote the first drafts by hand on sheets of paper that I arranged in a binder. This handwritten version went through several rounds of hand-scrawled revisions. The picture shows the first lines of the story with revisions and notes in pencil.


The next picture shows my character sheet with the names, physical appearance and personality of the major characters in the story. The story is set on a remote planet with a favorable climate and a small colony of humans. The scaled alien Atrapako come from another planet with a toxic atmosphere where an earlier civilization was destroyed by a major catastrophe.  

Over the years, I typed the novel into digital files in different formats. Anyone remember floppy disks? By 2014 I had a complete, edited version, which I decided to publish on Amazon kdp. The ebook and paperback came out in late April. A few years later, I published the ebook at other retailers including Barnes&Noble, Apple, Kobo, and GooglePlay. Now I also have a webstore.

Also in 2014, I was inspired to write a sequel set on the aliens’ home planet. Since I was familiar with the characters, I wrote the sequel, Dragons of Vkani, in a couple of months and published it in July 2014. This story explains the origin of the Atrapako and gives hints about the cause of the catastrophe that left a harsh climate and barren terrain.

Five years later, at the request of readers, I wrote another book in this series, Trapped on Vkani, which stars a different romantic couple struggling to survive on the alien planet. This plot has a surprise twist on alien abduction.

In 2024, a decade after the first publication, I made a special anniversary duology with interior art for the two novels, The Lady is Blue and its sequel, Dragons of Vkani. The print editions have holographic foil covers, endpapers, ribbon bookmarks, and decorated edges. You can see the deluxe hardback at - https://youtu.be/qvC2Y9pq6vk

The two main characters, Dr. Lucy Stannis and Sa Kamizan Veedak, are shown below in an illustration prepared for the anniversary duology. 



The series, Atrapako on Eden, has three novels and favorable reviews. Have you read them? Would you like me to write another story set in this world? 


MY BOOKS

You can find a catalogue of my science fiction and fantasy books at https://www.auroraspringer.org/p/my-books.html

 


Direct Bookstore

My ebooks are available at a discount in my virtual store (https://payhip.com/AuroraSpringerNovels).

 

No comments:

Post a Comment