I’ve been wanting to get Death Comes But Once ready for publication as a paperback, and turned it over to an editor so I could concentrate on writing the second Dunmoore novel. It turns out she did such a superb job with the narrative that her suggestions cut over 8,000 words from the book, bringing the total to just under 125,000 words, while simultaneously tightening up the story, making it more zippy, snappy…you know what I mean. With her help, the tale flows even better. She also made some very pointed suggestions with character and place names to help move it along, and I’ve taken them to heart. Rest assured that nothing has changed with the story. It’s still Zack Decker against the universe, with the same villains, allies and aliens, although the back story will resonate a bit more.
I’ve also taken to heart the suggestions I received from readers, and I’d like to thank them. Authors often can’t see the forest for the trees, and we’re terribly ineffective critics of our own work. What may look fantastic to us really doesn’t resonate that well with readers. My editor cleaned up some of the stuff that was pointed out to me as detracting from the tale.
The re-edited version of Death Comes But Once is now with the printers for the final proof prior to publication. In the meantime, I’ve re-issued the ebook as a second edition and it’s available through all my sales channels. You’ll find the edition number noted below the copyright at the beginning of the book. If you haven’t tried Death Comes But Once yet, perhaps because you thought the reviews were ‘meh’, perhaps because the Look Inside didn’t inspire you right away, you may want to check it out again.
https://ericthomsonblog.wordpress.com/books-by-eric-thomson-2/death-comes-but-once/
Am I planning a sequel? Possibly. Right now I have the second Dunmoore to finish. After that we’ll see what inspires me.
