Steve Patton's Blog: Mepho Press - Posts Tagged "new"

So I am feverishly doing final edits on The Sun Also Sets...I am trying to do two chapters a day, but seem to end up only able to do one a day, if that! I am excited to get this book out and ready for it!

At times I think of pulling the "Summer Release" date and then going back to fall...and then I think I can make it.

I am on Chapter 8 of the edits and hope to get a lot done on days off around the 4th of July.

Summer, Fall...it's coming! I am going to still stay with Summer for now...and now...back to the grindstone, Chapter 8, The Falls...awaits!

A couple of changes since I last posted. I want to try to work in a true children's book this year. My son during the summer rescued a tadpole that only had two front legs - it never grew the hind legs. It is now a small tree frog that has connected with my son and lives a very happy life. It is a story I would like to tell of their bond, but also about the frog's amazing ability to overcome.

Also, I am getting a lot more positive feedback on The Sun Also Sets than I did on Of Times and Places compared to the same time period. I have all my thoughts and notes ready to go for book two, which will be The Last of the Lion Hunters. This may get bumped up as well.

So for those interested...here is the new order (which will probably change again : ):

1. A Band of Dogs (Christmas 2024)
2. Climber Jr. (New Year 2024/2025)
3. The Message (Early 2025)
4. TMA: Generations Lost (2025)
5. RS: The Last of the Lion Hunters (2025)

I am fearful I shall not make my self-imposed goal of Christmas for this book! However, I guess that is the benefit of being an independent writer...I won't be charged a penalty for missing that date. However, I shall still try.

I realized why though, the other day. Why I have not put the effort into progressing the book that is. I don't get writer's block and I don't say that to brag. As I write, the story plays out in my head and I see the story portrayed as a movie and I hear the voices as it plays out. I write down what I see and that becomes my story. For some reason the progression of the book wasn't there. I knew where I wanted it to go, I just needed to sit down and write it, but I didn't. The movie was in my head still playing...I just wasn't putting pen to paper.

So it seems that each book I sit down and write, I want to write for a 6-8 year old...at about 100 pages max or less. That was with The Marsh Adventures, and although I came close to the mark on this one, it was at over 150 pages I believe and most parents tell me it is really for 8-10 year olds, or maybe 10 year old and up. I do deal with insect death, much in the way E. B. White does in Charlotte's Web, or death maybe more so I would say as it is in Watership Down or Rikki Tikki Tavi.

Then came along The Sun Also Sets...the original 100 pager I read to my son may have squeaked by at 8 years old, but really it was probably 10 and above. The final product, with the 100 added pages after I read to my son, was clearly 13 and above...10 if read with a parent.

So here I am on A Band of Dogs...I want to keep it 6-8 years old...but I can't. There are elements of the story that must be told, thematic elements that may cause stress or fear in a 6 year old, not bad elements, just real life elements, that cannot be left out of the story. Well, it could, but it will never be the story that it was meant to be. So this story has now moved to the 10 and above category. And that my friend was the stall in my writing. Not writer's block, final admittance that to finish the story and make it what it was meant to be...I have to add these elements and tell the story as I see it playing out in my mind.

I thought of releasing two versions...a 6-8 and then a longer, 13 and above. However, that would kind of be like censoring my own books and I don't really want to go there. And now I just crossed 100 pages.

So, A Band of Dogs is moving forward again, just in the direction it was always meant to be. It will be an enjoyable book, just for an older set of kids and adults.

Read on and write on!

Happy New Year to all my friends and followers! Thanks for making 2024 a great year. I wish the best to everyone in 2025!

As for my upcoming book, A Band of Dogs, I have set February 2, Ground Hog Day, 2025, as my release date. I chose this date for a reason...

It has been back and forth with me, for those who follow my posts, on trying to make a book fit a mold I could not make - that is make A Band of Dogs a children's book - which it eventually morphed into, and stayed as, a Teen/Adult book, and where it will remain.

If you have not checked out the new video, you can see it on my video links, or as always, on YouTube under MephoPress.

Happy New Year!

This is my second book in the Marsh Adventure series, and I plan currently to have eleven, with the goal of writing 1-2 each year over a period of time. I don't start a story until I have about 80% of it ready to go.

Generations Lost is the prequel to Of Times and Places. I won't tell you how far back it goes; you'll figure that out from the book. It does tell the story of Queen Rubyspot, and she is the protagonist in the book. Everything in the story centers around her kingdom, the Kingdom of the Dragonflies, and her reign over the marsh.

The first book will always be my favorite, having evolved from an idea into a one-page story, then to 100 pages, and eventually to around 150 pages. However, I love this book equally as well. I love the characters, the storyline and I love the ending. I hope you, as the reader, will also enjoy this book as much as I did in writing it. I will always be a writer first and a reader second.

So pick up a copy...eBook or paperback. I do have it in an overly expensive hardback version (the cost is out of my control for the hardback), but I always get one copy in hardback for my son to keep. Other than that, I probably wouldn't opt for hardback.

So please enjoy Generations Lost, book 2 in the Marsh Adventures - join the new cast on an old adventure, Queen Rubyspot, Bolo, Oracles, Cisto, Rudd, and many more - to see if the legend was true.