Date:Posted By:Comments:11 CommentsCategory:Songbird NewsTag:, , , , , , , ,

Been a few weeks, but I have LOADS to tell you all!  😀

Okay, so let’s do a quick run over what you may have missed lately…

Well, first up there was a Blog Post on the influence of music on my writing process, with a few examples of tunes that link to chapters.

If Music Be The Food Of Imagination… Write On!

I also put up another of my ‘Casting Call’ pages. This time looking at who I would cast to play Damian Dane, the leader of Pack Nation. So who did I and my beta-readers chose to play the Wolf King?

Casting Call – Damian Dane

So, now that you’ve checked all those out – and come back here – let’s check in and see how everything else it progressing…

Hmmm…what’s happened here?

A sliver of pale green hath reappeared!!!!

Why? I hear you cry!!!!

Well, I heard back from my anonymous Beta Reader – who gave me a glowing review and some absolutely FANTASTIC feedback! Thank you so much whoever you are!!! – they did reveal an opinion on the end of the book that gave me pause to think…

One of the questions I asked on my ‘Beta Reader Questionnaire’ was…

Did the plot and arc flow for you from beginning to end?  

And their answer was…

Yes. I felt like the end packed in a lot of action in a short amount of time. It is obvious there will be a sequel, but with all the detail contained in the story up to the final couple of chapters, the final turn of events seems skimmed over and left me with more questions than answers. I am privy to the fact that this is supposed to be an epic series, but other readers might not and might feel cheated.  

Which made me think.

Did I need to slow the ending down a little bit toward the end?

I decided that, YES. The Beta-Reader had a very valid point. So, after a few more questions had been asked and a little more feedback had been given, I decided to write in two more chapters.

Hence the new green sliver.

In actual fact I LOVE these new additions, and I wish I’d put them in sooner. I think they really add a wonderful new dimension to the end of the book and I’m interested to see what my Beta’s think of them.

(Note: Andy already took a look and he said:

A quick summary of what I thought…… abso’bloomin’lutely brilliant. They do both add quite a bit to the whole **redacted** that I hadn’t realised it might need and benefit from. Chapter 78 is an excellent run-up and sets the scene very well without intruding on the actual event or invalidating
anything from the next chapter. And I hadn’t even considered how **redacted** might have been directly affected in the aftermath, apart from **redacted**, as she would naturally have been in the room at the time **redacted** so Chapter 80 really rounds out her reactions and emotions at the time, and grants her a bit more flesh in her own character arc (since Chapter 79 jumps to **redacted**).

Those two new chapters are now in the edit phase.

Next up, it you recall from my last ‘Songbird News’ post, I was getting my cover art for book 1 from LenamoArt. (Find her on my artists page and check out her website… Lenamo.art

Well, Marlena came though AND THEN SOME!

Feast your eyes on this…

You can find more details on it, on my latest blog post…

Be Honest… We DO Judge A Book By It’s Cover!

I adore it so much I’ve already filled in my commission form for the cover to the next book in the series, ‘Blood to Earth’. Speaking of which…

LOOK at that pie chart! LOOK AT IT!!!!

What all that yellow and green tells us, is that the book is now COMPLETE… Almost.

One chapter is still incomplete, but I’ve decided that I’ll get to that when I come across it on the first edit. Which is what that green wedge represents.

That’s all to report on B2E for this week. 🙂

Only a quick on to report on Book 3… PLOTTING IS UNDER WAY!!

EEEK! I’m populating the Spreadsheet of Doom™ and have about a third of the Chapter Synopses in place now. It’s really quite exciting rounding out the story for the next book in line and I’m VERY excited by where it’s going so far.

Hopefully I’ll have more information on this on a future update.

That’s all for this week. Until next time folks…

Love & Books

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11 Comments

  1. Mitch

    This is fantastic news! I think the progress on the second book is fantastic!
    Did you decide to self-publish or query for book one? If you self-publish how long before we see it on the shelves over here in the states? I hope it’s paperback!

    • Jon Ford

      Hey Mitch,
      It’s exciting times isn’t it? 😀
      I’m working through the edits on book 2 at the moment and I’m loving it. It’s book 3 that’s currently giving me a conniption! The plotting is complicated. LOL
      As for the publishing, I think taking everything into account I’m heading down the Indie route. There’s just too many drawbacks to the traditional method. (If you go and take a read of my blog post ‘Be Honest… We DO Judge A Book By It’s Cover’ I linked an interesting blog post from an established author who’s now gone Indie. It’s an interesting read about the pro’s and con’s and after reading it, it seems like a no brainer!)
      I’m hoping for March next year, and yes it WILL be available in Paperback. I’m planning to have it in all formats (fingers crossed!).

      • Mitch

        I will have to go read that because I have never heard of the Indie way. March is right around the corner! I’ve been following you for a bit now so it will be exciting to finally (really seems fast) read it! Hopefully book 2 won’t be far behind!!

  2. Jackie

    Hi Jon,
    You are making such great progress on your series! Keep up the great work! I can’t wait until your first book comes out. 🙂
    I’m glad your beta readers have ben able to provide invaluable feedback. Hopefully your anonymous beta reader will be willing to read the rest of the books in the series, too. It sounds like he/she was very helpful.
    Your cover is gorgeous! I don’t blame you for going ahead and commissioning the second one.

    • Jon Ford

      My anonymous Beta has ALREADY said she’s keen to read the next book! So, of course, that was super encouraging! 😀

  3. Tasmin

    Hi, Jon. Have you ever gotten shocking feedback from a beta reader, something nearly or totally at odds with what you thought about a character or your draft in general?

    • Jon Ford

      Touch wood, thus far I haven’t.
      I get great feedback though. Sometimes it’s just spotting grammar issues. Or story/plot/timeline inconsistencies. Or making suggestions of parts of the book that don’t make any sense.

      An example of this: My wife was reading through it and saw a bit where one of the characters is unlocking a phone. I’d written it in a very old school fashion – punching number of the keypad. But Wifey pointed out that these days we have things like face recognition etc. So why in my future setting was I doing something so old fashioned. She was right, so I re-wrote that bit of the chapter. What’s more it worked out excellently as it put another idea in my head… 🙂

      My anonymous beta-reader flagged an issue with the ending, hence my writing two new chapters in to fix the pacing issues.

      It’s all been a VERY valuable experience, but fortunately I’ve not have anyone say anything awful as yet! PHEW!!!!

      • LeoZ

        That was a great catch by your wife. I think it would be difficult trying to imagine what the world be like in the future and writing about it. Trying to get other people to buy into “your future”. What a great challenge!

      • victuals

        Agree that that was a great catch by your wife – one of those easily overlooked details that could end up distracting at least a few readers. Not sure if I would have noticed that!

  4. Simon

    Jon,
    How’s the editing going on Hunters? It is fantastic that you have someone who gives such constructive and helpful feedback. I’m glad they liked the changes!
    Your cover is stunning! It would make me want to know more about the book if I saw it in a store or online.
    Keep up the good work, mate!

    • Jon Ford

      It is almost done. We’re THIS close > < to being finished. Next step will be to format it ready for print! Exciting times!!!! And I agree on the cover. Marlena did an outstanding job! Sooooooo pleased with it. 😀

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