More DAWN OF GRACE News!

It looks like we're in for a rainy day today, which is okay with me. Yesterday was busy outside and inside both. I went target shooting with my pistols in the morning with my fellow enthusiasts. As an interesting side note (well, interesting to me), the two pistols I own are the same two that are owned by Harry and Dee Shalan. That's obviously not a coincidence. I own and am familiar with these two partly so that I can write about them and not sound like an ignorant rube. But anyway, after I got home, I finished draft four of Dawn of Grace and began the final proofreading read. I didn't get far, though, because then it was time to help my dad with the yard. So I slept well last night.

But since today is going to be quiet, my goal is to finish my final polish and start the submission process with Createspace. I won't be able to finish it because I don't have the cover photo yet, but by the end of today, literally everything else should be complete and ready to set up. I've already done all the formatting--I put it in the correct format two drafts ago so I wouldn't have to worry about it. The acknowledgement page is finished, as is the end-of-book stuff. So once I get the cover art, it will be one step and the book will be ready for final proofing and then ordering.

This is the original location of J&M's.
The new, huge store is in the Kroger/
KMart plaza in south Parkersburg
and will open June 11.

Why am I telling you this? Because it means that you'll soon be able to pre-order Dawn of Grace: A Shalan Adventure. And it means that, assuming no major disasters between now and then, you'll be able to put your hands on a copy for the first time on June 25 at J and M's Used Bookstore, where I'll be doing a signing from 11am to 2pm. And it finally means that you'll be invited to my launch party sometime in July.

I have to say that, even on the fifth thorough reading, I'm still finding proofreading and typographical errors. I know that the previous four drafts were not done primarily for the purposes of proofreading, but it still amazes me that areas that I hadn't touched in subsequent drafts and therefore have been exactly as is since I initially wrote the manuscript have words missing, wrong words, etc. So, as I get deeper and deeper into this writing thing, I'm realizing more and more just how important multiple drafts, each for a different reason, are vital. If only I had known then what I know now, my first book might have been a lot better. But the past is past and I'm excited about the future. I hope you are too.

Hopefully, this will be you reading my
new book and trying to decide what
glowing words to say about it in your
review on Amazon.

So it's sincerely my hope that I'll be in touch as early as tomorrow to ask if any of you would be interested in a pre-read in exchange for an honest review. If you agree to do that, I'll send you a signed copy of the book absolutely free. This offer is open starting now and I'll take the first twenty people. All you have to do is comment on here or send me an email. Or you can wait until I officially announce it in the next day or two. Thanks in advance for considering it.

PS--Don't forget that if you've read and enjoyed my previous three books, two of the greatest things you can do to help me are to tell your friends and to write reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. As an independent author, all the ads and events in the world don't do half what word-of-mouth and reviews can do to help me be successful.