Update on Shadows of the Past

Hi everybody! I hope you’re all nice and cozy. You haven’t heard from me in a while, but here’s a quick update of what I’ve been up to lately.

As you all know, I’m currently writing and publishing chapters of the second volume of my series on Patreon.

So, for those of you who are interested and are patient enough for this, please head over to Patreon if you’d like to show your support — > https://www.patreon.com/alexward

Needless to say, you get to enjoy all the angst in the world before everyone else, because as we all know by now, I love torturing my characters and my readers alike.

So, the work on the second volume is going steady, but I can say rather confidently that I’ve probably reached the middle of the book at this point.

Obviously, things can shift since the final length of the book will be determined by what happens from this point onwards, but I’m not about to bore you with that. Mystery and all that crap. Someone bring the smoke machines, please.

At the moment the book stands at 101K words and I’m clearly not done with it. Let the shock seep in and pass. That’s what I did since I’ve just triple checked to make sure I’m not seeing double again. We really don’t want that.

So, if you guys remember, Dead Inside had 121K words, so saying that I’ve surpassed any and all expectations I held for this is not an exaggeration.

I can also say that Shadows of The Past has a different vibe compared to Dead Inside. Obviously, both I and my characters have grown in the past two years, so it was just the natural course of things. Those of you who have already read the chapters on Patreon have noticed that I’m writing two POVs in a very different manner, which is quite the experience, to be honest. The book has a different pace than Dead Inside. Where the events in the first volume took place over the span of a couple of months, the many events happening in SotP span over a handful of days.

It sounds intense, and it is, but I feel that this was the right decision right now. I’d say that one big difference between SotP and DI is that the scenes are longer, more detailed, and built more carefully around the characters so that they can truly shine and grow.

Now, in other news, I have focused some of my attention on re-editing Dead Inside as well and, let me tell you, I had several moments when I just wanted to burn the damn thing and start all over again, however, I won’t be doing that.

Granted, looking back at my first book after almost two years since it was published, I got a different perspective on everything. Some of the plot holes are niggling at me, begging to be fixed, the chapters feel rushed at times because in some cases they might have been, but I won’t be doing any major edits. I’ve been retouching some of the wording here and there, rethinking descriptions and some details, but the book as a whole is still the same and it will remain like that for the foreseeable future.

I will let you guys know when the re-edit for Dead Inside will be uploaded on Amazon, so that you can all update your existing book and, hopefully, be able to enjoy a better version of the story. Most likely that won’t be the last edit of that book, and I still hope that at some point I will be able to get a professional to have a look at it, but it will have to do for the time being.

In the meantime, if you have read Dead Inside already, it would do me a world of good if you guys could just head over to Goodreads and leave a review or a rating for it. The more, the merrier, since I have plenty of faith that Shadows of The Past is at least ten times better than anything I wrote so far. I don’t want you guys to miss out on the second volume, because I know for a fact that both the story and my writing have improved over the years. And I’m confident my characters are going through twice the turmoil and anguish they’ve been through so far.

Maybe just ignore that last part, we can all pretend it never happened.

So, please, any review, feedback, or comment is much appreciated. Here’s a link to Dead Inside — > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42015480-dead-inside

You can also find it on Kindle Unlimited — > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Inside-Temporary-Bliss-1-ebook/dp/B07HLSW31P

And you can also find on GR the blurb and cover for the upcoming Shadows of the Past, which hopefully won’t be too long now — > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50491026-shadows-of-the-past-i

Stay tuned and don’t forget that sharing is caring!

Thank you so much, everyone! #TemporaryBliss#shadowsofthepast#deadinisde

Update on TB #2

 Hi everybody,

Long time no see. I think you’ve all gotten used to that by now though. I did promise to update you on how the second volume is progressing and now I’ve finally got something to talk about.

This year has been kind of full and with work and everything else on the side, it took me a while to get my shit together and properly plan the second volume.

Most of the delay is my own fault. I must admit, I’ve always been a bit of a pantser and that’s one of the reasons why it took me so long to get started on TB #2. Newsflash. Spontaneous writing doesn’t work that well anymore when you need to plan a second volume for your series. Especially when you must keep track of everything that happened in the first book. So, as you can understand, I chose to take a different approach. Granted, it took me a while to get here, but once done, even I was surprised to see how much progress I’ve made.

On that note, I’d happily like to announce that I’ve sent the first part of the second volume to two of my Alpha readers. That first part has no less than 32K words and it paves the way for the rest of the volume. I do expect to expand on it, but that all depends on the feedback I’ll get.

To better understand what I’m on about: I’ve initially planned TB #2 in three different stages, but as it’s the case, I needed to expand a bit. A lot of things are happening at the same time, with a lot of characters being involved. Which means that now, my outline comprises five parts for the second volume. However, as the name very well states, it’s only an outline. And given my tendency to complicate things, a lot of it is incomplete. But it’s still making a difference and helping me progress at a quicker pace than I would’ve otherwise.

I would project this volume will be longer than Dead Inside. I strongly believe the word count will go over 120K. I do contemplate on splitting it in two books if it gets too long and if that means you’ll get to read it faster, but we’ll see what happens.

I know word count is boring, so to get to the real interesting part, I’ll give you a tiny overview of the story.

In TB #2 a lot of things about Raymond’s past and Danya come to surface. You’ll get to see more of Raymond and understand him better. It won’t be an easy road for the main characters, as everybody will be struggling with the new reality of their worlds. It will be frustrating, but the characters will have to evolve at their own pace. Alex and Raymond’s relationship will be put in the spotlight and nobody, not even them, know how that will turn out in the end.

There’s still a lot of uncertainty about Stefan’s whereabouts and what that means for the characters in the long term. Obviously, Temnota is still threatening in the background and that will pose its own challenges.

And you’ll also get to see more of Denis and the crucial part he will be playing in Alex’s evolution.

At this specific moment, I’ve completed part II as well, and I’m on my way to revisit part III. It might sound daunting and you might think I’ll never finish this thing (I do believe that sometimes), but here’s the trick. A lot of the scenes the story needs are already written. Some of them only need a quick edit before being placed in the timeline of the story. Then, true, some chapters will be built from scratch, but that’s not going to be a problem because I already have a sketch for them.

What I’ve decided against is expanding on other characters’ POVs. What I think would be best is to start with Raymond’s at first, since that will throw more light on some of the events and decisions being taken, and refrain from introducing any other POVs at the moment, since that might look only like a plot device or put the rest of the characters in a shallow light. Which, obviously, I do not want. Another reason for it would be that building on those POVs is distracting me from the main story. It’s inconvenient, but as a writer, you have to learn when to let go of a dead weight.

Don’t ask me about the release date, because I don’t have one right now. I know I always say that, but there’s no point in giving you a deadline date if I can’t meet it. Things might be different in the future, depending on the progress I make. But I’ve got some difficult months ahead and some personal changes to face, which might divert my attention from the book. I’ll do my best to get the story done until then, but I can’t promise anything.

As always, thank you for your patience and fingers crossed you’ll get to read TB #2 sooner rather than later!

Zbyee,

Alex