Before Mary Was Novelized

Before I wrote my first novel Mary of the Aether, I wrote a short story version of it. That short story was purchased for a Young Adult anthology, but the anthology never made it to print. I'm not sure what went wrong, but the short story just languished in limbo, and eventually, the idea evolved and became my first novel.

You can read that original short story on Futurism. If you've read the novel, you'll notice some distinct differences. 

Check it out here.

There is one line in the short story that I wish I'd included in the novel series somewhere. It's something Mary says to her bullying friend:

“Someday, when you’re no longer a child, you’ll understand what you’re saying,” Mindy said. “Someday you’ll understand who you’re talking to. Someday. For now, it’s alright. I understand, and I don’t hold it against you.”

More on the Mary of the Aether series here.

Latest Developments

Okay, I haven't updated the blog in a while, so here I am, people. Mostly, I've just been busy. Working during the day at a rather mundane "doing it for the paycheck" type of job and writing like crazy at night. My nightly goal is 2,000 words. The Mary Lanham saga is drawing to a close. In fact, I'm a little over halfway done with Mary of Cosmos, somewhere around 54,000 words.

In other news, a couple of updates on the first volume of the series, Mary of the Aether. Some editorial changes were made a couple weeks ago by my kindly editor to fix a few blatant and strange typos. The strangest of them was the one time in chapter three when Constable Mohler is referred to as Constable Rogers. How did it happen? Well, Constable Rogers was his first name. I changed it later to Mohler, but somehow the old name slipped through the otherwise intensive editorial process. I chalk this up to me being a newb at the time. Anyway, the new Constable Rogers-free Mary of the Aether is now available. If you've got one of the old versions, I guess you've got a collector's item.

In other news, my publisher and I are putting together a bunch of note cards to send out to schools in Arkansas. Mary of the Aether is being presented all over the region this summer as part of a workshop for teachers called "So Many Books, So Little Time," so we want to follow it up with a reminder. Maybe the book will catch a little more heat. That would be nice. Somehow, someday, I'd like to make a living at this writing business. We shall see!

Two more weeks until Mary of Shadows is available, by the way! Two more weeks.

Lots O' Mary

Well, the first draft of Children of the Mechanism is complete. It's got some revision left to be done, and after that I have to decide what I'm going to do with it. I don't know if I want to self-publish this particular novel, or if I want to go the traditional publisher route. Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, however, that book is on hold, because I just received the edits for Mary of Shadows, and I need to get all of that done as soon as possible, so I can get it back to my publisher. There don't seem to be many big problem to fix, just a few little grammatical things here and there. I always scan through the first time, looking for all the red text from the editor, and there's not too much. Anyway, the book seems on track to come out in early August, so be looking for it.

Wandering off into the ominous forest, Mary? Whatever for?

There is potentially some really big news on the horizon about Mary of the Aether, but I'm not sure I can share it just yet. Suffice it to say, if things work out, it's going to be getting a whole lot of publicity over the course of the summer *fingers crossed*. That would be perfect timing for the release of the sequel, so we'll see how things play out. Hopefully, I'll have some more concrete information to give in the next few weeks.

All of this makes me want to get to work on the fourth and final book of the series (currently called Mary of Cosmos). I've only written about half of the first chapter, and it starts off with a pretty big event. Just you wait and see, people. Just you wait and see.

Mary of Forever?

Well, the rewrite of Mary of Starlight is finished, and the manuscript is on its way to the publisher. That means there is one more book to go in the saga of Mary Lanham. It will end up being a four book series that looks like this:

Mary of the Aether - where we are introduced to Mary, Lightbearers, Lookers and Devourers
Mary of Shadows - where the battle between Mary and her enemies ramps up considerably
Mary of Starlight - where we reach a world-shattering epic point in that battle
Mary of Forever - the last battle and the conclusion of the series

Yes, the tentative working title for the fourth volume is Mary of Forever. I have already written the first paragraph, only because I didn't want to lose my idea for the opening scene. I don't intend to write Mary of Forever until later this year, after I've completed work on the Shadows of Tockland sequel.

In other news, I am working to simplify my web page. Fewer menus, less confusion. Now, it's just book titles. Go there, click on the book you want to know about and live the dream. Here it be.