There it is. This time. Finished. Honest. The final edition

It is common knowledge that the overwhelming majority of writers are never quite, truly satisfied with whatever they have written. Ignoring the ever persistent typos which cunningly ignore even the most dogged scanning or those fiendish tricks which all writing programmes keep hidden until after you have sent the completed work off, there is invariably something nagging at the recesses of the creative spirit.

Be it description of scenes, character development, pace of narrative, plot development or the conclusion, there always one aspect which remains ever out of reach; drifting through the indefinable borders between inspiration, creativity and physical presentation.

This can be something of a mire, dragging a writer down into a place of continued dissatisfaction which pollutes true creativity. There should always be a point when a writer says ‘Enough. There can never be perfection. This is as far as it goes,’

However in counterpoint we should not forget the feeling that maybe there is room for improvement.

In this I was fortunate to have two folk review my earlier endeavours on this book:

Audrey Driscoll at https://audreydriscoll.com/

Berthold Grambel at https://ruinedchapel.com/

My thanks to both for their support and taking the time to read and review the book AND most importantly to point out the flaws which kept on flitting about my mind this way and that for some time, while I was forging ahead with Vol. III (Daughters of Circumstances. Arbiters of Consequences). All the while there was this tip-taping ‘You are going to have to go back to Vol I & Vol II (Our Skirmishers of Lace, Steel, and Fire) and tie everything up. Continuity is all shot to bits,’

So I proceeded; thanks to my very good friend (and major character) Trelli, who as you may recall recently explained the situation and process….

Sometimes, We Characters Need to Explain The Position

Trelli was, as always, invaluable (along with the grudging assistance of Word’s ‘Review’ & ‘Read Aloud’ facility), in that she continued to supply the correct information on the events and point out my errors in interpretation. Of course sometimes it was left up to me to use my own perception to illustrate the bare facts with some lyrical elaboration and reach a far smoother narrative. Therefore although the story and the major events remain the same I do believe the account has a better flow and truth be known shorn of some inconsistencies a more logical read.

And gosh! If the whole exercise wasn’t a great deal of fun seeing what was a strung together kind of effort, evolve. It may still never be a widely read, or successful work. To me that does not matter. What does count is that the volume is finally where it ought to be and does the characters more justice.

The next part of the plan is to try this time to make some attempt at marketing, publicising or whatever, then on either the 1st February or 1st March release the final edition via Kindle. It will be free for the first week (or was that 10 days?). Therefore, you good folk who purchased a copy will have the chance to get an updated copy for free.

And then onto Volume II.

While Volume III awaits a cover (That’s quite another story)