Okay, I know I said in an earlier post that I planned to provide a sneak peek of the cover to my newest novel, The Old Royal, sometime early next year. Well, all that's changed. I'll show you the cover, but first I have to divulge some back story about it. The back story is important to me. If you don't care about it, just scroll down to view the cover.
Truth is, I can't wait. I've spent most of today working on the story. I'm nearing the 250 page mark with the first draft. I know. I know. A cover sneak peek seems premature when I haven't even finished the first draft. Here's another truth, I'm excited as hell about this book! I vow to finish it as soon as I can (obviously, I plan to make it the best story I can, otherwise I wouldn't waste my time).
Before settling down to write this morning, I spent a little time working on what I want the book cover to look like. What can I say? This is how I help motivate myself when it comes to writing my stories. There's always opportunities for the self-doubt bug to settle in and deter a writer from finishing a WIP. Well, to combat that, I find that tweaking book covers, inside matter (e.g. chapter headings and layout formats), and mulling over the plot looking for new conflict and resolutions help me stay excited about a work-in-progress.
Something you may not know: The Old Royal is a novel I started writing back in 2009. My wife thought the concept was original and interesting. In short, she was excited about me writing it. However, I was bitten by that self-doubt bug and got a bad case of the complacencies. The story became stale and I didn't want to write it any more. I set it aside and eventually forgot about it. I attempted to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, but just didn't feel ready to write the story I had in mind. I reset and began writing a new story. That one wasn't ready for me to tell either. Stories just seem to do that. One minute they seem hot and ready to play, the next moment, they're giving you the cold shoulder. It's rough.
Flustered, I decided to withdraw from NaNoWriMo. I knew I wasn't going to cross the finish line, so what was the point? I looked back through some of the stories I'd started and abandoned. I came across The Old Royal and pitched the plot to the guys I work with. They expressed a keen interest in it. Hell, one of them even said, "If I read that synopsis, I'd buy it!" That was enough to renew my interest and stoke the fires of motivation for me to continue writing it.
Since resuming the story, I found that I was able to get over the plot hurdle where I had dropped the ball. Motivation is a cool thing like that sometimes, stripping away the blinders leaving you with a clearer view for the solution to a problem. I'm plugging away happily and hope to have this book ready for publication early next year. Hopefully, very early. Say, January-ish.
The Old Royal is a story about time-travel, the old adage about the grass not always being greener, love and love lost, realizing one's dreams, and a lot of embedded short stories. I won't tell you too much, because I don't want to give anything away. Besides, you can read the synopsis on the back flap, which is all displayed in the image below. Now, without further ado, here is the cover...
Comments and criticism are welcome. Thanks for visiting!
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