A Dragon Hunter Update

Last week I finished Part 1 of Dragon Hunter, Gaanard Bay. A few days later, I finished the Battle of Conborine, Part 2. I started work on reformatting and editing Part 1 for the Kindle, and sent copies out to three  friends who are acting a Beta readers critiquing, commenting and criticizing.

Since then, I decided I didn't like Part 1 as a standalone part. It seemed too small. And the change of formatting did something, I'm not sure what, to the text. Either the converter chopped up some sentences and words, or I had a bunch of errors I missed. So I'm going back through the full length version looking for errors. Of which I have found a bunch.

I could have sworn I wrote that whole sentence...

So the path forward from here is to finish this edit, fix the mistakes and then look to converting Dragon Hunters to e-book format. In addition to the Kindle, I intend to go after a Nook version as well.

On the website front, I haven't made much progress either. I've been looking at some of the basic packages, but I'm hung up on the templates and their default layouts. I really haven't found a generic one that I like. (I guess that's why they call them generic, huh?). They have layouts for every kind of small business or entrepreneurial service you can think of, except for half-mad writers with visions of grandeur. I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet, pick one and do the best I can with it. At least until I become a rich, famous writer who can afford to hire a web designer and a graphics firm...

Speaking of graphics, I may have part of that problem in the process of being solved. An artist friend of mine is playing around with some of my ideas. I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Or this case, the Trade Station, I need to get back to work on Dragon Hunters. I've edited 3 of what is now 35 chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue. 554 pages in double spaced manuscript format, and 147,548 words. I'd like to get a couple of more chapters finished today.

As always, thanks for reading!

Dave  

Dragon Hunter is finished!

Dragon Hunters, Book One of the DragonHawk Saga is complete. Not Part 1 nor Part 2. The entire story.

I didn't like the way the parts looked, so I decided keep the story intact. Right now it's sitting on the other screen where I have started converting and editing. I hope to have it up on Amazon soon.

Hang in there DragonHawk Fans! It will be to you soon!

Thanks for reading!

Dave

An update on Dragon Hunters

So, here's the thing... I converted the first part of Dragon Hunter, Gaanard Bay, into a format for an e-book (Kindle right now, others later). And I didn't like what I saw. I didn't like the paragraph spacing. I didn't like the length. It doesn't read right single spaced for the converter.

So I'm going to finish Dragon Hunters, the whole, intact story, (tonight I hope!) And then convert it to e-book format and see how it reads.

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Dragon Hunters Part 2, The Battle of Conborine

The remodeling of the old Immigration Terminal on Conborine by T&B Spaceyards goes horribly wrong. As the construction project is attacked by local forces working for an unknown enemy, Annie Tolen is kidnapped from the site.

Is her kidnapping part of the campaign against the Tolen and Blom Star Traders?

Or is this a matter of DragonHawks?

Manchor Tolen, Elder of the Tolen Star Traders and the leader of the T&B expedition to Conborine does not know. Convinced the Star Trader Council cannot help him, he turns to the only Star Traders capable of finding his niece and saving his people - the StarHawke Tycho and his Hawkkur Legion.

The Drakkon of Tycho know that this is a matter of DragonHawks. As the StarHawke Tycho prepares his forces for a possible Trade-wide war, he sends his son Elias and a Hawkkur Combat Team to rescue Annie Tolen, secure the T&B facility, and deal with threat on Conborine.

Sound interesting?

Completing and editing Part 2 is coming along pretty well. I took last weekend off to go to Round Rock and visit my wonderful son and daughter in law, and my oh-so-wonderful granddaughter Caitlyn. But now I'm back on track, working when I can on the story.

Looking at different sources for a website. An article in a local (Clear Lake, Tx) magazine featured an author who is selling his stories on Amazon in Kindle format and advertising via one of these do-it-yourself websites. I had already started looking at Amazon and the Kindle format. Its a huge platform that could help get my stories out to a wide audience. And it would be a start.

I plan to spend some time this weekend looking at converting Part 1 to see how it comes out in the Kindle format. Maybe I can get a website set up. I already have two domain names: davetransou.com and starhawke.com. I also have to set up a PayPal account and an Amazon seller account.

So, plenty to do! And an actual path forward...


Thanks for reading,

Dave

Dragon Hunters, Part 1 Gaanard Bay

It started out as a routine trip to the Gaanard Trade Station. But the StarHawke Tycho knew that nothing was routine these days, as the Trade drew closer to the war raging in the InWorlds. A surprise attack on a neutral planet, an attack by Dragon Hunters against the StarHawke Tycho, and the discovery of a young, female DragonHawk hiding among the Tolen Star Traders who could trigger the Return of the Great Dragon keep the StarHawke Tycho, his wife Mani Hawkes, and their son Elias guessing as they and their fierce Hawkkur Legion respond to new threats to the Drakkon of Tycho.

Dragon Hunters, Part 1 Gaanard Bay, is finished. I hope to have it in Kindle format soon and available on Amazon. Also watch for a new website coming soon!

Thanks for reading!

Dave

A Quiet Saturday...

A quiet Saturday of writing and drinking coffee.

Today I'm working on breaking Dragon Hunters into two parts, which requires a bit of modification of the story.

Once I have the two parts cleaned up, I can start working on the publishing and marketing process.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Dragon Hunters, Part 1 and Part 2?

Well, we are back from the cruise. A nice relaxing week without having to think about anything beyond what to have for dinner or what to have to drink while laying around the forward pool.

As I said before I left, Dragon Hunters is complete. Time to start on the marketing side of publishing a book. Ugh, I'm not very good at marketing.

Dragon Hunters is a large novel. The current manuscript is 143,091 words spread over 539 double spaced pages. Those who are knowledgeable of the publishing world say that the average book should be no more than 80,000 words.

So I think I will break it into two parts. Part 1 will be about 293 pages. Part 2 will be about 245 pages. A little modification should further equalize them out.

All of that work should take a couple of weeks, if I don't get sidetracked by work.

Well, its late and I am tired. As always,

Thanks for reading!

Dave