Greetings, Loyal Reader!
As I mentioned last week, the next book I will release in the Jason Cosmo series is Royal Crush (a revised edition of Royal Chaos).
In the next few weeks, I expect to be done with the still-not-yet-named media tie-in Secret Project I’ve been writing the last few months. (Again, I’d love to tell you more, but the timing of a public announcement is not up to me on this one.)
So, right after the 4th of July weekend, if not sooner, I’ll be diving into Royal Crush full-time.
The rest of this post is process talk, for those who might be interested. Because Royal Crush is a revision of an existing book, I won’t have to spend much time on dreaming up plot or characters — the basic story will follow the outline of Royal Chaos.
So what will change? What makes this a revised version? Most of the changes in this digital remastering will come under one of four headings:
- Correct errors: horror of horrors, a few slipped through into the published version of Royal Chaos. I’ll fix those. (While no doubt adding new errors. So it goes.)
- Better writing: I’m a better writer than I was in 1988-89 when I wrote Royal Chaos. I’ll go through line by line and revise any sentence, paragraph or scene that needs it to my 2013 eye. Tighten the prose, stamp out passive voice, banish excessive adverbs, improve awkward constructions, etc.
- Harmonize: I will add or alter details in Royal Crush as needed to be consistent with lore and events previously established in Hero Wanted and Noble Cause — and to fit with what is coming in future volumes!
- New Scenes: I will very likely add a few new scenes, possibly even a new chapter, to the story. That way, even if you’ve read Royal Chaos, you’ll get some all-new never-before-seen action with Royal Crush.
There you have it, my plan of action for Royal Crush. But there is one more preliminary step I have to take before I can really dig in — I’ve got a little version control problem to solve.
Until recently, my only electronic version of Royal Chaos was the “final” version of the file I printed out and mailed – in a box! – to my publisher back in 1989. In the intervening years, every so often, I’d open a copy of the file and make little spot edits and revisions, more for my own amusement than anything else, as this was way before the Ebook Era.
But note — what I was editing was the version I mailed off to the publisher, not the post-editing as-published text (which I only had in print).
More recently, I scanned a print copy of Royal Chaos, cleaned up the file, and published an ebook version. So now I had an electronic version of the published text of Royal Chaos — and from time to time over the last two or three years, I’ve made edits to a copy of that file — more or less forgetting about the first file.
Two different sets of changes to two slightly different base texts. Oops!
So step one, before I get to my 4-point plan, is to “compare documents” and merge these two versions of Royal Chaos into one starting text that I will, over the next few months, transform into Royal Crush.
More than you wanted to know? If so, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Stay tuned!
Best regards,
Dan McGirt
Last time, I gave a brief account of how I conceived the idea of a Boltblaster prequel spin-off book from the Jason Cosmo series. Alas, my former publishers — Signet/Roc in the US, Pan in the UK & Commonwealth — were less than enthusiastic. In the publishing environment of the 1990s that left me with little incentive to write the book. It made sense to move on to other projects, with the Jason Cosmo series effectively defunct.
