Retaliation

Author’s Notes – Paul C. Middleton ^{August 12th, 2016}

Ahh, the second collaboration and the third book is done.

It should be published in 12 hours or so.

At least 30,000 words of this book are my work. I hope people like it. I’ve been told they will.

I keep getting told that my writing is constantly improving. Personally I can’t see the massive improvements people tell me I have in anything but speed. It could be I can’t see the forest for the trees.

But my Enjoyment of writing is increasing. I rarely have a day where I don’t want to write, where it all seems too hard anymore. Most of this I credit to the fans — Just knowing that my work is getting out there and being appreciated is a big boost. Even if life decides to screw me at least once a week recently.

One of these day’s I’m going to find that bloody Murphy and hang him by his toes over hot coals.

But onto the regular theme of my author’s notes: How does a Collaboration work in the way that Michael and I are doing it.

Short answer: Well.

Long answer: Communication. I remember early on in the book there was one scene I had to, for all intents, completely re-write because I’d misinterpreted a scene in one of Mike’s early books. It was a pain. But the end result worked better.

Running things past Mike at least twice a week helps me make sure I’m on target. If I’m unsure if something fits his universe I drop him a note.

It would be very different if the Universe was shared. Again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, I consider the universe his. I respect that. If there is something he wants changed or scrapped, that is what I do. I think that I now see why some authors explicitly state a ‘No Fanfic’ rule. It actually makes more sense to me now, than when I was just writing in my own. I can also see why many authors either turn a blind eye or actively (if covertly) encourage it. I’m still on the fence, personally, but in my on series (Betrayed by Faith) I am leaning towards a ‘No Fanfic’ if only because I will be walking a fine line between condemning some things and disrespecting them. The difference at times, to me, can be a molecule wide.

It is a great privilege to be allowed to write in his universe. I don’t think there is much more I can say about that.

Oh and the characters — I’m still not sure where ‘Paranoid needle fucker’ came from. I think it was Janna reaching out with her unhappiness.

I am really proud of ‘Well doesn’t that make us special fucking snowflakes?’ again, not sure where it came from. It just flowed out onto the keyboard and fit well.

Considering there were at least two people who publicly stated ‘Where did Janna come from?’ I introduced Shen earlier. He’s not much in this book, but he’s there and has a larger role to play.

I think we have found our groove, but the next Boris book is probably ten weeks away.

I can hear the mob forming… yup they just lit the torches… Oh, come on, are the tar and feathers really necessary?

This is a combination of factors. One of them is that I really need to work on my solo series. No like REALLY. I need to get book two out. It’s been 3 months.

The other main factor is — Mike’s plot. He has things he wants to happen in his books before the plot of mine takes place. So… Yeah. Sorry.

But Please keep leaving reviews (Yes, your comments were helpful Tesh. A bit out of the blue… well yeah, you want to talk more you have my Facebook :) ) The Kind ones encourage. The critical ones help me improve.

Now for those social media links.

This is for my Blog

This is for the Betrayed by Faith Mailing list

This is my Author Facebook

This is the Series Facebook

This is my Amazon Author Page ( I’ll get around to my Bio one day, I swear!) I try and check it every day. It’s a bit quiet though.

P.S. Condemning something is showing disapproval, without inciting to hate. It can include colorful language.