I want to record, so I won’t forget while marketing the second novel, some ideas for its distribution. I found several of these ideas on websites related to e marketing and e publishing, all of which want some sort of contract or publishing commitment. The ideas are pretty generic and accomplishable.

Another idea to recall in the future is NOT to send copies to friends, Romans, countrymen without being asked. That approach, because of fat fingers doing e-mails, doesn’t let me track circulation numbers … and build a following.

Concepts - Post info about the trilogy on a Blog, offer the book to friends, fellow workers, at libraries, and to writers’ groups. I expanded this approach a bit and offered Golden Gate to former shipmates, High School classmates, associates from Scouting, and plan today to draft some short blurb to post on the University of Mary Washington (UMW) Alumni webpage, as well as updating my bio page there with a link to the Blog. I’ve joined the Riverside Writers Group and hope to get some critical reviews there. Additionally I have asked a friend (Faculty at UMW) if as an alumnus I can avail myself of reviews through their Writing Center.

QA later note, I’ll tackle UMW via their Facebook pages. These may give better advertising. Well, well, well … it turns out the “ad” appears on my Facebook page. Alas, the tribulations a struggling author must endure to find the truth.

Two other ideas I found on the Internet appealed to my sense of humor, incorporate on The Tessera Trilogy Blog segments on “Deleted scenes” from the book(s), and add “Character interviews.”  The last especially sounds like I could spin it. The idea doesn’t fall far from the writing tree; just yesterday at my wife’s Christmas office party I asked one of her fellow workers for his acquiescence to incorporate a character with his name in my fourth novel. Ah … the cat is out of the bag, and you now know that I’m planning a fourth novel. I will just dangle a clue; its title corresponds with the letters … drum roll, TNO. He said he was delighted and even said he planned to share our collaboration with his wife, as a broad smile washed across his face.

Oh, another encouraging note came in from a Golden Gate reader - She wrote – “I have started reading it, and I'm quite impressed. It's very gripping! I'm busy these days, but I can't wait to go on with the reading...”

Yesterday (15 Dec 2010) I reworked, and reworded my emerging draft of the first five chapters. The process reminds me of undergraduate days, where one dreaded the proverbial R&R from a Prof. It meant Rewrite and Resubmit, and meant you’d better get it right the next time through. The most difficult part is to chronologically and plausibly sequence similar bits of the plot from different points of view, so that they don’t give away any part of the story, yet show the competing organizations analyzing the same basic situation on the ground. Wish me luck here, as this R&R effort is mind numbing.