Where Things Stand

I can't expect friends and followers of the trilogy to maintain my level of excitement during a period when nothing visible seems to be happening

It's been two weeks since I posted a fresh Blog post, and the main site hasn't been updated since then either. Peope who followed these pages faithfully are no doubt wondering what's going on, and here I'm going to explain.

First, rest assured nothing has gone wrong with the project. The Just Beyond is still scheduled to publish later this year, and The Far Beyond is coming along nicely. I haven't lost my dedication to either, nor for this website. Far from it--I'm extremely anxious to see the first book's cover art, to get my hands on the publisher's editing results, and foremost of course, to see The Just Beyond available for sale.

While the support and enthusiasm has been humbling, I can't expect friends and followers of the trilogy to maintain my level of excitement during a period when nothing visible seems to be happening. It's important to build a buzz for the books, even prior to publication, maybe more so if the premise is that upon release the novels will speak for themselves. But the last thing I want to do is build that fan presence and then seem not to deliver.

So I've suspended daily updates to this site until there is tangible news to report. I don't want to blow all that interest now and risk it not being there when The Just Beyond actually comes out.

The cover art was expected to be done by mid-January, but as of the first of February it hadn't yet  been commissioned. It has been conceptualized and assigned to an artist now, but I don't have a new delivery date. Two weeks from the commission (about now) is a logical target given that it's the timespan originally projected. But I can't say it still applies for sure.

The editing was supposed to conclude around the current time frame, so I'm not concerned that it hasn't come yet--that tells me the editor is doing detailed, quality work, and how could I oppose that? :) But I won't be posting as often as before until those processes have produced results worth sharing. It's mainly out of respect for the readers' investment in emotion and time, a principle expressed in my earliest blogs. As soon as there's something to report that I'm confident will interest you, it will appear here without delay. And I will be posting here sporadically when I have something substantive to say.

Keep checking here from time to time--I suggest at least once a week. When there are concrete developments your devotion will be rewarded, and it is appreciated immensely.  - Mark

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