First Light Chronicles Omnibus 2.0 Now Available For Kindle

Some of you are asking; "What's the First Light Chronicles Omnibus 2.0?"

It's simple. Over the last year I've been working with a couple of people to carefully improve the book without making plot or character changes. We've also worked out a lot of the technical kinks in the writing and in the eBook setup of the book itself.

With a touch here and there, I feel much more confident with this short trilogy as the launch point of the Spinward Fringe series. The rumor that I was planning on doing a complete rewrite of this book should die right here, since many readers have made it perfectly clear that I'd make their blacklist if I did so! So, there won't be a from scratch rewrite, and this book isn't going anywhere, don't worry. Any plot or character revisions will have to wait until I get a chance to adapt this into a screenplay.

Before I go on, I'd like to mention that this book is available at Smashwords for free here. It doesn't have a navigation menu, but everything else in that edition is up to date and complete.

The real matter of this post is the announcement that the fully indexed version of this is available for the Kindle for $0.99 here. I would have offered it for free, but Amazon won't allow me to set the price at less than $0.99 USD. They also won't allow me to control the price internationally, so I apologize if it's more costly in your country as it is in mine. (They set the price at $2.99 in Canada, not exactly a reflection of the current exchange rate of approximately 0.95%).

Kindle and Mobipocket readers who have the old, black cover edition of this book have no reason to worry! Your versions have been updated as well through the older Mobipocket deployment system, so you will be able to visit your online library and update your copy to the latest version for free, unless your device has already updated it automatically.

For now this is the best offering of this book with a navigation menu. I hope you enjoy the convenience and the fast paced space opera adventure from beginning to end.

RL

My Spinward Fringe Career At The Moment

In an earlier post I wrote about editing the First Light Chronicles Omnibus from start to finish.

Since then I've had a few emails come my way voicing the general sentiment of "It's finished! Leave it alone and move on!"

Well, this is a brave new world, where a book or any other electronic media can be improved or changed and in some cases should be improved. I'm afraid that the First Light Chronicles needed more attention. There were some omissions, errors and I had a need to look the book over sentence by sentence so I could improve the narrative overall.

My readers (past, present and future), deserve it. After looking the First Light Chronicles over I had two choices: edit it carefully from beginning to end or rewrite it completely. After speaking to my editor and a couple of proofers I decided to edit. They're working on it with me, making sure I didn't miss anything and giving me their opinions on loose ends as well as characterization. They were dead set against the First Light Chronicles being rewritten. General consensus was that yes, the style needed a little work, but the series was fantastic.

When this is finished in a month or so every version of the First Light Omnibus will be updated with the new edition. A free re-download wherever you purchased it will update you to the newest version. The First Light Chronicles trilogy will also be re-released as Spinward Fringe Origins (Broadcast 0).

The reason for this re-release is pretty simple really. There's a crowd of people who don't understand that what begins in the First Light Chronicles series continues in the Spinward Fringe series no matter what I do on the cover, inside the book or where it's listed for sale. As it turns out I have to make this change so the new market these books are reaching accept them more easily.

One more word on the editing of the First Light Chronicles / Spinward Fringe Origins Trilogy. I'm enjoying it. It's a lot of hard work an long hours, but there's something about going back and reflecting, examining where the story began that is really helping me direct the future of the Spinward Fringe series. This is a labor of love, and knowing that these books will never be edited again drives me to do the best job I can. The proofers feel the same way, I've been told.

What's going on creatively?

I'm still working on the latest book in the Spinward Fringe series (to be named next week on this site), and I'm having a blast with the characters and story. I'm also getting things together for another book trailer which will look vastly different from the last one.

Things are looking good for the Spinward Fringe series, and I couldn't be happier to work on it. There's more news coming, so keep checking back!

RL

Spinward Fringe Status Update

Anyone who follows me on Twitter is aware that I've been putting even more hours in lately. Considering my normal work day is between 8-12 hours, that's a lot of time.

Here's what my days have looked like lately.

When I wake up in the morning at any time between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM (I don't use an alarm clock, the one in my head is loud enough), I put the coffee on then get to work on the latest Spinward Fringe book. How is that going? It's going extremely well and I'll be announcing the names and release dates for the next two books sometime in the coming weeks.

After a few hours of that and a shower I get to work on editing. During mini breaks I check twitter, say something like; "I'm editing... again," my Email and the few bulletin boards I participate on.

These editing sprees generally last until 10:00 PM or midnight.

What am I editing, you ask?

Well, until recently I've been doing a deep edit on the First Light Chronicles: Freeground. In my opinion it's the weakest book in the series and needed some serious attention. Today I finished working on it and tomorrow the proof readers get their copies. After I finish working on Spinward Fringe tomorrow morning I'll be taking the dreaded red pen to First Light Chronicles: Limbo, a stronger book by far, but I think it could use another pass.

What happens when we've finished editing the First Light Chronicles Trilogy?

Everything gets updated. Anyone who has purchased a digital copy can re-download it and enjoy the fresh edit. The story isn't changing, so there are no worries there. As far as people who purchased the printed copies are concerned, well, all I can tell you is that the price of the Omnibus will be greatly reduced on Amazon.com and the new edition will be easy to find (see below).

Something else will be happening to the First Light Chronicles Omnibus. I'll be relaunching the book under a new title: Spinward Fringe Origins.

With the Spinward Fringe series slowly gaining exposure, people are confused when they realize that the main characters exist in two series; The First Light Chronicles and Spinward Fringe. The solution to this is to launch a new book. The format will be more professional, there will be an actual cover, and it'll appear in a final edit. eBook editions will be free on Smashwords and the retailers they distribute to.

There will also be a new book trailer for Spinward Fringe Origins. I'm in the process of securing the rights to some really good stuff and writing the script.

After that's all finished I'll continue with my editing spree. The entire Spinward Fringe series is undergoing another edit and proofing. Will this slow the scribing of the next two Spinward Fringe books down? Not at all. In fact, I've found that I've been more productive since I started this editing work.

The Spinward Fringe books won't be getting new covers or new names and I won't be changing the story at all, so you can rest assured that when all is said and done what you enjoyed about the books will certainly still be there.

The Spinward Fringe series has been enjoying great success on Mobipocket, which keeps me housed and eating spam, something I'm perhaps a little too grateful for. Now Kindle sales are starting to get off the ground and people are discovering the First Light Chronicles Omnibus on Smashwords (over 560 people have downloaded it for free in the last 25 days). I owe it all to the readers, and in respect to you all I'm doing my very best to make these books and the upcoming volumes as good as what you'd expect to see from a New York Publishing House.

Thank you for supporting me, things will only get better from here.

RL