Murders, Myths, and Memories: Off to Publisher
It has been over two months since my last posting, so you probably wonder what I’ve been up to. Well, here’s the writer part. I received the first bunch of suggestions back from my Beta readers in about a month. They were great and led to a major re-write. After I finished the re-write, I sent it to three more Beta readers on November 10. I received the last of their feedback on November 27 and finished another round of rewrites on November 29. I then sent the revised manuscript off to my publisher, Babylon Books. I’m still receiving suggestions about the title, so please consider Murders, Myths, and Memories only a working title.
The book still follows two investigations, twelve time-zones apart, as they proceed in real time. One on Maui, led by Angela Beyers, of a shooting in the ‘Iao Valley, and the other on a Mediterranean cruise, led by a Europol agent now named Andreos Calliopoulos with the assistance of Keone Boyd. Both investigations test the ability of those involved to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, even when certain facts stretch the investigators beliefs. They also test the personal relationships of those involved.
A major change in the manuscript, which seems simple but required days of work, consisted of removing one extraneous day from Keone’s and his bride’s honeymoon. This extra day in Rome did nothing to advance the plot and made correlation with the parallel story awkward. Another change was the nationality of the Europol agent. Since the the cruise is of Italy, Greece and the Greek islands, my original choice of a Frenchman made no sense. Making him Greek allowed a connection back to another aspect of the story.
Also, although there are two investigations, there are actually three major plot lines, including a mysterious manuscript containing clues to one of the investigations. That means that I have, in effect, three major protagonists: Angela, Keone, and Rob Lister, the author of the manuscript and victim of the ‘Iao Valley shooting.
I hope this posting reminds everyone how important Beta readers are and how many revisions a story must go through before it is ready to be published.
By the way, while I was waiting for that first round of feedback, I wasn’t just sitting around. I did a complete rewrite of the third book to make it consistent with the the changes I’d made to the second book. I also served as a Beta reader for a number of authors and posted some reviews.
Hopefully future postings will be a bit more frequent, but bear with me until I get through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. I plan to focus on my wonderful family until then.
May you all have a wonderful holiday season, whatever holidays you are celebrating. Best wishes and Aloha
Rick
About the picture:
The ‘Iao Valley on Maui and the Mediterranean are still both central to my revised second Maui Mystery.