Dear readers,

I have revamped this old blog to better showcase the Black Book series. The Iechnor Base site is a little too cumbersome to update to keep up with the series. I realize this blog is syndicated on Facebook, so if the posts start getting irritating, leave a comment, and I'll break the link. On the other hand, it makes me look like I'm getting on Facebook, so maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Where Black Book stands:

Book 1: Project Black Book (Currently a very disjointed novel; probably heading toward a collection of short stories/short novel.)

Book 2: Laws Among Friends (Currently a complete rough draft)

Book 3: The Announcement (Currently a handful of conceptual scenes)

Book 4: Under the Radar (Currently a short story)

Book 5: Best Left Dead (Currently.... *ahem*)

Book 6: Out of Enemies (Currently a concept and a very bad title)

Book 7: Rebellion Reborn (Currently a dark concept)

Book 8: Chain of Command (Currently an amusing concept)

For the past eight years, whenever I finished a book, I started a new one. Sometimes, I didn't even wait until I finished. This time, I'm going to try this editing thing. LAF is a good novel with a majority of the scenes being exciting, amusing, or interesting. But it can be more. I need to revise to fix some little details (like characters whose names changed halfway through or characters whose names should be a better differentiated from each other); and to fix some larger details (like a mounting conflict and the developing attitudes between Jenn and Chryson).

Project Black Book... Has some really good plot threads, good characters, flat characters, and characters that are introduced too late, as well as a really irritating pronoun problem, according to Ann Cecil. (Being the author, I know who 99% of the pronouns are referring to, just from context, so I'm rather blind to that.) I was going to give up on this completely, but it's still a great and fairly thorough introduction to the relevant part of the universe. Unfortunately, the relevant part of the universe is a little too spread out to make for a coherent novel. It needs work.

In light of all that, here's the plan:

1. Make sketches (or find pictures) for most of the settings, in order that the setting can really come to life in revisions.
2. Sketch most of the characters' outfits, so that the physical appearance of characters is a little more vivid and so that other characters address them more logically/appropriately given their assumptions based on clothes.
3. Read through Ella's and Ann's comments, make suggested line edits, and list major changes/inconsistencies to address.
4. Read through LAF and list the major changes I want to address.
5. REVISE!

Any help, especially on the artistic end of things, would be greatly appreciated.