Maksim Malik

sci-fi / fantasy author

scifi

En Route is out!

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The sequel to Spin is finally out! Check out the Kindle version here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MPQH2ZZ or the print version here https://www.amazon.com/dp/1793222223/

Caution: book contains thrills, actions, spaceships, aliens, sex, artificial intelligence, and more.

The launch could have gone smoother. I had an issue where my book cover was not being displayed on the Amazon product page even though I uploaded in the appropriate dimensions in JPG format. I fixed it (finally) by uploading the same image in TIFF.

I’m excited this book is out!

 

Progress Update 2018/10/20

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The sequel to Spin, En Route, is coming along well. The rewrite has no ETA for completion, which is fine since I haven’t set any deadlines for myself. Basically the first manuscript chugged along slowly and had some issues with subplots trying to supersede the main plot. Since then, I have revised the book’s outline which both removed and edited scenes to the point that I have to rewrite chapters, remove characters from chapters, and insert entire new sections and chapters.

So far I’ve removed around six thousand words, but added close to that, so it’s ending up balanced. Right now I’m on a part where I need to add several new chapters and ditch two or three chapters and tie the new ones into some of the old ones—it should be fun. Alas, some of the characters I created won’t even make it into the final book as they have technically died off-stage, without introduction or purpose. So let’s make a toast to Pindan Adachi and his secretary, Miss Never-got-a-name. You both were important once, but as I rip these pages apart your entire lives get tossed to the floor.

Although technically I am not ripping physical pages since I work entirely digitally.

Thoughts and Comments Fixed!

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I had a wonderful time figuring out why my comment boxes on my website refused to show themselves. All the options for WordPress were set properly. After quite some time of digging through Google I found the solution: I missed a check box in the options for the theme itself. Thank goodness it worked—not that I expect many comments. I’m not a great blogger but perhaps in time my posts will improve.

Now onto beta reading! “En Route,” the second book in the “The Astromancer Chronicles” just came back to me from the best beta reader I’ve come across. The manuscript is going to go through some massive changes and likely end up having a different main plot overall. I had three plots circling each other and none of them took the lead. The beta reader, Shalini, left thorough notes not only of the negative points but of positive ones as well. This will require a good deal of work, but I’m not upset about it. I’d rather smooth out the book than release it in its current state. I am actually happy about all the re-writing I will do. Shalini helped me see my manuscript from an outside perspective and made clear to me what goals I should be aiming toward. It will be after November when I start on the project though because NaNoWriMo starts in November.

My outline is prepared for November, and I’m excited about the novel I want to write. It’s a fantasy story with a bit of an Ancient Persian flair to it, though completely different than Ancient Persia was as I borrowed some ideas from elsewhere. Besides, I don’t think there were elves in Ancient Persian history. Somehow the outline for the novel ended up being around 44,600 words. I’m not sure how that happened. I went into good detail about many things but so much needs to be filled in for the novel itself. I’m curious to see how long it will be. For anyone curious, it took a little less than a month to do the entire outline. The time spent staring at the monitor greatly outweighed the time writing.