Jumping back in...

A few weeks ago, I finished the second story in my series, and sent a copy to my publisher's editor to read.

Well, by "finished" I mean a complete draft which I was happy enough with to send out. Ever since, I've had ideas for improving scenes and dialogue... I don't suppose any author was ever completely happy with a story they've written, as there's always another way to say something.

I'm confident I wrote a decent story, but I'll have to wait and see if the publisher thinks it's entertaining and engaging enough to be published.

So, while I wait to hear, I decided to start working on something new. My choices were to revise one of two older ideas, or start developing Merely Players story three. I've got several ideas for story three rattling around my imagination, and these shouted louder than revising older stories. My plan is to get a few chapters done, then start posting these at the rate of one per week in my critiquing group and see what comments I get. No title in mind yet, but a few ideas. See which one seems to fit best as I develop the story.

Story two follows on from Knights Errant, but I tried my best to make it work as a stand-alone story. My other ideas, potentially stories 3 to 6, are all stand-alone, following only in chronology, and with characters in one featuring in a later story. Provisionally called The King's Captain, the second story is set against recording the first few scenes of the TV show Paul was recruited to work on. Poor old Paul gets into a emotionally confusing situation, one which has some parallels with the storyline in the TV show. But since there are clearly other stories to come with the same characters, the ending is obviously HFN. I've aimed for a similar balance of tension, humour and steamy scenes as in the first book, hopefully lively and entertaining.

I introduce new characters who will feature to some extent in later stories. One will be in the third story, in a sort of "also starring" role, and two others are the characters from one of my older ideas. In some ways, the Merely Players stories are a spin-off from that one, but in terms of publishing, it'd be the other way around. It has a rather darker storyline and overlaps a teeny bit with The King's Captain. A few scenes will feature in both, but told from the point of view of different characters.

And to my delight, eight readers have posted encouraging reviews of Knights Errant on amazon.com, giving the story four or five stars: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017IZS56K

I've listed all the buy links I know of on my facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/ian.d.smith.writer/