Old Guy Who Writes

For those of you who have been wondering where the hell I’ve been, the answer is…right here; although, I’ve been sorta tied up.
I was told a couple of times after my first book, Refuge, came out, that it was a bit…intense. My answer at the time was along the lines of, “Well, it wasn’t written for kids.” But I kept those critiques in mind as I progressed to the sequel, Raven, and then to the other books, and I held the intensity down where I could and still tell the story I wanted to tell.
Well, recently I went back into Refuge for something, and as I was reading through it, I was astounded at the number of typos and errors in flow, composition, word choice, and spots of plain sloppiness and ineptitude that jumped out at me. Actually, I wasn’t so much astounded as embarrassed. Did I really publish this thing? Yeah, I told myself, and I can’t blame anyone else.
So, what I did was put on hold my current, multi-tasking projects, which were the next and subsequent sequels after Raven. I am now in the middle of reviewing, revising, re-editing, and looking forward to soon re-publishing Refuge. It will still not be a kid’s book, but I am backing off a bit on the graphic intensity, even to the extent of altering a major story-line arc or two. It’s still not pablum, but I think it may go down a bit smoother for some. And for the rest of you, if anyone cares to look at the new and improved version, as well as all future readers, I hope I’ve learned enough with the writing I’ve done since first publishing Refuge that this one will be an easier, more satisfying read. I’ve still got a bit to do on it, but it shouldn’t be too long.