"Tales, unlike stories, never lie."

Posted in Reviews, The Moon Coin, The Moon Realm | Tagged Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, best, blog, Carolyn Arcabascio, chapter art, Cover Art, Dragon, Dystopian, ebook, epub, Faeries, fantasy, fiction books, Free, Free Chapters, giants, iBooks, iBookstore, indie, Indie Author, indie publishing, Indle eBook, iPad, Kindle, mermaids, mg, middle grade, middle grade fantasy, Nook, Publishing, review, Richard Due, Self Published, Self Publishing, The Moon Coin, The Moon Realm, ya, ya fantasy, ya fantasy series | 2 Comments

2 Responses

1. on December 22, 2011 at 5:26 pm | Reply Yvonne

   Hello Richard,

   Thank you so much for your lovely comments and for highlighting my blog so prominently, both are very much appreciated.

   It was a genuine pleasure to read and review ‘The Moon Coin’ and I would like to wish you every success with the future of both this episode and any subsequent episodes of ‘The Moon Realm’ series.

   With my very best wishes for the holiday season and all good luck in 2012.

   
   
2. on December 23, 2011 at 3:08 pm | Reply Finder

   Hello Yvonne,

   Your review was a special treat, and for many reasons. For one thing, it appears my book has drawn you back into the fantasy aisle for a second look. I can think of no higher praise. For another thing, when you say at the end of the book that you didn’t feel cheated by the final twist at the end, you spoke to what was for me the most difficult narrative decision of the book You see, when I split The Rinn of Barreth into The Moon Coin and The Dragondain, I was left with an ending for book one that was . . . less than titanic. Which is a very dangerous choice for a first-time author. I was so worried about it that made several outlines (not drafts) with more exciting endings. But each one of them weighed down the work. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that a bigger ending would mean slowing down my world building, necessitating a total rewrite of both books. Still I persisted with this idea until I’d worked up a pitch for what I thought was my best idea. When I took this idea to my editor, her eyes got very large and her mouth dropped open. When I asked her what was wrong, she picked up the current manuscript in both arms and said, “You’re not allowed to touch this any more! And don’t make me confiscate your laptop. Not every ending has to be explosions and fireworks! It’s perfect! Leave it alone!”
   I knew in my heart she was right, but I still wasn’t sure what other people would think, so I pitched the idea of changing the ending to all my beta-readers. Every single one of them sided with my editor.
   As improbable as this sounds, when I split The Rinn of Barreth in two, I didn’t change a word on either end of the split. I picked it up several times to “fix” it, so the break would be more natural. And I when brought this up to my editor, she said that surely we’d need to change a sentence or two. But neither of us could find a thing to change. It was like it was like the book was meant to be broken in half in precisely that place.
   Lastly, my editors (I’m blessed with two) and readers want to thank you for recognizing their hard work in catching every typo and grammatical error they could. You can never know exactly how hard it is to remove every typo, double word, and grammatical error out of an 85,000 word manuscript, until you’ve actually tried. It’s a nearly impossible feat.

   So, thank for for all these things, and all your kind words. For a “never to be converted sceptic,” you absorbed all the fantasy elements of The Moon Coin like a seasoned pro. Have you read any Lemony Snicket, J.K. Rowling, Catherynne M. Valente, or Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series? (Suddenly I know exactly how the Child Catcher felt in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. “Lollipops! Come and get your lollipops! Ice Cream, all you can eat!”)

   Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

   Richard

   
   

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