Round 1 - Challenge Accepted

We have an official release date for my novella Yakuza Territory (futuristic crime noir follow-up to Immaterial Evidence). Intrepid detective Charlie Madison's next adventure will be available from Musa Publishing on November 7. So you know what that means: time for final edits.

This past week, I finished the first round and sent the new, improved version back to my editor. Have I mentioned before how rewarding it is to work with a talented editor? Well, it is. As a rule, Musa schedules three rounds of edits (in addition to final line edits) before their titles are fit to print, so I always know my best work is greeting the masses. And as a bonus, working through a 90-page novella is good practice for the novel-editing I'll have to wade through in the near future—assuming my three manuscripts out on the query circuit get picked up sometime soon. (Wouldn't that be freakin' cool?)

Most of the Round 1 alterations in Yakuza Territory were minor: a few clunky sentences to fix, some Musa-specific formatting adjustments to be made, and a couple continuity issues to clear up. My writing always improves as I polish up what I already thought was well-polished (after my own four or five drafts). A fresh pair of eyes is invaluable, particularly a pair hired by your publisher to be ruthlessly efficient. I couldn't be happier with how Immaterial Evidence turned out after all those editorial rounds, and it's looking like Yakuza Territory will be on par with its predecessor. In my experience, there's one thing Musa excels at: publishing a quality product.

What's Yakuza Territory about? Glad you asked. Here's the current tagline:  A detective with no way out. A telepath with something to prove… 

As far as a blurb goes, it's currently a work in progress. But for now, if you can imagine Die Hard meets Assault on Precinct 13 with a hard-boiled detective, a suprahuman who likes playing mind games, and a gang armed to the teeth (complete with a killer robot), you'll be on the right track.