February Update: Exciting News!
Greetings friends, family, and followers!
It is an especially exciting time to be following my writing journey with Workmanship Writing! I have some big news to share with you all.
I have finished working with my beta readers and my editor! Through December and January I had a handful of friends of different ages from different backgrounds and places test read my novel. What they had in common was one, they believed in and supported my writing dreams, and two, they were readers who love Christian literature, fantasy, and/or Christian fantasy. The feedback I received helped bring the manuscript into its final stages and also confirmed this story is ready to move toward publication. The love for and engagement with the story and characters were what I always dreamed this story could one day achieve.
Mid-January I really began searching more intentionally for an editor. I knew I had a budget to keep, which alone was no easy task for a long fantasy novel. If at all possible, I also wanted an editor who supported the Christian themes of the book. I spent a grueling week of searching tirelessly and hitting many dead ends. At the end of that week, I found the perfect editor.
She and her husband write and publish successful Christian fiction novels, while editing other books in the Christian fiction and Christian fantasy genres. I just finished working with them, and had a very smooth and successful experience. They loved the story, and that confirmation was the strongest I had received yet, coming from a successful author from my genre. What's more, they gave me their marketing outline and contacts for a good cover designer and formatter. I am working with them to format the book and design the cover now. Beyond that, there are only a small handful of steps left before Anthemia: Kingdom of Heroes is ready for its debut. With the editing stage of book one wrapping up, I have also started revisions on book two of the trilogy.
Writing and revising this story has been far from easy, and is years in the making, but while these last few steps are tedious, I actually couldn't picture them going any better than they are, for which I am beyond blessed. So, stay tuned! The best is yet to come, and it is coming very soon!
Cheers!
Stephen Ritchie
P.S.- I have also posted plenty on my blog, including some of my poetry recently. The link to my blog's home page is here:
