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Tunnel at the End of the Dark

I've been putting the finishing touches on Tunnel at the End of the Dark, but I've had some distractions.

Tunnel at the End of the Dark is the Book 2 sequel to The Princess, the Knight & the Knave in the Possible Magic series. Although I tried to get some early reader inputon the first draft by offering copies of Book 1, I got no takers. I don't think I'll try that again.

I realized there would be difficulty, the title of Book 1 is not very exciting because I adapted from computer science problem. Also, I am terrible at publicity. So, I went ahead with my gut feeling on the plot direction. Naturally, the hero, young stage illusionist Matt Collins, gets drawn back to Kotimaa when the wicked, but not quite evil, wizard Crius swaps bodies with him again. The evil wizard Sobieslaw sends his beastman army against the Kotimaa frontier, and the outcast knave, Harold allies with Sobieslaw in the batttle. Meanwhile, King Ilbert has been given a magical poison, and his life and the future of the kingdom depend on the quest by Matt, Alaric and Basil to find an antidote. Matt still uses his illusions to combat real magic, but a hint arises that some of Crius's powers might cling to his body for Matt to tap.

I finished the story and have been through twice applying polish and way too much spit. I expected to continue rewriting and polishing until the February release. Instead, I got a short story idea for the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest.

For those who don't know, the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest (named after the late Jim Baen of Baen Books) has been a yearly contest sponsored by Baen Books and The National Space Society since 2007. I'm not sure of the exact history nor whether there have been other sponsors. This year, the contest is run by William Ledbetter (also a Codexian).  Entries should be "...a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration..."

Well, I cranked out the first draft last week, got some nice feedback over the weekend. Now I've got two weeks to refine and polish.

Does this mean I'll delay the release of Tunnel at the End of the Dark? Only slightly. I still plan for February, but later in the month than I original thought. As a promotion, I've signed Book 1, The Princess, the Knight, & the Knave into the KDP program. That means it will be available for free loan to those with an Amazon Prime Membership. It also means that I will run free promotions for those who aren't a Prime member. Those who want to read Tunnel can get a free copy of Princess if they shop on the right date. The first such free date for Princess is Friday, January 18, 2013. I will also run free promotions on some other novels clustered about that Friday on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday (maybe Monday) just for publicity sake.

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