Seven Things You Should Know About the Sequel to “The Day the Angels Fell”

Sometime this week, I’ll do it.

I’ll open up the Scrivener file for the sequel to The Day the Angels Fell and I’ll start the next round of revisions. Of course, I still have normal, paying projects to work on so I’ll be doing these revisions in the early or late hours of the day. But I’m really looking forward to it – I haven’t even glanced at the manuscript for a few months. It will be fun to be back in Deen (and New Orleans, and…the Edge of Over There) with Abra.

For those of you who enjoyed the first book, here are some things about the sequel you might want to know:

1) The title is The Edge of Over There.*

2) Right now it’s hovering around 80,000 words, which is pretty close to the length of The Day the Angels Fell.

3) Abra and Sam are no longer close friends. In fact, Abra kind of steals the show in this one. Which my son Sammy won’t be happy about, because his standard comment about the first book was, “And guess what? I’m the main character!”

4) I’ll be independently publishing and offering the book for preorder through Kickstarter. I decided to use Kickstarter again for a number of reasons: the Kickstarter campaign for the first one was so successful (you guys funded it in two days!!!); it’s a great way to cover the publishing costs (which, if you want to put together a professional book, isn’t a cheap proposition); and it’s one of the easiest ways I can, as an independent publisher, offer the book for preorder.

5) I’ll be looking for folks to help me launch the book later in the fall. If you’re willing to help with that (basically by helping me spread the word with your friends and family and total strangers on the internet and in person via email, FB status updates, Twitter, and megaphone shouting in the subway), let me know in the comments or by clicking the Contact button at the top of the page and sending me a short message to that affect.

6) If you support the Kickstarter campaign at a certain level (I haven’t decided which one yet), you’ll receive a short-story that reveals some VERY interesting information about Sam’s mom. And Abra’s mom, too. Listen folks – they’re not who you think they are.

7) I had so much fun writing this book. I can honestly say, along with John Steinbeck, “Even if I knew that nothing would emerge from this book, I would still write it.”

So there you have it. I hope at least a few of you are looking forward to the sequel as much as I am.

Here’s a question for you…what are your thoughts on me using Kickstarter to release the sequel? Does it feel okay to you? Does it feel icky in any way? Is it something you’d consider supporting or are you all like, “Um, yeah, already gave you money Smucker so hit the road…” Comment on this in the comments section and I’ll send out a free paperback copy of The Day the Angels Fell to one lucky winner because I’d really like to know your honest opinion.

*I initially announced the title for the sequel last week in my newsletter, the one I email out every couple of weeks. If you’d like me to let you know about that kind of fun stuff (newsletter subscribers will be the first folks to see the cover for the new book), you can sign up for the newsletter at the top right of this page. It’s painless. And you can unsubscribe anytime if it starts to feel spammy.