Finally! The New Retrieval Artist Novel Appears!!
Yes, yes, I know. Double exclamation points. Honestly, I should probably call this Retrieval Artist update whatever, but I can’t contain myself. The third novel in the Anniversary Day Saga, A Murder of Clones, has finally hit print. Some of you have read the novella, also titled A Murder of Clones, but that’s just the first section of the novel. If you want to continue with the next five books after this one, you’ll need to read the whole thing.
A Murder of Clones is now available in trade paper, audio, and ebook. You can get it in all retail outlets—brick-and-mortar stores as well as online stores. If your favorite local bookstore doesn’t have a copy, they can order one for you.
The next novels will release one per month until Masterminds sees print in June. You can preorder all of the audio books right now by clicking this link. You can preorder the ebooks of Search & Recovery (the February book) and The Peyti Crisis (the March book) on iTunes, Kobo, and Amazon. You’ll be able to preorder Vigilantes (the April book) starting next week.
Here we go! My work is done. Now you can start threading your way through this complex story. If you haven’t read the previous two books, start with Anniversary Day and then go to Blowback before reading A Murder of Clones. Or, if you want to read all of the Retrieval Artist series, start with The Disappeared.
And watch this space. I will keep you updated on all of the developments in the Retrieval Artist universe, as soon as I know them. Happy reading, everyone.
Should have known you had a system of some sort to keep from losing track of things over time. Anything I could possibly suggest might at most give you an idea how to tweak things a bit to make a good system even better suited for your use. Keep up the good work. Enjoy your weekend. May God bless and keep you and yours.
Thanks! And taken in that spirit. Wish I could work in a more organized fashion…:-)
Sounds like what you need is some kind of a virtual whiteboard that you can pin up notes with these various snippets on them. One area could be for notes you haven’t decided where they fit, while other areas could be a story arc or a character arc that you could drop on or link the note to. Links might work better, as obviously a note will probably in the end wind up in both a story arc and a character arc. Of course using links will result in a pretty “busy” display, so you would need some way to focus on only those of interest at a particular time. Once a story arc is sufficiently populated you can then decide how to segment it and write it.
You are very visual, David. I’m not. I have written files that do this same thing in a Kris way. 🙂 And my subconscious often tells me–hey, dummy! That’s where this story you wrote 5 years ago fits. 🙂
Just finished “A Murder of Clones” and am looking forward to the remaining books in the series.
Have you considered offering an alternative edition at some point that linearizes the Aniversary Day Saga, possibly hypertext in nature? In general I prefer to read a story in linear time fashion as opposed to hopping around in time. A hypertext form would also allow me to follow the story from the various viewpoint characters.
I would also appreciate a similar edition when the Diving series is finished.
Thank you for all your work on this series and your other series.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the series! Thank you.
But, boy,that hypertext form sounds like a lot of work. 🙂 Besides, the story wouldn’t be that interesting. Storytelling often demands that the listener knows/doesn’t know something those in the story do, or the story is just dull. I see your point, but the amount of work that form would take would cut out writing several new novels.
I will concede that keeping the reader in a particular state of knowledge is a consideration for a first reading. But for re-reading a favorite series this is not so, as the reader already knows the background even if the details are no longer fresh in their memory. In a re-reading mode I would find a linear telling of the tale more satisfying.
As to how much work would be involved in creating a hypertext form, I guess that would depend upon what form you have it to begin with. In fact, I would wonder if it would work better to write it in hypertext in the first place and then create the books from that format as you prefer a reader to encounter for the first time. This of course would require that you have the entire saga, or at least a substantial portion thereof, conceived and written before publishing the first book. Depending upon your approach to writing this may not be a good fit.
In any case, keep up the great work.
Good point, David. I hadn’t thought about rereading for character or timeline. Hmmm. Writing in hypertext makes my brain hurt.
I write out of order. I write until some character says, “You see, it happened to me…” And then I go, “Really? Tell me about it.” The character tells me. Sometimes that’s useful for the book, and sometimes it’s a standalone short story, and sometimes it’s just for me. Impossible to know. So I rarely write chronologically. I’m always discovering new things about old characters. 🙂
One word: YAY!
🙂
Just bought the ePub version today. I will start reading tomorrow. Well, maybe I will neglect a few things and start reading tonight . . .
Oh, thanks, Tim. 🙂 Enjoy!
I don’t know how I will manage to wait until the next release in February. Murder of Clones is wonderful – just finished it! Thanks!
Wow, Susan, that was quick! Glad you enjoyed it. (And imagine how angry you’d be at me if you had to wait another year!) 🙂 I appreciate the quick feedback. 🙂
I’d only be frustrated if I knew the next book was ready but because of some arcane publishing rule, I couldn’t get it for another year! (Thanks for that great decision!)
My pleasure. I only know how I would have felt as a reader. And yeah, waiting for no real reason would’ve fried me too. 🙂
One word: addiction.
I should know.
Smashwords ho!
🙂