The Heron Kings’ Flight to Release May 2022

Update: Here’s the cover just sent to me by the publisher. Maybe I should’ve included some maple leaves in the text…

The Heron Kings’ Flight to Release May 2022

This is just a brief update on the status of The Heron Kings’ Flight, which will be my second published novel (though the first one I began). A few weeks ago I received the corrections.

The changes this time were much fewer in number and easily made, and the whole process was much more streamlined. I got the requested edits all done in about a day. Although the contract originally said 2023, everyone was able to get the edits done on or ahead of time. Don tells me it’s now scheduled for a May 2022 release! Credit also must be given to the copy & proofing editor Mike, who’s able to root out the most minute formatting or grammatical hiccup. I would never want these guys as English teachers because I’d definitely flunk. But I’m glad they’re taking such good care polishing up my mad scribblings into a marketable product.

This is a subheading to improve my readability score

I just wrote about 600 words about the development of this book and its history and personal significance to me. Then I realized what I was saying sounded real familiar, and it turns out I already did a post saying all that, which you can read here if you’re so inclined, so I deleted the text from this post 😎

Like the first book, this one is also a self-contained, stand-alone story. I set it about a hundred years after the first. with all new characters, so you can read each in isolation. Of course, one would obviously get more out of the second from having read the first. No unfinished series here I promise! The final draft comes in at 114,973 words, and likely won’t change much before printing. FTP has a hard limit of 120,000 words, so no doorstop sequels like you see with big publishers.

I expect to see the ARC in the next few months. If any actual humans are reading this post and would like one, just comment below. I’ll see about getting a link from NetGalley. I’ve only ever gotten spam comments on my posts, so make it clear you’re not one! Meanwhile, please subscribe to my infrequent newsletter on the sidebar, and check out my latest short story collection As It Seems, which contains several short tales that either inspired or were inspired by the Heron Kings books. Other stories are available in various forms from the short fiction page. And please pre-order!