Thoughts on my novel: "Beware the Aegean Lion"

I recently wrote up a description of my forthcoming novel "A Matter of Discretion (found here)." This is a discussion of its follow-up novel, "Beware the Aegean Lion," of which I have just completed the first draft. There are minor spoilers below for "A Matter of Discretion" but nothing that would ruin the book.

Following the events of "A Matter of Discretion," Giles Northbridge finds himself at a crossroads, questioning how he will proceed with his life and whether he can remain in his nameless profession as a fixer and cleaner for the wealthy and powerful knowing that his work has hurt others in the past. He also finds himself more alone than ever, so when one of his few remaining companions asks for his aid in helping settle a blackmail scheme perpetrated against a high ranking military officer, he cannot turn away. Worse still, he fears it may somehow be connected to newspaper stories about a massacre in the desert half-a-world away. It is made even more enigmatic when he returns home and finds a cryptic message left on his desk by persons unknown bearing only four words: "Beware the Aegean Lion."

The novel continues to explore the time period as the first book did and delves further into Northbridge as a character and how his guilt drives him. Notably, it asks the question of how (and if) someone can find redemption after committing a crime they cannot atone for. It also examines several aspects of society that would become significant drivers of social and political action in the modern day, despite appearing only as subtle whispers during this time. 

Without giving too much away, Northbridge finds himself caught juggling a variety of needs both personal and professional as he is caught up in conspiracies, a gang war, and international intrigue.

I have just begun the editing phase and hope to have it ready for the beta reader phase soon. Should anyone be interested in beta reading "Beware the Aegean Lion," please email me at bernardtheauthor@gmail.com.

Back at it

So, how does someone start a blog back up after not writing for a year?

Like this, I suppose.

Yes, I am writing here again. No, I am not dead. Honestly, it’s just because I’m just not a very blog-y kind of person. Still, if you want to be an author, you need to have a platform and like any metaphorical or physical platform, they are always more stable when you have a foundation. So even if there aren’t many people reading this right now, I want to put this site out there and give people some content if and when I start gaining some attention.

So what inspired me to start blogging again? Well, that brings me to my next topic: what I’ve been up to. When last we met, I had just finished my manuscript for “Northbridge.” I have since changed the name to “A Matter of Discretion” and hope to turn the exploits of the Giles Northbridge character into a series. Since finishing the manuscript I have gone through the slow and painful enjoyable and fulfilling editing process.

I went through two rounds of beta readers, who give me input to see what people who aren’t me think of the story. As part of this, I also hired a sensitivity reader to ensure I am being respectful and accurate in terms of minority representation in the story. In many ways, it’s like a different kind of beta reader, except that they are looking at a specific aspect of the story (and let’s be honest, we all have a few blind spots when it comes to how people might interpret our work).

Then I hired an editor. She was a very talented professional named Faith Black Ross. Her website can be found here. We went back and forth over the summer changing and tweaking “A Matter of Discretion.” The editing process is slow and hearing criticism for your work is never fun, but I’ve learned what I’ve always been told: it’s one of the most - if not the most - important parts of writing a novel.

Now I am looking for an agent. A literary agent is the person who represents you and your work and essentially shops it around to publishers. The good news about agents is they don’t get paid until you do, typically taking about 15% of your commission. The bad news is that you need to find an agent to represent you first (and, of course, there is no promise an agent will be able to find you a publisher, only that they will try their hardest to do so - if they’re good, of course).

Finding how to query an agent properly required a good bit of research in and of itself. Not to mention, you need to learn how to recognize the differences between a real agent and fraudulent or phony ones too. I think I will post a little more about the process in a few days. For now, I am going to sign off.

I will leave by saying that I am writing the sequels to both “Nuru” and “A Matter of Discretion” right now. More news will follow on those fronts as well.

Until then, I am glad to be back.