Friends,

I hope this post finds you well and ready to begin a brand new year full of potential to achieve your goals! I have some things I want to tell you, so let’s get right into today’s post…

The Faces of the War Collection

I spoke with my editor last night and he said he will email the edited manuscript of Unguarded to me by this evening. That means I will work on amending the story where needed over the next handful of days. I must submit the final MS to Amazon on Tuesday evening to meet the pre-order deadline of ten days prior to release. Once that happens, I’ll send out more details about the release itself.

As for the story, I anticipate that my editor will send back some great feedback from which I can grow in my writing, ultimately striving to be better with each project. If you are new to writing, I strongly encourage you to have a few friends or colleagues that can read your work (or parts of your work) and provide feedback. You can’t expect to improve your craft if you don’t know what to improve, right?

For the time being, the book is in its final stage of publication, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Once I get Unguarded launched, I will continue writing in my Short Story collection as well as bits and pieces of the next book in the Faces of the War collection. I truly enjoy doing this, and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

While you await the release of my second book, please check out the pre-order page on Amazon. The book is available for the pre-order price of $3.99 but will go up to $4.99 on or around the release date, so I suggest you pre-order your copy now! Once you do, the book will automatically be sent to your Kindle on January 24th when the book goes live.

I’ll have more details about the publication process in next week’s blog post.

Europe Trip 2014-15

As I’m sure you’re aware, I just returned from a trip to Europe. My wife and I were chaperones on a high school trip that lasted ten days, with stops in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. It was a very good trip, with only minor problems along the way. The students enjoyed themselves, as did the other adults who went. I have already seen much of what was to be seen, but it was definitely worth the time to further explore the cities and sights of our destination.

My favorite city on this trip was Munich. Having been there twice before, I was familiar enough with the area to feel comfortable walking around. My wife and I bought some souvenirs to bring home as gifts to our family members, had lunch at a nice little restaurant, and got to tour the BMW museum. It was a very fun and enjoyable day, and I’m glad we got to be there.

The rest of the trip was enjoyable as well. We made stops in Rothenburg, Salzburg, Venice/Padua, Verona, Lucerne, and Heidelberg. Much to my surprise, I bought an Italian-made scarf in a Verona market. I say “surprise” because I never saw myself as a guy who could pull off wearing a scarf. But my wife encouraged me to get one, and I ended up really liking it, not to mention that it helped ward off the cold temperatures we experienced while there. It was definitely a great way to bring in the new year!

That’s all the big news I have right now, but I will keep you informed in next week’s post. I truly hope the year is off to a great start for you, and that you find yourself accomplishing something you set out to do.

Until next time,

-Eli