Lost and Forgotten: Book Three – Enigma by Maurice Barkley

7/23/2023

Multi-genre, multi-volume author Maurice Barkley introduces us to the third volume in his fantastic series, “Lost and Forgotten: Enigma”:
THE PAST IS NEVER DEAD, IT ONLY HIDES.
In the pursuit of a thing that is evil and dangerous, often the hunter becomes the hunted.
Evil hides behind more than one mask.

I am committed to not giving away spoilers but this might be a very difficult promise to keep, this time!
The first two books are quite fabulous and I was humming along enjoying the witty dialogue and the plot surprises in both books. There are many fun and thrilling moments. The author has a deft hand in creating a marvelous picture in my mind without overly detailed descriptions. The action sequences are quite good with a fast pace.
All of that continues in this third volume. The intensity of plot twists has climbed to a new level and I think I need to see a chiropractor for my whiplash! I am almost afraid to get the next book. But I can’t stand not knowing the rest of the story.
And lonesome Joe is now Jo. But I can't say anymore except read these books!

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Forgotten-Book-Three-Enigma-ebook
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/-Enigma-lost-and-forgotten-Maurice-Barkley
https://www.goodreads.com/-lost-and-forgotten-Enigma

You can follow the author:
https://twitter.com/MauriceBarkley
https://www.facebook.com/Maurice Barkley

The author has many other books in other series.
Here is the review of the first book in this series: https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/lost-and-forgotten-discovery
Here is the review of the second book: https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/the-secret-path
Here is the review of the fourth book: www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/toward-the-unknown-region

teleportation, galaxies, Nazis, aliens, quest, adventure, AI, artificial intelligence

Copyright @ 2023 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction.

40 Comments

Maurice Barkley link

7/23/2023 03:17:53 pm

Like the review. Ready to go.

Mark

7/24/2023 09:09:23 am

Welcome back to the Word Refiner channel, Maurice. I am honored that you chose me to promote another of your books, this time, "Enigma". I have enjoyed this series so much. There are a lot of wonderful, witty moments and shocking surprises!

We are continuing our conversation from the previous promotion of "The Secret Path".

A new question.

Have you ever used other acquaintances as the basis for a character, to the point they have recognized themselves in your book?

7/24/2023 02:51:41 pm

Other than casual mention of a clerk, taxi driver or someone in passing, I base all of my characters on people I know or know of (the tough kid from Brooklyn in early films, etc.). In one instance the daughter of my brother saw that I based Bebe on one of my girlfriends from long ago. She was pleased that she did so. It’s easy when a character appears ready made. That was the only instance I am aware of. (of which I am aware)

7/24/2023 03:15:12 pm

You make a good point. Why go to the bother of creating characters out of nothing when there are so many in close proximity, spatial or temporal.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with that as long as one caveat is kept in mind. Remember to change enough characteristics or quirks of the characters so no one can recognize themselves. One client happily wrote several members of his extended family into a story. One person took the story too personally and complained that she would never do what the book character did. He doesn't do that anymore. Family gatherings were tense for a while.

New questions.

What do you do to flesh out the characters for your stories?

How do you make them come to life for the reader?

7/24/2023 03:44:59 pm

I think the easiest way to illustrate this is to give a couple of examples from the novel. At the beginning I introduced Jim Cagney by having him listening to nostalgic music, mentioning his military career and marital status. Then I wrote about his mood and his little fantasy. A bit later I introduced his cat, Jesus that revealed something more about his character. Here is how I introduced Alice to the reader. “Bullshit,” she said, to the phone. “You say you screened this office for bugs and it’s clean. So how come there have been three confirmed leaks of information that never left this room?”
She must have been somewhere in her late forties, but everything was solid and athletic. The large brown eyes had that same steady look common to M1 and M2. Her hair was dark and full.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Put him on the phone right now.” While she waited for her next victim to pick up the phone, she glanced at me again. Her look was worried and distracted. “You’re Cagney,” she said. I couldn’t tell if it was a question or an observation, so I just nodded. “How old are you?” I felt my hackles rise. She sensed it and opened her mouth to speak, but the next victim had reached the other end of her phone. With her free hand, she made waving motions side to side, as if to negate what she had just said, then resumed her original attack. “Okay, Walter, my expert, you do know the meaning of Top Secret, do you not?”
And then a minute later.
“You say it’s impossible, but it happened three times,” she said. “Please, for God’s sake, get your guys back in here and find out what the hell is going on.” She listened for a minute. “Good, thank you.” She hung up the phone, stood up and leaned stiff armed on her desk. “My apologies to all three of you,” she said. “This has been the worst two weeks imaginable. Anyway, let’s begin again. Don and Mike, welcome back. Mr. Cagney, welcome to Washington. Please call me Alice, or bitch if you prefer.”
“Then, do I get a hug?” M2 asked.
“Sure,” Alice said, “but depending on the part I hug, you may not like it.”

7/24/2023 05:37:33 pm

You already know I love your writing style. It's concise and to the point with just enough well-placed description to paint a full, realistic picture in my mind.

The section about Alice is from the first volume, Discovery. I still chuckled reading it now. You gave three sentences to her physical description and it was quite adequate. Most of the rest was informing us about her mental state, her frustration and concern about information security in her office. For my money, great writing and wonderful entertainment.

New question.

Which is more fun to write, the protagonist or the antagonist, and why?

7/24/2023 07:18:38 pm

For me it is the protagonist. In my Sherlock Holmes series the antagonist is, for the most part, in the background. In Lost and Forgotten he is a Will-o'-the-Wisp that is only revealed late in the book. In both the fun was following the protagonist and friends as they discovered and followed the clues. The search was more interesting than the solution and confrontation.

7/24/2023 07:26:18 pm

I should have known that. Exactly for the reasons you mentioned. The team was always a step or two behind their quarry. While the dirty rat came up with many unexpected insights, the antagonist was always out of reach.

New questions.

Which is more important to a story pace or flow?

How do you control it?

7/25/2023 02:44:04 pm

I am guilty of editing as I go. (can’t help it) At first I don’t consider story or pace. By “at first” I mean the first hour or so when I visualize the action and or dialogue. Once I have a paragraph or three I automatically begin to sense a problem in pace or flow if there is one. More often the problem is in the flow and I fix it right away. Not too often, but once in a while, alarm bells go off regarding something many pages earlier—again it’s automatic. When that happens I stop and go back to fix it. I do hope that no one takes any of this as advice. This is simply what works for me.

7/25/2023 03:08:03 pm

You are a seasoned and accomplished author and I have learned that almost every author of your stature has a writing methodology that works for them. I tell new authors to write the story down as quickly as they can without putting on their editing hat to keep the inspiration flowing. Follow that muse! Everything can be fixed later.

I have heard of some writers who never complete their book because they were trying to have a perfect first draft. The muse got tired of waiting around and went elsewhere.

Don't change your writing style for me or anyone else.

New questions.

What is your writing routine when you sit down to write?

Do you write in a straight line or do you write whatever the muse provides for you at a given moment?

7/25/2023 04:52:18 pm

My routine begins away from the computer. I am a highly accomplished day dreamer, and night dreamer for that matter. I will mentally make a video of a sequence. I replay and edit it at will and then sit down at the keyboard. This can be at any time of the day. I definitely do not recommend this method to anyone except possibly another introverted day dreamer.
This of course almost always makes me write in a straight line since the video had already been created.

7/25/2023 06:25:21 pm

That is the most unusual method of writing I have heard of to date. I love it and find it most interesting.

New question.

Have you written all of your books in the same manner?

7/25/2023 08:04:03 pm

Someday I might write a record of my writing experiences. It has not been a traditional path. I wrote the first set of Sherlock Holmes stories maybe 40 or more years ago—on a typewriter. All rejected and there was no Amazon. I gave up for quite a while as I was busy with career as a commercial artist and family. I retired and built a treehouse in my yard. (Grandkids) It expanded to seven with bridges. Since I had the equipment and skills I put together a treehouse book and shopped it around. Luckily Sterling Publishing accepted it. That got me going again. The editor there called me a lyrical writer and that’s OK with me. I’ll let others decide.
Encouraged, I wrote a memoir that no one wanted, but the writing was lyrical. A second treehouse book followed with another publisher, but I wanted to write novels. I decided to write strictly what I would like to read, and I did. When finished, I did the wise thing and hired an editor to evaluate Lost and Forgotten, book 1. Man, was that a trip. The guy was honest, straight forward, brutal and totally correct. I learned a lot.
Now, perhaps my writing has changed from those first efforts, but I think from book 1 on, including the Sherlock Holmes Casablanca series, my habits have remained consistent. However, being keyboard close to the product, I could be wrong. Then again, so what? I’m having a good time.

7/26/2023 08:01:32 am

That is an interesting journey.

I started freelance proofreading for a writer friend in another state, in the early 1980s. There was no internet to send a manuscript, he sent me a carbon copy of his manuscript so he wouldn't lose his work in the mail.

Having a good time is important. The rest is icing on the cake. After reading three of your books, I know the readers are having a good time also.

New questions.

Now that your book is published, is there anything about it you would like to change? Beyond a few typos and such.
What else are you writing these days?

7/26/2023 04:18:36 pm

Change? Not really. There are a few things from book 1 that my editor insisted I remove, (and I did) like some scenes from Batts bar and the secret history of Batts and Angie. Also I had the band recruit Miss Magic from the silver dinner in a later book. (I’d have to look it up)
What else am I writing? I have started book 4 of my Sherlock Holmes Casablanca series (did you know there is a way to walk across a land border from Spain to Morocco?). I am also working on a fantasy novel titled “A Proper Winding” or maybe “Wisteria Lane’ or who knows. It has echoes of Alice in Wonderland and Narnia.

7/26/2023 04:47:16 pm

Deleted scenes, whether from a book or a movie are usually interesting to me. In terms of a movie, I find that little to nothing is altered in the story but the story is enriched at least a little bit.

I traveled in much of western Europe in the summer of 1974 during my college years. I took a ferry from European Spain to African Spain as part of my trip. Landed in a small town, Ceuta, then caught a bus with some other Americans I met on the ferry to Tetuan, Morrocco for the rest of the day and overnight. Quite an adventure in many ways. A lot was crammed into 24 hours.

Your fantasy novel sounds interesting. Fantasy is my second favorite genre, a close second to science fiction.

New questions.

What do you do to launch a new book when it is first published?

Have you ever participated in a book blog tour, why or why not?

7/26/2023 09:02:33 pm

My answers here are both easy and hard. Easy because I have done very little and hard because one does not like to admit one’s failings, but there it is.
When I first published Lost and Forgotten I did a giveaway and a couple of other things that I can’t recall. There were some sales, but very little. My Facebook announcement produced a bunch of likes from friends and family. (I don’t do that any more)
I did one blog tour. It was fun, but again, there were poor results. I could never succeed as a salesman.
I have yet to pay for advertising.

7/27/2023 07:21:27 am

Sorry to hear that the giveaways didn't generate a large number of sales. Many authors use giveaways to get people to sign up for their website to diversify their sales platforms and put out an email newsletter to those people. Done right, it can be a good sales tool and build the number of followers. Quite a few authors will give away the first book in the series or write a side story or a prequel that may only be available to subscribers. Exclusive content is another good way to keep subscribers happy.

I don't understand why you would stop announcing book news on Facebook. While an announcement might not generate any immediate sales the more people who like your posts will spread the news to others. The number of impressions accumulate over time and can result in sales that may or not be traceable to a particular campaign. I encourage you to rethink that strategy.

A lot of people do not think they are good salespeople. I get that. Selling is not easy. For me, the turning point came when I understood that I could help people solve a problem and help them make their lives better. Whether they needed a new wrench or a new book they were looking to me for help. I enjoy helping people all of the time.

New questions.

What kind of marketing has worked the best and the least for you for this book or the series? Or did we cover that in the previous question?

Speaking of marketing, why did you pick me to help promote your book?

7/27/2023 05:00:19 pm

I have no proof and I really don’t want any, but I think I have an odd brain. My short and long term memory leaves much to be desired. If interested, I can concentrate fiercely, but I can’t force the interest. Years ago, I alone built a large addition to my house, including digging the footings. I designed it, purchased all the materials and did all the work. I passed all inspections, including two Underwriters laboratory electrical. All of this because it interested me. Thing is I don’t remember how I did it—very frustrating at times. It’s all I can do to balance my checking account. I was a freelance commercial artist (working alone). Early on, as my work load grew, I hired an assistant with the idea of possibly becoming an agency. I soon discovered that supervising an assistant and developing agency resources did not interest me at all and I abandoned those plans. In short, there are things I can do and things I cannot do. So much for advertising.
By the way, I would advertise on Facebook if I could block friends and family.
I picked you after seeing many of your postings on Facebook. Nothing scientific, just a feeling, and there you have it.

7/27/2023 05:33:54 pm

Our brains and our memories are tricky things. Our brains change like the rest of our body.

Almost every author experiences chagrin after they have been over their manuscript dozens, if not hundreds, of times and then someone else looks at it and finds many typographical and spelling errors. It seems that our brains start to ignore those errors after the errors have been missed so many times already. Fresh eyes are critical before publishing that book.

A lot of people when seeing a book for the first time spot errors. I find spelling errors in 95% of the published books I read.

I am impressed that you built that addition yourself, from the ground up, literally. I was in construction for 20 years as a sheet metal worker and HVAC technician. I understand your frustration when looking at the addition knowing you built it and not knowing how you did it.

Balancing a checking account is not easy, I quit doing it years ago. Being able to track accounts online make it unnecessary for me now. I struggled doing that every month for years. I hated not knowing where that 37 cents went!

I considered expanding my business several years ago. I was developing a series of proficiency tests, and deciding on pay structure and realized that I would be very busy supervising the other proofreaders and doing little proofreading myself. I put that idea in the round file. I love doing what I do, helping authors polish their books.

Perhaps you could start a Facebook professional page for your books without telling them. Facebook is not the only platform that you could advertise on, that is certain.

It's good to know your limits.

I am honored you chose me.

New questions.

How do you think your book relates to the world we live in today?

What is the one thing you hope readers will remember from your book?

7/27/2023 08:41:24 pm

Hmmmm. I’ve given no thought to how my novel relates to the world. It just never occurred to me as I wrote it or after. Since the setting is “present day” I just tried my best to make the background authentic while the action occurred on Earth. I know this is not a satisfactory answer, but I need more time to think about it.
I do hope that readers are moved and remember the wonder of places I have created, purely from my imagination. I also hope they remember the camaraderie of the Dance Band.

7/28/2023 07:18:42 am

That is a good answer and you handled it well. You avoided the mistake that some writers fall into of mentioning major, contemporary, real-world events because doing so immediately anchors your book in the past. This causes the story to lose some relevance to the readers and can jerk them out of the spell you have woven.

New questions.

Do you have a classical author or poet you admire?

What popular modern authors have influenced you?

7/28/2023 04:43:24 pm

I am not well read. I had a bad experience in my single year of college. (Ivanhoe and Dante’s Inferno). Eventually, based on things I like, I turned to music. (I would trade it all to be a composer) Music has incredible power to stir emotions and tell a story.
Again, I am not well read. I have tried the very popular authors that write to a formula and have set them aside. One example of someone I admire greatly is Sonia Purnell, who wrote “A Woman of No Importance” and others. Her ability to research and tell a complex story is remarkable. Another is Nancy Springer who has had great success with her Enola Holmes series. They both write things that interest me.

7/28/2023 05:00:45 pm

That makes two of us, I am not nearly as well read as I would like. There are so many popular books and classics that I have never cracked the cover of. You are not alone.

Music is such a mystery to me. I love it and am moved by it in ways beyond my comprehension. Many years ago I read a book about the fundamentals of music. I still couldn't sing worth a lick. I struggle matching tones. Being a composer is a mind-blowing thought! Years ago, I talked with the son of a friend from work, the son was a composer and tried to explain to me what he did. I enjoyed our conversation but remained in the dark though I admired what he was able to do.

New question.

Why did you include Blue and Jesus in your stories? They even became part of the Dance band.

7/28/2023 08:20:25 pm

At first I included Jesus to add a bit of flavor to the story and to show something about my MC. As I continued, the cat became real in my daydreams and just showed up as I wrote. I really had no specific plans, even when Joe told James to take the cat, but I was confident that I could think of something, Even the morses became more important than my original intent.
Blue was another addition that at first was just background for the Band’s stay in the village, but very soon I had the idea of his association with Bebe and Nora. It was then he became one of a kind. As for his eyes ---- well we haven’t come to that yet.

7/28/2023 08:33:08 pm

I am always amazed when authors tell me how the story writes itself, sometimes despite all of their planning and plotting. I have been told that a minor character will sometimes yell and shout that they have a much bigger role to play in the story. More than one author has said they are glad they listened to the character.

The importance of the morses surprised me and you also, apparently. Their ability to telepathically connect with two people was fascinating.

Blue played an occasional but important role in the explorations of the Dance band. His fondness for spam brought back happy, childhood memories because I enjoyed spam when I was young. He was so doggish also. Single-minded and devoted.

New questions.

What software do you use to write and publish your books, and why do you use those?

How do you keep track of all the characters and events in your books?

7/29/2023 02:07:21 pm

I use Microsoft Word 2010. I have used Word since I purchased my Gateway 2000 way back when. I’ve been satisfied with all versions and did not like to upgrade, but I did. Now that it’s rental I will keep 2010 for as long as possible, which means I must keep my current Dell for as long as possible. I think I’m OK because I keep all files backed up on two remote hard drives and a thumb drive or two.
I have 2 name lists for Lost & Forgotten. One is the names of the characters (including animals) and the other is the names of places (this can be a location or an establishment. The name list has just over 100 entries, many of which appear just once or twice. Place names total just over 50 (my gang moves around quite a bit.
I have no trouble remembering the places, but I keep a printed list of major characters tacked to the wall for quick reference because at times I do forget

7/29/2023 02:38:02 pm

I am now up to Word 2019. My HP convertible laptop isn't robust enough for Windows 11, so I haven't upgraded the Office software yet. When I get a newer model of this laptop it will have the newer version of Windows and I will install a newer version of MS Office then.

I use a cloud backup service called Zoolz. It sits in the background and works seamlessly. I do backup my current proofreading project daily by attaching it to an email and putting the email in the draft folder. That way it's off my laptop and in the cloud also.

Some authors go to a great deal of work tracking their characters and such. There are a number of software packages specifically for novelists. One of them is Scrivener it merges with Word quite well. It is quite powerful and has a steep-learning curve. Those that make it over the hump seem to love it. If I wrote books, I would use it.

Some authors draw pictures of the main characters or search for faces that match what is in their mind. Some develop lists of what their characters like and dislike, limitations, accents or anything that might help set the character apart from the others. Short biographies are not at all unusual.

I like lists a lot, they do quite a bit to avoid confusion.

New questions.

Who is the easiest character to write in this book?

Who is the hardest character to write in this book?

7/29/2023 04:13:26 pm

There are times when I ask myself if I reveal too much, but what the hey, I’m an old man and I get away with a lot.
The easiest character was James Cagney. He is a combination of the movie James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. That’s who I visualized as I wrote. Why them you ask? Because that is the type of person I would like to have been, but I am a severe introvert and the only way it happens is in my novels. Enough said.
There really wasn’t a hardest character. If pressed I would have to say Carl Manheim. He was a reluctant criminal who eagerly joined the good guys after his original plans failed. The poor chump was more like me. OK? Are you satisfied? Enough said.

7/29/2023 04:57:45 pm

I am satisfied, thank you. I would have been happy with any answer you provided. Those legends of the silver screen were highly emulated by fans of that time. As a boy, I thought they were the epitome of cool. Being an introvert also, especially as a teenager with a bad stammer I could only dream about that level of cool.

New questions.

Do you listen to music or have the TV on when writing, or do you need quiet?

Action, dialogue, or narration; which is easiest to write?

7/29/2023 08:10:39 pm

By the way, my “are you satisfied” remark was my attempt at some humor directed at the reader.
Usually I prefer quiet, but on occasion I will have some mood classical in the background. I like a full orchestra, perhaps “Somewhere in Time” or “The Walk to the Paradise Gardens”.
When I daydream I can visualize a location in detail—room, park, cave, beach, etc., but in writing it I often get bogged down with minutiae. The same can be said for action, but to a lesser degree. Easiest for me is dialogue because I hear it as I daydream and so it is mostly written in my head before I sit down at the keyboard.

7/30/2023 08:19:28 am

I recognized the 'satisfied' remark as humorous and responded in the same way. We share a dry sense of humor.

We also share working environments; I prefer quiet as well. Some music in the background is nice also, I prefer instrumentals as the lyrics can intrude upon my thought processes. As a boy that loved to read, I learned to focus on my reading material to the exclusion of other aspects of my surroundings.

You have achieved a good balance between getting bogged down in the tiniest details and keeping the story moving. Not once did I feel I was slogging through descriptive material.

New questions.

Of the five senses which is the easiest to write and which is the hardest?

Have you ever participated in theater in some way?

7/30/2023 04:21:32 pm

Had to think about this for a while. I think maybe taste, followed close by touch. As you read my story I do mention food fairly often (SPAM, etc.). I wrote one rather good restaurant scene (The Cathedral), but the emphasis was on the camaraderie, the conversation and just a mention of smell and one had to assume the food tasted good.
Ah… the Theater—yes indeed—here we go. In High School (1952) I was in the senior play and a musical about Arizona, both forgettable. That year I did see South Pacific on Broadway (have never recovered from that first fabulous trip to NYC). Later I saw Ann Miller in Mame.
Then there was a pause (Army, college, married, children). My daughter started acting in high school. My wife who is a seamstress did costumes for the plays and I made many props. (By the way, my daughter was Mame in one of the shows). Our daughter went on to college, but my wife and I stayed on at the school for about 14 years. We also took the theater group to NYC every spring. (Saw all the Broadway shows)
Then we met the Sherwoods of the Bristol Valley Playhouse, here in NY. Both of my girls appeared on stage there. I did props and Marie did costumes for a few years (did I mention that my daughter was a hand model for Kodak cameras?).
Our daughter became a teacher and my wife went to work for the local Auditorium Theater that hosts many traveling Broadway plays. I remember once when my daughter took her boys back stage during a production of “The Phantom”. WOW!
Anyway my wife has retired, but our daughter is Costume Director for The School of the Arts in Rochester, NY.
I have written “THE END” to several novels, but here, in a small house near Rochester, the beat goes on.

7/30/2023 04:52:56 pm

You and your family have a lengthy history of involvement with stage productions. Very nice. Without many unseen hands, live theater would never be available. Basking in the reflected glow and echoing applause is an introvert's delight.

Your daughter was a hand model for Kodak! I love it. My first camera was a Kodak Brownie. Threading the film was hard for a young guy. Light flares were common. My bio-dad was a professional photographer.

New questions.

Do you think your experience in theater helps you as a writer?

What kind of marketing, besides working with me this week, are you doing or planning on doing for your book?

7/31/2023 04:41:14 pm

I think my theater experience has been and is a great help in my writing and in my thought processes. This is not so much in the things I have done, it is more the really fabulous people with which I have been associated. These are the dreamers with unlimited imagination and the courage to expose their inner selves to the world. I wish we had more of them.
Marketing? What’s that? There are a few things at which I excel. We all have talents and capacities that are there from birth. I have said before that I am capable of total concentration on topics that interest me and total collapse on those which don’t. My hope is that some exposure on the web will be seen by the right person—that’s it.

7/31/2023 05:15:45 pm

Creative people are amazing at times. The unseen forces that drive them internally bring about such beautiful expressions in their chosen field. The only real limit on creativity is self-imposed.

I hope you keep pursuing marketing opportunities that come your way, failing that I hope you can make one or two that suit you.

New questions.

How much research did you have to do for this book?

What were the major topics?

7/31/2023 08:01:12 pm

I do a fair amount of research for my Sherlock Holmes stories because they are set in a real time and place, but not so much for Lost and Forgotten. I did some basic research for Earth locations in Lost and Forgotten such as a wealthy area in Cleveland, Panama, Egypt and Germany—just enough to avoid obvious errors like having the tomb in an impossible place.. I did no research on the FBI building. I hope the interior is not as I described it. I do wonder if there is a Bill’s Garage. If there isn’t, there should be. Although James’ retirement home in New York State could be most anywhere as described, I visualized the area where I live as I wrote about it.

7/31/2023 08:42:06 pm

Wise use of your imagination. I certainly won't call you out on the FBI building. Your descriptions seemed quite reasonable to me.

The Sherlock Holmes series sounds interesting.

Last questions.

How long did it take you to write the first draft?

How many drafts did you go through to have a ready-to-publish manuscript?

8/1/2023 03:49:16 pm

The first draft took me the better part of two years.I was constantly revising, editing and changing my mind about this and that (I guess it’s all editing). Looking back, I can now say that it was not all that great. It was only after hiring a good editor (David Taylor at thEditors.com ) that I began to learn the right way. All of that gobbled up another six months or so (I did not keep track).
From 2011 to 2016 I must have revised this close to ten times. I have files on the earlier versions, but I won’t let anyone see them.

8/1/2023 04:28:54 pm

Yes, a lot of changing and tweaking of that first draft.

As you and so many other authors have learned a good editor is worth the fee. Sometimes they are very expensive.

I agree with you, I would not let anyone else see anything other than the final product.

Thank you for being on the Word Refiner channel again. I always enjoy chatting with you and I love your writing.

Until next time, keep on writing.

Lost and Forgotten: Book Three – Enigma by Maurice Barkley

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