As of today, Thoughts of an Eaten Sun is available in both ebook and paperback book for you to purchase and read!

In my last post, I covered the origins of Thoughts of an Eaten Sun. That post took us into 2016, when Karla and I discussed her doing travel nursing assignments and me taking a sabbatical. I left off saying that my sabbatical goal was to work most days on ToaES.

At the beginning of 2017, we set our plan into action and journeyed to the location of the first travel assignment. From March 2017 until now, I have been working on the novel. My initial goal was writing three hours per day, five days per week. As with any undertaking, some days were more productive than others. And we took time off at various points to travel, camp, or relax. In general, though, the manuscript progressed steadily.

Over time, I recognized that completing the novel would take longer than initially expected. Why? Because, like in software, the initial estimate was made at a time when I knew the least about the project that I ever would. The first draft was 21,000 words. A year ago, I estimated the manuscript would be 60,000 words. Today, it sits at just over 81,000 words. A story is not entirely defined by how many words it has but comparing the word counts does indicate how the concept grew.

I’ve learned an awful lot about storytelling, the process of writing, and what is involved in publishing a book. Hantle’s journey became the focus of the novel. That change of focus required rewriting most of the manuscript, which took considerable time. Consequently, I changed my daily goal, eventually settling on five hours per day, five days per week. When aiming to reach specific milestones, I did put in more time than normal, but it was worthwhile.

Every hour worked, lesson learned, and chapter rewritten helped me refine the story and finish the novel.

I am proud to say I have completed the largest personal project I’ve ever undertaken. Over a decade after the initial phrase came to me, Thoughts of an Eaten Sun is a published novel. Writing a book has been a dream of mine since I was young, and I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to make it a reality. It took some doing, but I bucked my habit of not following through on a single idea.

Two people in particular were instrumental to me in completing this project. I am eternally grateful to Karla for working so incredibly hard, keeping us both housed and fed, and supporting my goal. Tomorrow, I’ll be marrying her, and I’ll soon rejoin the workforce so that she can take a sabbatical of her own. Zach Miller gave immense amounts of feedback, spend countless hours brainstorming, and was a hours feedback and brainstorming, which immensely.

Now that it is published, I am eager to share Thoughts of an Eaten Sun with friends, family, and others. I encourage you to pick up a copy, give it a read, and leave a review so that I, as well others, know what you think of it.