Warder in the works

One of the other things that's sidetracked work on new material has been Warder, which you might otherwise know as The Cloak of Shrouded Men.

Cloak was the first book I self-published, the product of three successive, and successful, NaNo experiences ('04-'06), the first physical copies of which I received in the mail the same day the last Harry Potter book was released in 2007 (a coincidence that has always amused me).  I began noticing further grammatical revision needs immediately.  I was supposed to have a new edition through an upstart publisher fairly soon after, but that fell apart, and the idea of releasing one never really left me.

Part of the problem was the title, not to mention the name of the main character, a superhero called Eidolon.  I loved both, and never considered changing the latter (pronounced "idol-on," as I later clarified; based on a line in a Hart Crane poem), but have had numerous ideas for the former.  Recently I settled on Warder.

I've tried shopping the book around to publishers for years.  I unlisted it from the original self-publisher a few years back.  I've done revisions, will probably do more, but I've really liked some of the ideas that've occurred to me, including a radical new ending that redefines an important element (or two).  Finding a cover image has been another long-term quest over the years, if I wanted to self-publish again, but just a few hours earlier, I think I finally solved that, too.

I intend, if I pull the trigger, to publish Warder in three volumes.  This is a story I never really intended to write in the first place, but I've never been able to leave it behind.  I like what I did with it (even if I know some readers, like Pat, will think there's too much philosophizing, too little action), and yeah, I even think, foolishly, if anything were to finally get me into comics, this story finally landing properly could do it.  Probably.  Maybe.

Well, we'll see.  (Heh.)