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G581: The Departure - Re-Designed



ree

For those of you who don't know, I'm not just an author, I'm also a short-term rental owner and operator. My Airbnb sits at the far end of our property, a cute little 900 square foot bungalow with two bedrooms and one bathroom. The story on it is kind of cool, you can read about our $25 house here.


The reason I mention all of this is something I call The Rule of Three. It goes something like this: If an issue comes up three times with guests, even if it is separated by months or even years, it is an indication that I need to change something. For instance: fans. Some guests really like fans, so I have two of them in the laundry room. The bedrooms are small, and I don't want them taking up space, but guests were consistently NOT seeing them. In one case, I had a guest buy a fan! When the 3rd comment of "I wish you had a fan" rolled in, I realized signs were needed, and added a sign in each bedroom "Need a fan? We've got you covered, you'll find them in the laundry room!"


Anyway, The Rule of Three has served me well over the years.


I realized it was time to apply it to other aspects of my life (and work) when I saw reviews on G581: The Departure that read...

"Normally, I don’t like stories that jump around so much."
"The chapters bounce back and forth over a period of several years"
"Good idea but I didn't like the constant shifting of timelines."
"It was a bit complex the way it jumped around"

Now, there were plenty of others who commented that while the plotline jumped around, it was easily followed (or sometimes not so easily but they still liked it).


And as I say in my Short-Term Rental Success book - "I'm not going to please everyone, I'm not a taco."


That said, as I worked through narrating G581: The Departure, eager to have it in my voice just as the latter books (I've recorded G581: Mars and G581: Earth so far and will be working on the rest soon), I noticed how disjointed it really did sound.

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When I was deep in the writing of The Departure, I saw three very separate storylines (1. Earth prior to departure, 2. Earth & ships/colonies falling to the ESH virus, & 3. Calypso), and I struggled to incorporate them. In fact, I originally wrote them out from start to finish separately, and then attempted to weave them together as flash-forwards and flashbacks. I was attempting to build tension as a reader moved through the book.


But as I narrated the book over the last two months, I felt more and more certain that I needed to fix the order of things.


Yesterday, after all of my audio edits were complete, I did just that. I kept Code Red as the first chapter, and then re-arranged the chapters to fall in a natural timeline order. I feel it will build better this way, while still catching reader's eyes and curiosity early with the first chapter. I am submitting the changes to all bookselling platforms, including my own author website, and you can expect those to take effect in the next few days. I'll also be updating the paperbacks, large print, and eventually the foreign language editions as well. I'll be submitting a request to all online bookselling platforms to push through the updated files for those readers who have already received their ebook copies. If you don't receive it, and would like the updated copy in the next week or two, please feel free to email me at shuckchristine (at) gmail (dot) com and I will email you the updated epub.


I think you will find the reading of it to be smoother, and even more compelling.


Feel free to email me and let me know what you think!


ree

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