My Writing - A Review, The Second Mission

20 June 2013, My Writing - A Review, The Second Mission

Announcement: My novels Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness are about to be published. I write this blog about 2 months prior to its publication. I just heard that the proofs will be here soon--likely before the end of the week. My publisher also wants to put the entire set of novels based on Aegypt on contract--that's 5 more novels for 8 total. They also want to put my other novels on contract. The release schedule should be one novel every 2 months. I'll keep you updated.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

Here are my rules of writing:

1. Entertain your readers.
2. Don't confuse your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

The Second Mission is great history...

The Second Mission is history in a time travel wrapper. In all my books I want to take you back so you can really see the true world in the period and culture I describe. I want you to see the culture as a contrast of your ideas and not within the context of your culture or ideas. I want it to be as real as though you actually stood in that original time and breathed that original air. I think The Second Mission does this well. Plus in The Second Mission you get some translation of the last five Socratic Dialogs and of the play Frogs. Hope you like it.

The Second Mission reveals the unintentional journey of a modern man, Alan Fisher, into time. He is an accidental and unwilling participant in humankind's second greatest adventure. Sophia, the actual time agent, became his reluctant guide. She had trained ten years to become Sophia, a Greek woman of 399 B.C. The second mission was her mission, and she did not want to share it with anyone. Now she was responsible for her mission as well as the survival of the interloper, Alan. They were linked together for better or worse in the second most important mission of mankind. For one year of history, 400 to 399 B.C., in the city-state of Athens in the place now called Greece, neither Alan nor Sophia could return to their own times.

Alan discovered the purpose of the second mission was observation and verification-to record the words and death of Socrates. This was the second most important historical research to future generations. Although Sophia would share little information about the future with Alan, he discovered the purpose of the first mission, and that information changed his life forever.
Alan Fisher, marooned in time, turned into Sophia's greatest hope for success and, because of the first mission, Sophia became Alan's greatest hope of spiritual deliverance. The first mission changed Sophia's world, and the second mission would also change the future of mankind.

For more information, you can visit my author site www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites: http://www.aegyptnovel, http://www.centurionnovel.com, www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, thefoxshonor, aseasonofhonor.