As I am bringing my fourth book to a close, I had a reason to check the first, and God, it needed so much work! As good as it was, there was plenty of room for improvement.

I had a second editor to look over it and have added some detail and character development that I should have had back then. For example, I added a few new scenes and rewrote whole sections to replace “telling” with “showing.” In short, the word count increased by 10k, and has become a superior version that showcases my story’s vision more cohesively.

I intend to commission a more professional cover made as well, given that when I first published my book, I only had the front cover made and did the rest myself. And that is where I currently am in my journey.

My original editor, Alex, helped a lot, given how inexperienced I was at the time, but the first novel still needed a lot of work. Who knows, maybe in another six years, I will have learned so much that I see it needing more work yet again.

After this process is complete, finishing the fourth and final book, The Silvery Path will be nice. At least this process reminded me of the events that unfolded in the first story, and how they affected Denida, Nina, Dan, God, Lucifer, and the Daniels. I found it valuable to revisit the start of my authorial journey, all the way to see what has evolved from the original idea I had around 30 years ago. I sure feel old.

Additionally, it reminded me of how formatting works when I do it for the fourth book. It’s also my first time trying Amazon’s Kindle Create for an e-book. A lot of features have become more accessible since I first published No Way Back in 2007, but it can only benefit the fourth and final one to come.