After numerous supply chain delays, the print edition of Above the Ground is on sale in finer bookstores around North America.
This project has been percolating for a long while, so it’s definitely satisfying to see it come to fruition. Former Heavy Metal CEO Matt Medney first talked to me about the project in the late fall of 2020. Based on the work I did for Aethon Books’ The Children of Tomorrow, they recommended me to Matt, who was looking for a co-writer for this project.
We spoke a few times on video calls, and then he shared with me the work done to date on the project. I liked enough of it and thought I positively contributed to things way. I took his sample chapters and rewrote the first one to see if our styles and ideas meshed well enough, and he was delighted.
I wrote the novel in a white-hot hot rush in June 2021, and then Matt and I spent months going back and forth, adjusting this, revising that, until there was something solid. A while later, bound galleys appeared, and from there, we made further adjustments, with Matt adding an additional 1500 words.
Let me note, this is, I believe, the first time I have had bound galleys for a novel and certainly the first time there has been a book trailer.
The eBook dropped on schedule in November, and we cranked up the publicity machine a bit, then cooled off when it was clear the print edition was to be delayed. So now we’re back to promoting the book.
The final component, the audiobook, is in production, being narrated for us by John McLean.
Last spring, I took the notes for book two and blew them up into a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline and spent parts of June and July writing the book. Unfortunately, Matt has had so many other balls to juggle he hasn’t quite finished his initial read and work on the book so I have no real sense if he’s happy or not.
Speaking of which, the reviews have been scant but trending toward the positive, which thrills me.
The third and final installment exists as a series of notes. I need Matt to tell me what needs tweaking on the second volume, which may impact what we have planned to wrap this up. I should be writing the chapter outline in the spring and begin the final manuscript once more in June.
#Tags: Above the Ground, Aethon Books, Children of Tomorrow, Heavy Metal, John McLean, Matt Medney