Back to Aphra Behn and Chameleon in a Mirror

The new version of Chameleon in a Mirror, my literary time travel featuring Aphra Behn, is going quite well. I’m 7,000 words in now, and if this keeps up, I can increase the target word count. Of course, I have a huge advantage in that I have the print-out of a completed novel by my side while I work. It may seem ridiculous to some that I have elected to type the novel in from scratch when it would be that much faster to just revise it, but that’s the point. I originally wrote this novel over fifteen years ago, and while I think the structure is still sound, my style has changed quite a bit. Sometime last summer, I had considered bringing Chameleon in a Mirror out as my first ebook novel, but when I started revising it, I realized it would need a lot more work than I originally envisioned. Then when my freelance editor of choice said she was booked through January, I decided to go with Yseult instead. I wanted to get a novel up by the new year, traditionally the best season for ebook sales, and Yseult had already been through both editors and translators and had been published in three languages (just not the original).

Then naturally, after I published Yseult and it was doing pretty well, it was much more logical to get the next Arthurian novel, Shadow of Stone, ready for publication.

But now that’s off to the editor, and Fragments of Legend is in need of more research, I can devote the time and effort needed to Chameleon in a Mirror. If I were just to revise the file, I would be much more tempted to leave things as they are. I’ve used the method of typing over from scratch a number of times, and I find it very effective in liberating myself from my old word choices. It also helps in questioning research and enlivening dialog and even in big picture elements like character motivation. The thing is, if I’m typing rather than just reading, I’m much more likely to hit a spot where I say to myself “Now wait a minute!” And then instead of revising, I’m writing completely new passages, which are (I hope) more in keeping with where I am now as a writer.

As Aphra Behn once said, “Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow.”

In the marketing and sales realm, “Looking Through Lace” is doing quite well after its four day freebie, garnering another 5 star review and climbing through the paid ranks better than I expected. Here’s where it stands as of this post:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,532 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#15 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Short Stories
#23 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Anthologies

It’s still one of my favorites of the things I’ve written, even though it was first published almost ten years ago, so I’m very happy to see it reaching so many people.

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