My 2nd Novel Revealed... Somewhat

Several months ago, as regular readers of this blog are well aware, I started work on my 2nd novel. A little over a month ago, I finished the first draft of it. In between those two events, a lot of writing took place (no shit, Sherlock!).

As with Game Over before it, the initial draft of this book benefitted hugely from having our friend (and Cooper-owner) Julie in our lives, as she and I talked about it at length on our walks, on her visits here and on our visits to her house. She made several key suggestions along the way, and vetoed some ideas that I now can hardly believe I ever once argued for, and thus once again left her indeliable mark on a book of mine. Julie even found the time a couple weeks ago to edit the first 4 chapters for me, which I wasn't expecting but was extremely grateful for.

Vicki, as always, has supported me throughout the project with encouragement and feedback every time I needed it, and is already well into her second reading of the book, editing as she goes... just as was the case with Game Over, of course.

A big difference this time around, however, was the involvement of my brother, Rich. He not only let me read the whole thing to him, over several sittings, but was also invaluable in providing me with bits of his experience that the story desperately needed. He even came up with several important plot points, after I'd struggled for days trying to get there on my own. It was a wonderful experience working with him like that, and I got the distinct impression that he quite enjoyed it, too. It's a much better book for his contributions, and I don't mean maybe.

The latest draft is now out with several new sets of eyes, including Tammy's, who's doing an incredible job of editing it (and pushing me hard to become a better writer, at the same time, the little bugger!).

But while we wait for her and a couple other people to finish that chore, we do have a beautiful cover image to show. This comes to us from my former co-worker and hobby photographer Carl Pettypiece, who some readers of this blog will certainly remember. The idea for the image was mine, but everything after that stemmed from Carl's mind: the staging, the perspective, the design sense, the lighting and the dozens of high quality photos he took on his fancy camera in the quest to produce the following cover:


So now you have a picture, and you have a title: No Brother of Mine. What do either of them mean? What's with those shoes? And is it just a coincidence that the project my own brother helped out with contains the word "brother" in its title?

Sometime in the next week or so, I'll post the current version of the back cover blurb for No Brother of Mine. With that, you'll at least get some sense of what this book is about. Until then, please let the speculating begin!

P.S. Just as all the cool kids referred to Game Over as GO, my 2nd novel has already been coined NBoM, or "N-bomb." It's like the F-bomb, only better!