The Slaying of the Bull is complete (again)!

I’ve finally finished the Slaying of the Bull (Book 1 of the Tocharian Gospels series)! I know, I’ve said this before (here), but this time I’m certain. After some great feedback (more on that here) I had to do a bit more tweaking. It took a few weeks longer than I initially expected, but it’s all the better for the extra time. I’ve gone through an extensive edit and added a prologue and epilogue to tie everything together with the rest of the upcoming series.

There is nothing quite like finishing a book and typing the end. I make an effort not to type those words until I am positive the story is complete. It makes it that much more special. Considering the amount of time and effort that goes into writing a book, this moment should have a bit of sanctity.

I started writing the Slaying of the Bull back in 2007 and finished the first rendition sometime in 2008. At which point, I traveled down the traditional publishing route of querying for an agent. I sent out something like 60 queries with 60 rejections. Discouraged, I shelved the book and moved on to new projects- namely, what would become the Island of Stone, my first ebook publication.

I came back to the Slaying of the Bull in April. I originally wrote the Bull as a pure Historical Fiction that arose from my fascination with the Mongolian invasion of Europe (you can read more about that journey here). I started an extensive edit and rewrite, adding about 30,000 new words (almost a whole new novel). Not bad for about a month and a half of work. As you can see in this post here, relatively recently, I realized that the Slaying of the Bull is part of a larger story I’ve been trying to tell broken up over four books that will become the Tocharian Gospels series.

The next steps in the process are to format the pages and get everything ready for publishing, do a final check and quick read through, mock up the back cover, acknowledgments, and short summaries and then press the publish button. Now that the story is complete, and I feel confident in the timeline, I will soon make the book available for preorder. Keep an eye out for these announcements! You can follow my journey on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, AllAuthor, and here!

Cheers!