Course Books Second Ed

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I think we are pretty well set on CreateSpace as my new "publisher"; good prices, prime eligible, and easy ebook distribution. Plus a ton of control over the interior. I want to start migrating over, she thinks I should wait.

Like many random pages on this wiki, this is a place to put my personal thoughts. On the Internet. For anyone to read.

This page is a notepad for the process I am beginning of creating a "second edition" of the existing Course Books, making some changes, tweaking a few things, and generally fixing stories I haven't been happy with. This is accompanying a project to migrate to a new PoD distributor where I can fully control the layouts and interiors, as well as migrating to distributing my own e-books.

Another step in this process will be migrating away from AuthorHouse. Which will make me sad, but the time has come.


  1. The Wings of a Dragon
  2. Through the Night
  3. Disarming
  4. Wildfire Emerges
  5. Ulysses Last Stand
  6. The Sun Also Rises
  7. Virus
  8. The Truth Finally Revealed
  9. Clouds Last Run
  10. Last Stand, Tora, Tora, Tora
  11. The Slayer Dragons
  12. Return of the Dragon
  13. The Dark Lord Nimi
  14. The Reunion of the Eighth Power
  15. Revival
  16. The Red Tiger
  17. The New Recruit
  18. The Path to Ascension(Story)
  1. The Eye of a Dragon
  2. Tale of a Gun
  3. First Stand
  4. Counter Strike
  5. Flight of the Takahe
  6. Against the Wind
  7. Dragoon Lancers: Wrath of the Lancer's Light
  8. CTRL+Z
  9. Flash Point
  10. Retrospectus
  11. Line in the Sand
  12. Point of the Spear
  13. Marigold
  14. Falling Dragon
  15. The Road to War(Story)
  1. The Breath of a Dragon
  2. Introductions
  3. Beachhead
  4. Flying Lessons
  5. The Liger, the Sorceress, and… the Refrigerator?
  6. Falling Sky
  7. Sunset
  8. Clause
  9. Catastrophe
  10. Fan Fiction
  11. Daylight
  12. Forbidden
  13. Dusk
  14. Forgotten
  15. The Tiger's Eye
  16. Cavalry
  17. Absolution
  18. The Concourse to Victory(Story)
  1. The Claw of a Dragon
  2. Tsubasa Kyoku
  3. The Box
  4. Avenger
  5. Still Life
  6. Masks
  7. Heritage
  8. The Strange Matter Sword
  9. Storm
  10. The Hunted
  11. Half the Fun
  12. Princess Megami
  13. True
  14. Responsibility
  15. Not Hunting
  16. The Final Trial
  17. Infinity
  18. Contract
  19. Full Circle
  20. Joshua
  21. Aspect of Death
  22. The Inclination to Destiny(Story)
  1. The Voice of a Dragon
  2. Ability
  3. Priorities
  4. Presence
  5. Debt
  6. Backfire
  7. The Furthest Star
  8. Echoes
  9. Ego
  10. Never
  11. The Other Half
  12. False Gods
  13. Decisive Action
  14. Obsession
  15. Heart of the Journey
  16. Dragon's Teeth
  17. Fade Out
  • Long Night Happens HERE
  1. Fade In
  2. Jason
  3. Qurom
  4. Lily
  5. The Trinity Alternative
  6. First Sight
  7. Turn
  8. The ByWay to Freedom(Story)(Obviously)


The books, and what parts of them need to be fixed:


The Path to Ascension

Surprisingly not that bad.

Wildfire Emerges

FINAL: this story is getting shitcanned. Sorry. It sucked anyway.


After discussion, its agreed: changes to this story will be as follows

  • Re-title to simply "Reunion"
  • cut out part about what everyone did
  • oh god fix some of the dialogue

I think the story could stand to take a complete pass on editing.

The Dark Lord Nimi

Completed a from-the-ground re-write, will need editing, but very happy with the re-write.

The Truth Finally Revealed

Being re-titled as "Truth in Ashes", did some very minor re-writing and am now really happy with the story.


The Saratoga crashes a lot...

success! the edits to virus went well and am much happier with the story. Didn't actually take much.


The Road to War

I'm not gonna lie, I killed it with this book. It's worth running through for corrections, but there's nothing that really needs work.

One minor thought is to replace Dragoon Lancers: Wrath of the Lancer's Light with a different short story about the same characters. There's nothing wrong with that story per-se, but it is something of a non sequitur. I will speak to the 3 people that actually read the book and find out.


The Concourse to Victory

If I'm perfectly honest with myself, this is just good as-it-is.

It's worth taking another spin through Forbidden JUST because of how vital to the series it is. NOTE: a good idea would be to mention the Circle of Seven in this story as a minor throw-away line, even though it is referenced in other stories.


The Inclination to Destiny

Again, really nailed it here. The main issue with this book was the way Authorhouse screwed up the cover. There are stories I could stand to re-read for my own purposes, but over all it was great.


The ByWay to Freedom

Can I just name this one The Way to Freedom? Is that cool?

The famous (haha) unreleased work, the final volume, the one basically put on hold because unknown reasons. While the wiki was never updated, the writing is finished and probably top-tier.

Oh, this one hasn't been proofread.

Yes, after reading the final story list, it does need A LOT of work, but it's just more on the lines of "it's a book I didn't finish", so there's that.

Cover design: this one is going to be white. I am insanely tempted to just... make it white with black text. I dunno. I'll see if my cover designer wants to come out of retirement for one last job....

Over All

O.K., upon review, my giant intensive project is more like a couple of afternoons. The biggest challenge is just going to be re-learning all of the ebook stuff and settling on a new PoD publisher.

Stand Alone E-Books

  • I could string together a few of the Furthest Star series into an ebook-only release.
  • Wrath of the Lancer's Light, might do this one anyway even if it stays in RTW.
  • Not written yet but there was a good start on a novelization of The Tiger's Eye

Potential PoD sources

Pros: CHEAP! Does e-books, has store for what its worth, books might cost as little as $16 each + shipping, bulk books.

Cons: No hardcovers

Pros: Also cheap, ebooks, offers hardcover

Cons: appears to max out at 440 pages? wuh?

Notes: This would be a good site to come back to for 1-off childrens books.

Pros: ...not sure this place just does PoD. Does seem like it. Also offers hardback with dust jacket/etc

Cons: price calculator not easy to find.

Pros: have experience with them before and liked what I saw. Really enjoyed the copy of ITD I printed through there. Over all I like Createspace, they seem to have improved a lot. Createspace also makes it easy to publish on Kindle, which, if I'm being honest, is more important than the other e-book services.

Cons: poor distribution and bad pricing model, though this may have improved... currently the site is showing me about $8. O.K.: its also a flat $14.99 on Amazon. No hardcovers.