Map of Puskar Stellar, Mars
One of the major cities in Privateer Tales Series is Puskar Stellar. Purely out of self defense I drew this map.
Fool Me Once (Privateer Tales #2) – BOOK RELEASED
Fool Me Once has been released to amazon.com in both print and kindle format. This was a different type of project for me as an author as I decided to depart momentarily from Liam, Nick, Marny and Tabby to follow one of the pirates they ran into in Rookie Privateer....
Sterra’s Gift Drawing Completed
Here is the final product from Roberto. I am very pleased with his drawing of Sterra's Gift. I am an extremely visual person and find tremendous value in being able to finally get a good picture of how the ship could look. As a bonus. Roberto included a technical...
Drilling in on Sterra’s Gift drawing
Sterra's Gif - choices about external missiles vs. torpedo tube stye Working with Roberto is a joy. I continued to be impressed by his ability to cleanly draw excellent looking high-concept spacecraft. The above image was part of a conversation we had about moving...
Fool Me Once – Beta readers complete
Saturday evening I had a pleasant surprise from my beta reader group. They all finished their work early. During the beta reading process my work is paused for a fairly long period of time (two and a half weeks). Up to that point I had been writing and working with...
Sterra’s Gift artwork commissioned
I present dah dah daaaa, Sterra's Gift. At this point you should appreciated that I am not a gifted charcoal artist. It turns out that I have almost no capacity to draw, paint with anything smaller than a 2.5" brush, or sketch anything more than a grocery list....
Fool Me Once (#2) and Parley(#3), progress!
Fool Me Once is book #2 in the Privateer Tales series. The book is a 32,000 words long which puts it in the category of a novella. For those of you who don't know how all that works. 80,000 words is a normal length for a novel so as you can tell this will be quite a...
FreeBooksy readers welcome! – Rookie Privateer Giveaway
Today starts a giveaway at freebooksy.com. If you'd like a chance to win a free signed copy of Rookie Privateer head over there and put your name in the hat.
Looking for that sweet spot as a writer
Those wonderful people who take time to provide a review on Amazon or Goodreads have no idea just how much new authors read and reread this feedback. As a writer you have to be somewhat self-delusional to begin with. The idea that tens, hundreds, and just get crazy...
Fool Me Once – Privateer Tales #2 off to Beta Readers
I hope I will always have this same sense of excitement when I release a manuscript to a group of beta readers. I am still in the process of learning the craft of creating a book worth reading. I am fortunate to have people in my life who have skills and perspectives...
Words of Encouragement
Growing up, my father was a pastor to small churches in the mid-western United States. Unlike a number of other preacher's kids that I have met, I don't have any salacious insider information about the evil inner workings of church organizations. Much to the contrary,...
Title Chosen – Fool Me Once (Privateer Tales Series 1.5)
Fool Me Once is a story that takes place in the Privateer Tales universe. We get to follow the once pirate hostage Celina Dontal as she flys across the solar system in search of her sister. Will she be too late? Can she save both herself and her sister from the...
Rookie Privateer Weekend Read-Off
A fun update from my family. My brother-in-law, Jon, and my nieces, Jalen and Jordan are having a Rookie Privateer Read-Off this weekend. Hearing this, my wife's mother, Doris, has also decided to join in on the fun. I can't wait to hear how their weekend goes, I...
Privateer Tales 1.5 – Last Chapter and Title
I had difficulty writing the last chapter of Rookie Privateer and at the time I chalked it up to the resolution being difficult. I won't do a spoiler and talk about what the resolution was just that getting it all to come together was difficult for me. When I finally...
Privateer Tales – Insider Information
A wonderful reader posted a nice review on Amazon and expressed a concern about how Tabby and Liam's relationship will be treated in future stories. After a few tries and finally purchasing the book (again) I was able to reply using Amazon's forum feature. To save you...
Free Paperback Giveaway on Goodreads MAY-2014
Long before I started writing, I was a fan of Goodreads. The site is dedicated to keeping track of books I have read or want to read. It is completely a fan site, where we are encouraged to share our views about different books we are reading. About a year ago Amazon...
Rookie Privateer Swag
Rookie Privateer is only ten days old but that hasn't stopped the swag train from arriving. My sister, author of the Bellingwood series, treated me to a new coffee mug, flask and a cutting board. It is all so pretty thanks to Kristina Del Valle's beautiful artwork....
Ratings and reviews
As a new author there is a struggle to become known to my would-be audience. In this day-and-age of social media a big part of exposure is related to ratings of your books and getting people to leave reviews. If you look at different statistics you find that the odds...
Rookie Privateer Paperbacks
I finally received my first batch of paperback copies of Rookie Privateer. I have a decent number of people that I owe signed copies to including my beta readers. As a writer the first step in releasing a book is to turn it over to a group of readers. Being my first...
Privateer Tales 1.5 – Brave enough to delete
One of the hardest things I do as a writer is deleting words that I have written. In my current project I became more and more dis-satisfied with a path i had chosen. Two and a half chapters in it became unbearable and today I decided to clean it out. Argh! It was...
Sterra’s Gift Ship Layout – Rookie Privateer
Writing a book in our house is a family affair. My sister is principal editor, my wife is all about continuity, and my son is apparently my technical drawing expert. The impetuous for the drawing came from a discussion between my wife and me. She was getting tired of...
Wrapping up Rookie Privateer
It is hard to imagine that the work is all done. I was cleaning up the space next to my computer and realized that it was time to put the manuscript away. While cleaning I also got a call from a long time friend. He had received a call from a common friend that knew...
Rookie Privateer Now Available
Rookie Privateer, the first book in the Privateer Tales series has been released to Amazon. It is available in both print and kindle formats.This is the first published work of author Jamie McFarlane.Rookie Privateer is the coming of age story of Liam Hoffen....
Rookie Privateer – Back to my editor
I have coalesced the work of many readers into a final manuscript. Most of the hard editing work has been completed. I have learned a lot in the process and am confident my next book will go more smoothly. I had several readers, many of them direct family. I know I...