As some of you may know, I recently decided to self-publish my novel, Secrets of PEACE. This was a huge step for me and honestly, I'm still freaking out a little about the whole thing, but in a good way. Today, I wanted to share some more information with all of you about the book.
Here is the cover. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I really like the minimal color scheme for this story and I already have ideas on how to tie the cover for the second book into this one, so that will be good. I hadn't originally intended to put any of the characters on the front, but once I threw a demo version of this together, I just couldn't get it out of my head. Here is the blurb, which may or may not be tweaked a little bit as I get closer to publishing.
Nearly 30 years ago, the PEACE Project rose from the ruins of a global war to take power over a new America. Providing stability in exchange for absolute authority, the Project controls every aspect of citizens' lives through each of its five units:
Protect Enforce Advance Control Eliminate
Raised in the Project since infancy, eighteen-year-old Zira has been trained as an assassin under the stern guidance of unit E-2's Chairman Ryku. After she makes a careless mistake on an assignment, the chairman partners her with Jared, the best operative in her unit. Their partnership transforms into friendship as they work together and learn to rely on each other. But when misinformation causes a solo mission to backfire, Zira's deepest loyalties and strongest relationships are tested in a place where even a hint of doubt can be perceived as treason.
The life she knows is falling apart, and nothing will ever look the same again.
And that brings me to the release date. I've thought a lot about this and held off on really committing to a date because I wasn't entirely sure how much work the story might need. Formatting is also a big concern since I've never done it before, so that's going to take some time. After hearing back from a few beta readers and evaluating how much more time this is likely to take me, I think I can safely say that I'll be publishing Secrets of PEACE on July 27, 2016.
I like this date for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's in the summer, which means I will be done with school and have plenty of time to focus on getting everything ready. More importantly, though, it's Zira's birthday. It probably seems a little crazy that I even care about something that trivial, but her date of birth was included in the original draft(s) of the book for Plot Reasons™. That part of the story ended up being changed drastically, but I still remember that it's her birthday and figure that's as good a day as any to release the book.
I also recently joined Instagram. I haven't posted much yet since I'm always a little intimidated by new social media platforms, but I plan to start putting up some more stuff about Secrets of PEACE there at some point.
Let me know what you think! Does this look like something you'd be interested in reading? If you're a writer, what are some things you would have liked to have known before you published your first book?