Hello, fellow scribes.

As most of you will be aware, I’ve assumed liaison duties for our ‘Freedom’ anthology.

Ian D Moore, who steered the first volume from idea to fruition has put in months of effort on this project, just as he did on the first collection. The man has a life and work, so he’s taking a break from this for a short while.

Like all authors who’ve submitted work to this next collection, I’m keen to see publication. To this end, I’m setting a target date for completion—Monday 6th August 2018. This is not a publication date, but the target for me handing over a completed, and fully-prepared manuscript to Ian D Moore.

I’m not adept at the use of Dropbox and my working practices may differ from other writers, but I’m methodical in approach and I have every confidence that with your support we’ll get this job done—this year.

Please accept that there will be the repetition of supplied information and requests for information. To get this type of job done correctly—checks, checks and more checks is the order of the day. We must as a team make every effort to get this done and get it done properly.

At my request, Ian has forwarded me all the stories in a single document. Until you’ve seen such a thing, you can only imagine the variance in font, size, style, spacing, layout, and so on. I have now produced a single, uniform document which will help when sending out to others to read. 

Responsibilities

– the cover design/revamp is the hands of Sylva Fae.

– proofreading/editing will be shared to all who are willing to give their time. Although there have been others involved, at this point I’d like to mention Frank Parker who worked tirelessly last year in an effort to get this done.

– I am tackling layout/formatting for both eBook and paperback.

Contents

I will attempt to attach a separate document on Facebook when I post this update. The document will be the list of stories (with authors) as we presently know them.

Exclusivity Clause

This collection is aimed at raising funds for a registered charity, and therefore it may not contain any work which has been previously published. If you have submitted a story and since then put it out there in another book, please let me know.

Communication

To avoid any issues regarding any part of the project, please make all associated comments, ideas, suggestions, requests via our dedicated Indies for Charity page on Facebook. If you have any difficulty or don’t wish to post there—contact me via PM on Facebook. If we keep the communication streamlined it will reduce misplaced or missing information.

You would like to help?

– Notwithstanding the level of proofreading/editing already performed, I’d like everybody who has read/edited stories to comment on the Indies for Charity page, providing the title of the stories read and to whatever end. i.e. proofread, edit, 2nd edit, etc.

– If you’re up for some reading, please get on the page and ask for a story by title. I will collate all reading as it’s completed.

Have you submitted a story?

Please make a comment to say the language used. UK English, US English, etc.

At some stage I will process all stories through my Grammarly (latest edition—this week), to perform a line-check on spelling and punctuation. Actual grammar shouldn’t be tampered with too much in my opinion, because it can affect the aim of the author in their storytelling style.  

Personal Disclaimer

Contrary to popular belief, I am not infallible, or the all-seeing eye. (Cue international laughter).

Seriously, guys, if any of you see a hint of an issue—tell me. I’m heading up this project to revive interest and direction, but I’ll be happy to accept any help.

In summary, by Monday 6th August 2018, I’d like to show Ian that we’ve achieved our goal, by sending him all he needs. Please remember that due to this being a charity-based publication, Ian will be liaising with the charity through the appropriate channels. He must be confident that he’s got everything in readiness.

Ian did us proud as individual authors and as a group when he dedicated himself completely to producing the first volume of our stories—let’s show him we can get this done this year.

Tom