The Muffler's Misery: Final Draft Complete

I'm pleased to announce that the final draft of the conclusion of The Mufflers trilogy, The Muffler's Misery, is now complete. Phew.

I made very few changes from the updated draft, mainly fixing a few inelegant word choices or phrasings. A few transitions in the new chapters recently added at the start of part four were a little clumsy, so I fixed these with the odd bridging sentence.

The only change of significance was that I was dissatisfied with a couple of my new part names, so I renamed those, The five parts are now A Marriage of Inconvenience, An Alliance of Necessity, A Meeting of Family, A Time of Change, and An End of Conflict.

Overall, I added only 100 extra words, giving the final novel a total of 93,300 words. After the final read-through, I was exceptionally happy with how things had been wrapped up. It's pretty emotional finishing the story of characters who've been part of my life across three novels now – although you will see more of them in the forthcoming short story collection, Substrate Constraints.

I've now completed all the pre-publication stages, including ordering the proof copy of the paperback edition. I expect to be in a position to publish the novel by the end of next week, assuming there are no significant issues with the proof. I'll update this blog post and add the Buy buttons to my webpage when it goes live.

As usual, I'll publish exclusively on Amazon for three months before releasing it through the other distribution channels.

What's next? Well, I'll be going through the same process for Substrate Constraints: a final read-through, pre-publication and proof copy, and then finally publication. I also have some more walls to paint, naturally, and then it will be on with my next novel, Two Earths Are Better Than None. I'm about 300 words into the opening chapter and am desperate to get back to it. But I mustn't. Not yet. Not until these two books are finished.

Let's see how my willpower holds out.

[Update: 29th September 2022]

A few days earlier than predicted, I've received the proof copy of The Muffler's Misery, and all seems fine. I've now kicked off the publishing process, so hopefully it will be available at some point tomorrow. When the Buy buttons appear on my website, you'll know it's live on Amazon.

It could be a big day tomorrow, as I hope to be in a position to order the proof copy of Substrate Constraints too. Quite a week!

[Update: 6th October 2022]

You should find The Muffler's Misery fully available now, and I've also received the proof copy of Substrate Constraints. Checked it, fixed a couple of minor formatting issues, and submitted it for publication. It should be live soon. When it is, you'll find the Buy button appearing on my website.