How I edited The Son of Perdition

I’m not sure how other authors edit their books, but I’ll give you a glimpse into how I did mine…

After I finished The Son of Perdition, I printed out a copy and stapled each of the 20 chapters separately. I then took a red pen and made notes and changes as I read through it. I then created a new doc file and re-wrote the entire novel, taking note of all my own suggestions and at each sentence stopping to ask myself, “How could I write this even better?”

When that was finally over and done with, I took the book to a printing place and printed and bound six copies which I gave to unbiased family and friends that I trusted for honest opinions. They ripped it to shreds.

Once they were done, they handed their scribbled copies back to me and I worked through each one’s notes and suggested changes; taking great care to discern between nit-picking corrections and valid changes that needed to be considered and implemented.

I then printed another copy—yes, many a tree were slaughtered for the quest of perfection—and once again worked through it with a pen. I treated myself to coffee at coffee shops and slowly sipped away while making my notes. It’s odd, but people look at you as if you’re someone important when you’re scribbling away in a manuscript.

Only then did I have a product that I thought was worthy enough to release to the public. The problem was that the book was really thick and no publisher in South Africa, Australia, the UK and USA wanted to touch it. So I shelved it for a few years while writing my other novels.

As a novelty, I went to a printing house that was able to print and bind the book like an actual novel. After I heard about the Kindle, I toyed with the idea of releasing the eBook. Work conditions at that time hindered me and I let it go for another year or so. About three or four months ago, I finally decided take the leap and took the bound book from my shelf and worked through it—once again—with a red pen.

The result is what you can download on Amazon right now. The book is nowhere near perfect and one could tinker with it until the Second Coming, but I think if I messed with it any more, it would lose some of its raw quality that makes it a good book to begin with.

Here’s a picture of the bound book with my notes in it:

And the sad part...? If I ever DO manage to somehow make it one day, I'll be regarded as an "overnight success" ...

Another Amazon Review

Oh wow! I popped my head into Amazon this morning more out of curiosity than anything else. Maybe, just maybe someone left a review on there for me. Lo and behold, they did!

This is what Patti Graham - "Author of Frugal Matters" had to say about The Son of Perdition:

Author Len du Randt has put together an incredible book here with The Son of Perdition. As the previous review says, I found myself certain of each twist to the story and was shocked with it when things sometimes went differently and even when it went as expected (if that makes sense).

In light of world events and conflicts, one cannot avoid seeing the possibility (on some level) for many of these things to occur and that was always on my mind while reading. Moving idea to consider a "Leader" and a "Prophet" performing miracles and knowing/feeling which is the true second coming of Jesus.

Additionally, the book is very well written and du Randt's style of writing holds the readers attention from beginning to end. Very good book and all I can say is Wow Wow Wow.

Patti Graham 

I'm not sure if she will ever get to read this blog post, but in the slight chance that she does, thank you, Patti. I really appreciate your kind words and am glad to hear that you enjoyed the book. I guess that at the end of the day, a good review is the most any author could really hope for.

Thanks again, Patti! You've got me floating on cloud 9 on a Monday morning! Not something just anyone can accomplish :)

On Writing the Son of Perdition

I think I was about nine or ten when my mother told me that when Jesus returns, fire and brimstone would fall from the heavens and consume everything and everyone. Since then, my overactive imagination constantly tried to visualize what that fateful day would look like. Needless to say, this resulted in an interest in the end times and a constant yearning to find out more about the Second Coming and the end of the world.

After years of reading, research and mails to experts, I felt that I was ready to write a non-fiction book about the end times called, Wake Up! or something to that effect. I created chapters based on how events would unfold and wrote a fictional intro that was to set the pace for the rest of the book.

Fate, it seems, had other plans…

I gave the preface to a colleague at work and asked her for her opinion. She read it, handed it back to me and then asked for the rest. I then gave her the first few pages of chapter 1 which she read in silence and then handed back to me with a shrivel in her nose. “What’s this?” she asked me. I told her that this was the “rest” that she asked for and she told me that the fictional bit was awesome, but the non-fiction… not so much.

This inspired me to ask a few more people for their opinions and it seemed that everyone was more interested in the fictional preface than the facts presented in Chapter 1.

I immediately started planning the story while consuming as many how-to-write books as I could get my hands on and when I finished Chapter 1 of The Son of Perdition, my colleague merely looked at me after reading it and asked, “Where’s the rest?”

It took me two years to write the story and on more than one occasion did I consider trashing the entire thing. Those were two years where my wife heard nothing but talk of The Son of Perdition, morning, noon and night. Despite this, she encouraged me to keep at it.

Writing the novel was only half the challenge. Editing and trying to land a publisher was another nightmare in itself; one which I will share with you in up and coming blog posts.

If you find yourself trudging through a novel and it feels that there is no end in sight, just keep going. Trust me; it’s worth it at the end of the day and I don’t think that there’s anything on earth as satisfying as finally writing the last sentence of that dragon you’ve been trying so hard to slay.

Author Page

I just created an author page on Amazon to tell potential readers a little bit more about me. It doesn't say a lot yet, but I will keep adding to it as time goes by.

You can view the page here: www.amazon.com/author/len

Someone I know through my wife just posted the following on my Facebook wall:

Len I just have to tell you I am half way through your book, btw love that it's so nice and long, and honestly it really REALLY has got to be be of the best books I've read! Your style of writing is incredible! I was telling James last night that even though it's got a religious basis you have written it in such a way that anyone can appreciate and enjoy it. Love your portrayal of all the characters...brilliant work! well done!!!!

Although she knows my wife, she has absolutely NO reason to give me fluffy wuffy feedback. She is well-read and is also the type of person that calls a spade a spade, regardless of who you are.

If you have read the book and second her opinion, let me know. If you totally disagree and hated the book... yep... I'd like to know that too. Every single strand of feedback means the world to me and I can appreciate the fact that not everyone is going to like this book.

If you don't have the book and would like to see what the fuss is about, simply click on the cover in the flash box above or go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0079II88M and get your copy there :)

 

Len

First Review

The FREE launch promotion for The Son of Perdition is over and the first review went up, and this is what the reviewer had to say:

It took me only 3 days to complete this book.

Why?

It was one of the most riveting, detailed and shocking books I have ever read. I felt like I knew what should come next, but when it did, it wasn't and it shocked me to the core.

I recommend this book to everyone - you NEED to read this! 

I chuckled at the "only 3 days" bit. It takes me about two weeks to read through the book. Not sure if it's because I read slowly or if she's just a REALLY fast reader. Either way, I'm glad that she enjoyed the story.

Were you one of those who downloaded and read the book? If so, I would really like to hear your thoughts on it. Please do me a favour and pop up a review when you have a minute.

Come tomorrow, I'll chat a bit about the writing of the novel and the years that followed...

Until then, do NOT accept the Shield! :)

Take care!

Victor Yoshe

When I write, I usually assign existing people (friends, family, celebs) to my characters. This is merely a visual reference and the personalities of the characters are completely different than the real-life people I associate with them with.

In Daniel 8:23, we read that, “In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise.”

To date, there is only one image that I could find that fits the description above perfectly, and that is one of Ralph Fiennes in the role he played in Schindler’s List. Here’s a glimpse of what I looked at every time I needed to get into Victor’s mind:

How’s that for a stern-faced military genius? I don’t think you can really get better than that...

Final Cover

So the red cover just didn't work out, no matter what we tried. It's unfortunate, but after a quick brainstorm session with MX Design, we finally settled on this cover: 

Once I'm able to, I will upload this cover to Amazon. Your thoughts? Which version do you personally prefer?

SoP Cover

I'm slightly miffed at the way the cover came out on Amazon. The compression is terrible for some reason and it looks nothing like it's supposed to. Well... until I get it sorted, you can see the actual cover the way it was meant to display here:

Will try to figure out the Amazon glitch, but the problem is that there's no way to "test" it as each new upload would cause the book to become unavailable for around 12 hours or so.

This kind of begs an interesting question though... would a bad quality cover put you off from buying the book? Do you judge the book by its cover, reviews, blurb, or content?

Share your thoughts :)

L

Table of Contents

I didn't include a table of contents in the book, so I'm doing it here:

Prologue

I - Birth Pangs

II - Chaos

III - Day of Declaration

IV - Aftermath: Federation Earth

V - The Covenant

VI - Restoration

VII - God inc.

VIII - Law & Order

IX - Messiah

X - The Two Prophets

XI - Abomination

XII - Die by the Sword

XIII - The Image

XIV - Resurrection

XV - Abaddon

XVI - Persecution

XVII - Onslaught

XVIII - Fall of the Mighty One

XIX - The Gathering

XX - Showdown

The novel runs at just over 121 000 words.

Welcome to The Son of Perdition

Hi everyone,

This is the official blog fpr the novel, The Son of Perdition. On here, the author will be sharing behind-the-scenes insight and other goodies of the novel.

This page is still VERY basic, but I will tweak it as I go along and make it look a bit better :)

Enjoy the stay and if you don't have the book yet, simply go to The Son of Perdition

Take care,

Len