Thursday, July 5, 2012

"Silent Hero" Re-vamped


Dear Readers of Silent Hero, Both New and Old,

As some of you know, I am in the process of re-vamping many of my self-published works. Most of these are those which were not on the market long, which I published hastily in my impatient youth, and which I now wish to see perfected before being re-released into the world. Thankfully, having been on the market a short time, hardly any copies were sold, which leaves me a broad audience hungry for fantasy and adventure upon their re-release. Currently, I’m working with the brilliant Kira Lerner to restore two of my series, The Gailean Quartet and The Legends of Surprisers; the goal is to complete both by the end of 2013.

That brings me to Silent Hero, my first and only fanfic, inspired by Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda game series. Even though it is merely a fanfic, I did want to do another read-through and address any issues I came across. And did I find some! Readers had spoken of minor plot holes; I am ashamed to have found several of these myself, from things like our heroes finding the Zora’s sapphire twice, to a couple of other moments which make one just stop and scratch their heads. Thus, I’ve read through, fixing these issues. While I am sorry to have found such problems, I am also glad too; it means I am learning much as an author and can begin to see and fix such problems for myself.

I’ve also sought to tighten up the writing a tad; I’ve been learning that, while one of my strengths is being a very visual writer, I can also tend to be too “flowery” with my language, I vice I’m working to improve upon and which I hope reflects in this newly edited version of Silent Hero.

Silent Hero is still a fan-based work; therefore, I see no need to pay to work with a professional editor like I’m currently doing with many of my original works. However, after reading through, there were certainly some small errors and plot holes which needed addressing, as well as some things which could use better explanations. Our heroes end up collecting Shards, Songs, and Stones, which makes things sort of convoluted. And while I wasn’t prepared for a complete overhaul, this again being a fan-based work, I at least wanted to explain what was going on better, such as what exactly our heroes were looking for and why, and how these things would help them.

Is the plot still convoluted? Honestly, from all I’ve learned from my editors thus far, I can say, “Yes!” And, was this an original work and not a fan-based one, I would seek to correct it. As it is, I’ve kept in all the hodge-podge stuff from several Zelda games, although, as said above, I’ve worked to make it make more sense.

Again, though I recognize the book as still being convoluted, my recognizing this is a good thing. It means I’m learning; I’m working on a book with my editor right now which, before her input, had a very confusing mythos with far too many rules. Now, the mythos is simpler, but better for it. As I said, Silent Hero is a fanfic, so I’ll let what is be, especially as many of the readers who enjoyed the book liked seeing all the different elements of the different games that I included. However, were this an original work set in an original world of mine, I would definitely improve upon the that aspect of the book.

I apologize to the thousands of fans who have already downloaded the book, both those of you who have enjoyed and those who haven’t. To those who enjoyed, you deserve something even better! To those of you who didn’t, I can’t guarantee you’ll like the book now, especially if you don’t like Midna and the bits of romance added in. Many of the changes I made were necessary, but small, and the overall story is still the same. However, like it or not, at least I’ve addressed some of the issues.

So, on then with the adventure, and enjoy reading! Oh, and enjoy the new cover too; I’ve learned a lot about cover art the past year or so as well and quite enjoyed the subtle but very impactful changes to Silent Hero’s cover.

Thanks again to all of my readers, fellow Zelda-fans included!

God bless, happy reading, and may you all be inspired!

~ Christine E. Schulze
I am pleased to announce the release of my new album, "Stregoni Symphony," which features music from several of my fantasy and Christian fantasy books for middle graders and young adults.

I've released this album in the past; however, this version is updated with brand new art and contains a different line-up of songs, including a few new ones. Listeners may notice it is also missing quite a few of the older tracks; these will be included in my second album, "The Gailean Quartet," which is scheduled for CD release by the end of this year, along with the re-release of "The Prism of Ashlei" and "The Pool of Lorelei," the first two books in my YA fantasy series full of magic, mystery, misadventure, and music, "The Gailean Quaret."

Please feel free to check out the album, listen to bits of the songs, purchase a CD or download MP3s of your favorite songs at these locations:

Rmusic
http://www.rmusic.com/unsigned/stregoni_symphony.html

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Stregoni-Symphony-Inspired-Written-Christine/dp/B008GW41OK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1341531042&sr=8-3&keywords=stregoni+symphony

Thanks again for listening and reading! God bless, and may you be inspired!

~ Christine E. Schulze