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Philip DiStefano Posts

2023 Updates

Published by Philip on May 30, 2023

First of all, finishing The Storm has been my longest (both in actual words and time spent) writing project, so I just wanted to reiterate how excited I am for it to be done.

Speaking of reiterating… (see what I did there?), I wanted to touch on what’s going on with that, since clearly it’s 2023 and Reiterate is nowhere to be seen. The truth is, I did finish writing and editing Reiterate, but something about it felt off no matter how many times I edited and re-edited, so I decided not to publish it. To be quite honest, there are some things I wish I could change about Iterate as well, but that’s all in the past now.

Anyway, I’m currently working on yet another new story, but this one is far from finished. Right now the working title is Valkyrie, and I feel like it’s shaping up to be something I’ll end up publishing, but we’ll see. Again, far from finished and hard to say at this point, but this is my first attempt at writing actual set-in-space science fiction, so we’ll see how it pans out!

Ghost

Published by Philip on June 26, 2020
Ghost front cover

In between editing sessions of Reiterate (which is done, by the way, I just need to publish it), I was working on my first novella – a 110 page young adult cyberpunk story called Ghost. This story is something I would’ve loved to read as a teenager (and, to be honest, would still enjoy reading). I usually try to write for a broader audience, but this one is admittedly kind of niche, and as such, it’s hard to say if the same people that enjoyed Iterate will also enjoy Ghost.

That said, Ghost was the most fun I’ve ever had writing something and is a story I’m excited to put out in the world, even if it won’t reach the same audience. I came up with some concepts I’m super proud of, and if you’re up for a fun, technology-fueled ride, I’d urge you to check it out.

I’ll get a page up in the sidebar soon for Ghost, but in the meantime, you can find it on Amazon.

So, about the delay…

Published by Philip on November 12, 2019

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry

I had several ideas for Reiterate when I started writing it in 2018. Some of them panned out, and some didn’t. This is the first sequel I’ve actually penned to completion, and there were a lot more challenges than I anticipated. It is wildly difficult to try to keep a story like Iterate straight because it contains so many world-building details. I had to rewrite a lot of sections of Reiterate several times, and I had to reread Iterate a couple times, all while taking notes and making edits to the sequel. Every rewrite requires editing, and it all just compounded into much more work than I thought it would be.

The gist of what I am saying is that Reiterate is nearly done, and I know I’ve been saying that for a while, but that’s still where it stands. I underestimated the process of writing a sequel, and that’s all there is to it.

Reiterate Release Delayed (Again)

Published by Philip on May 7, 2019

I usually try to set expectations pretty realistically, but I have done a bad job of that here with my last couple of updates. I just finished the second major round of editing on Reiterate, and there is still something bugging me about an arc in the middle that I need to fix.

My last update mentioned May 2019, but the reality of that happening seems unlikely at this point. For now, let’s just say “coming soon.”

Rough draft of Reiterate is done!

Published by Philip on December 5, 2018

I know I said a few updates ago that Reiterate might be done in Q4 2018.  Well, Q4 2018 is almost over, and I just finished the rough draft.  Part of the holdup was that Reiterate ended up being longer than I was expecting.  The other delay wasn’t really a delay as much as it was a poor estimate of when I’d be done.  I’ve still got tons of editing to do, so if I had to take another (very likely wildly inaccurate) guess of when Reiterate will be available, I’d say May 2019.

Happy Iterate Day!

Published by Philip on August 28, 2018

If you’ve read Iterate, then you know that one of the central themes of the story is a time loop that revolves around August 28th, 2018.  Well, that is today, so on that note, Happy Iterate Day!  To celebrate, I wanted to make the Kindle version free for today, but I found out when I went to make the price change that you cannot make a book on the Kindle Direct Publishing platform free unless it’s enrolled in KDP Select.  I would have no issue with that, except KDP Select has an exclusivity agreement that I am not comfortable with.  As a result, I can’t make the Kindle version of Iterate free today.  However, I can still give it away, just not quite as easily!  If you would like a free copy of Iterate, please Tweet at me.  This offer stands until the end of August.

I also figured there is probably no better day to give more information on the sequel, which has been in the works since a few weeks after I published Iterate.  The moment I cemented the title for Iterate was when I also knew that the sequel would be called Reiterate.  It was an obvious choice for both books, which made the usually daunting task of picking a title pretty easy in both cases.

Clearly, I’ve been sitting on that tidbit for a while, but that’s not all that I have to share.  The first draft of Reiterate is currently sitting just shy of 41,000 words, and I would be shocked if the finished first draft is anything less than 60,000 words.  It’s hard to truly estimate a word length for a story you’re not done telling, but if my guess is correct, that would make Reiterate longer than Iterate by a bit.

I am still trying to release Reiterate in Q4 of this year (meaning sometime before January 1st, 2019), but that date may have been a bit too ambitious.  Regardless, it will be done when it’s done, and I’m pretty excited with how it’s turning out.

Iterate’s Sequel

Published by Philip on June 21, 2018

For some reason, I thought I’d posted here that Iterate would have a sequel at some point, but I suppose I confused platforms.  Regardless, this post is to say that yes, Iterate will have a sequel, and I am currently writing it.  As much as I’d love to release it on August 28th, 2018, that’s a pretty unrealistic goal right now.  While subject to change, I’d say a more likely release will be Q4 2018.