Full of Lies

So apparently I am just full of lies. 

I said earlier that I was going to be blogging more, and then I did not do that. I did, however, take a slightly different and unexpected step in my writing career: I started graduate school! I'm currently working toward an MA in Publishing from Western Colorado University. We officially kicked things off last summer by spending a week together in Gunnison, and the atmosphere was so incredibly warm and kind. I truly had no idea how supportive the writing community is. 

PC: Kevin J. Anderson
I already feel like I've progressed miles as far as the curriculum goes. Both the faculty and my classmates have described it as a "firehose" so far, with more than I ever imagined I would be able to understand thrown at me over the course of three months. From distribution technicalities and the incredible resources available to writers, to the networking and genuine connections we made with each other, I feel like I went to bed in one place and woke up somewhere else entirely. 

Unfortunately, when you learn that much that fast, you start to notice all the areas in which your old work is lacking. That's where even more lies come in... I know I literally just made a whole preachy blog post about the importance of honoring your past work, but I've decided that I'm going to publish new editions of the entire Equilibrium trilogy. 

I don't want to betray the original trilogy, but I don't want to leave it behind, either. I want to take everything I've learned — and will learn — in this program and apply it to the books, making them something that I feel still accurately represents what I'm capable of and where I stand in my writing worldviews. I realize that I can't take the books with me in a way that I'll always be satisfied with (the consequence of striving for growth that I previously ranted about), but I do want to give them the life that I had always intended for them to have. 

Townie Books in Crested Butte
As a way to both stay connected to the previous editions and hold myself accountable, I'm going to do my best to document the changes I make and post them here. I already know that I'm going to revamp the covers. I also know from reader feedback that there's a bit of confusion about genre and age range, so I'm going to make some alterations regarding that (namely toning down some of the more mature language). And there's a sentence in Equi that I absolutely cannot stand. It keeps me up at night with regret. It will be an immense weight off my shoulders to change it. 

I'll also take a note from Rainbow Rowell and make a post with a guide to the editions: which one is which and why. But all this is planning really far ahead; I've just barely started on this project, and part of me wants to wait until graduation so I can maximize the new perspective I can bring to it. Until then, I'll be thinking of ideas to breathe new life into the first stories I was brave enough to share... because their creation came from a place of love, after all. 

And yes, the new editions will have page numbers.