The Endless Possibilities Blog Tour rolls on with a very special blogpost from Dan Verner. He’s a freelance blogger, journalist, editor, and writer, and it’s that last hat he wears that we are showcasing today! He’s got a work-in-progress, the fourth installment of a series; and Dan is offering up a sneak peek at it on his blog. If you like what you’ve read, pick up a copy of On the Wings of Morning now available on Amazon.com.
Here you are, Dan. My audience, ready to hear your story…Â
I worked as a high school English and creative writing teacher for 32 years, and always wanted to write a novel. Like Grandma Moses, I waited until I was older to do it. I worked on my manuscript for five months, revised it about thirty times, had fifteen “beta readers†look it over, revised it some more, collected rejections from 30 publishers, and caught on with eLectio Publishing in August of 2013. The book came out in late October, and it was literally a thrill of a life time to see it appear on Amazon.com.
Since then I’ve had a launch party and several signings. The book is selling well, and readers have been most kind in their comments about the book. Readers liked the first book well enough in fact that they asked me about a sequel. I wrote that in three months, and eLectio is bringing out at the end of May. It’s called On the Wings of Eagles, and will be available on Amazon and from me as well.
I want to thank all the people who helped and encouraged me–my readers, my friends, my family, the fabulous writers of Write by the Rails and Christopher and Jesse at eLectio. I’ve finished Book 3 (On the Wings of Angels) and am 20,000 words into the fourth volume, On the Wings of Grace. Stay tuned–the series will have nine volumes and follow Otto Kerchner to the present day.
And if you want a brief glimpse at what Dan has to offer, here’s a sampling from On the Wings of Eagles…
January, 1958
Otto was flying.
The thing was, he couldn’t tell what sort of aircraft he was in. He usually knew. Pilots had to. He had flown a number of types over the years, but the instruments and controls, while recognizable as such, were not at all familiar to him.
He ran through some options in his head, peering through the windscreen to an opaque white world. He was either in dense fog or a white-out. It was hard to tell which. And another thing was, he didn’t remember getting into the aircraft. It was as if he had come to either from being unconscious or asleep, and there he was seated at the controls of a mystery aircraft.
Well, first things first, Kerchner, he told himself. Are you right side up and in a stable configuration? In these conditions he knew he couldn’t trust his senses. He checked what looked like his artificial horizon, and, yes, everything looked good. A gauge next to it indicated that he was at 10,000 feet. Good. Unless he was over the Himalayas, he was all right. Next, power. Two big round RPM indicators. His ears told him the engines were running smoothly and strongly.
All right, then: location. In the center of the instruments was a rectangle about the size of a small cereal box. It glowed blue, but showed a blank blue face. He had to face it: he had no idea of where he was. He wasn’t even sure of how many engines he had. It sounded like two, but the atmosphere made it hard to tell. He could have been piloting a B-17 as he did during the war or a Beech twin like he did during his airline days. He couldn’t see far enough out each wing to even say what kind of engines they were except that he could tell by the sound they were big radials, Wrights or Pratt and Whitneys.
Dan Verner is a novelist and blogger. Follow him online at