Excerpts from the First Book of the Freelan Series

My romance novel turned into much more

A couple years ago excerpts were all the rage on social media. Then people started offering whole chapters for free to entice readers to buy the book. Then they started giving away the first book in a series to entice readers to buy the next books in the series. And so it has gone.

For a while, I posted excerpts, too, even though the book wasn’t published and in fact was still undergoing rewrites (as I continued writing on what had grown from one book into a series, I went back and revamped those earlier manuscripts). The hope was to catch a publisher’s eye, someone with the right vision to see the worth of this writing. Sadly, that publisher has yet to appear over the horizon, but I remain hopeful.

Publishing here on Substack is for me not an option. Why? Because I have no way to set up a paywall that would be safe against hackers and the worst security factor (and one that can’t be held back by a firewall): human error. However, I wanted to present for your enjoyment the excerpts I had posted from what started as a romance novel but grew into much more and is now the first book in the Freelan series.

My guess is that you, too, have had works of fiction start out one way and turn into something different. No use fighting it. Go with the flow. Who knows where you’ll end up.

Hope you enjoy these, and thanks for reading.

Excerpt from Hammil Valley Rising Intro

A Lone Figure

This shows the first sight of a main character who transitions from an antagonist to a protagonist. (I post excerpts as images instead of text to counter content scrapers out there used by unscrupulous people to grab site content.)

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Excerpt 1 from Hammil Valley Rising

Persevering

This excerpt shows the kind of thing against which one of my main characters struggles almost daily.

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Excerpt 2 from Hammil Valley Rising

Profit maker in Hammil Valley

Rose Wilson is a main character (protagonist) who initially sees Jim O’Connell as an antagonist. She tries to work through all she has been taught versus what she sees happening around her.

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Excerpt 3 from Hammil Valley Rising

Becoming an Individual

Hal Stone, formerly Hal Stonethrower, is a full blood Paiute and a good friend of Jim O’Connell. Hal has talked over the years with Henry Baum, a resident of Hammil Valley who acts as their guide in matters philosophical.

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Excerpt 4 from Hammil Valley Rising

Rumor Mill Cranks Up in Hammil Valley

Eddie asked Rose if a rumor about her selling her ranch to Jim was true. Rose later discusses that issue with Henry and Katherine, her elderly friends.

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Excerpt 5 from Hammil Valley Rising

The “Gold Mine”

Steve and his grandfather Xipiao visit manmade lake with Jim.

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Excerpt 6 from Hammil Valley Rising

Cronyism Rears Up

Sid is Jim’s dire enemy, obsessed with paying back Jim for an imagined wrong in the past. Time to call on a “friend” in Sacramento, the State capitol.

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Excerpt 7 from Hammil Valley Rising

The Spy in Hammil Valley

A young man from the California Mercantile and Agriculture Department (MAD) is sent on a mission to Hammil Valley. He finds more in the valley than he ever dreamed possible.

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Excerpt 8 from Hammil Valley Rising

Snowy Night Phone Call

Jim works long hours, including being up as snow begins to fall in the wee hours of a snowy winter night in Hammil Valley. During a break to make coffee…

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Excerpt 9 from Hammil Valley Rising

An Everyday Hero Steps Up

Howard faces a sharp reality as someone very important to his life and many others in Hammil Valley face a threat from an obsessed enemy.

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Final Excerpt from Hammil Valley Rising

From the Epilogue

A lone hiker spends a moment of appreciation for the life he’s found in the valley. This is the final excerpt from Hammil Valley Rising. I hope they have all whet your appetite to read the full book whenever it gets published! I am renewing my efforts to find the right publisher.

See more about Hammil Valley Rising, part 1 of Freelan: The Dawning.

Bottom Line (Final Note)

One thing I see from these excerpts is that they don’t give you the reader a very clear picture of the full manuscript. Hopefully, it showed you enough to want to read more, and that is the purpose of excerpts. I encourage you writers out there to return to just putting out excerpts. Your work has value. Time to stop giving it away.

Hope you found this helpful and have been inspired to start and/or continue writing!

See my article: Publisher Agent Fiction Genres Defined, with downloadable PDF.

Please check out my works in progress (WIPs). And thanks for reading.

NOTE: None of my text or images are AI-generated. You can rest assured that I pulled it all out of that stuff in my skull called a “brain.”

Disclaimer: I get no compensation for links to other sites and/or products in this post or on my site.