A printing of Cold Morning Shadow in February-March 2020 was intended for distribution to a couple dozen beta readers. The covid-19 pandemic interrupted this distribution before it could begin. Instead, roughly two dozen copies were handed out to random takers in Maine and Florida.
Another attempt at a beta printing took place in April 2020. These, too, were somewhat randomly dispersed. Between then and the end of 2020 the book was offered for sale. Beta readers’ corrections and recommendations through the first half of 2021 were incorporated into the manuscript. In August 2021 a “definitive edition” was published.
If you have Cold Morning Shadow on your Kindle and the copyright page states that it is a Definitive Edition, or if you have a paperback edition and the back cover also includes the words Definitive Edition, then you have the… well… the definitive edition. If the inside back page of a paperback edition bears a printing date before August 20, 2021, you probably have a beta edition.
The changes and corrections are important to the author but do not change the story and would probably never be noticed by anyone else. At some point the author needs to let the manuscript go to press and exist on its own as a fully fledged bird that has left the nest.
If you bought a paperback copy or a Kindle edition during 2020, and especially if your editor’s eye caught something in the book that should have been corrected — (you don’t even need to say what it was), please contact me. I may be able to provide you with a fresh paperback copy at my own expense.
the novel 