HAWK

Author's Thanks

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you've enjoyed the story as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Please do leave a little comment below, even if it's just a smiley face so I know you've read it!

If you spot any mistakes in the book, be it a little typo or something more sinister, please let me know and I might just reward you with a dedication.

Finally, I would really appreciate it if you took just a minute to answer a few questions so I can improve as a writer and entertain you even more in the future. You don't have to answer them all if you don't want, just any that you might have an answer for. And don't worry about giving negative feedback or offending me - so long as it's constructive, please just be honest!

- What would you like to see in another HAWK story?

- Just for fun, who would you cast in the roles if HAWK was ever made into a film or TV show?

- Has the ending of the book left you feeling unfulfilled in any way? Do you have any lingering questions about the story that you expected to be answered?

- Who were your three favourite characters?

- Who were your three least favourite characters?

- Was there any part of the story you didn't like or understand? Perhaps you thought it was too far-fetched or implausible?

- Did you find any part of the book boring or simply not as good as the rest?

- Finally, what score would you give the book out of 10? (1 being poop, 10 being amazing!)

If you have any other comments on anything at all, please let me know below. Even the smallest suggestion might make all the difference.

Thanks again for your support - all your reads, votes and comments have really kept me going.

See you around.

Mike

* * *

Kas Balera will return

* * *

A few little extra facts about HAWK you may like to know:

- I started the first draft of the book on the 26th May 2017 and finished it on the 29th December 2017. It was 140,526 words, which is a little bit longer than Return of the King! I'd originally intended to keep it between 90 and 100 thousand words, but the scope of the story turned out to be just too epic.

- The second draft is a little shorter at 135,720 words and was written from the 5th January 2018 to the 25th March 2018.

- I wrote an average of 824 words per day, though there was a day when I managed to write 4,319.

- The book started when I decided to adapt a short film script I'd written into a short story. In the script, Kas was actually a guy called Clay, but it was otherwise the same as the opening chapter of the book, with him waking up on board his ship being held captive by Vima, Otto, Remi and Hik. When I finished writing the chapter, I really wanted to know what happened next, so I just kept writing. I've since turned the opening chapter back into a short film - see the opening chapter in case you missed it!

- The story was unplanned with pretty much all characters and plot points as much a surprise to me as to anyone. When I wrote the first chapter in the book, I honestly had no idea of anything else that came after, including Worm, Sae-quin Lor, Captain Mack, the Federation... you name it.

- My unplanned approach came at a cost, however - I rewrote large sections of the story as I went along, ultimately cutting out over 47,500 words that I never published (I know because I kept everything I deleted). Pretty much all of the first few chapters up until Selva's destruction are as they were in the first published draft, but Kas originally ended up on Eidol much sooner thanks to her ship being badly damaged.