Authors, what are you working on?

Currently I am rewriting the Hobnob With Authors group description. :)

I was supposed to be publishing Pavane in Pearl and Emerald, but my editor got sick, so I'm still waiting for her to get back to me with copy-edits on the Glossary. :(

I'm trying to get to a point where I have at least a dozen short stories circulating at any given time. I'm at about 8 right now.

I'm also a quarter of a way in to my first novel, and finally got it outlined with the help of a writer friend at a little retreat I went to last weekend. It's time to get cracking on that, but I admit I'm often lured by the call of short stories -- more immediate gratification!

On and off working on my second poetry collection. I've been spending more time working on my first novel. Then I'm always trying to practice my photography and working on my blog.

Amy that's a great idea! I've got some shorts I keep yelling at myself to get back to and send them out. Good luck with your.

LShelby I hope your editor gets better sooner than later, for the sake of you both!

>2 amysisson: Don't beat yourself up over wanting to write shorts--that could just be your forte. Novel writing and short story writing are kind of two different things, I think.

>4 Marissa_Doyle: Agreed!

Short is not my thing. Yeah, yeah, I know that's where all my pro sales are. Sometimes life is weird: I've written more full length novels in the past 20 years, than I've written short stories and novellas put together. (But there are more novellas than shorts.)

>3 eLPy: I gave up on yelling at myself over shorts. I've decided that since its so rare for me to write anything under 50K, it's okay if I save up all the ones I do write to use as promotional giveaways and such.

>2 amysisson: Make sure you tell us if you ever make it up to keeping 12 in circulation at once. That is definitely worth a yeehaw! or two. :)

Agreed to all of the above in >5 LShelby:! And thanks ladies. :) I think too that at least starting shorts is a good way to get an idea down on paper and at least started so you can flesh it out at a later date. I'm not opposed to short story collections if ever I get that many done, but I do understand it's a matter of finding that balance. My biggest problem is probably the follow through.

Cheers!!

Thanks for all the kind comments! Agreed that shorts and novels are so very different. I think I'd like to prove to myself I can complete one, and if I never sell it, so be it.

Cheers to that!

With the launch of third book of my Draconia series, I've turned my attention to a story I originally wrote 12-13 years ago. The original draft was about 14K words. At the time, that was a novel for me. But now, I'm expanding the story and deepening the characters and plot.

Also, I recently dug up one of the first drafts of my first Draconia book, written 10 years ago. I'm re-typing it, complete with all the typos and terrible dialogue, with the intention of putting it up on Goodreads.

Eight short stories sounds amazing to me, Amy!

I'm on round ummm.... 7? of revisions on my second book, (a sequel to book one, and second in the trilogy). Feeling a bit overwhelmed, having a hard time sorting out one plot point I need to address that kind of recurs all over the book. I need to have it wrapped up by the 11th when my editor comes back so she can do her second round of edits (all the grammar and mechanical stuff). I promised my readers it would be out in March and I can't let them down!! Trying to fit that in around working on my degree is proving to be a challenge, but I swear I'll make it, come hell or high water!!!

>11 astrid_writes: Best of luck on making your deadline!

Me, I told people that my next book would be out before the end of December, and here it is February, and it's not out yet. Fortunately, for once, the delay is not all my fault.

Anyway, I've gone over the copy edits, and now it's my publisher's turn to do his stuff, so "what I'm working on" as a writer right now, is actually sewing doll clothes.

Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound writerly. It is, though. The doll clothes are so that one of my author friends can dress her doll up as one of her characters, and are in exchange for her helping me with a soundtrack for a book trailer I will theoretically be making for my graphic novel, as soon as I can find the time. (Which at the rate I'm going, will be never. But I like to be optimistic about these things.)

>12 LShelby:

I love the idea of bartering skills. I wish there were more of that in the world!

I have started my third book, maybe a little late in life but I hope to have a few more decades of work left in me. We have all heard that if you gave a monkey a typewriter, they would eventually type the bible. I'm trying the same concept- hitting random keys on my MS Word program in the hopes of typing a number one best seller. I'll give everyone periodic updates. Back to work, right now I'm tearing up the keyboard, I can't wait to see what I have written. Gotta keep a sense of humor because at the end of some days... it's all I've got : )

Sounds good everybody!

Astrid I'm still working on my first draft of my first novel - well this is actually now a complicated topic in my life but I'll hold off for the moment - and I have no doubts that there will be many revisions to come in my future. Right now I know it's important that I get most of it out to give myself something to work on. I think it's like being a sculptor, you have to at least have some raw material before you can begin to build anything. ;) (Ooo I like my own analogy!)

Bartering skills is a great idea!! :D

Keep on plucking way at those keys Larry. I'm trying to limit myself to LT replies in this group because - very fortunately - there's so much more discussion going on here, if I reply to all the threads I find interesting I'll tire myself out before I get back to typing. ;)

Quick update on me is I've been working more on my second poetry collection - an idea I have kind of shelved in the last year - as well as my first novel. That story has not been coming to me so easily so one day a new idea (happens all the time) came to me and I knew I had to get the idea itself down. I started writing more than just the idea and suddenly I realized that this story is coming to me more easily so I would be a fool to not continue to work on it as well instead of having the other novel be the center of attention. I started it two weeks ago and I'm 16,715 words in. :D Multiple projects works for me!

I am working on the second part of my trilogy - the continuation of Sra'kalor. I have started and already know I need to move around some things and experiment with the order a little bit more.

I also am working on two stories that might end up being novella, rather than novels. One of them is a story I have in my mind since I was a teenager and I think I can finally bring it to life, the way I wish for it.
The other is a twist on a famous fairy tale, from the view of a 'villain' who turns out to be a side-hero, helping the main character to reach her goal in her own special way.

I'm in the editing phase of my second book, which I have no idea what to call. It's a bayonet-and-sorcery fantasy family saga, spanning three generations of a heroic line, from rise to fall. It's turned out way longer than I thought, such that I'll probably try to split it into two to three volumes and release them either all at once or rapid-fire one after the other.

Speaking of short stories, I'm hoping to do a few once I'm in the publishing/marketing phase of the family saga book(s). I've written a few but they're not really where my passions lie.

I am working on "Meditations Through the Year," a collection of reflections on the Scriptures through the eyes of various Biblical characters. These meditations are organized by the liturgical calendar, hence the title.

I'm in marketing mode for my most recent book Sword of the Gladiatrix. It was supposed to be out last month, but there were delays with the cover--worth it though, the cover is great. On the writing front, doing a final rewrite on Twilight Empress which is due by the end of the second quarter. As to shorts vs. novels--I love to write both. Finished a 9K story based on a minor character in TE which I loved but had to cut. I'll probably give it away on my website as a promotion because it's too long for a commercial publication and will definitely include it in a collection of historical shorts I hope to have out by the end of the year or early next. Busy, busy, busy! (Which is why I've been doing more lurking than posting this year.

I'm close to halfway through the first novel of a proposed YA comedy science fiction trilogy featuring a couple of female protagonists. Not sure I've had so much fun writing before!

I am currently working on the first draft of my fifth novel, Jaded Tides. It will be the second book in my Razor's Adventure series. I'm also rewriting a book that I'm co-writing with another author. This book will be a branch off from my pirate series focusing on the captain from the first book.

I've got two projects in the pipeline at the moment:

"Hotel of Death: The Chosen One" was originally written by fellow author, Cynthia Fridsma, but I am editing it for her.

At the same time, I'm laying foundations for the next book in my "Legends of the 23rd Century" series, "Teslageist: Amber Wasp".

I am pleased to be able to say that I have finally finished my other project, and am back to writing again.

I'm at one week, and 12K words. :)

But next week will probably have a much lower output, if I manage to write anything at all, because it's my 25th Wedding Anniversary, and I'm doing the whole private get-away for two thingy.

Have a lovely anniversary!!

>23 LShelby:

Happy Anniversary!

I'm working on rewriting a couple of shorts for a collection I want to put out this fall, but need to get cracking on a short for an anthology I've been invited to join--not due 'til the end of the year, but time flies so quickly!

>26 MarysGirl:

I find it helps me tremendously to have something specific towards which to work. Best of luck with your anthology piece!

I have finished writing Lioness... it wieghed in at 140K words. Ooof!

Next on my list is editing, and then editing, and then more editing.... and if I get tired of that and want a change, there is always... more editing!

Sounds like a mammoth task - I hope it goes well. Set yourself some milestones to prevent it becoming too monotonous.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through writing the first draft of "Teslageist: Amber Wasp".

I've always had trouble figuring out how to set editing milestones.

In this case, however, I have multiple books needing to be worked on, so at least I can check each one off as I finish. :)

I am working on book 3 of my series, A New World. I know what I want to happen in the book. I even know how I want it to end, it's the in between I need to really focus on. But I have to say, after writing book 1 and 2, 3 is going faster.

>31 TCoffey0126: "But I have to say, after writing book 1 and 2, 3 is going faster."

Really? That's interesting. I've written a number of sequels, and although I do seem to be speeding up in general, I haven't noticed that the third books in a series write that much faster than first books.

Do you think it's because you have a better handle on the plot? Or that you've already established the characters and setting so you don't have to think about those things as much?

I think it's because I know what's going to happen.

I've been working on the series for years but never thought of it as a series until it was published. My publisher didn't like my ending to the first book but it was what I wanted. She suggested a second book, so I decided to go a head and make it into a series.

>27 amysisson: Thanks! I finished my anthology piece and it's with my writing group. Also have my collection of historical shorts out in ebook and paper. This is the third in the series and completes my collections of short fantasy, dark and historical stories. The touchstones aren't working--probably because I just added the book--The Reluctant Groom and Other Historical Stories. Writing: I'm rewriting a prequel novella for a historical novel that coming out at the end of the first quarter and writing the first draft of a sequel to Sword of the Gladiatrix. I have ideas for a series of children's books I'd like to do next year. So many projects, so little time!

I'm now over 50% through "Teslageist: Amber Wasp", and I have an idea for a story called:

Stranded
Aeliens
Need
Technical
Assistance

>33 TCoffey0126: That makes a lot of sense.

The next book I'm supposed to write is the fourth in a series, but I know more about what will happen in the fifth book.

>34 MarysGirl: The touchstone appeared to load fine when I added it to the Book List. Congrats on getting it done! :)

>35 A.W.Black: Let me guess... they're stranded at the North Pole?

That's right - what gave it away? ;)

My current project is over four-fifths finished. It's called "Teslageist: Amber Wasp", and it's the follow up to my first story. The Teslageist, the secondary protagonist from "Stormbringer: Legend of the 23rd Century" is still on the trail of his missing father, whom he has tracked down to Athens. There he faces his enemy from the original story, who has allied himself with a swarm of new bad guys.

I've just passed 49000 words and still climbing.

I see the word count climbing on my latest book Fade to Gray, yeah, I'm almost there. It's a new adult urban fantasy and a tough one to get through because I stated writing another simultaneously. One is third, one is first POV. You guessed it, I started mixing up the POVs, then it got worst, I swapped the heroines names as well, this went on for quite a few chapters.

Taking a break from writing the first books of the new series. The rough draft is an ugly monster so I needed some space away as I'm going to be writing the next story draft soon enough. Editing will be a feat but these are stories that have been in my head for more than a year so I am pulled to them. My process is definitely different for this set of stories. A bit scary but I'm going with it.

I want to know how everyone keeps other stories from taking over their main series?
I have been working on book 3 of my series, but I keep getting ideas for a different story which I stared last year. I would love to have it published, but I've been told to only focus on one - the one you have published.

I write my ideas for other stories as they pop into my head, but I put most of my effort into the story that's next on my release schedule.

I'm past 90% of the way through the first draft of my current work, which is the second book in its series. After that I'll start on my first stand-alone title, which I plan to release later this year.

My advice would be to organise your ideas and to keep your eye on the next release date, if you have one planned.

Thanks for the advice.

The first draft of "Teslageist: Amber Wasp" is now complete!

I know this isn't the place, but if there are any beta readers looking for a futuristic story about child superheroes, please get in touch!

Once I've launched the book in March, I'll start writing "Stranded Aeliens Need Technical Assistance".

Well, my second book has been redrafted and is available to pre-order, so I've made an early start with S.A.N.T.A.

>44 A.W.Black: Congrats!

>40 TCoffey0126:
I'm supposed to have a "main series"? ::rueful:: I haven't even got a "main world".

In the thirty years I've been writing, I have come to the conclusion that if I have to write the same type of book over and over and over to be a success, then I'd really rather be a failure. I do write series, but I don't try to write them back to back. I purposely take breaks to write other things.

As for what I do with ideas for new stories when I'm already in the middle of writing one: I ignore them. I try to pretend like they aren't there in the hopes that they'll go away.

It doesn't seem to work. A great many of them end up knocking around in my head for years and years until I finally start writing them. But I don't encourage them. I try to not write down anything about them, except maybe adding the title to my to-write queue once its obvious that i'm not going to be able to forget about it.

Sometimes I fail at the "don't write anything" thingy. The first trilogy I published, Across a Jade Sea, was an attack story that I started writing when I was theoretically writing something else, only the something else wasn't going anywhere, and this brand new shiny idea kept trying to take over my head.

I actually wrote the first draft longhand, because that wasn't the story I was working on, it was just something I just happened to start scribbling in my free time. I "just scribbled" 230K words. It's a pretty hefty stack of paper, and I was going through a pen a week.

But if the story I had been trying to write wasn't very, very stuck, I don't think it would have happened that way. And I did go back and finish that other story later.

Here's a short section from S.A.N.T.A:

My stomach turns again as the sleigh dives into a narrow opening in the frozen ground. I close my eyes and cling to the solid wooden beam in front me, desperately hoping that it'll keep me safe.
The air in here is warm and I suddenly catch my breath. I let out a long, terrified scream before I feel a big fluffy finger prodding on my shoulder. I look to my right and see the tall red and white creature standing over me.
"We've landed," he announces proudly before my scream reduces to a calm but surprised "oh".

>46 A.W.Black:
::laugh::
It looks pretty fun!

I have finished two of my editing projects, finally. Both within a week of each other.
Hopefully the third one won't take me nearly so long, and I'll be able to start work on a new book soon.

Here's a snippet from the one I'm editing now:

“It’s got a hole in it!”
“We’ve been through this before, Sis. Massitchsen’s Worlds. Planet-sized geometric objects. Why did you think it was called Torys? Torys... Torus... you know, shaped like a bagel, only probably not as tasty with cream cheese?”
“I know what a torus is!” Bambi snapped. “It just never occurred to me that even super-powered aliens—now mysteriously vanished and possibly mythological in the first place—would build anything like that.” She undid the couch straps and slowly rose to her feet, trying to get her mental bearings.
“It’s all that ‘possibly mythological’ stuff, Sis. Sentients that aren’t sure they ever existed have trouble remaining on the steady side of sane.”

Sounds interesting. What's the title? From the sample I'm tempted to buy a copy when it's finished.

I was watching a space science video recently which said torus shaped planets could exist naturally, but would only form under specific conditions. It would also be possible for the moon of such a planet to orbit in a figure-eight as it passed through the hole in the middle.

However, the slightest collision with a big enough object would cause the planet to collapse into the more common spherical shape.

For some reason I now have a craving for a cheese bagel...

That's from Sails of Everwind, sequel to Eyes of Infistar.

They are stories about a family of interplanetary detectives, and are supposed to be light-hearted, fast-paced and fun. The series was intended to be a deliberate tribute to the grand space-operatic tradition of sixty to seventy years ago. (No, I'm not that old -- I just read a lot of used books growing up.)

Eyes is in the hands of my publisher (aka, my husband) and will be sent off to our editor shortly -- but he hasn't even started to look for a cover artist yet, so I really have no clue when it will be out. Sails, obviously, will take even longer.

But I'll try to remember you were interested, and give you a heads-up when they're available.

(Unless you'd like to do some betareading? I will hopefully be looking for betareaders for Sails reasonably soon.)

...
I hadn't realized that it had been theorized that torus worlds could occur naturally, but I was aware of the instability problem. I have been assuming that the Massitchsen worlds have special super-strong cores that allow them to hold their shapes even when stressed by asteroid strikes and etc. That would be where the mysteriously vanished super-powered aliens come in. :)

That sounds great, I'd love to beta read it!

I've got less than 3 chapters to complete before the first draft of S.A.N.T.A is finished and I can send it to my illustrator.

I don't want to double post, but it's been almost 2 months. S.A.N.T.A is fully drafted and I'm just waiting for my illustrator to get back to me. My cover artist has returned his work though, so I just need to add the blurb.

I've decided to donate all of the royalties from the sale of this book to a charity called the Family Fund Trust, which supports families raising disabled and severely ill children. After all, Christmas is all about giving, right?

While my next thriller is with beta-readers and I'm anxiously/eagerly awaiting their feedback, I'm working on a short story / quick thriller which is growing into more of a novella. It was originally penned to a very tight word count for an anthology which didn't happen. So there's now scope to introduce a second story thread, and see where the characters choose to take it... It's set in Louisiana, not long after a catastrophic oil spill - as with most of my writing, an actual event provides the springboard for the storyline.

Meanwhile, my partner is compiling the four previous shorts in the same series into an anthology / ebook bundle, and 'Special Relationship' will be the added-extra bonus to complete that collection.

And then... back to the revisions on the full length novel - tentatively entitled 'Charm Offensive'.

We'll be seeking feedback at later stages so expect to see some posts popping up now and then on the subject...

S.A.N.T.A. is now finished and available for pre-order, so now I'm working on the plot outline for "Stormbringer: Haunted City".

Having finished the prequel to the Fallacies series, I'm working to expand the story by adding more information on Kira Levid, a character in the prequel to give the overall Fallacies universe more depth. I figured that with so many things the books are meant to leave to guesswork, hence the name, it's important to examine the story from everyone's perspective to get the full picture. I'm thinking of making this book available on sites such as Wattpad and FictionPress for free, but releasing it in chapters, so that readers can follow it in concurrence with the main books in the series, one of which is still waiting to be released.

What does everyone think of this plan? Do you feel like releasing snippets of a work over time is a good approach to drumming up interest for a story?
Do you have other approaches?
Let me know :)

I am currently working on two books one is a thriller called "Surviving the Night" and a young adult book called " A Friend I Didn't Know I Had".
My young adult book is currently being edited and it is my first novel book. I just started writing my Thriller book and I hope to have it finished next month.
Harel

I admire someone who can work on two books at once hlawrence! I'm currently editing Missing at Sea, which follows on from Missing in Egypt.

>50 A.W.Black: Sorry about disappearing on you. My life went a little haywire. Long story short... nothing is currently ready to be beta-read after all. I will try getting ahold of you when it is. My apologies again.

As for the topic at hand...

I have 175 handwritten pages of what would be a historical pirate adventure/romance if it were set on our world, but it's set on the same world as my Across a Jade Sea series instead. (So, not a fantasy in the usual sense. That world has no magic. But not truly historical either.)

I am not supposed to be writing a pirate adventure, long-hand or otherwise. I have a backlog of three other books that I am supposed to have finished editing last year. Oi!

But still, 175 pages is 175 pages. :)

>54 MayaTripathi: Releasing snippets can work really well. It can also flop horribly.

This is not a primary issue, but do you have an existing audience for these snippets? You may get really frustrated if you release them concurrently, but nobody notices. (Or maybe you won't, you know yourself better than I do.)

The main issue with snippets is that it's hard to interest readers in material that is too strongly dependent on information/materials they do not have access too. So how well snippets work as a promotional tool depends on either a pre-existing audience with a reason to be interested (people who have read other books in the series and liked them, usually) or the snippets doing a very good job of standing alone.

>56 rchapman1: I don't tend to write two books at once, but I do tend to let the previous book sit while I go work on a different one, before I go back and edit. So I'm generally "in the middle" of more than one book at a time.

I'm a bit more amazed that >55 hlawrence: is expecting to finish a thriller in less than two months. I know NaNoWriMo encourages people to write a "novel" in a month, but most writers don't usually write that fast, and most novels are about twice the length that the NaNoWriMo aims for.

I'm currently writing my first novel. It is a Christian action/adventure novel with a survival story twist a third of the way into it. Much of it takes place at sea, part of it in PA and CA, and part of it in the Azores Islands. Think "clean Clive Cussler".
I'm working on Chapter 16 now, and there have been a few bumps along the road (mostly not being able to find the information and resources necessary to write accurately and informatively), but overall I've gone farther into this book than I ever have before. I'm probably 2/3 of the way done the book now. Do you guys think that there would be an audience for such a genera as I have described?

>59 SDaisy: Do you guys think that there would be an audience for such a genera as I have described?

Yes, I do.

It sounds like you've been doing a good job of sticking to it so far, so I'm looking forward to you announcing that you've got to the end. I'm sure you'll get there.

And best of luck with finding those references!

>60 LShelby: Thank you! I'll be sure to let y'all know when I finally finish it. ☺

I'm writing the synopsis for my science fiction thriller. The last element needed for submitting it to agents and publishers (beside the Query Letter and First 3 Chapters). Thinks The Sopranos meets Dune. A low-caste bio-modified hit man (called a Contractor) has to bump off his young protege (who also happens to be a relative of the local warlord). Then things get complicated.

I'm also writing the bonus essays for "American Odd," the third non-fiction essay collection I'll be publishing via The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (http://cclapcenter.com/). The tag line is: "American Odd: A look at peculiar institutions, oddball literary experiments, and reckless rugged individualists. A celebration of American non-conformity." Everything from The Book of the SubGenius to Zippy the Pinhead to The House on the Rock to a biography of Joseph Smith written by his mom.

Having finally gotten all my editing projects to the point where someone else gets to worry about them for a while (be it editors, copy-editors or betareaders)...

...I am now starting to write Book 4 of my EFP Epic.

hello everyone, I have just finished my project Beyond Absolute.

It has taken a long time, and I would be very welcome to other authors feedback and idea's and possibly reviews .

If you would like a copy then fee free to get into contact with my at scottgurney95@yahoo.co.uk where I can send over a free pdf copy for you to keep!

Many Thanks!
Scott Robert Gurney.
http://www.blurb.com/b/8210868-beyond-absolute?ebook=639659

Just finished publishing my third urban fantasy book. I might devote some time to my ongoing zombie horror adventure series on Wattpad, before diving in to my fourth paranormal crime comedy adventure series. There's also a vampire adventure that I want to write, plus a comical Jim Butcher-style paranormal detective series that I keep dragging out of mothballs to reimagine every few months. Or, I might spend some time polishing up some of my short stories for an anthology I was planning.

*Sigh* Maybe I just read a book instead...

I'm thinking maybe that was the fourth *in* your paranormal crime comedy adventure series?

I mean, I suppose you could have four paranormal crime comedy adventure series if you want, but if it was me I'd get bored.

My own progress bar says "15%" of the way through the WIP. Go me! But my copy-editor sent back the "space opera romp" so I really probably ought to put the EFP Epic away for a bit. :(

I'm at the best part! Proofing and editing!

http://amazon.com/author/rsmerritt

Hello everyone! I'm working on another collection of poetic, short stories to entertain, encourage and inspire! This book is set for publication January 2018 through Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/author/angiedent

It's been a while since I was last here, but currently I'm working on "Amber Wasp: Crown Jewels", the fourth in my Sci-Fi / Super Hero series Legends of the 23rd Century, and planning "The Allotment Anthology", which is both my third charity book and a standalone compilation about vegetables with hopes, dreams and a fear of the lagomorph apocolypse.

I'm also working on improving my website (not listed so I don't look like a spammer) after the good folks over at a certain writers' forum decided it was the worse than a movie marathon of Pixels, Minions and the Emoji Movie.

Hello everyone, I'm currently in the process of writing the final 20,000ish words in my next horror novel - Doctor Perry. It was meant to be released in December but that's now looking unrealistic.

December (and now January) have come and gone, but I hope things are going well, If you haven't finished, don't rush! A lot of time well spent on a good story is worth more than time wasted trying to keep to a deadline.

After re-working my first 3 book covers, I've continued work on the fourth book in my series, "Amber Wasp: Crown Jewels", which is about a girl in a wheelchair who can turn into a quite intimidating super heroine, and her many arthropod themed friends.

Finishing a LitRPG satire, now on Amazon pre-order status - BONER the Barbarian ONLINE XIII: A LitRPG Satire. Figured that since the LitRPG genre is going mainstream with the Player One movie, I'll have some fun myself.

Thanks.

Working on the sequel to my first novel, a paranormal erotica that came out in November of last year.

Hi folks!

I'm currently working on a darkly comic short story/poetry collection titled 'Dead Short', which I'm planning to release on Wattpad next month (haven't tried publishing on Wattpad before, so we'll see how that goes).

I'm also in the process of putting together my next children's novel 'Grynbad and the seven soups' for release on Amazon later this summer, which is being illustrated by Brett Burbridge (who also provided the cover for the last of the navel navigators children's novel, recently released on Amazon).

I just went down for multiple months twice in a row without feeling better enough in the middle to get back online.

And so, obviously, essentially no writing or editing has happened since y'all last heard from me. I was managing to get some coding done for a brief period there in the middle, but that's it.

Unfortunately hardly any reading got done either. ::grumble::
Not being able to do anything besides watch TV is killer boring. :(

On a more cheerful front, I myself am getting a little "hump" in book sales right now. I suspect a helpful boost from some netizen, but I haven't been able to locate the source.

I am currently working on the second InterStellar Commonwealth book, Words Like Leaves on the Wind. It's about a first-contact team on a dying alien world, and unfinished business coming back to get revenge.

I'm plotting book 7 of an ongoing Creature Feature series I have running at Severed Press. The series features a bunch of Scottish special forces who get involved in hunting monsters across the world. Having a lot of fun with these guys (in particular in book 5 where they got to stay home, and fight Nessie.)

I've just started on my sixth book entitled The Ponciana Tree. Running around trying to find the right shot of the famous tree for the cover but mostly they are on the street and I need one that doesn't have telegraph poles or roundabout signs right next to it!

>76 AWalkerScott: That sounds like a lot of fun. :)

>77 williemeikle: So does this one. (Although... is Nessie evil? -- I guess I'll have to assume your Nessie is, anyway.)

>78 rchapman1: I actually haven't a clue what a Ponciana Tree is, but I'm familiar with the "hard to get a good shot because there are modern accouterments in the way" problem. I have been trying to figure out where to take some photos for an upcoming series, and even when I go out into a state park or whatever, it's a bit frustrating how there's always a power line at 'just' the wrong place. *sigh*

As for me, I actually wrote last week, which made me happy. I got 5000+ words in on my High Fantasy Epic Vol. IV, which is the one where, having sent my hero off on a quest for a magic sword, I am now detailing what is happening to his sisters and romantic interest as they hold the fort back at home.

(My son-in-law when he heard that much of the plot from my daughter seemed to think this book would be less interesting than the previous three. Well... my heroine's unwanted chaperone was just almost impaled by an invisible assassin, while travelling with a force intending to invade the neighboring country, and my heroine is now in hot pursuit of the perpetrator. Silly son-in-law, he should have trusted me.) >:)

I just put out my latest in paperback and am in production on an audiobook. I'm plotting the next book in the series and I'm 49k into my next standalone, a thriller set in the mid 1970s.

I'm currently working on a fantasy/horror piece that started life as a short story some time ago. I'm trying to expand on it and am up to around 17,000 words. One of my goals this year is to complete this and another one of my unfinished stories.

Currently working on edits for a second book in my paranormal romance series and marketing for my first ever historical romance novel due out in February! It’s a lot of work, but I am happy to do it.

Good luck to you! I hope you get it done!

I’ve tried short stories, but I always want to add more and find myself adding to the plot and characters. Can’t help it.

I love that!

I'm a recent arrival. Thanks for having me.

I'm working on book production of mt second collection of free verse/narrative poetry. This collection will be in book form by the end of April, I'm hoping and features stories and voices arising from our Black Saturday Bushfires in 2009 - a decade ago now.

It's a highly emotive set of poems and I'm hoping to find some folk interested in pre-release reading and perhaps some reviews in the right places.

In current writing, I'm progresssing some speculative fiction free verse poems. There will be a number of bookified collections, I hope.

>84 victoriadanes:
There is no threading in LT Talk, replies to particular messages just go to the bottom. But if you type a > sign and the number of the message you're responding to, like I did here, LT creates a handy little link to that particular message: this helps us figure out who you are talking to. :)

I also have a lot of trouble with writing short. Since I started taking myself seriously as a writer, I have completed more novels than I have completed short stories. And yet, ironically, my 'pro' sales are all short. Go figure.

What is your paranormal romance about, and what exactly is involved in this marketing that you will be doing?

(The editing I don't think I need explained to me. ;) Personally, I enjoy the 'fixing the story to make it better' typeof editing, but the copyedit type of editing is the one part of writing that I don't seem to enjoy.)

>80 K.D._McQuain:
So, um, which series is this, and what's the thriller about? Inquiring minds want to know, and all that. :)

>81 AWA1:
Do you have a lot of short stories that might be expanded lying about?

One of my writer friends said that all her early attempts at short stories either sounded like a plot summary or a first chapter, so I guess almost all her short stories could be expanded, but for me, if I manage to write short at all in the first place there just doesn't seem to be anything much there to expand on.

Best of luck in achieving your writing goals. Please keep us updated!

>86 Frank_Prem:
The Bushfires do sound like a highly emotive subject.

Finding pre-readers/reviewers is an interesting challenge, and one I can't claim to have any expertise in.

But I suspect writing personal requests to potential reviewers works better than posting in a forum. Maybe if you can think of some books that are similar in some way to yours? Check out who on LibraryThing has written reviews on them, and post a note asking them if they might be interested in getting an ARC of your book?

The Early Reviewers program here is only available to publishers, but you can do a Member Giveaway of your book in exchange for reviews. I don't know that I can whole-heartedly recommend this approach, though. I have no evidence that the reviews I got from free giveaways actually helped me sell any books. The reviews that I know helped me, were the one another fantasy author posted to her blog, and the one that a professional SF/Fantasy reviewer posted to his blog.

So, in my experience, you want to look for people who review regularly and have readers interested in those reviews. There are some people like that on Library Thing -- (Check out some of the hugely popular threads in the 75 Challenge Group, for example) but you can't count on them even visiting the Member Giveaway page, let alone requesting a copy of your book.

And once you find those people, I have no idea how you go about convincing them to actually give your book a try. For me, the reviewer and I happened to have been in the same online writers group many eons ago (we didn't even talk to each other much, but I guess he was curious enough when he heard I'd published to buy and try), and I was recommended to the author through a mutual acquaintance.

(The moral of this story might actually be: do reading swaps with your writer friends. Because you never know who the friend of a friend will end up being.) :)

Hi, everyone! Sounds like everyone is keeping busy with their writing, so congrats on that! I've started writing the first book (Cassie Fairhope and the Haunted Inn) in a new 6-book supernatural historical fiction series set in a haunted roadside inn in northern Alabama in 1821. A few years after Alabama became a state. 2019 is the 200-year anniversary of statehood in fact. I also have another supernatural romance (think witches) to write later in the spring to complete a 5-book series (Secrets of Roseville) set in the fictional town of Roseville, TN. Both of those books will release in the fall -- assuming I finish writing them on schedule, of course!

>88 BettyBolte:

Hi Betty.

Nice to meet you.

I'm new here myself - Free verse Poetry memoir published, with a real life bushfire collection due around May.

Cheers from Australia.

Hi back, Frank. I've tried writing poetry so I'm in awe of writing an entire book of poetry. Good for you! Waving from Alabama, USA!

>90 BettyBolte: "I've tried writing poetry so I'm in awe of writing an entire book of poetry"
Me too, actually. (Go Frank!) :)

But my goodness you sound very busy yourself, Betty!

I'm finding it a bit remarkable that you have more works on your Author Page than in your library. :)

Are you one of those very unassuming and reserved authors who think they really shouldn't add their own books to their personal libraries? I can see where those people are coming from, but I always try to dissuade them. Although to other LTers it certainly looks better if most of the books listed in your catalog are written by other people (because surely there is no one out there who writes faster than they read), nobody is offended by you ALSO including your own books. (You do own copies of your own books, right?) And this way you have a little more input as to how your books appear on LibraryThing, in regards to tags and covers and so forth. (No more than any other user, but also no less -- which is how things stand right now.)

Also, if you add all of your own books, you'll be more inclined to add more other books so that yours don't predominate, and in common with many other LTers, I think the more books you add, the better. Right now we aren't showing a single book in common. Surely that can't be right! I read at least four of the genres you listed in your library description: classics, mysteries, historical fiction, and nonfiction. :)

>90 BettyBolte: Thank you Betty.

If you like audio, here is a poem I read, arranged and accompanied by my wife. Hope it's allowed.

The theme (sort of) is how did makind come about?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qy0f68znjzzw15h/Maketh%20The%20Man.mp3?dl=0

I'm just putting the final touches on my manuscript for Fire in the Reed. (Do other authors wishlist their own books in preparation?) It should be in proofs before the end of the month, and I've just dropped a video trailer for it:
https://youtu.be/8wcKC5mzMGY

>93 paradoxosalpha:
I checked out your book trailer, and spent a lot of time going “The language here is interesting, but I have no idea what this is about.” When I reached the end, I stopped being quite so confused. :)

I’ve been watching a lot of ads on streaming services lately. And it seemed to me that I was watching a great many first parts of ads that I clicked past without ever learning what they were ads for. So I developed a theory: in a user controlled environment like the internet, the most important thing your ad must do is identify the product clearly in the first 5 seconds.

My reasoning is that even if someone clicks away almost immediately, they will still know that product exists, and thus your time, effort and money won’t have been completely wasted. As I said, it’s a theory.

As for what I’ve been doing:
I found it really hard to use my laptop while having pinched nerve issues these past howevermany months. And then the laptop died on me (it was getting pretty old). So instead of buying a new laptop when I was having trouble using one anyway, I just got a bluetooth keyboard for my tablet.

Only none of the books I was supposed to be working on were on my tablet, so of course I started a brand new project. ::wince::

I’ve written 71K words so far on a screenplay for an asian style drama. It’s set in the same world as my Across a Jade Sea trilogy, only back a few hundred years in the past.

As a tv series, I am sure it will never see the light of day. But maybe after I finish writing it up as a screenplay I can covert it over to novels? In the meantime, it’s been an interesting exercise in trying to stick to a more rigid structure.

>94 LShelby:

I think I'll take your advice with my next book trailer. I should be cooking one up by the end of the year.

I can see how that screenplay would be an exciting project, even if you don't have a prospect for production/publication. Despite having a theater major in my B.A., I've never attempted to compose in either playtext or screenplay formats. (Well, I guess my liturgical writings could be glossed as playtext.)

My current writing is focused on the first piece of fiction I expect to publish. It's a fantasy in a superannuated dream-vision style, inspired by the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

Figuring out a new format for my book reviewing blog. The challenge is how to make it intuitive, user-friendly, and not clunky looking across all devices.

And, once I have my other projects cleared up, working on a novel synopsis for my science fiction novel and cleaning up the bibliography for my collection of non-fiction essays on American weirdness (Book of the SubGenius, Urantia, Kooks, etc.).

>95 paradoxosalpha:
Thanks for mentioning the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. I'd never heard of it before, but now that I know what it is, it's being added to my list of "Classics that my characters would be familiar with". :)

>96 kswolff:
Ohh, webpage format! A topic I have spent many hours pondering myself. If you start a new topic on the subject I will happily join in. (Assuming some new medical disaster doesn't befall me, of course.)

For myself, it seems like I spent the entirety of the past two weeks doing emergency updates to my websites rather than writing. ::rueful::

I am in the process of publishing my book (out on 10th Nov) and then I'll be working on the sequel... also constantly publishing self-help blog posts... just finished my trailer for the book Dare to Be Seen : From Stage Fright to Stage Presence. Ten easy steps to turn your performance anxiety into authentic confidence with transformational hypnotherapy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hA1yIxcOeo&t=2s

>98 ElisaDiNapoli: “I am in the process of publishing my book

Exciting times! Sounds like you are going to be very busy for a while, but I hope you’ll drop in again later and tell us how the sequel is going.

Working on my second YA novel!!!! It's a semi-autobiographical fiction about my days as a touring musician!! It's about being able to go back in time and reliving your dreams. Working title is "With Little Means"

Seem's like everyone is kicking off the new decade on a great start.

I'm working to publish a book within the next 2 months and developing my profiles and presence on sites like LibraryThing.

But, mostly I am getting distracted by a few interesting books I have been reading over the holidays.

Anyone have any exciting 2020 goals?

Currently reading an eastern fantasy called Wicked Fox and I just finished a book called Queen of Nothing.

>101 RRAdams:
My goals for the year are to finish all the projects I started in the past three years and never finished. Sounds dull, but it will mean 4 books published, and another novel first draft finished, so maybe not as dull as it sounds. :)

Last Wednesday I put away the project I wasn't supposed to be working on, having reached halfway at 122K words. Halfway is a good stopping place. I will try to get back to it after I have all my other projects done.

I'm working on promoting the book I just released, as well as two other books, which I'm hoping to publish by the end of the year. One is failed love story, originally written almost twelve years ago. The other, which I just drafted this November, is a first person accounting of one man's descent into psychosis.

That should keep me busy until October, at least.

"drafted this November"

Was it a NaNoWriMo book?

-Promoing my current release, "A Vampyre's Daughter" (promoing is more time consuming than I thought).
-Editing my 3 part sci-fi/urban fantasy/action series for an indie publisher, supposed to be put out in about 6 months.
-Editing my YA portal fantasy called "MystikQuest" about nerdy kids who get sucked into their tabletop fantasy role-playing game. Querying that too.
And trying to earn actual money from my day job on occasion. ;)
Goals? To get something published by someone other than myself. And if not... get 4 books out there this year.

I'm beavering away on Lost Girl, the 5th book in my sf/f series about a lovable young assassin, and happy with my progress. I'm hoping 75k words represents five-eighths of the word count.
I'm trying to finish the 1st draft by end of April to publish it in time for the World Science Fiction Convention in Wellington, New Zealand in July-August this year. My first trip to NZ, and first attendance at a WorldCon.

I started writing short story Science Fiction along the lines of the early Sci-fi writers. Then my poetic side took over and I have a collection of post-apocalyptic poems. There is always a song lyric or two in my head as well.

Leon

>106 ljkendall:
I've been to one WorldCon. I'd like to go to more, but I'm afraid New Zealand is beyond my budget this year, so I will be attending NASFIC instead. NASFIC has the advantage of only being an hour away from me this year. But I hope you have fun in New Zealand. :)

>107 LeonStevens:
Inquiring minds want to know: Are they post-apocalyptic song lyrics?

"Inquiring minds want to know: Are they post-apocalyptic song lyrics?"

Haven't done a song yet...Good idea though!

>109 LeonStevens: I've often thought that while people say stuff like, "it's hard to find a market for poetry these days", song lyrics can be pure poetry, that also reaches a huge market.

>108 LShelby: Australia is a long way from the northern hemisphere, so having the WorldCon in a nearby country I've always wanted to visit made the decision much easier!

>111ljkendall It's just as hard marketing songs and lyrics...especially if you are not a performer (or have a crappy voice ;). Doesn't stop me from writing either those.

LShelby: I have a few short stories that could be expanded, but most of my short stories are just that and do not warrant being expanded on. I also have a few that I completed a while ago, but I need to get them edited before I release them.

>111 ljkendall:
I agree. It's nice that it is so close. If I were you, I'd probably jump at the opportunity also.

>112 LeonStevens: >110 ljkendall:
I agree that lyrics are very clearly poetry.

From what I've read about the music business, lyricists have trouble getting their stuff sold because there are way more of them than there are musicians needing what they provide, and I have also seen the suggestion to become a singer/songwriter instead, and, well... I dunno how to get paid for this stuff either. :(

But hey, who says you have to get paid for everything that you do, right? Everybody deserves to have a couple hobbies.

And apparently it is possible to make a living as a poet in Europe. Someone I know just went to a writer's retreat thingy somewhere around Geneva, and one of the other writers there was a professional poet from France. (Also, apparently, the hardest working writer there.)

>113 AWA1:
I expect short is a much more natural length for you than for me.

Do you plan to release them as a collection?

>114 LShelby: "And apparently it is possible to make a living as a poet in Europe." Oh, to dream...Where is my villa and bottle of wine?

I have reached S in my glossary. The end is in sight. :)

>115 LeonStevens:
Hmm... have you engaged in humanitarian causes, become a leading expert on the social situation in Sarajevo, and gotten in good with the UN?

(I don't know if these are the required methods for being a successful poet in Europe, but it seems to have worked for that one.)

Personally, I think it might be less exhausting to just work a regular job, and do poetry on the side.

That is quite possible...

I am working on and slightly stalled on my sequel to The Crafting of Chess. Fans are demanding it and life is getting in the way. I've been finding more energy and spurts for poetry collections I've been working on. Things my fans are not demanding, but are more cathartic for me. I've finished up one relating to anxiety around the pandemic and I'm slowly building a collection relating to relationships, ink, witchyness, non-binaryism as well as a collection I want focusing on gaming, Role-Playing, and pop-culture that will include flash fictions along with the poetry.

I also have dozens of WIP in varying states of decay I may or may not be inspired to work on again.

Working on a memoir of the years I spent as a young British Merchant Navy cadet at college and on oil tankers and cargo ships in the 1970s. I have been publishing it as a weekly blog so effectively editing in chunks as I go along. Hoping to publish in the next two weeks with each blog post as a separate chapter.

Also a fourth light-hearted fantasy novel, independent of the series of three I have published so far. I have completed three quarters of this book but plan to revisit and revise it when the above memoir project has been launched.

>117 LeonStevens:, >118 KitFalbo:
See, writing poetry on the side is the perfect counterpoint to... doing just about anything else, really.

When I'm having trouble writing steadily, I sometimes try doing it in teeny-tiny bits and pieces longhand during the commercial breaks of my asian dramas. (And my streaming service wonders why I'm so rarely willing to pay for premium service.) I wrote an entire novel that way, the year before last.

But it was strange because it didn't feel like I had actually written a book worth of stuff, even though, clearly, I had. Maybe it will feel more real when I get around to typing it up?

>119 Denscott:
I'm always admiring and a bit envious of people who manage to blog regularly. :)
Merchant Navy, hunh? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that actually working on ships got rarer in modern times. Passenger traffic is almost entirely by air, as are courier type services, and those big cargo ships don't need a large crew to run, do they?

I just finished the fiction TS I've been working on since 2003! I'm working on formatting now, and I still have to get the goods from my illustrator. But I think I'm on track to publish in April or May.

>120 LShelby: LShelby:
We're getting to the stage where we could sail cargo ships without crews for most of their voyages (as we are with motor vehicles and even planes). The humans are really there just for safety/insurance purposes. With regard to passenger traffic by sea, it's actually increased since my day because of the affordability and popularity of cruising holidays. I was lucky in being at sea during the last gasps of traditional deep sea cargo ships which gave me more time in port and meant we usually docked closer to the centre of town then some purpose build container port in the middle of nowhere (gives me more to write about). I suppose that with the march of technology, the same could be said of most industries.

>121 paradoxosalpha:
Awesome! That must feel good getting to "The End" on a project that's been in the works for so long.

>122 Denscott:
For the post references, just type the arrow and the number, and LT will fill in the name and the link for you.

Since technically this thread is for posting writing updates, I'm going to start a new thread to talk about the future of transportation as well as other things, called something like "Are Futurist Writers Always Wrong?" I hope you join me there. :)

I have finished copyedits to Eyes of Infistar, the first book in my pulptastic space opera detective series.

Yay!!

I didn't do some of the things my copyeditor told me to, because I am barbaric... er, self-willed, and I want this series to feel casual and colloquial even though it is written in third.

Book trailer went live today: https://youtu.be/oGGuSls5-lk

>125 paradoxosalpha:
Both the "if you say it loud enough" and the "do not read while operating heavy machinery" lines totally cracked me up. :D

...
Sails of Everwind is ready to be handed over to my copyeditor, and I can now move on to editing the next book in the queue.

I think editing four books in a row with no breaks isn't going to work for me, though. I'm already feeling a bit burned out and I'm less than halfway done.

I am eyeballs-deep in my attempts to market, promote, and share my debut novel. I feel like a lost squirrel on a superhighway. I am reading articles, reaching out to bloggers, and learning about new (to me) sites about books, such as this one, all whilst trying not to step on toes with self-promotion and the various website regulations. :) Then, I take a deep breath, step back, and attempt to think through my next book idea before the swirling chaos of it all descends upon me once more. Thank the heavens for coffee.

>127 LAbernathy:

I often advise authors not to expend so much time and energy on promoting their first book. For each reader you catch, you will sell at most one book. If you wait until you have at least three books out, your efforts will have a payoff of possibly double. The more books are out, the more valuable each reader will be. So focusing on writing first, and saving the big push to promote until later is a more efficient expenditure of energy, IMHO.

But very few authors seem to take me seriously. :)

I have found that the best promotion for my previous books is another book.

>129 paradoxosalpha:
You're not alone in that. I have heard this from many different authors and editors. I even saw graphs posted by one of those authors. "I put out book three in a series, and you see here how I got big spikes in sales for the first and second books. That might be just what everyone would have expected. But look at this, I'm also seeing smaller but noticeable spikes in the sales of these unrelated books."

>127 LAbernathy: "all whilst trying not to step on toes with self-promotion and the various website regulations"

Yes, this is one of the hardest parts, trying to get noticed without looking like a jerk or being too egocentric.

Today and yesterday I wrote code that allowed me to filter the pulldown menues on my worldbuilding pages, so that I no longer have to scroll through every female character in a given world in order to say who someone's mother is.

I will spare you all the technical details though. Because I'm a nice person... er, ...Because I already inflicted them on one of my sons.

>131 LeonStevens:
Amen.

I'm working on my fourth book which deals with overcoming guilt and shame. I didn't realize that it would have a personal effect on me till I started writing and memories of something I experienced resurface to add to the man characters' experience. It's ready for editing now

>133 marshamelna:

Funny how things that you had forgotten can get pulled out of the backroom, isn't it?

But the really weird one for me is how I have characters who remind me a lot of my kids--but the kids were only toddlers when I came up with the characters in question. So what is going on there? I was that good at reading a toddler's character? The characters were actually based on me, and my kids take after me?

It sure is Shelly. It always amazes me though as many times when it happens, the way I end up writing the characters, they end up helping me deal with the situation that I'm writing for the characters. It's something the holy-spirit has been doing with me since my first book.

He takes my experiences turns them into a situation through which my readers can grow in their situation and many times when I reread, it's like it speaks to me in a different way. I think for you thinking of your kids, they were probably the inspiration needed to build your characters.

I've just started writing my seventh book, Missing in France, which will be the fourth book in the Anna Davies Mystery Series. The first book was Missing in Egypt, followed by Missing at Sea and Missing in London. They are travel mysteries and can also be read as stand-alone books. Marketing is always the hardest part!

Greetings Everyone,

First thank you reading this and allowing me to promote my books. I am a new author and have two books out on Sale Now with various outlets.

I am currently writing my third book that I hope to have released on August 28. The book is a Sci-Fi book dealing with political and moral dilemas. I hope you have an opportunity to read, comment, and provide a review. I would very much appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Tony Brunal

Coming August 28th!
The King's Tower - Ava Alexander has just discovered why they are performing so many HLA genotyping’s in her lab in the Yuma desert. She has followed the clues to a solar generation plant next to her facility and the underground sub-facility that hides a morbid secret. Ava is way over her head, but breaking protocol is the only way to be sure. What she finds will shock her. Her intuitions will lead her to a secret government program called The King’s Tower.

Follow the book with Pinterest.

Pre-Order on Amazon!.

Putting the finishing touches to the second in my humorous syfy 'Alien Librarian series', 'Monika Saves the Universe' for publication this week on Amazon.

Also starting work on Book 4 of 'The Irrelevant One Saga', 'Are you sure she's the tour guide?' in which the Irrelevant One, friends and family are stuck at home during the UK's pandemic lock down and decide to take a holiday back in time while stuck in the house. They will tour historical Nottingham meeting Robin Hood and gang, cavaliers from the English civil war and rioting Luddites amongst others.

I am currently working on a prequel trilogy for my debut novel 2HVØRHVNØT: To Have or Have Not. The prequel trilogy series is called Foundations of Fellowship City, and it follows three generations of women who are extremely important to the rise of the superpowered Mighty in my book. I'm currently editing the first book THE WARRIOR and writing the second book THE WANDERER. I have the third book THE WISE outlined and ready to begin as soon as I finish writing the Wanderer. I'm also outlining the sequel to 2HVØRHVNØT and writing some short stories to fill in gaps in my world-building that don't fit in the prequel or novels. I love world-building, and I am extremely excited about this.

I just finished publishing my science fiction short story book onto Amazon. If you have ever used KDP (it was my first time), was it a frustrating process? I realize that there is a learning curve in anything, but wow, they don't make it as easy as they seem to think it is. One thing that disappointed me the most, other than the cover creator, was the fact that you cannot delete any paperbacks once published. I accidentally published my book before I was ready to, and now it is out there. I had to publish a brand new edition to correct a formatting error.

I could write a book about it... hey...!

Where can you find it you ask? You did ask, didn't you? No? Well, I'm telling you anyway.

Pending review, the Kindle should be available for pre-sale (paperback versions are not, they are published right away, hence my unintentional "soft launch") by Monday. I'll post the link here.

If anyone wants to complain about KDP, we can start a thread :)

*Update*

"The Knot at the End of the Rope" now available for pre-sale on Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KP9RSY
or now, in paperback:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KGHH4HH
Free samples on my website

>28 LShelby: Definitely put it away for a little while. You can't stare at it for too long or you'll lose focus.

I need to flesh out one shortish essay and complete the bibliography, and then I'll be able to send my forthcoming A Bishop's Advice to print proofs.

I am working on a cookbook/food history book with author Steve Moretti, and I am very excited about it and how it's coming along. It is based on recipes found in Moretti's fantastic time travel trilogy, Song for a Lost Kingdom.

I am also doing editing on the side. I'm a seasoned comprehensive editor, and if anybody is interested in quality editing at a very good price, feel free to PM me.

Or feel free to message me if you just want to chat about books. :-) I like connecting with fellow authors.

A Bishop's Advice is done, and has been selling gratifyingly well (for its tiny intended market).

I'm now working to edit my scholarship on the Hypnerotomachia into an integral volume.

>144 paradoxosalpha: That's awesome that A Bishop's Advice is doing well!

I have been being sick again, obviously, otherwise I would have been making more noise around here -- since the only way to shut me up is to keep me off-line altogether.

However, looking back, I have written in bits and pieces over 50 000 words in plot outlines and screenplays, since my last report on this thread. For me plot outlines are easier to write than pretty much anything else, apparently. When I'm healthy, I don't tend to even bother with outlines, but it seems I was just that desperate to be writing something.

Hopefully now that I'm starting to feel better I can start catching up around here.

I am back to working on that wuxia inspired screenplay. I hit my target weekly wordage for the first time in a very long while. And, I am almost halfway done with the third quarter. (So that makes it what... 5/8ths done?)

And, since I had some oomph left over, I did some coding, too. Unfortunately it involved dismantling and rebuilding what I was working on back in ...November? I couldn't remember how everything was supposed to fit together in that last bit of code, so when I discovered that it wasn't working, I had to redo it all from scratch. :(

One of these decades I will master the art of including explanatory comments.

>146 LShelby: "One of these decades I will master the art of including explanatory comments."

That made me laugh ;)

Cause, you know, I have the same problem haha.

Though I've gotten better over the years.

But, still, sometimes I look at some of my old code and I just stare at it and go "Huh?"

Honestly, I'm amazed some of that old stuff even works LOL.

>147 slarken:
The new code is maybe a little less efficient, but much clearer.
Even better, it actually works.

Now when you load up a character sheet, it looks up what the character looks like, (eye color, hair color, etc) but if there is no info on what the character looks like, it tells you the defaults for the character's genotype (with an indication that they are defaults.) What used to happen is it would show the "aspects" for every genotype in the system. Ordinary humans do not need to have entries for scale color, horn shape, wingspan...

The tricky part was that the aspects can be inherited down the genetic tree, so if you have a half-human, half-dragon, it inherits both the human traits and the dragon traits.

Each level in the genetic tree can be assigned it's own default values. Humans have black hair, brown skin, and brown eyes by default. Europeans have brown hair and fair skin by default and inherit the brown eyes default from the level above. Clan Rudde can have red hair, and blue eyes by default, and inherit the fair skin. Whatever suits the worldbuilding.

I'm halfway past my 30 poems/30 days NaPoWriMo challenge.

http://linesbyleon.com/national-poetry-writing-month/

>149 LeonStevens:
Congratulations!

I hadn't heard of NaPoWriMo, but I should have known it existed. There's a month to do songs (February?), and another where they do comics.

>150 LShelby: Thanks. It's been fun. Hard, but fun. I look at it this way, I'll have more poems then I would have if I didn't.
I did NaNoWriMo in November - still working on that. Getting closer to 30000 words. There is also Inktober which is fun.

>151 LeonStevens: "I did NaNoWriMo in November - still working on that."

Yeah, me too ;) The whole dang thing is written, but I still need to edit it. Whenever I find the time :o

>152 slarken: I'm a slow writer or I write in sprints. I'm creeping up to 30000 words.