The first 64 novel Empress M is a real book at long last.

You might want to stand back a bit. I need to yell:

The 64 novel is finally published!

The Secret History of Empress M is a kindle book you can buy on Amazon.

Here.

The first portion of the novel can be had for free or nearly free (depending on your relationship with Amazon) here.

You can peek ahead in graphic form where I attempted to make it a web-comic here.

• I’m not saying the web-comic is dead, but it has been on hiatus long enough that I would not blame you for making that assumption.

Friends, I have been working on this book for 15 years.

I have had a complete and publishable manuscript for it for over eight years.

I had three requests for full manuscripts from agents – none of whom picked up the project. I’ve seen two small publishers evaporate with my book in their hands. I have turned down a couple of really insulting offers from vanity presses.  I have had the publisher of my Jack novels turn it down over language concerns.

At some point, you do the thing (and spend the money) and get it done.

After editing and artwork, this book represents a nearly $4000 bet on myself.

If it pays off, great. There’s more where that came from.

If not – at least I’ll know my own sales numbers in a useful timeframe, something I cannot say for any of my works, fiction or non-fiction, in the hands of other publishers.

Physical copies of the 500+ page trade paperback are still available, but only from my hands. The next step is to monkey with the fonts and spacing, get that number under 500, and get that on Amazon as well.

WORD COUNT:

Last week’s What Have We learned [below] =1000 words.

Go Action Fun Time full Sample Cast Roster on Curious Continuity: = 1000 words.

Converting my Word document of Empress M into a useful Kindle file = 1000 words.

• Seems like it took a lot longer than that, but there was a learning curve.  Also have it in regular E-pub but haven’t settled on a destination for that.

A scene from the playtest

Writing the GAFT Episode Mighty Murder Mayhem Time = 4000 words (the length of the final document)

Submitting Empress M to Amazon = 500 words.

Writer’s Group = 500 words.

Playtesting Go Action Fun Time at Game-On Expo when no players showed up = 500 words [twice]

Playtesting at Game-On Expo with Players = 1000 words.

That’s 10k in a week.

No wonder the rest of my life is behind.

Whiskey.

Why I am not walking the dog.

Arizona is under curfew tonight, so I couldn’t walk the dog even if I wanted to. 

What dog? Regular readers may ask. Hang on. 

Let me just say that this curfew is inexplicably state wide. So sitting here in Phoenix, I can argue whether it’s helpful, but I could at least follow the logic of it. If I were sitting in Gila Bend or Ajo or Snowflake, I would – I would probably find another reason not to walk the dog. It’s somewhat inconceivable that they are enforcing it in those places. 

Ducey’s order has so many exemptions the only thing it actually prohibits is protesting, and therefore would not stand long in court.  For example:

[Exempted:] Individuals traveling directly to and from work; attending religious services; commercial trucking and delivery services; obtaining food; caring for a family member, friend, or animal; patronizing or operating private businesses; seeking medical care or fleeing dangerous circumstances; and travel for any of the above services.

So not only could I plausibly walk this dog (though it would be a stretch), I could absolutely go to the topless bar down the street, which is now open despite the state having met basically none of the actual criteria the CDC set out for opening.

Last month, while we were under a more defensible curfew,  was the year anniversary of acquiring my 2015 Subaru Forester. I bought it at 48k miles. It just ran past 85k. That’s 30k miles in a year and probably not sustainable. 

A year and 30,000 miles later my opinion hasn’t moved much: with the exception of the turning radius and the sound system, it is an upgrade in very way from my poor old Kia Soul. I’ve had some off-road adventures with it,but most of my miles are on the highway, where it is, actually, above average. 

I consistently get in the mid 20’s for gas mileage. Her preferred cruising speed seems to be 80 mph. I’ve become pretty adept at shoving things into it.

Even so, I had a moment of mild crazy and bought a second vehicle.

• It is troublesome sharing a vehicle with Rey (for both of us) and
• I really do need a back-up vehicle as Ruby is staggering into older-vehicle country and
• I need to tow a trailer from time to time, and that is not in the Subaru’s wheelhouse so

I bought a 2001 Dodge Dakota for $4600 cash.

The yet unnamed truck – priced as if dealer’s fee and tax did not exist.

And – I got what I paid for. 

The brakes are wonky – and likely about to fail. One of the headlights is out. The cruise control is long gone. And it overheats. I’ll know more once I get it to the mechanic. 

But its a truck with a tow hitch. And the first vehicle I’ve bought with cash since the 1980’s. 

“Get down, Pipa! Now!”

Rey’s persistence at the pound yielded a 3 year old boxer named Pipa, who scares the crap out of my poor cats, and moves shoes and other objects around the house at random. When Rey is home there is a steady background of the phrase “Not for Pipa!”

I am convinced that the dog means no harm to the cats, but my cats are emphatically unconvinced. How do you train courage into adult cats? I do not know. So they hide outside except for a few hours in the early morning when the dog is firmly ensconced in Rey’s bed.

The kitten is not afraid. This is why I have some faith in Pipa. 

Fireball is helping…

A small fluffy kitten Rey dubbed Fireball has wandered into the house and made herself at home, and plays with the dog.

My cats are also scared of the kitten. I dunno. 

 

WORD COUNT:

In the past seven days I:

• Edited 20k of the 64 novel, in hopes to have a beta-read copy soon = 2000 words
• Designed, drew, and colored two badge art proposals for MaricopaCon = 200 words.

Not the finished product.

• Edited about 10k words of the rulebook forGo Action Fun Time= 1000 words.
• This blog = 1000 words. 

 

That’s 6000 out of 5000.

 

I’m still not walking the dog. That’s Rey’s job.

 

Now we know. 

 

My Last Christmas Without a new book out

 

I finished at least the rough draft manuscript for Taliesin’s Last Apprentice, which is the place-holder title for the sequel to  The Beanstalk and Beyond.  I did this with 10 minutes to spare before my self imposed end-of-November deadline. (see two posts ago).

The beginning of the end.

If you’ve written a book you know that I have a LOT of editing to go before its a thing that normal people will enjoy reading.

 

In particular, because first drafts of Jack are always hand-written, I do not have the last four chapters even in Word yet.  When it goes to word, each chapter is its own document for a while, until I finish a section. Then I edit each chapter and compile it into a section (TLA has 5 sections). Then I will edit it again before compiling it int a full draft manuscript.

That is my task for December. My goal is to have a beta-reader friendly manuscript (or two) by the start of 2020. Then a submission by the end of January.

Then a book by next Christmas.

This is not my only pan in the fire.

I have regained the uncontested rights to The 64-the place holder title for my sprawling space opera.

The first full novel in that series, The Secret History of Empress Em,  is in the can, and set to begin editing in January.

I am the publisher. My hope is to get this out in some form by summer 2020.

(I adapted the first chapter into graphic novel form if you want a bit of a preview. )

I will also be looking for beta-readers for this, sometime in the spring.

If you were enjoying a break from Go Action Fun Time, too bad. That’s the third iron in the fire, and I have some announcements:

Go Action Fun Time Christmas Special: All I Want for Yuletide is the Graal of Plenty

A parade of Arthurian tropes including the secret origin of Galahad!

Saturday, December 7, 1:00pm at the Scale and Feather Meadery.

This is a co-event with Crit Hit West.

 

Scale and Feather has a wide selection of mead but a limited selection of food.

Between Christmas and New Years I will run the Silk Road Pt 2 at my house.

Also in the works:

• a revised Basic Rules set
• A Cast Directory and
• A Setting Bible.

Some of that material is available in protean form on the website:

https://sites.google.com/site/goactionfuntime/home

There will also be a non-fiction project starting in 2020, a guide to either Arizona wineries, or hot springs and swimming holes, depending on my sense of the market, and logistics.

One more promise to myself before I go: the next post here will be about something else besides my writing.

I promise.

You were warned.