one man

Three Things Make a Post

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1. There’s less than 24 hours to take advantage of this Humble Bundle of books funded through Kickstarter. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Don’t miss out.

2. I have a Facebook page, where readers can keep up with my blog posts and other new, and a Facebook account, which is (mostly) for family and friends I know in real life. At this point, the account is utterly moribund. No one comments, no one shares or clicks “like”. As far as I can tell, no one sees what I put there.

That might be because FB is hiding my stuff. It might be that they’ve “hidden” my updates because they’re sick of my bullshit. Hey, half the time I’m sick of my bullshit, too. It doesn’t really matter. I’m going to scale way the hell back on what I post there.

3. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on a new book, called One Man. Unfortunately, the writing schedule that has served me so well over the last few years has to be ditched, and I haven’t found a new one that works. In fact, I don’t have any set schedule at all, just random day and hours when I can grab writing time. That’s fine for the short term, but it won’t work for me long term.

It still feels good to be moving forward on something new.

Back to drafting new fiction

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As I mentioned on Twitter, yesterday I wrote the first sentence of my next book. Here it is:

On the summer solstice in the year 402 of the New Calendar, Chatayzik ward-Safroy de-Safroy, admir-Safroy hold-Safroy slipped into his own funeral in disguise.

Actually, that’s a revised version of that first sentence, because first sentences get changed over and over.

I was planning to write a second sentence today (or maybe even two!) but my wife has injured her knee and I’m taking care of her. I still have time to type (obviously) but first chapters require a lot of concentration. But who knows, I might manage something later.

For the record, this is the first new novel fiction I’ve drafted since August, 2013. Since then, I’ve written some short fiction, revised the hell out of The Great Way and Key/Egg, and done endless promotional work, including 40+K worth of blog tour and 50K worth of game supplement. But no new novels.

It feels a) good and b) nerve-wracking. I’ve done this before, right? I don’t have to feel intimidated by my own work, right? Right.

Also, I’ve sold the audio rights to The Great Way. If you want to be notified when that becomes available, sign up for the newsletter in the sidebar of my blog.

Not fair

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I return to the rallying cry of my son, from several years ago. Because guess what: shit is not going my way right now.

The continuing heat wave we’ve been suffering has been triggering my allergies. I take my anti-histamines, but I still itch down my back and along my arms.

Yeah, I know that our temps aren’t nearly as high as the temps in other parts of the country (low 90’s), but other parts of the country have air conditioning, or at least buildings that are meant to pass a breeze through them. Seattle, not so much. Bad enough that we have to run baseboard electric heat in the winter (with no insulation in the walls at all, and no storm door) but in the summer there’s nothing but to set a fan beside me and keep still.

On top of that, last weekend I had a sudden recurrence of my back spasms. It’s been years since my back gave me any trouble, but I confess that I’ve let my stretching and exercises lapse over the last few months while I wrap up the Kickstarter, and now I’m paying the price. Exercise is slowly making things better, but the sudden jab of pain when I turn my body the wrong way is not conducive to careful thought.

And I just burned my hand on the oven door.

Which is pretty fucking annoying, because I’ve finally begun work on the first book of a new series, but almost everything about my life is conspiring against me actually getting anything done. I have to work out details of the plot and the world-building, but between itchy hives and sudden jabs of/lingering pain, I can’t fucking concentrate.

Still I have an interesting book to read, and homeschooling to manage. Something will get done, if not as much as I’d hoped. I just wish I could finish the prep for this book so I could start it.

Time to buy a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale

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I’ve mentioned that here before, haven’t I? Arrogant Bastard Ale?

It’s the beer I buy for myself when I finish something big. Something difficult. Something like… oh, I don’t know, the Fate Core writeup for The Great Way and A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark!

It’s about to go out to its first beta-reader, my current GM (who’s probably the best GM I’ve ever gamed with). When it comes back, there will be fixes.

But for now, I can put it aside and work on the NEW THING.

OH MY GOD FINALLY.

To commemorate the opportunity to write new fiction, I’m going to tag this post with a new tag, the working title of the new book.

So excited, you guys.