Quick Notes #17

1.  Working on the school story as advertised.  Slowly.  School story is a real drag any more.  It's just so trapped by what I've said before that I spend a lot of time double checking timelines.  Also, the disconnect between the Crazy of the mainline and pretty mundane high school setting continues to grow.

2.  This being said, the scene I'm working on now is pretty fun and one I wrote the other day made me laugh so hard I almost had an asthma attack, so...prepare for quality highjinks!

3.  Also thought up a way to cut about 3 to 4k words which I'm happy about.   The best scenes are always the ones you figure out how you don't need them, especially before you work on them.

4.  I've written over 130k words so far this year.  That's a lot.  I mean, it's a decent clip for Brandon Sanderson, for me it's some insane output levels.  I only usually write about 175 to 200k a year.  I could take the next four months off, have a subpar final quarter and still come in on my average.

5.  Not planning on that at all, but please understand that my productivity does usually drop in the summer.  Even with AC, a one hundred degree Fresno day isnt one you can easily survive while you have a laptop on you belching heat exhaust.  One day I'll escape this evil vortex...for like...Hawaii...where I REALLY would never write...

6.  Biggest current problem:  I could write...or I could just play some more Overwatch...

7.  Or Witcher next week...

8.  Hodor :(

9.  How can Flash be so good and Arrow be so bad?

10.  Gave away about 2000 copies of FM2 this week.  If everything holds course, about 1 to 2% will pick up the entire series.  Got to wonder about these people out there that don't read but just collect free books.  Think A&E should do a hoarding episode on them?

11.  Unfair FM6 teasing:  "I had him tied to the bed!" Hope shrieked. 

Quick Notes #16

1.  Been a long 10 days.  No writing.  Lots of family stuff.

2.  Family stuff will continue to be a thing in the coming months, no idea if it will affect my writing time or not yet.  It's serious, it's private, I'm fine, that's all I can tell you at the moment.

3.   Going to dive back into FM6 today, with the school story.  Trying for a nice sized push before Witcher Blood and Wine comes out on the 31st and sucks me into that ravaged countryside yet again.

4.  FM2 is going to be free for the first time ever next week, so here's hoping for some more new fans.

5.  I'm considering dropping the "The Foul Mouth and" part of the titles just to clean things up.  More for length than any idea of content, since the cursing will continue in glorious fashion, always!  Hard to fit the whole thing on a cover or in an ad basically.

6.  Vikings season 4 had a ten year time jump in it.  Always love seeing a series take a risk like that.  Also gives me hope it will continue beyond Ragnar.

7.  Hot but not as hot as it can get might be the worst kind of hot.  Fresno summers, just so much fun.

8.  Don't imagine I'll be very active in the comments over the next months, but will try to remember to post another occasional quick notes for you lot.

Quick Notes #15

1.  I write in bursts of productivity and yesterday took the last of what I had in the tank.  So don't expect much movement in the next 10 or so days.  Planning on doing some relaxing while I figure out how to tackle the next chapters.

2.  This said, we are now 10 chapters away from FM6 being done.  There is light at the end of the tunnel.

3.  Still aiming for a pre-holidays release before Thanksgiving, but it could be anywhere from October to December.  99% sure the book will be coming out this year at this point, assuming I don't break a finger or something dibilitating.

4.  Lots in the novel to be excited about with more to come.  Somethings haven't gone quite how I thought they would and others turned out better than I ever could have imagined.

5.  Planning on focusing in on the school story in the next weeks.  Haven't touch it for a couple months now.  Funny to think it's the second to last one and that I'll probably start working on FM7's next year and that whole timeline will be at an end.  Did I say funny?  I meant: thank the Mancy, no more worrying for hours and hours over trying not to mess up the timelines!

6.  Was wondering if any of you would be interested in a formatted compilation book with all the school stories, plus appropriate shorts in one place?  Wouldn't come out until after FM7 and no new content but might be something interesting to do, no?

7.  Speaking of compilations, I'll probably be releasing a King Henry Book Pack One later this year that will contain the first three novels in it for a reduced price.

8.  Still haven't seen Civil War :(

9.  Tower of Joy finally gets the spotlight on Game of Thrones! :)

10.  Witcher 3's final expansion comes out on the 30th, don't expect anything to be done that week.  Gotta get my next batch of Gwent cards!

Foul Mouth Facts: Pocket, Jesus, and Raj

1.  The name Raj means King/Prince.  Along with Jesus being the King of Kings these are hardly the only characters in the series with princely or royal names.

2.  The Pocket nickname actually comes from the most convoluted in-joke imaginable, involving the author's high school DND group and a character called Patch Thimblefinger finding out he had an illegitimate son called Pocket during one of their adventures.  It was an instant classic.

3.  Many of their DND characters would go on to find a place in the author's failed college attempt at epic fantasy called the The First Lie, including the thief turned dragonslayer Wistler Larakin and the son of an empress and knight without peer, Darkan Godsglare.

4.  While it is never likely to see the light of day, The First Lie took place in a world where dragons ruled, a complete reverse of The King Henry Tapes.  Overlords ruling mankind is a theme that will be seen in many of the author's future novels.

5.  Raj is one of the few characters to be named and to find a place in the series based on a person from the author's life.  Real life Raj moved away in high school but will forever be remembered for saying "be nice" at every possible opportunity.

6.  The Pocket and Jesus relationship was decided on while the author was working on FM2, hence the many mentions of Fauna/Floro being a common pairing, Pocket's hesitancy at finding a date for the Winter Ball and many other hints in earlier books.

7.  To fight tropes and stereotypes, both Jesus and Pocket where given masculine personalities and masculine, physical jobs as search and rescue FIND agents.  The author also purposely left their relationship for FM5 so the reader could know them as characters, attemping to prevent any tokenism.

8.  The original FM2 beginning that was scraped started with Pocket and King Henry packing for the Camp Test and having a conversation about socks and whether 3 singular socks over two pairs wasn't preferred to save space.  Probably why it got cut and replaced...

9.  Jesus was Jose very early in the series work.

10.  Pocket coming from Pismo and his small business family comes from the author's many coastal trips during his youth and familiarity with these type of families.

11.  Raj has six siblings and is smart enough to have never let King Henry meet his sisters.

12. King Henry has met Pocket's 5 older sisters.  Pocket regrets it very much.

13.  Raj was to be a main part of two school tapes, now cut to finish the school tapes by FM7 and save the author some sanity.

14.  Those tapes revolved around Raj's romance and indeed finally winning a date and a romantic night from Miranda.  It didn't go so well...some dreams are better than reality.

15.  Raj supplied the anima for King Henry's first artifact, the Cold Cuffs prototype, made during Hex and behind Plutarch's back.

16.  Session 7 in FM1 was terrifying for the author, setting up character personalities that wouldn't be fully introduced for two more books.  Broken timelines, don't try it, kiddies.

17.  Pocket's physical description vaguely mirrors adventure hero Dirk Pitt, a favorite of the author's aunt and mother.

18.  Raj, his job at Hunting Cryotech and Project Cassandra will be a major plot point in a future novel.

Quick Notes, FM6 Teasing, AND a FMF Vote

1.  Wrote a whole chapter today.  Yup, I did that.  6k words, one day, all me.  Do the words go together?  Not sure yet...guess we'll see when I read through it in a few months...

2.  Actually finished two chapters in the last two days, we're down to 6 left for the Mainline and 5 for the School Story.  Getting close!  Starting to look like a real book!  Barreling towards the finish line!

3.  I also cut a chapter.  It was an in-between chapter bracketed by massive moments and I just really hated the way it cut off the momentum.  Lots of good scenes and good jokes gone, but sometimes you have to make the hard call.  Might try to add one of the cut scenes at another place in the book....or might mean I get to find space for my cut Boomworm chapter.  This situation is why most authors aren't this honest with fans.  LOTS can happen while a novel is written.

4.  Current chapter count for the whole book is 26.  15 done.  140k words written.  Makes it already longer than four of the books in the series, with only the ungodly monster that was FM5 defeating it.

5.  Pre-holiday release still looking possible.

6.  So I made the choice to leave Smashwords/Apple/B&N based on the fact I only made 500 dollars last year, which was actually a decline over the previous year and...no one is buying Nooks any more it looks like.  With the Kindle Unlimited program you get paid about a cent every 2 pages read by the readers.  That means I'd need 100,000 pages read the rest of the year to make the move "worth it".  In the first 9 days I've already had 19,000 pages read.  WORTH IT.

7.  Reading Abercrombie's newest collection of shorts called "Sharp Ends".  Having tons of fun savoring it.  I know some of you are crazy, crazy people that read 600 page books in a day, but the older I get the more I enjoy taking my time.  Plus the whole Chapter In a Day thing got in the way a little bit...

8.  Civil War, Uncharted 4, Overwatch, X Men all releasing this month and I'm in Mad Scientist Mode writing 6k words in a day....Whoa is me!

9.  FM6 Mini Tease:  "Well," Ceinwyn eventually said, "now we have to kill the motherfucker."

10.  I have a new Game of Thrones episode on my DVR!!!  Why am I talking to you people?

11.  Foul Mouth Facts Vote:  will it be returning challenger (Pocket, Jesus and Raj) or will it be (The Welfs and the Old Mancy)?

Min Update:  I've decide to rename FM6 to The Foul Mouth and the Pit of No Return.  Mostly since I cut one of the court chapters and since I don't want non-fans to think it's some lawyer drama.  Not the first time I've renamed a bookbefore release, FM2 was once The Hairy Stoners, granted I don't think any of you were reading my books at the time to know about the change!