Monday, May 28, 2018

Cool Notes

1.  It's almost June and we had an under 70 degree high the other day.  In FRESNO.  Weird, weird, weird...yes it's shooting up to 100 in a couple days, but...I'll take what I can get!

2.  Sticking with the handwriting for now even though I've moved to work on FM7's school story.  Just really nice not having to sweat under a laptop during the summer.  Bit more difficult with FM7 since the tape recorder, first person POV is much stronger and I really want to be able to go full stream of consciousness at times and my poor, poor fingers can only write so quick compared to typing, but...we're going to try it.

3.  Traditionally summer months are my lowest production months so hopefully this combats that.  September being the worst since...it's not only hot but also my birthday time and what's a birthday without a little bit of depression and malaise?

4.  I don't know who posted or tweeted or what you did, but thanks to whoever went around spreading the gospel of King Henry last week.  I got a sudden influx of new buys on FM1 totally out of nowhere, even shot up to the TOP 5k on the ranked list.  More proof that if you fans want to grow the series yourselves, the power is very much in your hands, maybe even more so than this marketing adverse author.

5.  I'm watching anime again...send help...

6.  Got the covers for FM7 done.  Runaway Rumble and Most Obvious Trap on the plate!

7.  My cat turned 15 a few days ago and she is currently running around the house spreading terror...I don't think she's gotten the memo about old age yet.

8.  Likely will be staying away from the net and just writing over the next month so at least wait until July to start the "are you alive" comments, okay?

Friday, May 18, 2018

The Glassbreaker Goes Home is Done

Done.

Done.  Done.  Done.

Editing and all that to do, so...maybe it will come out in June?  Or July, probably July.  No huge rush.  I mean...I know, I know, you want it NOW, but...I'm going to take the time to do the extra edit this time around, cut some stuff, all that jazz.

I know I can be excessive in some areas or I could probably kill more of my babies, I can admit I love the talk before a fight a whole lot more than the fight itself, and, yes, I was lazy and sick while editing FM6.5 so some of the Tyson parts were a bit much, but I like being excessive, so there!  Also...as a person with anxiety problems...that's how it feels sometimes, people!  Like you can't do anything but think!  ...Now you know.  Where was I?  Oh, have I mentioned how much I've grown to hate the term "filler"?  Every novel I've written except the first I've had someone accuse me of writing filler.

Rant on:  filler is an anime term.  It's about how studios FILLED in original manga stories with their own much crappier side stories that affected nothing.  Being I'm an author of my own original work, I CAN'T WRITE FILLER.  THEY'RE CALLED CHARACTER MOMENTS OR WORLD-BUILDING, JACKASS.  IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT AND ONLY WANT TO READ ABOUT EXPLOSIONS OR PEOPLE PUNCHING EACH OTHER THEN FUCKING SAY SO AND STAND ON YOUR OWN PREFERENCES, STOP USING BUZZWORDS.  DON'T YOU DARE START TYPING "DEUS EX MACHINA", STOP IT RIGHT NOW!

/rant off

Too far?  It's a little much...

So I really enjoyed writing this one.  The last year and a half has been a struggle.  Well...more like total complete bullshit.  Dead dog.  Dying grandfather.  Really sick father.  Actual jury duty.  The Last Jedi...

Oh yeah.  It's equal to all that shit.  I've read over a hundred Star Wars novels in my lifetime and even the one with the weird ass bug commune shit was more coherent than that disaster.  And the opportunity cost, my god, how much storytelling possibility they just...jerked away.  But I'm breaking my negative rule so...we'll stop.

LUKE SKYWALKER DRANK FROM A SPACE COW TITTY!

Back on track:  this story, especially in the last month, has reminded me what I love about being an author.  Just...character stuff and conversations and reactions to reactions.  It's a story that doesn't start with much of a plot and manages to find a small one by the time it's over.  I laughed a ton writing it, teared up a couple times too.  Tiny Not-So-Spoiler:  There's this moment between Susan and Val that I couldn't even see the page through the tears because I could just imagine Ceinwyn giving this same speech to this 14 year old Valentine who's terrified of what she is and man did it hit me hard.  It's just one moment in a hundred.  There's another scene where Val and KH are in his childhood bedroom joking around for ten pages that I completely love too.  That's it.  Ten pages of jokes.  Doesn't need to be more.

Of course I've been up for 24 hours, wrote 30+ handwritten pages today, and...well, I really feel my wrist right now...so what do I know?  Kinda regretting that rant a little bit...

A SPACE COW TITTY!

But...I feel this is a fan's fan kind of work.  If you're the type of person who read FM6 and thought all that bit in the middle needed to be thrown out and PLOT PLOT PLOT, then...go ahead and skip it.  If you really dug the fact that there was a reaction scene to KH spilling about Paine to Val and then ANOTHER to Ceinwyn and you got to see how they're similar and how they're different and how it all effects the story going forward, then I think you'll love this.  It's not on that HUGE REVEAL level, but...

I'm going to sleep now.

More updates in a couple weeks, maybe?

Fuck me I have to type all those pages into the computer...

Maybe I'll just procrastinate it and write some FM7 instead?

Sleep!  We wants it!

Friday, May 11, 2018

FYI: On the Status Update Changes

Just wanted to let you know the reason some numbers changed above is that I've made the hard decision to strip the Vicky Welf half of the story from "The Glassbreaker Goes Home".  Both stories revolved around the theme of family, but I felt it would be better served (and quicker) if I just focused on King Henry's emotional family reunion instead.

No solid idea what I'm going to do with the 17k worth of Vicky material, if anything.  Another novella possibly, re-purposed in the timeline to be much closer to FM7's start date (possibly during the Winter break Old Mancy party season, with the idea of the Welf's throwing a gala to debut Vicky's Eureka-themed spectromancer art + Tyson meeting the in-laws + Heinrich Welf dating woes, etc.).  Or maybe even a post FM7 novella...for those that, ya know...survive ;)

Or...maybe it will just stay in lala land.  Which is sad, since I quite liked how the POV was shaping up and the Moira/Vicky conversation is one of the favorite I've written since Ceinwyn/KH at the end of FM4.

But...I'm grooving with KH at the moment, in a way I haven't grooved in over a year now.  Finally feel like I'm recovered, in a good mental place to focus on the massive task that is FM7, and back at the Crazy.  So...instead of taking a month or two with Vicky, I'd much rather finish up FM6.75 and immediately start kicking FM7's ass.

Cuz that's some dragon-sized ass...