Where We're At, March 2022

Everchanging Dilemma:  Better sales than I though specific to the new book so quickly, love the fact people can just leave ratings on Amazon now so you're not struggling to get reviews like the old day.  Reviews have been 90% awesome, so that's cool.  Few complaints I've seen are the expected "KH not in it" "side novel" "filler" "took too long".

Amazon ads are still half shell game in what they report back to you...Kindle Unlimited downloads per click plz?  Still?  3 years after I last did this?  Unless I'm missing it somehow...

New book creating new readers is, however, struggling so far.  We'll see if it turns around as the algorithms start doing their work and I realizes I'm alive again week by week into the coming months.

I am pretty done with the whole release phase however and moving into...

War to End All Wars:  90 pages down through the First Draft 2.0 edit I'm doing.  I've been immediately reminded why I got sidetracked on a mainline story having to delve into magic high school again.  I'm very ready to end the school story, ladies and gents.  Truth be told I was over the school story with FM4 when I decided to cut half of them from the novels.

Don't get me wrong, KH is absolutely hilarious in this novel.  Lot's of Val, Welf, Miranda, Pocket, Jesus, all the characters you love.  New characters.  Class 2015 is VERY important going forward and you need to meet them all.  But...no dragons!  No vampires!  No Crazy!

There's also this realization that I'm going to get torn to pieces for putting out a whole school story novel in some circles of the fan base that aren't prepared for that and...not looking forward to it!  If they thought Everchanging Dilemma was filler, what are they going to say about this?!?

That said...man, there are some choice scenes in this book.  Maybe the best Welf v King Henry argument I've ever written.   No hyperbole.  I love some of the Class 2015 kiddies and I've got pages and pages of them (and old favorites!) to write and that's so fun.

After I'm done with this readthrough we've got about 15 hw pages still kicking around to type in and then I'm full bed-desk-thingy mode and blocking off the net and just focusing in through late March forward.

Medical Crap:  HOWEVER.  I do have two post-surgery procedures to get through in the next week, so 7th-15th will be very limited progress.  My father is also having his lungs hot-water-power-blasted in an effort to continue keeping him breathing and living and...we're still worried.  He's been better but not out of the woods yet on the whole Walking Stroke thing and this procedure requires him to be sedated 3 times over as many months, so...yikes!

Back-wise...I'm a wreck.  Still.  Can't sit a chair, can't lift anything.  Can take a shower without wanting to lie in bed for hours afterwards, so that's better.  Can sit on the edge of the bed for about 12 hours a day with only occasional break and hey, I'm typing this, aren't I?  But still very iffy.  Not a normal human.  Can't hold a console controller...no Elden Ring for RR!!!  So far I'm up to using the bed-desk-thingy for about 3 to 4 hours a day, so that's pretty much what my progress is limited to.  Will try to work up to more and more as the weeks and endurance builds, hopefully.

Still no news on the MRI.  It's "in progress" over two weeks since the last request.  Which I suppose is better than me be immediately told to fuck off and do physio like last go around.  Here's hoping for some good news next week while I'm busy with all the other doctors stuff!

March 12th Update:  Been a complete mess all week.  Can barely sit up for a few hours at a time, no typing whatsoever.  Mostly just reading and watching tv again while staring longingly at the closed laptop.  Last procedure is Tuesday then hopefully I can be back at writing by the end of the month.  Really frustrating...

March 17th Update:  Last procedure done.  Just recovering and waiting for my back to settle down.  Hopefully I'll be writing again with the bed-desk-thingy by next week.  Still no word on my MRI.  Pretty sure it's my doctor's office that's fucking up this go around.  I leave a message for them every other day and I've been completely ghosted for the last week.  Will keep doing what I can with WAR TO END ALL WARS until something changes, I guess...