Seismic Semester Q&A

 Ask away.  Might take a day or two for me to respond when real life gets in the way, but I'll try to be quicker than that.  Obviously I expect most questions to be about the new book, but if you have something else, go for it.  I, as always, reserve the right to throw out some RAFOs when needed.

Seismic Semester Fan Survey

Going on three weeks, I assume a large number of people are starting to finish the book (71 ratings, 4.8 average, woohoo!), so let me throw out the same three questions I gave the beta readers (who can also answer here it they want, or maybe their opinion changed after a reread).

1.  Favorite Scene?

2.  Biggest Laugh?

3.  Favorite Single?

Q&A will be start of next month looks like!  Kinda in doctor/physio hell for the next week.  Am stealing the occasional feel good day to write, but not a lot.  And...I deleted about 1.5k words worth of work one night because I was unhappy with it...sigh.

Release Recap and Looking Forward

So...release has been great.  Maxed out just inside the top 3k, which isn't my record since PIT OF NO RETURN was just outside the top 1k for awhile, but there's a vastly higher amount of novels being published these days and they probably equal out.  Reviews are great, no gnashing about the singular timeline yet.  It's really nice to see the fanbase start to find the series again and purchase the new book without any delay, considering how harrowing and miserable the journey to get here has been.

One thing that does annoy me...I've already made half of my total take on EVERCHANGING DILEMMA within one week of SEISMIC SEMESTER being out.  Now, KENP wise, we are talking about an 800 page novel versus a 250 page novel, but...more of you need to give MancyVerse Moments a try!  Especially EVERCHANGING DILEMMA.

I pity the fans that skip these novels and pick up MOST OBVIOUS TRAP totally confused why we've moved from A to F.

And that's where we're heading.

These are the three books I'll be working on over the next couple/few year(s).

VICKY VON WELF AND THE MANCY MASQUERADE

THE FOUL MOUTH AND THE MOST OBVIOUS TRAP

THE FOUL MOUTH AND THE WAR TO END ALL WARS

Probably in that order release-wise.  The Vicky novel has to release before MOST OBVIOUS TRAP since it takes place a month or so before FM7 (the fabled, long in coming FM7).  January 2020 versus Feb/March 2020 in our timeline.  AGAIN there will be no pandemic in the MancyVerse since...I need my characters flying (or World-Breaking) around the globe, not stuck inside learning how to bake bread while watching Tiger King.

There's a possibility I'll get a massive push of inspiration for WAR TO END ALL WARS and finish it first, but I just spent so much time on our lovely teenage bullshit that I'm very overdosed at the moment and looking for something else to dive into with a bit more weight...and more vampires...and more dragons.

The Vicky novel obviously has Vicky as the main POV, but with a small slice of Tyson and a surprise or two.  Those of you that have emailed me worrying that the Singles would not have a place in the mainline because you love them so much now and don't want them to disappear since they're still students will immediately be put at ease!

Heck, here's a tease:

“Self-flagellation?” Juliette brightly quipped.

Brother choked on his wine and took a moment to recover. “Um…one hopes not.”

Just like PIT OF NO RETURN was in many ways a sequel to TROUBLED BOOMWORM, THE MOST OBVIOUS TRAP is in many ways a sequel to HEADLESS HUNNY.  It's a vampire novel.  You can probably guess who is gonna show up.  You will also finally get to properly meet my favorite Divine.

And, of course, WAR TO END ALL WARS is a direct sequel to SEISMIC SEMESTER, finally wrapping up the school timeline with the wild 2016 Winter War.  Hijinks will ensue.

Healthwise, I'm feeling good by my standards and have started physio, which is an every Friday kind of thing at the moment.  So that will eat up some of my time, but the long term benefits are in my favor for sure.

I'll let you all poke and prod me with a Q&A end of this month or start of next month, until then the discussion thread is all yours.

Sometimes My "Also Bought" Section Hurts My Soul

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DX2561HQ/

Who among you is to blame for this?  Step forward and know shame!

Seismic Semester Discussion Thread

Leave questions for me until the Q&A in a couple/few weeks (I try to stay out of the discussion threads to let you all have a space to theorize without the author being a know-it-all!).

Spoilers in the comments, of course.

The Foul Mouth and the Seismic Semester is OUT!!!

You can read this NOW!!!

Linkage:  The Foul Mouth and the Seismic Semester by Richard Raley

Might take a while longer for it to completely propagate through Amazon's system, but there we are!

I'll put up a discussion thread in a bit and probably do a Q&A in a couple weeks like usual, but for now...ENJOY!!!

Oh, write a review when you finish, please!  Or at the very least, when the kindle asks you to rate the novel, click the star you think I deserve.

Thank you all for sticking around through everything that's happened!

Y'all Ready?

 T-Minus 10 hours.

Special thanks out to all the beta readers for their help, like always.  They collectively caught over one hundred and fifty typos, brains farts, and just you-could-say-this-better this go around.  Also lots of kind comments that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.  Given how hard this was, given it was 70% written on a cell phone, that much of the editing was ol' paper and red pen, and ya know, it's a 800 page novel about magic school...you wonder if you've lost your mind and it's nice to have a dozen people tell you that no, you're not crazy, this is fantastic and I enjoyed it very much.

I hope the wider fanbase finds it just as enjoyable...actually I hope the wider fanbase just finds it period given how long it's been since the last full KH novel!

Like I said before, this month will be pretty nuts doctor wise (8 appointments and counting), especially with me starting physio, but I'm still finding time here and there to work on the Vicky novel and WAR TO END ALL WARS.  Check the status updates as always for the most up-to-date info.

I will be back when I click the button and then again when I have a link for you all.  Although...I'm sure many of you will be bumping up my "Richard Raley" search metrics on your kindle come midnight.  Reminder that it is MY midnight over in California, so don't get carpel tunnel for no reason, British fanbase!

50ish Hours Until Button Press

Those of you that beta read need to get any of your last corrections in by tomorrow.  If you can have written reviews ready for release date that would be nice, but is not required and if you do decide to write one please give people your honest thoughts, not maximum glaze shill OMG BEST BOOK EVER I CAME TWENTY TIMES type stuff...

The new editions on all the novels are now uploaded.  Probably take a couple days to work through the Amazon system, but if you'd like to update your own kindle files to them, you'll need to contact kdp help and request to be changed to the newest versions.  It's stupid, I hate it, I wish stuff would just automatically update, but for whatever reason that's how Amazon set things up.  The one warning I have for you is that your notes and highlights will be removed if you do this.  However, so will many typos and continuity errors! 

Anyway...I just started Severance yesterday (finally subbed to Apple Plus since Prime added it as a channel) and I'm already up to episode 7 of Season 1 and I'm gonna get back to that crazy ass shit now!

Oh, officially started Physio yesterday, am sore.  :(

Up on Goodreads

 

The Foul Mouth and the Seismic Semester on Goodreads

Add it to your shelf or whatever it is people do over there.  I used to use it, but decided an author leaving reviews/ratings for fellow authors was probably a dick move!

Minor Update beyond this novel:  I wrote about 12k into War to End All Wars before getting highschoolbullshititis and needed a break, so I'm currently working on the Vicky novel, doing another pass on the 120 pages I already have written and typing the edits into the laptop.  Vicky's a great POV.  Her ability to see auras and anima is a huge highlight of the novel.

I don't know how focused I'll be next month.  Not only with release, but lots of doctor stuff, including my biannual endoscopy for my lovely EOE.  I could also be starting physio soon AND we're about at that one year mark on my last midback RFA, so that could get added too.  They're also doing X-Rays to check my spine and shoulders and it might mean another visit to a surgeon to see if there's a more permanent fix to my pain...we'll see.

Finished the novel just in time!

Everything is set on Amazon, just need to press the publish button soon as PST dives into Tuesday!

Release Date Change = March 4th

So, something has come up and on March 6th I'm going to need to travel all the way across Fresno to Clovis and get an extensive series of X-Rays taken on my shoulders and spine, which means my stamina will be in no position to handle release the next day on March 7th.

Also, all but two of the beta readers have already gotten back to me, so...the novel is pretty much just sitting there 99% complete at this point, so I'm moving up release date to Tuesday March 4th.

I'm sure you'll all be absolutely crushed by this fact.  Better than pushing it back, right?

Of course this means...you only have one week to wait now!!!

Yay!!!

Beta Comments So Far

"1,000% agree this is the funniest story you’ve written. I was laughing my ass off repeatedly, and yes teared up emotionally a few times as well."

"I loved the novel. It was well worth the wait. There were quite a few laugh out loud moments as I read it and I'm pumped for The War to End all Wars."

"Mordecai Root is probably the best human villain in the series. I absolutely loathe that guy."

"Absolutely loved it"

"Worth the wait? Absolutely."

"I loved seeing King Henry go into Octopus Mama mode--his heart really shone in this book, like we all know it can."

"Welf really showed what a colossal dick he truly is."

"The way that I really cared about them, their feelings, their growth as people, and the way KH was obviously coming to care about them as well, was just *chef's kiss.* Amazing, truly."

Also, I've been polling them their favorite Single and so for they've all picked the same one...

Seismic Semester Release Date = March 7th

 

Welf Coming to Get You, Foul Mouth!!!

So...I started working on this book September 2018 just after I published "Glassbreaker Goes Home".  It's...been a journey.  Most of it was written in the last year and a half once my spine calmed a bit, on a phone note app of all places.

I think it's the funniest novel I've written.  We can probably agree this is not a light claim to make.  It might even challenge "Meet the Bonnies" for funniest ANYTHING I've ever written.  Granted, you fans don't agree with me on what's funny sometimes, because I found the start of FM5 with Drunk Emo KH hilarious and a bunch of you knocked me for it.  But...this one is funny.  I laughed at stuff on my last edit, which never happens.  Also teared up a few times...so have extra tissues and panties on hand just in case.

It's...800 something pages of slice of life and teenage drama and my only aim was to make you feel like you were living with King Henry at the Asylum, because with how small and brief the school timeline has been so far, you haven't gotten to feel that.  We've also had characters get pushed completely out of the way and I tried to add a bunch of them into this novel so you had a sense of them outside a name.

You're also going to meet about 40 new characters, many of them family members of fan favorites or fan love-to-hates.  One of them who I just decided I enjoyed writing and now they've blown up out of nothing.  Lots of you will find her annoying, I find her hilarious, or better to say KH's reaction to her hilarious.  Many of these children will also play roles in the coming mainline novels, some very important roles, since in FM7 they're already Pents.

Those of you who just read for what happens next and want explosions and punching...will probably be disappointed outside one fantastically violent chapter.  There is nothing wrong with this.  It's just not that type of novel.

Those of you that read for characters and relationships and the little moments between two characters in a room over a cup of coffee...will probably be ecstatic.  King Henry has many, many complaints about the number of visitors he has to put up with this semester and the many different beverages he has to brew.

Shippers...oh, boy, you shippers...the ammo you're gonna have after this one.

So...until March 7th...I will be working on the next three in whatever order I feel like (Vicky Novel [taking place on the eve of FM7], War to End All Wars [the sequel to this one and school story finale], and The Most Obvious Trap [which I will still reference as FM7 despite being published as the 8th or 9th novel in the series, cuz I love being confusing!]).  That's the plan for the rest of 2025, not just this month.

If you're a beta reader, files went out!  Please respond!  If you didn't get any and usually beta read, email me!  Or just finally answer the email I sent telling you beta was here, TREY!!!

Seismic Semester Blurb

Forgot I needed to write one, might change a little.  Literally can't remember the last time I read a blurb about a book and bought it because of that blurb, but...guess people do. 

My name is King Henry Price.

Nah, nah, my name is the Foul Mouth...and I'm almost finished with this stinking tape recorder.

Finally reached the last year of my schooling, kiddies, at the glorious Institution of Elements, Learning Academy and Nature Camp, or better yet known as the Asylum by its oh so adoring student body.  Seven years in this place and got anima dripping from my pores, strong in the Mancy like never before.  Ready to go out into the world and face down Vampires and Shifters and...pay taxes and stuff.

Now, I thought there was no way the faculty would ever let me become a student-advisor, responsible for the care and welfare of my younger students, cuz...who is that stupid?  But they lost their minds at last, kiddies!  They did it!

Thirty new Singles to care for, thirty new strings just itching to stitch themselves into my flesh and complicate my life.  Make matters worse, Heinrich von Welf, spoiled Old Mancy patrician that he is, ain't so happy with the class I got given.  Thinks it should've been his honor.  Lots of words I'd use to describe Welf, but ain't the words you can get away with in a blurb, got to start the story for them.  What you doing?  Click that "start" button!

Needless to say...Welf ain't happy.  And being he's working day and night to complete his Construct...might be the first time he backs me into a corner.  Dead men don't care about being punched after all, don't care about pain, don't care if you even blow an arm off, they just keep coming.

Bring it, Welf.

I ain't ever run from a fight.

Started War to End All Wars

 8k down, Mancy knows how much to go.

Also started a non KH book I've wanted to write for years.  Tons of writing happening!  The elevator pitch is...Blade Runner meets Percy Jackson, with a touch of Stargate and God of War.

Have spine doctor today, rest tomorrow, then I'll post the Seismic Semester Release Date on Wednesday.

Well That's Gonna Help My Work Ethic

 https://www.footballmanager.com/news/development-update-football-manager-25-1

FM 25 got cancelled!

Also, if you've beta read before, check your email/spam filter and respond.

Double also, if I was a fucktard and you usually beta read and I didn't email you, send me one.

Seismic Semester is Done

Limping to the finish line, but we reached it.

I am so mentally destroyed, it's incredible.  I have done almost nothing but edit (beside when I recovered from the RFA and got the flu) for four months.  Be it "Seismic Semester" or the 2024 editions of the novels with all the note taking (ended up 100 pages of hand written notes by the time I finished btw) that's been my life.  Worse than "almost" for all of January.  JUST editing.

I am spent.

So I'm taking a week or two off to watch television and stupid movies and...maybe even read someone else's novel!  What a crazy idea!

When I come back, I will start the beta read and finally give you fans a set release date.  March is all I can say at this point.

Thinking about a Friday release so you have the whole weekend, sound good?

After release...I want to write for a year.  That's it.  My favorite thing in the world.  I can't mentally handle any more editing for awhile.  So even if I finished the Vicky Novel (remember, it's 1/3 done!) or completely blow through "War to End All Wars" in six months, I just don't think I can do any more editing that soon.

So...Vicky Novel, "War to End All Wars", "Most Obvious Trap"...just gonna work on them all at the same time and whatever piques my interest is what I'll dive into.  Probably the Vicky Novel first.  That novel is constant political warfare.  Gonna be fun!

Actually...they'll all be fun!

Just no editing!

Please!

Seismic Semester Name Mentions

I searched with "match case" and "whole words" but obviously in our winner's case he's referenced as a surname most often, however...the vast majority is still him and I'm sure he's above second place regardless.

*if you want to go in blind, obviously this does give a sense of the novel, so...on you if you read it*

Welf/Heinrich = 930

Valentine/Val/Boom/Boomworm = 519

Lady/Maudette = 381

Miranda = 361

Ceinwyn/Miss Dale = 309

Plutarch/Paul = 182

Juliette = 180 

Summer = 166

Evelyn/Strange = 164

Hope = 152

Olivia/Olive = 146

Raj = 145

Asa = 143

Gavin = 128

Divjot = 124

Naomi = 123

Pocket = 119

Vick/Vicky/Victoria = 110

Jesus = 109

Moira/Mama Welf = 104

Max/Maxwell = 97

Tat/Tatiana = 92

Agnar = 79

Eva = 73

Wolfgang = 72

Leah = 67

Debra = 63

Sigrid = 59

Jackson/Jason = 46

Connor = 39

Makayla = 32

Quinn = 30

Jessica = 24

Meteyos = 6

Tyson/T-Bone = 3

Can See The Finish Line

And yes, my poor Paperwhite is a decade old and beat to hell at this point!  So, last edit is on the Kindle.  Traditionally, changes at this point are deciding what should be italicized, splitting paragraphs, finding typos, occasionally removing a paragraph or line if I decided its unneeded.

BUT...

Novel is basically the novel at this point.

I'll decide the final release date soon, but I'm still thinking early March.  Pity I didn't get it finished before Christmas, since the whole last chunk takes place as the semester ends and there's serious holiday vibes.

I love this novel, by the way.  It's hard to pick a favorite child and it's not going to have any Eurekas, but there's so many great character moments and I found myself laughing and tearing up while finishing the last pass, and that NEVER happens at this point.  Usually I hate my novels with the fires of a thousand suns by now and I don't feel that at all.  Maybe it's just because it feels like a miracle and such a relief after everything that's happened, but...I really hope you all enjoy it too.

Last Seismic Semester Tease?

Well known fact that the teenage girl’s ability to ingest souls rises in relation to how pretty they think they are, dresses only amplify this effect.

Locke Error in Everchanging Dilemma

I've fixed a few continuity errors during all this note taking, but this is rather worth highlighting.  Obviously editing while in insane levels of pain, stuck in bed, not an environment very conducive to finer points and some things slipped through (they always do!).  Really, I'm shocked the novel is as coherent as it is.  I remember I had to rewrite the whole last conversation with Ceinwyn because it felt too rushed and I wanted more between the characters (it was largely just Strange reading the Lady's letter and being like, okay, this is my life now!), but...don't remember doing it.  Actually I remember being on my side, with a pen and paper, slathering up Biofreeze so I could manage 30 minute bursts.  But the words...

Weird experience these last couple days, reading your own novel and to not remember what you put it in!  I think when the mind is in too much pain it goes a little gung-ho to protect you and blocks out whole swathes of memory, since...I know I also watched and read plenty those couple years and it's hard to recall what I saw and learned.

So, as for the error in question here, I had Dean Locke dying just after the Lady graduated and that's not accurate.  He, uh, had some stuff to do before he passed.  It's even in my history timeline, so...I guess I just didn't check it cuz...incredible amounts of pain and all.  It now correctly reads:

The man I think of as Papa you’ll know as Theodore Locke, our first dean.  He retired a few years after I graduated, replaced by Ludwig von Welf.

Also, I said Root had "sisters" but he only has one.  So that's corrected too.

Not sure when I'll get around to uploading them into Amazon (before the new novel releases obviously).  But...the noteapalooza is officially finished!  Yay!  Never again!

As far as Seismic Semester, we are here:

Conclude FM6, 3 Ancillary Novel Noteapalooza.
Common Errors Search-a-thon. (now that I'm using modern spellcheckers, the typo issue is SO much easier BTW)
Ellipsis Hunt and the Defuckening.
ADDED:  Another Pass on Sessions 89, 90, and Last 50 pages of the novel.

Formatting.
Kindle Copy Edit.
Beta Reading.
Release.

So...progress, but those chapters felt very sparse and straightforward prose-wise for certain sections while I was searching through them, XX did this, then XX did that, so on.  I just want to give them a little more attention before my final full look at the whole novel.  Add some spice and glitter and all that.

It's coming along!

Crazy Part of the Edit

I'm currently searching words that I consider wishy washy for possible removal.  The entirety of my night was going through every "maybe" and "possibly" in the novel and removing about a third of them.  Maybe more.  See!!!  Fuck you "maybe!"  Get back in your box!

Next up is "even".  Then the biggest pussy of them all "was".

There are 2,500 uses of the word "was" in Seismic Semester btw.

*whimper*

"That sounds like something a crazy person would do, RR, are you--"

Yes, I know!  But it makes the prose better for some godforsaken reason!

Don't even get me started on "that".

Asshole unneeded word half the time.

Grrr.