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.