Drunken Owls and Other Delights

As I've been mentioning hither and yon, I've got a new ebook out! And yes, it seems to be doing absolutely zip right now, as expected. I've been thinking about that the last few days for a few reasons.

One, I am absolutely terrible at self-promotion. I don't know what to do other than slather the news of it being out there on social media. I could spend a bit of money on advertising but that's money that I don't really have ready to wager on an avenue that may or may not provide results. I definitely would not make TikTok or YouTube videos because I'd be absolutely terrible at it. So what can I do? Put it out there and hope for the best. Try different avenues as I can. Just because it's out there and not selling doesn't necessarily mean it's a failure, especially if I'm not aiming for it to be a success. These are stories I want to tell and share, that's it. And I'd like to think that some of these novels of mine are worth checking out.

Two, and this ties in with that last bit, is that I shouldn't have to adjust my story in order to fit a specific sales pitch or style, because that's not the kind of writer I am. So perhaps what I need to do is find my own unique way to attract attention to them. It may work or it may not. And I'm not going to completely give up on the story, even if it's not a success. They're still out there, and just because they've been out there for a while doesn't necessarily mean that they've been glanced over and found wanting. I just haven't found the proper avenue to share them with, is all. Right now they're just...out there, along with all the other thousands of books being released.

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Another thing I've been thinking about lately is that next year will be the tenth anniversary of my first published novel A Division of Souls being released. This gives me about a year to plan and prepare for something to celebrate that. I was thinking that it's high time I did an edit and revision of the novel, as I'm sure there are a few things that could be fixed to make it even better. A new cover as well, perhaps for all three in the Bridgetown Trilogy. Which made me think: what if I came up with a special project for them? A multimedia thing, perhaps an ongoing celebration on my blog and elsewhere, sharing outtakes, in-canon stories and other things.

More to come on this as I sketch it out a bit more...

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It's that time of year again in which I suddenly decide I want to resurrect a story that's been in and out of my trunk for decades, the Belief in Fate / Decline and Fall novel. It's not that the story has never worked properly, it's that I've either been too emotionally close to the events that inspired it, or that I couldn't find the proper voices for it. I think I might have finally found a solution for it, however. We shall see.

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Theadia is progressing slowly but successfully, and I am quite happy about this. I just need to give myself more time to focus on it!

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That's my weekend update. How's your weekend been?

So ends the eleventh month of the year, and where do I stand in terms of writing?

NaNo still remains elusive to me. November was a crazy month workwise, and writingwise I had other plans. I may yet do it in the future, but it'll probably be quite far into the future, if at all. I'm not bothered by that.

It's been quite some time since I've actually written anything truly new--that is, something unrelated to the Bridgetown trilogy, unrelated to any current or backburner projects I'm working on. Possibly a few years, really. Some time ago, probably even this time last year, I may have been bothered by that fact. However, in the year and a half of major trilogy revision, I've actually written more on a daily basis than I have in the last few years. I've also learned a lot more, and made great strides with perfecting my writing. I'm glad to say that my prose is a hell of a lot better than it's ever been.

Revision work on A Division of Souls started sometime in 2012 and completed earlier this year; I'm about ten chapters from finishing the revision of The Persistence of Memories, and if I can finish this off by the end of the year, that'll give me the start of 2014 to work on revision of The Process of Belief. [Side note: I've been contemplating changing the title of Book 3, but I'm yet to come up with one I like. My only prerequisite is that the phrase is similar to the other two.]

One of the interesting side effects of spending over two years on major trilogy revision is that it's given me all sorts of ideas for related stories and novels set in the same universe. I've always wanted to do that since about 1995--I like the idea of discovering new twists and turns in a history of my own making, over multiple generations. The background isn't dense in terms of rules and regulations, but there are quite a few points of historic interest that could be used as fodder for other focused ideas. The maiden alien landing in Bridgetown two hundred years before the setting of the trilogy (and a hundred years after first audiovisual contact) could be a standalone novel itself. McCleever District just begs to have a novel or two written about it. This is all aside from the spiritual relations construct I created for the trilogy, which also has endless possibilities.

Will this mean I'll never get around to some of the other novel ideas I came up with in the past? Will they become trunk novels, some that haven't even gotten to "novel" status yet? Who knows. For now, a lot of them have fallen by the wayside, worth looking into much further in the future when I have the time. And I'm okay with that.