Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Lately I've been feeling, well...not distracted, but not necessarily overwhelmed either. Despite all the political fuckery going on (and boy howdy do I have thoughts on that), I've been trying my best to approach all that in a different way. It certainly does bother me, and not a day goes by when I don't mutter some version of goddamn I really fucking hate conservatives right now under my breath, but I'm trying to get out of a very longstanding and extremely unhealthy habit of emotionally reacting to it with undirected dread and anxiety. I'm accepting that it's there and it's happening, I'm just trying not to spiral like I used to.

But it's not really all that, either. Part of it might be that I'm still getting used to living in our New Digs and getting used to not being at the old place anymore, but I think most of it lately has been on the creative end of things.

It's not that I don't want to work on this Trilogy Remaster -- I've been wanting to do it for a good couple of years, to be honest -- but more that I feel like I haven't been completely honest with my writing career these last few years. Like I could -- like I should be dedicating more time and energy to it than I have. Granted, I'm getting older and I can't really stay up until 2am doing five hour marathon sessions like I used to, especially since I have early morning Day Job hours. But I just feel like it's been ages since I've taken it as seriously as I used to. Phoning it in sometimes, doing the bare minimum, throwing my books out there with zero follow-up.

So what's the plan, then?

That's a good question indeed. The plan is something I think I'll need to work on over the next few weeks or so.

Not me, actually, but work. The big Valentine's Day holiday rush is now over, and there really isn't another big one coming until Easter in April, so it's going to be a slower couple of months at the day job. This also means I'll be working more like 32-36 hours instead of a full forty, which on the one hand kind of sucks pay-wise but gives me a bit of a respite and refocus on what I need focusing on.

And speaking of which, I've finally started playing daily rounds of Squaredle on my phone. I've been meaning to do that for a while, but this seemed like a perfect time to follow through with the plan. It keeps me from passively doomscrolling on social media for one, which is a big plus. But I've always loved a good word search game (I've also got a few Penny's Finest word seek magazines on my desk for funsies) and this is a phone game that's not timed or ridiculously hard to the point of frustration. The games at the beginning of the week are relatively easy but get harder as the week goes on, but I'm enjoying it.

In the process this is keeping my head clearer when it's time to sit down and start my writing sessions. It's good to be focusing on the Trilogy remaster of course, but I seem to have finally realigned myself to the point where it's a lot easier to focus because of my Squaredle games. I suppose in a way this is the same thing as my pre-writing FreeCell games back in the Belfry days, but I'm not going to complain. Whatever works and gets me moving, right?

Now if I can only get myself to start exercising more again...

Well, no wonder I'm finally feeling the effects of the Day Job! Today was the sixth day in a row, as Head Bookkeeper is taking his own vacation at the moment. I'll be doing the 5:30am opens all week, though I do in fact have Monday and Tuesday off. Knowing me, I'll be waking up at 6am regardless, as I do plan on spending the next two days catching up on writing, playing with the cats, and so on. (And laundry. Always with the laundry.) 

Speaking of writing, I'm finally getting further along with Theadia, which is a good thing. I've also been thinking about various artists I might want to commission to do the cover. Pretty sure it'll be a good chunk of change for it, but it'll be worth it. [I'm still thinking about doing a new cover for Diwa & Kaffi as well in the new year. We shall see.] And as for MU4...well, as much as I'm itching to get started on writing it, I'm deliberately waiting until I'm done with Theadia first because I really want to put all my focus on it. Plus, the secondary project I'll be doing in tandem will be the trilogy remaster (so to speak) so I'll be focused on the same universe. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

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.

*

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?

Okay, so I really need to stop re-re-re-rereading my WIPs at night, because my Mount Read Me pile isn't budging. I'm thinking I should put my e-reader here in Spare Oom so I'm forced to read what I have before it gets any worse. I'd rather not have a repeat of last year where I basically read like ten books because I was so distracted by my writing and lost interest in everything else. I need to get back into reading new things again!!

[Oh, and I finally recently read Pride and Prejudice, and it is indeed a brilliant and shockingly funny book. The Lizzie/Catherine DeBourg face-off remains one of my all-time favorite literary moments.]

Meanwhile, I did manage to get a bit of writing work done at the Day Job today in the form of writing a few thoughts about what to do with my space opera Theadia. I'm on the cusp of thinking that this may end up going the same route as The Phoenix Effect and being completely rewritten as a multi-book project, probably a trilogy if not a duology. As much as I'm proud of what I have so far -- and that's saying a lot considering that I've never written in that genre before -- I think the story should be allowed to breathe a lot more. I'm intrigued by what's going on offscreen a lot of the time and I think it's worth expanding to make this universe another large-scale, large-cast story like the Bridgetown Trilogy. 

I haven't decided yet either way, but I'm intrigued by this, so if I can get Queen Ophelia's War done soon, then I can do a deep dive and give it a shot?

Wait, it's Thursday?  Yes, Thursday evening.  I've been flying through so many things this week in preparation for FogCon that I almost forgot to do a few other things like updating here!  No worries, though.

But HEY YES NEW BOOK.  That's the big news.  Yay, Meet the Lidwells is finally out in the wild! I'm slowly but surely spreading the news hither and yon again, and I've gotten a few sales already.  Yay!  The first two were by friends, but I'm not gonna complain. Heh!  I sent it off to a friend over in Oakland who runs a music blog and thinking of other places I can plug it.  I've also sent it to BookLife, which is a monthly insert for Publisher's Weekly focused on self-publishing.  That cost a bit, but I'm essentially buying advertising in a very highly regarded writing magazine and I believe it'll show up in April, so there's that.

OH!  Which reminds me...all this week, Smashwords has been doing a sale which I signed up for.  All three books in the trilogy are currently free, and the new book is half-off, so it's only $1.50.  (Go ahead and sneak over and pick any of them up if you're so interested, the sale ends on Saturday!)  I've made a few sales here and there, which is cool...but the surprising bit is that suddenly I'm getting download confirmations for the tirlogy too!!  That surprised me, but I ain't complaining! :D

Okay, quick post here. Got a con to head to tomorrow! :)

Every time I choose to do a bit of book purging, I find myself a bit fascinated by my decisions. It was another major 'will I ever read this/will I ever reread this' process, and this time I included not only my fiction but my music and my writing books as well.

What's this, you say? Getting rid of writing books??? *GASP!* Well, most of these were from the Writer's Digest Book Club (or whatever it was called then) where I'd ordered a handful of 'learn how to write' books. I used a handful of them, but for the most part, they've been getting more use as dust traps, so it was high time for them to go. And the good thing is that we've been donating all our books to the Friends of the SF Public Library, who run a twice-a-year Giant Book Sale down in Fort Mason, so they get to be bought and used by others who can get more use out of them. And the best part is that opened up a spot on the bookshelf near the window for Jonc's Officially Published Works. Which for now contains two titles and those two ZYZZYVA issues I was in, but hey, at least I know it'll expand over time!

As for the music books...many of these were bought between 2010 and 2012 when I started thinking about writing Walk in Silence. I did get some use out of them, but with a good handful of them, I doubt I'll pick them up again, so they too can go. Quite a few of those will probably be 'read and get rid of' as well.

But that's not all! The Spring Cleaning Bug seems to have bit hard, as I now have decided it's high time to get rid of some other things as well. I still have some old PC and laptop stuff from the last six or so years, and when I have the time, I will donate those to the local electronics recycling place down in SoMa that I usually go to. [They not only recycle the parts but for a fee will run the hard drives through the woodchipper (or whatever it is they use) to make sure they're completely destroyed.] I may have a few other things to get rid of in the next few months as well. Just one of those things where you just want to let go of things you don't need anymore and start fresh.

The downside to the book purge is that Spare Oom is once again getting a bit crowded with boxes. I'll try not to keep them here for months on end this time, though.


As for writing...new month, new writing schedule. I'd given myself most of April to relax and do some fun short-term projects (like the A to Z Challenge meme and build up a backlog of Walk in Silence entries), and so starting today and going forward, I'd like to get back to work on stuff I need to do. Primarily, starting the Epic Revision of The Balance of Light. I'm going to take my own time with this one, really...it needs a lot of work so I'd like to make sure it gets all the TLC it needs. I don't have a set date for the release of that one either...just a rough guess of late autumn.

I'd also like to return to the small exercises again as well, just to keep my writing muscles moving. Nothing big yet, just the usual 750 during the day, and also posting at the two WP blogs. I should (hopefully) have time to put up some short 500-700 words a few times a week. I still have the weekends open for catch-up and whatnot. Once Book 3 is out, I'll have much more time to spend on new projects. Speaking of which, I told a friend earlier that I'm curious as to what my turnaround time will be for my new projects...I'm not going to hazard a guess, considering I don't know what scale these new projects will be.

However, I do have some interesting writing-based plans in the works that I'm looking forward to...can't reveal them just yet, but hopefully soon!

If you haven't seen my posts today on both my WordPress blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and I think pretty much everywhere else:

YES!  Book 2 in the Mendaihu Universe, The Persistence of Memories, is now out and available in ebook form!

Here's a few links to the fine establishments where it's available:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Smashwords

Don't forget to support your local bookstore! If they sell e-books, go ahead and download from their website! Here are a few of my favorite local bookstores where you can buy it:

Copperfield's Books

Green Apple Books

Books Inc


Thank you for your support! :)

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A DIVISION OF SOULS is also STILL FREE! Want to get caught up first before jumping in? Head over to B&N, Kobo or Smashwords (or hey, even NoiseTrade) and download the first book, and your reading list is good to go!

There's not too much that's different, other than that it looks like they changed the fonts, updated and fixed all the outdated/faulty coding, and streamlined a few things. Everything's still there, it's just shinier. It's kind of funny...in a way, it's almost as if LJ finally let go of their bloated (yet fun) glory days look and scaled back into a much cleaner, sleeker blog site.

Anyhoo. A few things to report:

The Great Trilogy Revision Project is DONE! I've mentioned this at my Welcome to Bridgetown site, but just a few more personal things here. After just shy of two years of major revision work, it feels kind of weird not to be working on the trilogy, or even anything within the Mendaihu Universe for that matter. I'm finally at the point where I've completed everything I set out to do with this particular project (short of working on submission and possible agent-finding, of course). So technically, the current version of the story of Bridgetown which I started on 9 March 1997 finally came to an end on 14 May 2014.

So how does it feel to have a finished project? It feels very strange, to be honest. It feels different than when I finished Love Like Blood, as I'd finished a story and knew it still needed a crapton of work (I eventually trunked it, but that's another story entirely). And definitely different from my earlier works, because most of them were along the lines of "Yay! I wrote a novel/screenplay!" This is the first serious project I've had that I wanted to see through to completion and publication, the first one that I devoted years and emotions to. One that I'm extremely proud of.

Will I return to the Mendaihu Universe somewhere down the line? Of course I will! I've got a handful of ideas and story arcs I'd like to play with. It wasn't until the last few days that I realized I couldn't work on them yet, at least not until the Bridgetown Trilogy was fully put to rest, because there would be too much bleedover, too much repetition of ideas. The next few stories in this Universe need to transcend the original story arc, and I couldn't have done it then. But I can do it now, given the time and inclination.

So what am I writing now? As mentioned, I've been doing nightly work on Walk in Silence. It's mostly been doing outlining, and I'm almost done with the first run-through. There's more outlining I need to do, this time adding all the points I'd like to hit concerning the music. And once I'm happy with that, then I'll proceed with writing the book proper.

Will I be writing any fiction in the interim? Most likely, yes. I haven't written any new fiction in years, so I'm going to take my time with it, see what I want to work on. They'll be backburner and side projects, just things I'd like to putter around with that I could possibly expand on once the WiS project is done or at least at a point where I can balance it with something else. There's a good chance I may do what I did back in 1996, in which I open up a blank document and just start making stuff up off the top of my head and see what grabs me.

The WiS project has also let me look at my personal life with a different perspective as well. As you know, I've been big on the "starting from the beginning" mantra over the last few years, basically taking bits of my life that have become cluttered and directionless, rolling everything back and starting over from the beginning again, setting them off in the right direction now that they have an anchor. WiS has given me a base for how I see life, how I saw it then versus how I see it now, and how I react to it, and making adjustments when and where necessary. And I like how it's turned out so far.


So that's my weekend in a nutshell...no plans, other than heading to Q for brunch soon, maybe checking out the sidewalk sale up the road, and heading to the farmer's market on Sunday. It's the quiet life this time out. :)

I've been thinking lately about how a reader would digest my trilogy. By digest, I mean how they would understand it, process it, and what their reactions would be. What would be their take on it? Would they love it? Hate it? Be indifferent? Of course, a lot of writers think this at any given time. Some obsess over it, some dismiss it. You can't avoid it, but you probably shouldn't let it ruin you either.

I've also been thinking about how some manga artists and writers react to this as well. Every now and again if you pick up a tankobon (one of the bounded volumes), you'll often see the occasional afterword page often adorned with a silly self-portrait, with the artist/writer saying something to the effect of a humbled "thank you for buying the book/following this series!" and a promise to do the best they can ("Ganbatteimasu!") to keep you entertained with the story and hope you stay until the end.

I've been taking that to heart over the last few years--not the American "do your best" (i.e., aim for bestseller) (yes, I mean that with tongue firmly in cheek) but the Japanese "do your best" (i.e., aim for the best that you can possibly achieve). I don't want my book to be a bestseller or get all the awards. I want someone to read my book and say "wow, that was impressive." I want them to have the same reaction I have when I read a book or see a movie that moves me that much.

I'm curious as to what the reaction to my trilogy will be. If anything, I want to say it's Science Fiction, maybe with some Fantasy elements to it. It's not a typical adventure or quest, or a war against overlords, or a political thriller, or an allegory about the world we live in. If anything, it's an internal quest--it's a story about being given an ultimate goal and how tough it is to keep focused on it. It's a war of one's own being against outside influence. It's a spiritual thriller (not a religious one--and this isn't Christian fiction, in case you were wondering). It's an allegory about our inner worlds, our mind and heart. I often wonder if the reader will get all that. I'm doing my best to convey those things, without forcing it or making it too vague, and at the same time making sure it's not too fantastical.


When I first started trying out this whole writing thing, I of course thought the same as every other beginner--my stuff is awesome! It's got cool scenes! People are going to love it! We all know how that usually ends...! The second stage is usually 'okay, I know better now, this is more professional...people really will love it this time!'...which usually ends the same way. It's that third stage, the make-or-break, the "oh GOD my stuff sucks ass, who will even read this crap?", that really tests you. That's where you make the real decision to move ever forward, or give it up and become a register jockey at a shopping mall. Thankfully, I was stubborn and crazy enough to still enjoy this writing thing, and kept with it.

It's been thirty years since I thought of taking writing seriously, and twenty since that first initial "Vigil" idea that eventually came the trilogy. It's been a long haul with plenty of hard work, sweat, wrong turns, laughter, tears, annoyance, disappointment, half-assed attempts, trunked ideas, naivete, amusement, entertainment, and learning between then and now. It's not for the weak, I'll tell you that. But I'm doing my best, and I'm glad I am.