Trader's Diary

News, Not

By The Captain on January 13, 2012

Well, it’s coming up on mid-January and in honor of Friday the Thirteenth, this is probably a good time to tell you what’s happening.

In a nutshell, nothing.

The edits for Double Share are still with the publisher. I haven’t heard from her for over two weeks so I’m operating in the dark. I know you want me to say, “That’s it, I’m going it alone.” I’m not going to. At least not yet.

Last year was a year of huge transitions — for me, for Ridan, for the industry. I’m still willing to give Ridan a chance to get their act together because, quite frankly, I like what they do. The results we’ve achieved so far would not have been possible without their help and it seems a bit short-sighted of me to yank the rug out at this point.

I am taking steps to get more of my work out on my own. I published Ravenwood last October and the sequel is almost done. I’ll publish it as soon as it’s ready. I’ve already got the cover art and only need to finish writing the story and get it through some editing before publishing it in print, ebook, and podcast. South Coast and its sequel, Cape Grace, will probably be self-pubs as well. I’m holding them for the moment – first because the sequel isn’t written yet, and second because I want to see if Ridan can get things together.

What will happen in the future? I don’t know. I do have remedies. My contract with Ridan allows me to send a letter and get all my rights back with 30 days’ notice. I’d have to re-do the covers and re-issue them in my own name, but it’s possible to do. I know how it’s done. It’s not a *long* process, but it’s time that takes away from this year’s goals. When will enough be enough? I don’t know. Sorry. I can’t predict that kind of stuff reliably.

I can’t remember if I wrote about this here or not and I’m too lazy to go look but the goals for 2012 are:

1. Six new novel length works – a new Ishmael Wang trilogy, two more books in the Tanyth Fairport universe, and Cape Grace.

2. Podcast all my work and do a couple extra books besides.

3. Get some writing classes behind me to know better which rules I’m breaking and to learn some new ones to flout.

4. BaltiCon, WorldCon, MileHiCon, and COSine.

5. A novella in Scott Sigler’s GFL universe. A novella in Tee and Pip’s Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences universe. At least one more novella from Odin’s Outpost.

It’ll be a full year … and that’s besides getting the last three share books out in print and ebook formats.

Wish me luck. I’m going in.

This entry is filed under News. | 33 Comments

Happy Holidays

By The Captain on December 22, 2011

Whatever holidays you observe, please accept my heartfelt felicitations and best wishes for the coming year.

Looking backwards for a moment, a year ago today I was worried that I’d need to find a job to keep the bills paid. This year, I’ve got a job–thanks to the thousands of people like you who’ve found my work. I need to get better and I need to get faster. My production in 2011 was limited to one podcast, two short stories, and a novella. We got Full Share released in May. I’m planning on six novel length works in 2012 along with a few shorter pieces. My new desk set up, a project schedule, and some grit should help. I also need to get better and more aware of the craft of story-telling. I’ll be taking a course in March and I’ve looked into getting some more formal training. I think the ‘school’ part of that will fall away but I’m looking forward to spending a week in Oregon with Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. That’s gonna be a blast.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the good news that you’re all waiting for. Double Share will not be out before Christmas as promised. Ridan has not yet returned the edits to me and I can’t imagine that–even if I got them back this morning–there’s time left for me to review almost 125k words, return them to Ridan, and leave time for them to review and publish. The only way we can make the deadline now is if Robin publishes the book without my seeing her edits. That’s something I suspect she will not do.

Yes, I know you’re disappointed. So am I. From a marketing perspective, all the momentum that the promotion of Quarter Share generated in November has almost disappeared. It’s not quite back to October levels, but it’s lost a lot of oomph. That means we’ll have to rebuild the franchise anew in 2012. At least there’s a solid base, even if a lot of people have given up on me. With any luck, the eventual release will spark enough interest to rebuild things.

Before you break out the torches and pitchforks–and to preempt the outcry–Ridan will finish out the Share books. As disappointing as this year has been in terms of their ability to meet production goals, I still like what they’ve managed to do with the books when we’ve gotten them released. In the short run, looking at things through the “I’m still waiting” lens, it’s hard to keep a big picture perspective. Looking at this strategically, the books will be in print for a long, long time. Getting them right is much more important than getting them now. The plan is to get the last three Share books released in the first quarter of 2012. Will we make it? I doubt it, but that’s the plan.

Also in my plans are another trilogy featuring Ishmael Wang, two more books in the Tanyth Fairport series, a Philip Carstairs novel, and at least two novella length works–one in Scott Sigler’s Galactic Football League universe and another story about Odin’s Outpost.

Speaking of Tanyth Fairport, I hired Kip Ayers to create a set of covers for the trilogy. I got the rough first draft of Zypheria’s Call–Tanyth’s book two–done in November and I’ve been pondering it ever since. I think I’ve found most of the flaws and I’ll be working to get those corrected and the book produced by the end of January. You can see the cover and keep track of other happenings in Tanyth’s world over on Lammas Wood.

Merry Christmas, joyous Yule, and a safe and prosperous New Year to one and all. Thank you, again, for adding so much to my life and I hope I can continue to add to yours in the months to come.

This entry is filed under Double Share, Full Share, News, Ravenwood, Short Stories. | 36 Comments

End of November

By The Captain on November 28, 2011

Not a lot of news.

Ridan says I’ll have edits for Double Share soon and they’re going to work on getting the last two books out by April-ish. The backlog is working out. I know one of the books ahead of me in the queue has been released. (Congrats, Todd.)

I hired a cover artist for the first Tanyth Fairport trilogy and I’m hoping a fresh face on that book will help over the holiday buying season (which, for ebooks, starts after everybody gets their shiny new Kindle for Christmas, so there’s time).

A regular influence around here, Debora Geary, has released the last book in her first trilogy — A Reckless Witch. I was a beta reader on it. It’s good. If you’re a fan of her work, go grab it. If you’ve never heard me talk about her before, go grab a sample of her first book and see if she has something you’ll like.

NaNoWriMo has been good to me. It’s not over yet, but I’ve finished the rough first draft of Tanyth Fairport’s book two — Call of Zypheria. I’ve started on book three – The Hermit. I’m hoping to get a good chunk of it drafted out before December starts on Thursday. Word counts were not what I had hoped for, but the stories are better than I’d imagined so it was a good trade.

Last, I’ve been threatening to do this for weeks but I got a bug in my ear today and decided it was time to put a desk on my treadmill.

Here’s the before – Just the basic treadmill:

I went to Lowes and got a 36″ long 1 1/4″ stair tread. It’s rounded on one side and has a nice heft to it. I wanted something that would be solid.

Here’s the after – Treadmill with desk installed:

I had a few strips of 1×2 left over from other projects so I tacked a lip on the square edge to keep things from rolling off the table and onto the treadmill.

I used a modification of a design I saw on Instructables that used a pair of runners under the board to hold it steady laterally. These two arms underneath bracket the pedestal snugly.

For safety, I added a couple of screw eyes and a 48″ flat bungee cord to form a back end. It’s only intended to keep the unit from slipping forward off the handles, but the slight tension on the cord makes the runners grip just a bit more than they did with out. The friction fit is pretty good. Here’s how the bungee hooks underneath.

And – voila! Laptop on the desk.

Total cost: $17. That included the stair tread ($9), the bungee ($3), a dollar for a pair of screw eyes, and the rest was the box of finish nails. Took me about twenty minutes to assemble (not counting the time I spent tracking down hand tools).

That’s it for now. I’ll have another update by year end.

This entry is filed under News. | 24 Comments

Ravenwood

By The Captain on October 28, 2011

I posted over on Lammas Wood but for those who are looking for something new to read, Ravenwood just popped up on Kindle and Nook.

This entry is filed under Books, Ravenwood. | 16 Comments

October Update

By The Captain on October 7, 2011

Now hear this…

In case you missed it, my reading from BaltiCon 45 is up at the Balticon Podcast. In it, you’ll hear me read the story I did for JR Blackwell’s “Birthday Book” about Dr. Mercury.

If that’s not enough of my voice you can always catch my reading of “Blood Dauber” on StarShipSofa 206. There’s more in the wings there as soon as Tony gets it scheduled. Watch for my reading of Allen M. Steele’s “Observation Post.” It should show up fairly soon.

In other news …

The promised website overhaul hasn’t happened yet. It’s still rummaging around behind my eyes somewhere. It’ll get here.

Double Share has been pushed back again. Ridan will be trying to get it out before Christmas but those of you who are looking for it any day now, um, not so much. For what it’s worth, the three (yes, three) books ahead of it in line have been waiting for a year – longer in one case – for their turn in the chute and I fully support the decision that Ridan has made on this. It is disappointing, I know, and it has a significant financial effect on me as well, but that’s the price I pay for working with a publisher.

That’s one reason that I’ll be publishing Ravenwood myself. My goal is to have it out in time for Samhain, the pagan new year. You might know it as All Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween. The cover may not be as spiffy, and the layout will be my own, but I’ll be getting work out for you to read.

More to the point, Cape Grace is about to go into binge mode. I took a trip back to Maine last week to visit my sister and to smell Atlantic salt again. I’m rather excited to get this underway and to get it podcast for your enjoyment while we wait for Double Share to make its text debut.

Honestly, this has been a difficult year for me, and not for the reasons that so many of you have speculated about in the comments. Some stories are not mine to tell, so you’ll have to forgive me for not putting out spoilers on works that aren’t my own. I still have almost three months left to 2011, and that’s enough time to get my own little ship pointed in the correct direction and start building some momentum.

Let’s see if I can actually do it.

That is all. For now.