This is it, crew.
As of today, I become a full time author — at least until another job opens up at the university or I pick up some part time teaching work. It’s a bit scary but also very exciting. The past few days have been an exhausting process of tying off loose ends, cleaning up the mess from a too-busy life, and getting my quackers all cheesed up.
Thie first item on my To Do List is a remodeling job to turn the back room — where I’ve had a temporary set up for recording for almost three years — into something more permanent. It will be nothing like a full sound studio but it should make my recording process smoother. I hate to take the time, but it’ll pay off in the long run and — fingers crossed — it’ll only be a few days.
This is what is looks like now:
Today I need to clean it out and paint it. Tomorrow I’ll make the bookcases that I’ve been promising my wife that I’d make. I intend to use those for the walls of my new recording booth.
Thanks for coming along for the ride, shipmates, and I’ll keep you posted as we go along.
PS. Yes, I’ve started Owner’s Share and I’m really looking forward to this one. I was looking for my theme and I think I’ve found it. All I have to do now is settle in to watch the movie in my head play out. I probably won’t break my NaNoWriMo record for production speed, but I’m very optimistic.
Safe travels, sar, on this new trip on the voyage of your life.
Cheesiness out of the way now… if you break your NaNoWriMo record I think you’d break the universe. :)
WOOT! Congratulations, my friend! May your voyages be thrilling and prosperous!
Indeed, Safe travels, Sar.
Also, Please don’t break the universe. I live here, and I kinda like it. Besides, I’m not done with Captain’s Share yet. ;)
Great to hear that you will be able to write full time. I hope you’ll be able to write even more books per year than before, even if it doesnt sound possible …
Let me know if I can do anything to help you from here (Lausanne, Switzerland).
Thanks for shining a light on the intersection of your life, art, renovations and honey-do list! I’m trying to do tha new with my work/process/life and appreciate your baby steps. Enjoy the new room! We’ll be sure to enjoy the words and voices that come out!
Nate, you’re an inspiration to us all. Congratulations and good luck. As I sit here enjoying this beautiful morning, I imagine fantastic productive and positive energy heading your way.
Congratulations on the promotion, sar! This sounds like a very exciting chapter in your life and we’re all looking forward to hearing how it turns out. Best wishes and safe voyage!
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Good luck Nathan. I know you will enjoy the full-time writing life. I hope everything comes together for you.
Good luck with your new adventure! Looking forward to Captain’s Share. You don’t know if the record is breakable till you try!
Ready about… hard alee! Best wishes on this voyage… and thank you for letting us tag along, Sar
good luck! i hope everything goes well, even if not according to plan. (Trust Lois!)
Good luck sar.
Hey man, you’ve always been a full time writer. I can tell from the quality of your stories. Those characters were always running in the background of your brain even when you were washing the car. May your stories be fruitful and multiply!
You are indeed an inspiration, best of luck with your efforts. :) I can’t wait until Captains Share, nor for the dead-tree version of Half Share.
Congrats to your wife! Now she’ll finally be able to get you to complete that honey-do list. Good luck getting the manual labor out of the way so you can concentrate on making more awesome novels.
hooray! you are a wonderful writer and i’m very much rooting for you being a well paid author
<—- bought quarter share in it's dead tree form
I’ll be interested in whether you think it was easier to have these characters in your head as a creative outlet from RL instead of them _being_ your RL stress. If I were in your shoes I fear that Ish and company would suddenly become co-workers instead of friends. You’ll have to tell us whether you still like these guys when you’re done with this! Maybe it’ll show.
That’s an interesting idea. I’m looking at it as a chance to spend more time with people I like … but I’ll let you know :)
I shall be thinking nothing but happy and positive thoughts for all of your endeavors, Mr. Lowell.
Full speed ahead and damn the red lines!
Nate,
I hope I write for most of your listeners when I request that you please, please, please re-consider the future of Ish and the rest of the golden age of the solar clipper. I know you’ve said that Owner’s will be the last installment, but your readers/listeners (like myself) deeply enjoy Ish and his adventures. There’s a lot to be said for both place and character, and while I understand an author can stomach only a certain amount of any one situation before s/he becomes bored/tired/etc with it, many of your fans have, well, larger stomachs, as it were. I understand it takes you weeks/months longer for you to create these works, while we voracious fans burn through them in days, sometimes in hours. Too many authors feel the need to move on to more fresh ideas and stories, despite the cravings of their reader base. This is understandable, but nevertheless it is disappointing.
Sometimes an author creates characters and storylines that are, for many reasons, more addictive than they had intended. Larry Niven’s Known Space is one example that springs to mind, for instance. Piers Anthony’s Xanth series is another. IMO Ishmael and the age of the solar clipper is yet another.
So, I must respectfully request that you explore the idea of continuing this saga beyond Owner’s Share. Sure, it’s your call, but your fans care, and I’d like to think I’m not alone in this.
Thanks,
Doug
I haven’t ruled out other stories. There are a lot of open spots where things can go.
Owner’s Share will be the last of the “Share” series but there will be other stories set in the Golden Age and probably even more stories with Ishmael, Pip, and the gang.
I see at least two more stories in the Golden Age. First, Port Newmar, filling in Ishmael’s time in school. Second would be a book that comes after Owner’s Share: CPJCT. Having become a respectable and wealthy trader, Ish retires and gets involved in the politics and committees that set the rules, and sees what the universe looks like from “the other side”. I can see all sorts of opportunities for Ish to use his trademark common sense to sort out a world of politics and a thousand conflicting priorities.
Nathan, congrats on the full time writing! You are the only person I know of that can write a whole story around coffee or tea! :-) I’m looking forward to purchasing more books and have the tentative schedule taped by my computer. Next time I plan to have a higher number than 150/250! PS – I heart Ish! Are you sure you don’t want him to marry me in Owner’s Share?
Nate,
First, thank you so much for the stories. Not only do I thoroughly enjoy them, they also have a positive effect on my productivity around the house and garden. Whenever there is something new I find myself doing a lot of yard work and indoors work so that I can continue following the adventures :)
Now for my question: what is the best way to also give monetary appreciation? You should set up a paypal donation page or something similar…
Thanks, Daniel.
There’s a PayPal donation button on the title page of each podiobook. Contributing there helps keep Podiobooks running and gives me the highest percentage of return.
For Captain’s Share you’ll find the title page at http://podiobooks.com/title/captains-share and thanks for listening.
Dude, did you lose your job?
Yes. Yes, I did.