Jeez. Just being in a list with them is heady stuff.

We’ll know on September 4th if I get to keep my Susan Lucci title and notch another title on the bed post of “losing-est author in the novel category.” Fingers crossed and full speed ahead.

Good thing I got Owner’s Share to keep me occupied in the mean time, eh?

As I post this note, the last episode has been uploaded to the servers and the title should be marked complete as soon as that episode clears the quality control process.

This is significant for me — and by extention all of you — because it’s giving you all a taste of Mike’s work through my reading and giving his audiences a taste of my work as well. The intent is that the audiences will mix and mingle and, judging from the early comments, that’s already happening. This is good because it means larger audiences for Michael and me — and more content for each of you.

It’s also significant because it means Owner’s Share is now in the center of my plate.

Stand back. I’m going to start writing…

We’ve been hanging mostly in the under-1000 region for a few days now and more folks who aren’t from the podcast world are beginning to find it. It’s terribly exciting and even though these are sub-genre lists, the idea that I’m in there with the likes of Asimov and Heinlein has me a bit giddy. I’m even number 30 in best sellers in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction — which is squee-worthy in itself.

Thanks to all of you for helping me reach this point and I’m looking forward to releasing the next book in a few weeks.

There was quite a pile of addresses and I’ve already gone through half a case of books. We’re gonna have to order more pretty quickly I think.

In addition to these domestic US, there were copies to New Zealand, Australia, and Europe.

I don’t know how many you all have bought in total across the various media, but I’m fairly well amazed. When it all happens behind the screen, it’s hard to really get a feel for how many books are out there. With them stacked up on the dining room table like that, it gets very real.

Thank you, all.

Amazon now lists it in stock and Ridan reports they have recieved their initial shipments. I’m waiting for my boxes to show up here in the next day or so and you can order a signed copy of your own right now!

Pretty cool, I think.

Best Speculative Fiction Story (Long Form)

* Novel-length stories containing elements of science fiction, fantasy or horror
* Story audio length (minus intro/promo) over 7 hours
* Uses only 1 or 2 people for the story presentation
* Work completed within the eligibility year and have not competed in a previous year
* Audio samples only, no video

It looks like I may have a chance to win a Parsec after all!

For reference, works completed between May 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010, are eligible for this year’s Parsec.

In my world, that’s two books — Captain’s Share (completed October 15, 2009 at something over 11 hours of audio), and Ravenwood (completed February , 2010 with more than 10 hours of audio). If they both make it to the finalist category, I’ll need to figure out which one to hold back. I made the mistake of competing against myself before and I think it was a strategic blunder.

Personally, I’m pleased to see these changes although I know that it puts some of my friends in an awkward spot. Well, we’ll see how it shakes out this year. I’ll still polish up my Susan Lucci Tiara for the ceremony.

We’ve passed the book back and forth about three times now and I’m very pleased with the way the editing is going. We’ve had some tweaking of the cover art, mostly for color and tone, but the real time is being put into cleaning up the story.

One of the things that always baffled me about interviews with authors who went from Print to Podio was the question of “Did you have to change much?” I understand that question much better now. Writing for print is, on its surface, a much more straightforward proposition. There are a lot of visual cues on the page to help the reader understand what’s going on. There are, likewise, a lot of audio cues in a podiobook. Since I wrote all my books to be read aloud and not printed, I’m finding that we’re spending a lot of time fine tuning that difference.

It’s taking longer to edit that it did to write originally, but that’s to be expected, given how fast I wrote it. I believe that — in the end — you’re going to be pleased with the results, and in any case, we’re taking the approach that it’s better to be good than fast.

How many of you would want to buy one of those?

In January, 2007, this podcasting thing was only a couple of years old. Most people had never heard of it, and the idea of a serialized audiobook — the podcast novel — was even more unknown. I found Podiobooks in 2006 and started listening to Earthcore, 7th Son: Descent, and Brave Men Run. I think I went through the whole catalog in a few weeks, and when I finished Nina Kimberly the Merciless, I knew I had to try it. These people were having just way too much fun and I wanted to have fun, too. When I sat down to write the book that you all know as Quarter Share, the goal was to finish the story, record it, and publish it on Podiobooks.

Ten days later, I had my first draft. By the end of January I started recording. Yes, I recorded it in a very poor format on a $20 headset mic in the front seat of my car. Evo helped me get it into the correct form and in February 18th, 2007, the first six episodes of Quarter Share went into the stream.

Since that time, you’ve been with me through 5 ‘Share books, a Shaman’s Tale, and, now, a full on fantasy novel with Ravenwood. You’ve pestered me for the next release, you’ve badgered me about paper copies, you’ve written to publishers on my behalf to get them to print my books. You’ve donated, and rated, and reviewed, and followed me on twitter. There’s a discussion group in a knitter’s community for me. (Hi, Ravelry!) You’ve humbled me with your support and with your enthusiastic embrace of my work.

Normally, I keep a pretty low profile, but this month marks more than one milestone, and I’d like to share them with you.

3 years.
7 Books.
800,000 words.
1,000,000 downloads.

and one book contract.

Earlier this month I signed with Ridan Publishing to produce Quarter Share in a trade paper edition that will be available soon – at least by the time BaltiCon rolls around at the end of May.

Thank you, all, for your inspiration, your reviews, your comments, and your heartfelt support of the stories over the last three years.

Happy birthday, Ishmael! And many happy returns.

While I’ve spent most of this month working on the second and third drafts of Ravenwood, it became increasingly clear to me that this world needed its own place to live. After at least a half an hour of thinking and wrangling ideas around, I decided to open a sister site for the stories of the Lammas Wood so that these very different tales can have room to grow unbounded by the coldness of the Deep Dark and the metal shells of solar clippers.

I’m looking forward to discovering this world with you, but rest assured that the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper is far from over.

Watch for Owner’s Share in the Spring and keep an eye open for news of a cellulose and ink variety in the next few days.

Safe voyage.