Trader’s Diary

Sorry. I’m having problems getting this migration to go smoothly.

Hang in and I’ll get it taken care off ASAP

Update: I think I’ve got the holes, links, images, and uploads all put back where they belong.

If you find something hosed, leave a comment here or on the fan forums which are *still* at http://durandus.org/fans - at least for the moment.

OK, it’s a tease … but I think this is where I’m going. I just did this take this morning as a final “dial in” on the audio settings for the gear.

 

 Double Share Sample : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What do you think? Can you listen to 25 episodes? The real ones will be longer, I promise.

One of you wonderful fans sent me a link this great medley of jigs from a Canadian Band named Great Big Sea. The music is from PodShow so is licensed for use in podcasts already. I like this tune and think it would be more compelling than the sparse sounds of the other tune.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

How about you? I need to adjust my narration in the outro a bit and I’ve written to the band to see if there’s something they’d rather I said there, but .. what do you think? Better? Worse? Go with “Larry O’Gaff”…?

I like the way this sounds, but what about you folks?

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What do you think? Does this make you want the story even more now?

Yes. Faithful Fans.

The book is complete. It needs some polish, probably a little fiddling. I’m sure I’ve crossed up a plot line or two, but it’s complete.

Last Friday the book was 78k. By Monday it was 96k. I threw away 15k words because the flow was wrong and then rearranged the rest. What that means is that I’ve written something around 25,000 words in the last three days.

I need to find the music before I can begin audio production so if you have any fav’s that you think might work, leave me a comment with the link and I’ll check it out.

Right now, I’m exhausted.

Well, not as good a week as I’d hoped, but I spent 6,500 words on a side project with another author. You’ll hear more about that when the Sekrit Is Revealed. It’ll be fun, I think.

And in other news, some of you know already, but there’s a fan forum. If you wanted to talk about the books or play in the sandbox, you can find a really plain looking forum at http://durandus.org/fans

Be nice and have fun.

Back on the book front. It looks like we’ll break the magic 80k mark tomorrow, and then its just a question of wrapping up the plot threads. There are a few of them, but it’s been fun so far.

Keep the faith. I’m still shooting to get this up by the Fourth. We’ll see.

This week took a nose dive when I got embroiled in a day job related fiasco that took 25,000 words away from Double Share. Still, the plot is percolating nicely.The beta readers are positive.

Yes, this is a different story, but I think a richer one. It’s not inconceivable that I’ll have the first draft done by Monday, but I expected to be much further along than I am by now.

I’m also pretty sure we’re going to get a bit bigger than the bare 80k words that I planned for. It wouldn’t surprise me to get to 100,000 before I’m done.

Thanks for your patience and I hope you find these little status reports to be useful.

We’re at 48,000 words on the road to 80k.

I’m writing about 4k a day in a normal day and 7k on thursdays and fridays.

The story is shaping up nicely, but I still need to get one of the winning ships in there. Several of you will find yourselves as crew, characters in the story, or even have buildings named for you.

This book has so many Easter Eggs, I’m expecting Bunny Local #1524 to pay me a visit for Union work rule violations, but it sure is fun.

For the Ship Name:

Comment from Geordon VanTassle
Time: January 24, 2008, 6:51 am

Been kicking this around in my head for a while, and one name (related to absolutely nothing) that keeps popping up in my head is “William Tinker”. I just like how it feels and sounds.

For the Logo:

Submitted by Mike Assid who asked that I use either his wife’s maiden name (which is awfully close to McKendrick) or his mother’s name (which I like a lot, but will not reveal for privacy purposes.)

Thanks to everybody who submitted suggestions. I suspect I’m gonna use a lot of your suggestions and names in the next three books. Watch for cameo appearances by YOU as the new books come out.

With just a few hours left to run (and not a lot of stuff left to see in the program), I’m hoping to spend a couple hours in the lobby saying “Safe Voyage” to all the great folks I’ve met this weekend from the podcasting community.

One of the things I was surprised at was the distinction between “literary” and “podcast” programming. It seems pretty clear that the two are a long way apart. People promoting first books are working hard with small presses to sell a few thousand copies. The listeners to the Golden Age books represent many more than the average numbers of the standard “first book” author. It’s astonishing.

I’m contemplating some ideas about New Media as well. The application of social media seems to be lagging behind - even in the podcasting community. There’s a certain “semi targeted” shotgun approach, but … I’m not sure we’re actually getting there.

More when I get home.