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.
Hey Nate, I’m a fellow podcaster (working on my own podcast fiction right now as well) and was wondering if you have any promos for your stuff that I could run in my podcast. I love all your books so far and would like to get the word out about it!
Thank,
RB
You make it look so easy. Writing, editing and production! On top of your regular job. You are truly awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your great stories and wonderful characters.
I love getting some updates :) Hope you enjoy writing the book :)
Great news! Any knitters in this one?
RB: Promos are on the podiobook site — Quarter Share and South Coast. There’s a button on the left side of the page.
Trucker: I guess the key is “look so easy” because, man, there are days …
torerling: i *do* — i wish i could do it full time
Auntie: Sorry. Not yet.
Great news! Great to hear that the ship is righting itself and it is full sails ahead!
Keep the updates coming. Those of us that have been waiting oh so impatiently find some relief that progress is being made…now get to writing…. ;)
Dude, you might say you’re a sloppy dresser, but you’re no slouch when it comes to pounding out an awesome book.
Love getting the updates and having an idea of when the nest part of the story might be appearing. Have totally loved the stories so far. Keep up the great work and looking forward to hearing the next installments.
In the last week I’ve listened to all three share books (went through half and full share in 2 days, just couldn’t put them down so to speak) and tomorrow is South Coast Day! Glad to hear the next book is coming along. I don’t think I want the story to end :)
Amazing work!
I have really enjoyed Quarter Share and Half Share and am halfway through Full Share as I write this.
It must have been quite a challenge to come up with cool trading that can be done on such a small scale.
I like the positivity of these stories. I’ve read my share of C.S. Forester, and they weren’t always so upbeat as these stories are.
These stories call out to me and say, “Sam, wouldn’t it be cool to have a tabletop roleplaying game designed and set in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper?”
At lot of people might respond and say that the long-in-the-tooth science fiction RPG called “Traveller” is basically that.
I think in order to be truly successful, such a RPG would have a board game element similar to Settlers of Catan, which would simulate the trading economy that shapes the background of these stories.
But the structure of “ratings” as they are listed in the stories make for a perfect advancement model for characters in the roleplaying game version.
Some folks may not entirely enjoy playing in a science fiction roleplaying game where there isn’t as much effort paid to combat mechanics and the like: there aren’t life-and-death situations every moment. Yeah, there were some fights in the stories. Yeah, there was the bit in Full Share about the EMP. But other than that, these stories are about people interacting with each other, not about killing stuff or stealing treasure. And that’s just what I love about them.
By the way, I would very much like to hold these babies in my hand. I am supposing that the idea of publishing them through Lulu in a limited release has been considered and discarded? I don’t want you to ruin your chances of being published by an actual publishing house, but I want my wife to read these stories. She doesn’t listen to audiobooks, but I know she’d be charmed by them.
Anyway, good luck on “Double Share.” Never give up! We’re counting on you. No pressure or anything.
Thanks. I’ve enjoyed trying to find stories that were interesting without having to save the universe every twenty minutes or mop up the gallons of my characters’ blood all the time.
The idea DOES owe a lot to Traveller and also to the Lee and Miller Liadan universe for the notion of commerce as a plot device.
I *have* considered Lulu. Actually looked into it. Price points weren’t where I wanted.
So. We’re still in the process of navigating the publication waters. Don’t give up. You may yet see a boxed set of these babies :)
A boxed set!?! Put me down for 5! :)
Let me take this opportunity to say that I am a fan. In fact yo are one of my all time favourite Internet authors, right up their with Cory Doctorow. Needless to say, I have loved all of your books so far. I even introduced them to my room mates and they all love them as well. In fact one of them listened to all four of your books in as many days. I also find it amazing that you have released these works under a Creative Commons License, which I think is possibly one of the most important movements of our time.
PS – if a boxed set comes out you can bet I will buy one, posible more than that to give as gifts.
Thanks, James.
Creative Commons was a natural choice. I want people to hear my work. I can accomplish that most readily if I make it easy for people to pass it around.
:)