Weekly Update - 5/17/23

Hopefully everyone's been enjoying the free novel I released last week, Nothing Beats Rock. Some people have asked if I'd be interested in revisiting that world, and for those of you who have finished it (no spoilers!), obviously I left myself plenty of paths to continue on if I wanted to, with many things unresolved and/or unfinished, just like happens in real life. Should I include a new RPS work in future "What Am I Writing?" polls? No hard feelings either way. If you'd be interested in seeing more of the Rock/Paper/Scissors universe, there's obviously more stories to tell there. I even found some of my notes for things I'd considered if I ever returned to that world.

There's also been some questions about how many other novels I have sitting around in the vault, and I've always tried to be straightforward when asked direct questions, so I can tell you that, in fully finished state, there's a couple that are done, there's one that's still under paid hold for at least another few months, there's one that's mostly done (that I could go back and finish given a bit of time) and there's one that's already published. 

The two that are done fall under that whole modern urban fantasy thing that Andy's always talking about, but definitively aren't Druid Gunslinger books, very much focused on the Tarot mythology instead, and one is the sequel to the other. The first book of those two was the first full novel I ever wrote, and it's gotten so damn close to being picked up by a literary agent so many times I could cry. Hell, that's why I wrote a sequel to it. That, and a couple of my friends were constantly bugging me for the second installment in that series. (The first book was clearly written as the start of a series.)

The one that's under paid hold is what's called "autobiographical fiction," about my time driving for Uber on the weekends during 2014-2016, and if nothing's happened with that by autumn, rights revert back to me, and I can shop it around again. I'm extremely proud of that book, so if anything, I might consider just self-publishing it. I feel like it's an excellent bit of fiction, so I've been trying to shop that one around regularly, although if I'm entirely honest, I sort of stopped looking for literary agents in 2020, when I started this pen name.

The one that's mostly done was my first attempt at high fantasy, and it's also gotten close to being picked up a few times, but it's up on figurative blocks right now, with a handful more chapters needing to be written, and maybe some major edits to be done. I was advised by an agent who was considering taking me on as a client that for fantasy, 3rd person omniscient narrators were out of fashion, so I revised it by splitting the book between the two main protagonists, giving each of them alternating chapters from their perspective. During the editing process, though, I realized I had a third character who essentially was becoming a third protagonist halfway through the book, and they needed chapters from their perspective, so I went back to add some of those, and stopped midway through when other things took priority.

That's a lot of inside baseball, I guess, but people were asking what's littering my hard drive and whether or not they'd be interested in it, so that's where all that stands. 

All that said, I'll tell you what -- I'll thrown down a couple of long-term goals that we can revisit later if people want. I'm going to do another round of "Can Dev get a literary agent?" in a month or so (I've been told that the successful Patreon might even be a selling point), but if we hit 1k subscribers before I get a literary agent, I'll post another previously written book here for all subscribers. 

I'll even give you a choice as to which one. You'll have two options. The first option is the first book I ever wrote. According to Windows, the last time the file was modified was 2016, but hey, at that point, I will have been shopping that book around for over ten years, and that's probably long enough. My first query letter for that was book was sent out 01/10/2011, although I actually finished the first draft for it back in 2004. It's gotten very very close to having representation half a dozen times, with the last correspondence with one particular agent saying, "I expect that in due course I will see this on bookshelves." It was the sort of confidence booster I needed, back during a time when it felt like literally everything in my life was going wrong.

The other option is that I'll post a digital version of the book I already self-published, which means I'll also means I'd be likely revealing my real name/identity to people. I was very nervous about that idea at first, but I suppose I've grown less concerned over the past year, so I could really go either way on that. The book I self-published could best be described as a quasi-religious fantasy comedy, in the same way that Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens," is, in that it's clearly heretical, but also a lot of fun. Anyway, we're probably a long, long way from that, but it's something to think about. Aspirational, even.

I'm like halfway through the next chapter of Brewster's Brood, so I'll hopefully have that up sometime today (or very late tonight, which is technically tomorrow morning). Trying to work on lots of different things at once, but I assure you, I'm working. Some days, the muse is on your side; others, she's got a bullwhip and blindfold.

Also, starting next month, I'm going to try a new thing - what I call an Archive Post. What I'm going to do is take all comprehensive .pdf/.epubs I've published here on the site so far and put them all into a single .zip file, so that new subscribers can just go and get one file that will get them most of the way caught up on all the stuff we've had here over the years, including stuff that's done/public. That way, if you want to just get one large file with all the old stuff, it'll be easy to find. I could do one of those monthly, or I could just update The House Rules post at the top to include that file. Thoughts?

If you're looking to pick up a signed copy of Quaranteam: Book One, I do still have a few copies remaining so if you want to pick one of those up, there's still time. I'm happy to make them out to whoever.

The current plan is for Friday to have the next chapter of QT2, and the second You Decide! scheduled for 5/26, so expect the poll for that to go up shortly.

Our public schedule for the next month or so looks like this: 5/20 - Quaranteam 2:1, 5/27 - Morgana's Gift 13, 6/3 - Seven Secrets Of Mr. Magpie 3, 6/10 - Quaranteam 2:2, 6/17 - Devil's Details 6.

Anyway, I've probably talked far too long here, but seeing that subscriber number climbing, and hearing that people liked the book I never could get published, that's been nice to hear. Take care of yourselves, folks, and I'll see you in the next one.