12/20's Chapter will be delayed and a update

Traveling with the family tomorrow- headed up to Vermont for the Christmas school vacation. Should be nice- Southwestern Vermont is almost unbearably quaint at any time, and we are finally past stick season. Plenty of snow, with more expected, to turn it into a winter fairyland. And as with all fairylands, time will bend and be distorted. The usually scheduled chapter will be coming out in the evening EST.

The poll has been interesting. Leaving aside the werewolf thing (though I am reading a werewolf romance over the Christmas break...) there was a distinct majority that was looking for a classic Xianxia-type novel. Noted. I'm working something up. It's not going to be as immediately subversive as Slumrat, but... you know how I operate at this point. It's going to get there.

The good news is that I'm not going to try to write a comedy, so it should be 30% less tragic and have 25% mind breaking cosmic horror!

Most of the rest were fairly close, with a few definite Not Interested in there. I was especially pleased to see the interest in a magic car/caravan/boat type story, because I have wanted to write one of those for years. No immediate plans for that, but it's great to know the interest is there. A crafting focused story is kind of interesting to me, but again, not in active development at this time.

As an exercise, I wrote a couple of chapters of a couple different stories the poll suggested. The Barbarian Beastmaster one was, to my delight, the best. Basically a highly intelligent, sensitive young man who happened to grow into a Frazetta Conan cover, and has a congenital speech impediment that makes him sound like an utter moron. I'm not putting it into development at the moment. Really, it was a bit of a goof. If you have any interest in writing, that kind of spontaneous creation is a fun thing to do. Just let your mind see where it wanders when you point it at a distant bit of horizon.

Shifting topic to The Happy Snerd- I really want to thank everyone who took the time to read and leave comments. Most particularly the critical comments. This is EXACTLY the feedback I need to hear. The feedback I want to hear is that you are ringing your cousin on the Nobel Prize committee and telling them to clear their schedule in anticipation of the full release. But in terms of what I need, it's to hear what didn't work for you.

The general consensus seemed to be that it needed more time to cook, particularly the first couple of chapters, and most particularly the first chapter. After reading all your comments, I completely agree. So it's going back into the kitchen. I'm not abandoning it because I've sunk way too much brain time into it (hollow laughter, muttering about the 'sunk cost fallacy') but it is getting set aside while I finish this volume of Weeaboo.

Some of you may remember that Cthulhu/time loop/cultivator story I dropped a few chapters of a while back that vanished? I loved that setting, and the story was fun. The problem was that I was having a little too much fun, and as a result, the whole second act was filled with lazy tropes that really deserve to die.

Authors use tropes because the audience recognizes them and, kvetching aside, they are popular for a reason. Besides, Tropes do a lot of the thinking for authors. Like buying pre-chopped vegetables at the store. They aren't necessarily bad... when used appropriately.

I wasn't using them appropriately. It's one of those things where you set it aside for a while, take another look later and wonder just what the hell you were thinking. Just... lazy, and in bad taste. It's on indefinite hiatus, until I can muster the energy and will to unfuck four or five long chapters.

Shifting back to Weeaboo, I am shopping it to publishers. The original plan was to self pub, but the amount of stuff you have to do to make a successful go of it just feels overwhelming. I know many people do it, and happily pocket the extra money. But man, I really don't like designing ads for RR. Do I really want to make them for Amazon and Facebook? No. I do not. So, I'm sending it out, and seeing if anyone is interested. Fingers crossed.

Salinas has stalled out. I had an idea of where I was going, but now I'm standing out in the weeds with my MC, wondering how to get there. I'll keep at it.

Just to wrap up an already long post- Just finished looking over the Copyeditor's work on Vol. 5 of Slumrat. It's looking very good. If you have any interest in audiobooks, I strongly urge you to check out the Slumrat audiobooks- Todd Haberkorn kills it. Just absolutely kills it.

Wishing you all a happy holiday season, and a peaceful New Year,

Warby