So how the writing is going

Fairly well, despite it all.

“Space B!tch” is with the final editor. I have a cover artist. We’re looking at a September-ish release for 2014.

I have submitted a few short stories.

I have been promoting “Trolley,” here and there, like at RavenCon and Balticon, with a brisk sales increase. Oddly enough, sales of my old “Punk Walrus Saga” book have been doing well as well, despite being out of print.

I’ll be hosting the Cosplay at Anime Mid Atlantic June 13-15, then taking a break in July for Camp NaNoWriMo. Then I’ll be back at Otakon, Intervention, and TCEP in August.

Beta copy of “Space Bitch” out to beta readers

SEE… amazing speling errors! MARVEL… at grammar is the poorly! FIND… thongs the spill Czech her din knot kvetch!

So… Katsucon came and went. Major hotel stress. Hotel acting like assholes. Many years from now, I will be able to tell this story in full without jeopardizing any contracts. It makes me sad how quickly some people will blame the Jews from BBYO, but trust me… they were NOT the problem. In fact, they helped us FIX the problem from both sides, and the hotel had to admit all their mistakes on Monday after the con. That was an uncomfortable meeting, let me tell you. If any good came from this, I got to meet some cool people at the BBYO and the hotel will be pretty decent with us in 2014.

ANYWAY… I was co-chair, then I was elected President of Katsucon Entertainment, Inc., which meant I couldn’t be a con chair anymore (conflict of interest), so then I ran their communications division, and while I still do, being President of the Board and head of Communications, PR, and Marketing is about half the work of being co-chair. My wife took over, and then retired due to her health. This means now I can focus on my book, which I did with all speed because I wanted to get the rage of the hotel issues out of my head. Today, Friday, February the 22nd, I released my first draft beta to my readers!

I hope to get these back by April, have a revised Beta 2 for professional editor, and I *hope* to have this book out May 24th!

So… what about my book? “Space Bitch” status.

Ha ha…

Okay, so I got a new job since my last post in May. It can happen! The job is *great*. I love the job. However, unlike my last job where I did a lot of busy work with huge stretches of time with nothing to do where I could do my Katsucon work and edit my book… I actually have to WORK at this work. I mean, go figure. They pay fairly well, so I feel obligated to actually produce something. Also, I do a fair bit of after-hours studying and some workload, like tonight I have some maintenance that will last until the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Sadly, this meant I couldn’t do the swath of e-mails that being a Katsucon co-chair provided. So I had to do that at home. Which meant even though my book was *mostly* done… I still had to edit for beta readers. Then I was elected Katsucon Corporate President. This meant I had to give up my co-chair duties (conflict of interest), although I am still in charge of their communications and marketing. So my job with Katsucon “down shifted” but is still going strong.

So, my book took a back seat. After Katsucon, I’ll have some corporate filings to take care of, financial auditing, and working with the new convention chair elected for Katsucon 20 in 2014. It is my hope that I will manage to have a beta copy out. I’d like to have all this done so I can release a book at Balticon this year, but it’s going to be tight. Luckily, my work hired on contractors to help with the work load, so I’ll have less after hours stuff with them as well.

So there you are…

I am now on Amazon Kindle Direct

For those of you using Amazon Prime’s new lending library, I am now on Kindle Direct, which means you get to read my Trolley as part of your benefits!  Amazon pays me as part of their monthly fund, so I’ll be fine.  My book is also still available for purchase; both in hardcover and Kindle formats.

My upcoming book, “Space Bitch,” is being edited as we speak, and the first beta version should be ready by July 14th. Depending on the speed of the beta editors, we may have a finished version sooner than expected.  I targeted for Christmas, which was to be released Nov 14th, but I may have it way before that.  It depends on what is happening with Soylent Publishing at that time. 

Someone at Balticon asked me if I was worried about the word “Bitch” in my title, and while originally I was going to change it, I kept it because I found it was an attention grabber. Looking on amazon.com, I see there are 4,286 books currently with the word “Bitch” in the title, so I am not sure I have to worry.

 

Balticon 46 not in review

Well, it came and went.  I had a good time.

I am sorry, folks, I am swamped with work fuckery.  I am balls-deep in Russian software, broken Windows 7 logins, and the Windows 2012 release candidate came out with its new Play-Skool interface.  This weekend, I am on a rescue mission I can’t go into online, and I’ll be busy with that.

Short summary of Balticon: I had fun.  I met new friends, reconnected with old friends, and had no assistant so I starved to death with no one to remind me to eat.  One of those statements is false.

I am still editing Alpha Draft 2, and 53% of the way through.  Almost ready for beta.  

My Balticon 46 schedule

Balticon hosts its 46th convention at the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn this Memorial Day weekend, and as usual, I will be there! My publisher (Soylent Publications) will be sharing a table with Cold Moon Press, so you can see me there or at one of many panels:

Friday 6:00 pm (Pimlico) – Me reading for 17 minutes with other 17 minute increments from J. Sherlock Brown, III and Lyle Blake Smythers. The programming book states, “Please note that the authors are listed in alphabetical order. They’ll determine reading order amongst themselves.” Speed reading.

Friday 11:00 pm (Chesapeake) – Late Night New Media Meet and Greet where I moderate a motley crew of podcasters and the like: Trish Wilson (Elizabeth Black), Doc Coleman, and Paul Elard Cooley

Saturday, 1:00 pm (Parlor 1041) – Anime 101 where I moderate an introduction to Anime to old people. Includes a history of Anime, art, voice acting, and Japanese culture. My fellow panelists are Lee Sarfati, Christine Chase, Kat Sarfati, and Tyler Waldman. A must see for those who have never seen anime, and especially for those who have.

Saturday, 5:00 pm (Maryland Foyer) I am having an autograph session: Sharing my long table by the escalators are Michael S. Bracco and Robert I. Katz

Saturday, 6:00 pm (Chesapeake) Comedy Improv hosted by the great Alex R. White, as I, Norm Sherman, Stephen Granade, and Laura Nicole Spencer try to create mayhem. This is a must-see. You will divide your life as a before and after this event.

Sunday, 11:00 am (Parlor 1041) Anime for Parents: a continuation of what we have been doing at Katsucon, I moderate this with Yoji Kondo/Eric Kotani, Sharvonique Renee Fortune, and Stephanie M. Burke.

Sunday, 2:00 pm (Salon A) – Xenoarchaeology Road Show where GoH Jody Lynn Nye moderates a motley crew of science fiction writers to determine what will future archaeologists make of common 20th century household objects? Mark L. Van Name, Christiana M. Ellis, and John Hemry (Jack Campbel) will be my cohorts in speculative thinking.

Sunday, midnight (Salon A) – Eye of Argon – the Play. It what will be described as 90 minutes of pure torture on a Vogon Poetry scale, Michael A. Ventrella will host a literary catastrophe with me, Hildy Silverman, Susan de Guardiola, and Walter H. Hunt.

I haven’t even gotten my own schedule yet, I had to glean this from their pocket program on my own. So the times, places, and people are scheduled to change.

First pass: Chapter 12 of 29

Boy, I sure can spell creatively… yeesh… but I progressed really nicely for one weekend.  I won’t be able to do much next weekend, as I have Roller Derby bout recaps to do and then mother’s day.  I don’t have a mother, but my wife is one, so we’re taking her out.  The next weekend I will I hope to have the first alpha pass done by the first week of June.

Okay, I don’t want to be all arrogant and stuff, but I am really proud of some of what I wrote.  Right now, it’s not the best book; it needs some work, but man… there are some parts I laughed out loud at.  Some I cried a little.  And some will never see the light of day like a hair clog in a shower drain.

“I wrote what…?  Yee…”

I have managed to get a little under halfway of the actual first alpha before I do another pass of the second alpha.  Once that’s fixed, onto Beta 1 and my editors, who will attack it with rock and scissors.  I hope to have all those done by the end of the summer.  Then negotiations with my publisher, and then a Christmas 2013 release I hope by Thanksgiving.

I *should* have some readings for Balticon.  I don’t have a schedule yet, but I’ll post one when it becomes finalized.

Nanowrimo Winner, 2011 – Plus new details on my upcoming book.

When all was said and done, I did 66,262 words, for a total of 96,262 words for “Space Bitch.” I beat Sean, who dropped out at the 4k mark. He avoided me for most of AnimeUSA when I threatened to teabag him. I wanted to finish with a round 100k total, but I got sick the last two days. Plus Katsucon is looming around the corner, and I have to work on that.

Right now, we’re looking at about 105-110k words on “Space Bitch,” which is a working title and probably not the finished one. To give you a glimpse of where we are, the plot is as follows:

You have a shipping company called SUNGOD, which is a corrupt bureaucratic shipping contractor for the Vidmar Royal Galactic Enclave that covers thousands of planets and stations in hundreds of star systems. Several people are hired to handle the shipping needs of an outer territory system known as “The Verdes Mujeres,” named after the two large green stars and a dying remnants of a supernova that glow brightly in the local planetary systems’ skies. Like a frontier territory being taken over by new corporate politics, the ship’s crew consists of a strange variety of miscreants.

There’s the ship’s captain, Eliza Mortales, who is a psychotic lone wolf with little to no regard for anyone’s well being. Her first officer and chief interstellar navigator is Sarah Phulajanma, a political refugee from her father’s financial empire where she escaped slavery through arranged marriages. With them is Jennifer “Jen” Koipack, a member of a cult of perky goths who has a secret past. Along the way, Eliza kills off some crew members and random people, picks up a band of orphans, meets some old friends, and tries to wheel and deal her way through making a profit smuggling under her corporate overlords.

It’s kind of a dark comedy with political intrigue, back stabbing, secret politcal alliances, and a lot of plot twists and turns. I am having a shit ton of fun writing it.

I just have to add this funny tidbit…

“The Saga of Punk Walrus” is currently on sale by one used book seller for $20 on Amazon. Hey, if you come see me, I’ll sell you one for half that price AND sign it for you! 😀

http://www.amazon.com/Saga-Punk-Walrus-Punkie-Larson/dp/B0058P3WZM/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

I don’t believe in jinxes… but…

The Kindle version of Trolley is under review by Amazon.com. So I have a final version which is a little more edited than the hardcopy, but only for some spelling errors, a few run-on sentences, and other assorted formatting and grammar that made it easier to ready on a Kindle.

I think next book I am just going to skip italics and bold. Too much work, too much goes wrong. I learned a LOT about eBooks, though.

HOPEFULLY… the Kindle version will be ready for purchase in 2-3 days. But I have said that so many times before, I doubt myself at this point.