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…

Alpha 2 Pass done of “Space Bitch”

So, things didn’t happen the way I expected them to today, and I got a lot more time to edit my alpha pass than I planned for. But this is a good thing, as alpha 2 is done.

There was a lot more weeding than I expected, mostly due to story flow, and a few minor inconsistencies. I deleted several pages of “booooor-ring!” side stories and saved them for the sequel, which is already being fleshed out. But I also had to add more stuff to balance some scenes out, and add some helpful dialog. So the final word count is a hair under 141k. But the action is pretty good. This book will be full of action.

Now it’s being reviewed by my first editor so the beta copies are not as rough as last time. That means, beta editions are coming soon! I know some of you have sent me requests, and most of you will get them.

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.  

Space Bitch – first alpha pass done!

First alpha pass of Space Bitch done. One more alpha pass until the first beta goes out to editors!

This stage marks the end of individual text files in gedit to one big piece in Abiword/LibreOffice. All major edits and revisions are done, so now it’s cross-checking facts, names, and motivations. At about 135k words currently which won’t change very much unless I do some major last-minute root-pulling.

I hope to be done with the second alpha pass by next weekend!

Major first pass of edits have started

I still don’t have a better title.  This one may stick, although it may limit my market.

I am at 127k words.  The first pass is usually when by the end of the book, the characters have been fleshed out a little more, so you make the first part match the second part.  Notably foreshadowing and moments where, “Sarah wouldn’t say that…!” 

Speaking of Sarah, she’s been a difficult character as far as motivations are concerned.  I understand her well, but making the reader see what I see has been difficult.  Otherwise, I think readers might go, “Come on…!  She just stands there and TAKES that?”  Her captain is severely abusive, and one of her shipmates is also very complicated. The perspective switches several times from Sarah to Jen, and making that work has been a little bit of a balancing act.  

Also, in many cases where I had writers block, I leave whole sections as skeletons.  Like:

“I am not sure if being dead to your family is really the same as not knowing who they were in the first place,” Jen said.  “But I suppose that’s not my place to judge.  But what I do know is that… you and I… have one common bond. The desire for love.  And right now… there’s only the two of us against some pretty slim odds of survival.”

Sarah swallowed.  Her constant fear of discovery had prevented her from attending to her needs; she knew that much.  But could she take on any sort of relationship now?  Or would she always wait until it was too late?  And was she even attracted to women?  But as the distance between her and Jen closed, she felt her self-analysis drift apart.  She just wanted reassurance once in her life that someone genuinely cared for her that didn’t need her for just her professional skills.

“You smell like cloves…” was the only thing she could utter in reply as their lips met.

[INSERT TASTEFUL LOVE SCENE HERE, FOLLOWED BY INTERRUPTION BY ELIZA]

“You guys make me sick,” Eliza said. “If there’s one drawback to having a human crew, it’s their disgusting habits to mate.  And Jen’s not even the opposite sex.  You can’t even fucking get THAT right, Sarah.”

This is going to take several passes.

It’s 10:07pm on April 29th, 2012 … and I have just completed my second novel!

“Space Bitch” is currently 125,932 words. Of course, now I have to edit it. So… lots of fun ahead.

I’ll be in my bunk…

The new book is almost done

Working title “Space Bitch” is at 150k words, and I am not even done. I am mostly done, cutting down to the final confrontation. I have a list of programs I’m going to do at Balticon, awaiting times and scheduling.

I still need a better title.

The story so far…

Yes, Katsucon is foremost on my mind but I am at 103k words for my second book which is about 5000 words since Jan 15th. Still 90% finished, working on crafting that grand ending. This book will likely have a sequel, as I was getting a little too… Tolkien-esque in my storyline. Definitely not finished by Balticon. 😦

Well, better do it right than rush it.