Category: Slubes

A threat from above, a threat from below, and the only ones who know are nervous, careless, and… well, one is competent!

The planet Mintop is on the verge of invasion. Three slubes–distant relatives to the banana slug–find that an intergalactic conqueror is after a crystal of immense power in their town. According to legend, the crystal is in place to seal an ancient demon underground, so when it shatters, a race begins—the three slubes must rebuild the crystal before the demon’s seal is broken. The space invader isn’t about to lose such a powerful artifact, though, and aims to stop their collectathon.

Numer, the happenstance hero with a nervous disposition, Professor Zeth, the well-meaning but careless inventor, and Cherry, the karate-tailed competent one. These three semi-heroes must overcome The Conqueror’s obstacles if they are to save their planet from intergalactic invasion and demonic destruction.

The debut novel of Duth Olec and perplexed narrator Wally Plotch chronicling tales of the Cloudy Cuckoo Cosmos, and the first of two novels in the Nottle Crystal series.

Princess Serani profile is up, and an announcement about old chapters

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The princess of the Salenth Kingdom, Serani, gets her own profile page! She’s headstrong and not going to take anything from anyone and the gossip corner has all sorts of rumors about her and also the protagonist of Wandering Fortunes maybe wants to give her a smooch

ANYWAY, I’ve taken down old in-progress chapters for Slubes and Darmenzi. They’re old and I dunno that I want them public. They’re each *one dollar* as an ebook so it’s not a big deal. The previews of the final book are still up, though. It’s just that I’ve improved so much since these in-progress chapters I want to look forward. I don’t know if I’ll do this regularly, like every book’s serial release will eventually be made unavailable, maybe at some point they’ll be so good that I won’t even mind them being up. And at some point maybe Slubes and Darmenzi will just become free ebooks all the time. Who knows what the future holds!

However if I do hide unfinished Wandering Fortunes chapters they’ll still be available for patrons on Patreon. Slubes and Darmenzi would be too but I wasn’t posting chapters directly into Patreon back then it seems so those are just links to pages that don’t exist now. Anyway, speaking of Patreon, I’m gonna post another new profile on there today if you’re interested, and of course the next chapter is already available for patrons, so check it out if you have an interest in reading things and then reading more things!

Darmenzi releases Wednesday, January 17th, 2018! In one month!

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As you can see by the press release I just posted, I finally have a release date set for Darmenzi. It’s been a long time coming… though maybe not as long as Slubes was. The ebook can be seen here and will be $1, just like Slubes, except Slubes is currently free for December on Smashwords.

Pre-ordering will be available once Smashwords approves the book and sends it to the websites that allow that; I will keep everyone informed as to when this happens as soon as it does. Keep in mind that if you pledge to my Patreon you get the book upon release, and if you pledge $3 or more you’ll get it BEFORE release!

As you may notice, the book has had a bit of a makeover, centering text and making the smaller text easier to read. To go with this is a new book description, which you can see both on the novel page of this website and the Smashwords page for the book. There is also a preview of the final book you can read here, with more chapter previews coming over the next few weeks before the book’s release.

Now then. You’ll notice I only mentioned the ebook. A physical book will be coming, but I do not know if it will come on the same day. I’m going to look into different physical book publishers from Createspace, and so that might take a bit of time to settle on one that I’ll want to use (unless the first one I try is great in which case swell!) I’ll keep you up-to-date on that as well.

In summary: Darmenzi releases January 17th, preview here, donate on Patreon to get a copy early, physical book news later.

CCC donates to charities in February

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So most of the time when I get into

Bah, this isn’t even politics, this is just basic decency. Well, if you’ve read the news, the US is imploding, and people are giving money to organizations to try and keep things existent for the next while. I keep my monetary levels at sea level generally, but I figured I could donate other peoples’ money. Thus to the end of February (and maybe later depending on how things go) all sales of my book will go to charities doing good things to save the nation and the world from being eaten by a bog monster.

Right now I’m thinking the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Fight for the Future (the internet is serious business, after all). I’m open to other ideas, though.

What this includes is, well, anything related to the CCC. Buy a copy of Slubes, whether paperback or ebook, wherever copies are sold, and whatever I get from that goes to a charity. Become a patron of mine on Patreon in February? To charity. Buy that shirt that I never mention? It’s sad and heartwarming, the latter mostly because you’re wearing magma, and weirdorable and yes if you buy it money goes to a charity, and then you get a shirt and can wear the shirt at a protest and I can’t actually think of anything clever as to how that would tie into all this. I mean, it’s a figgin magma monster. I’d say like, you could say it’s Trump, but then you make Trump look sympathetic. Also a magma monster. Cagnorm is way more likable anyway.

That’s all I got, I suppose. You can of course always donate directly to good causes, but, like, then you won’t get to read a neat and funny book. Actually, I suppose I could give an ebook copy to anyone who can show they’ve donated, but I’m not sure what would qualify as proof in that regard.

Anyway, if you’ve read this far, a reminder that tomorrow the second chapter of Wandering Fortunes goes up. Then those who do become patrons in February will get to then read the third chapter in just a couple weeks. Exciting!

Darmenzi Chapter 16: Ending Maneuvers

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Chapter 16: Ending Maneuvers

We’re in the final quarter of Darmenzi now! To start it off, we check in on someone we haven’t seen for a bit, then dive into a fantastic setting that gets broken into by another old “friend”. I’d have to say I particularly like this chapter, as we get to see some things we haven’t had a chance to examine too closely before, and the character interaction is amazing. When I get silly, I hold no punches from oversized novelty punching gloves.

On a side note, Slubes ebook is still free until… Wait, hold on… Smashwords is doing a sale this month. Okay! It’s free until the end of July, whee!

In other news, I’ve gotten work started on editing the third novel, Wandering Fortunes. I’m primarily combing through it right now for what major things I need to edit, but next week I’ll get underway on that. More on that near the end of the year!

Video of Slubes reading and free Slubes ebook!

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Today marks three months since Slubes was re-released, and to mark this occasion a couple special things. First, the ebook is free until July 10th (and not August 10th, I seriously keep skipping July in my mind, the two months just run together for me, stupid naming convention, no, it is July 10th that the promotion lasts to). Just put in the coupon code LC88G at the Smashwords Slubes page when you get it and it will cost zero pennies.

The second thing is much sillier. I wanted to make a video of me doing some reading of Slubes, but my microphone has been broken for a while (AGAIN), so I got another idea. I pulled up the text-to-speech things on Windows 8 and fed the book through that! I think you’ll be pleasantly surprizzzzz

(Of course, if you’d rather just read an actual preview of it instead of listening to it like a normal person, such a preview is always available on the Smashwords page and on my website here.)

Slubes edition 2 is now available, paperback and ebook!

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Once upon a time, over six years ago, I started working on an actual novel. A lot of off-and-on work later and the final result is finally final! Slubes is here, for reals this time!

Slubestitle

The ebook is available at Smashwords here for $1, and the physical book is available on Amazon here for $12. There is also a free preview on Smashwords, should be one coming up on Amazon soon, and I’ll also put up a preview on this website here. In fact, after I type up this blog post I’m going to go through this website and update a lot of pages. Should be fun!

I fully believe this book is better in every aspect from the old one, which I suppose is a good thing because anything less would be kind of stupid. It’s bigger, more detailed, stronger, and the author intrusions are more obvious now yaaaay!

I’m sitting here thinking of what else to say, but all I can think is that I hope you (the internet) check out the first writing of mine ever on the internet to be finished, refinished, refurbished, reapplied, refibrillated, refinished again, completely finished, recompleted, and made into a readable format! And then I hope, if you do check it out, that you also like it. Like and subscribe! Review it, let me know its strengths and weaknesses, help make the sequel even better (of course, half of that is on this website, but not as finished as Slubes now is).

Oh, and I may have Kindle version of Slubes available later this month. That’s all for now.

Another Slubes Excerpt

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I would just like to take a brief moment here first to mention the great editor I had to help me rewrite Slubes, Dawn Johnson, with her website Word Edge here. She was super great in both critiquing the novel to help me improve and editing it to help the novel improve, and she was always ready to clarify and help me work out where to go. She helped me determine how to format the Duth Olec and Wally Plotch side conversations, get the story and characters more direction and flesh, and improve everything forever and completely totally.

Now here’s a totally new scene (or at least mostly new scene) that wouldn’t have been added without her advice, I think. There’s at least a couple scenes like that? Maybe a few? Or more? I don’t believe the ones I’m thinking of were added beforehand. Sheesh, it’s been 2 1/2 years, I don’t remember. In the version on this website, pretty much this whole thing is skipped–the story goes directly from their learning of the power plant problem to after Zeth examined it.

Read the excerpt

Reader Reviews for Slubes (and a question for indie authors)

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In just under two weeks Slubes will be re-released in edition 2: everything’s been improved edition. On Thursday, March 10th, it comes out. Between now and then, though, if there is anyone interested in reading it ahead of time (if you can read 300 pages in two weeks) and then posting an honest review online (whether on Amazon, a blog, Goodreads, or where have you), I will be perfectly willing to send you an e-copy of Slubes to do so. Then when the book is released I can send you a thing so you can officially get the book for free through Smashwords.

Again, this would be an honest review, so if you hate it, by all means. (Just say why you hate it, and it can help others decide if they would agree.) It’s win-win, probably. You get a book to read with no money paid, and I might get some exposure. Just post a comment here or Twitter to me if you’re interested. If you stumbled upon this place with no idea what the novel is about, it’s some amalgamation of humor, science fantasy, and adventure, so if that piques anyone’s interest, here’s the description from the back cover:

When disaster falls, there are only three heroes who, well, know about it. It remains to be seen if they can do anything about it.

The planet Mintop is on the verge of invasion. Three slubes–distant relatives to slugs–find that an intergalactic conqueror is after a crystal of immense power in their town. According to legend, removal of this crystal has always led to a town-wide disaster. When it shatters in the sky, a race begins—the three slubes must rebuild the crystal before a new disaster takes place. That is, if one hasn’t already happened, as the space invader isn’t about to lose such a powerful artifact and aims to stop their collectathon.

Numer, the happenstance hero with a nervous disposition, Cherry, the strong-tailed martial artist, and Professor Zeth, the well-meaning but careless inventor. These three semi-heroes must overcome The Conqueror’s obstacles if they are to save their planet from the disaster of an intergalactic invasion.

The debut novel of Duth Olec and perplexed narrator Wally Plotch chronicling tales of the Cloudy Cuckoo Cosmos, and the first of two novels in the Nottle Crystal series.

You know, as long as I’m reaching out to the internet, if any indie authors out there are looking for more people to read their stories, I’ve actually been looking for some indie writing to read lately, authors and writers who are basically sailing the same sort of waters I am. I’ll read just about anything; I prefer to have some humor, but I’ll also read a more serious tale, and I also don’t just read science fiction/fantasy, either. So, you know, whatever, charge ahead.

Patreon changes and pre-order notes

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It turns out to make pre-ordering a thing with a Createspace-self-published book requires hoops. As it stands, when setting up the book information you can select a publication date, but you can’t select a publication date in the future. When I saw that, the first thing that came to mind is that someone has a planned publication date, they can enter in their date, and once it’s approved pre-ordering can begin. Nothing of the sort! That’s just there if the book was published in the past, I guess? I dunno. And of course once a book’s proof is approved, once the author says “yes, everything looks fine, the book is in place and set up right”, that’s equivalent to saying “sell the book NOW”.

So, to summarize, no pre-orders. Also, I can’t actually order non-proof copies of the book before approving it, so pre-ordering it by pledging on my Patreon won’t really get it any faster either. So that’s kind of a dead end there, no pre-ordering for the physical book, and for the ebook only pre-ordering through my Patreon.

Speaking of Patreon, I’ve done some changes. (Actually as of my typing this I have made no changes, but I’m partly using this to organize my thoughts while I change it). One of these days I should change that intro video to just be my voice with some images, no one wants to stare at me for a few minutes.

I’ve done a bit of editing on the about page, but it’s nothing too major. I might have changed one word on the milestones. What I’m really changing are the rewards. The $12 reward was originally for a signed book, but that has been changed to an unsigned one. There’s a new reward of $15 for a signed book. Why?

A signed book nearly doubles the cost to me, because first I have to ship it to me, sign it, then ship it out, so I pay for shipping twice. Cost analysis: as a creator, ordering a copy of Slubes only costs me $4.61, with $3.59 for shipping. Thus, if I ship it directly to someone this way, it costs $8.20. This is slightly lowered when I order them to my place because I’ll get 10 or so at once; since shipping doesn’t go up the same amount per book, it’ll result in something resembling $6 per book. Then I sign it, and from what the USPS website says the cost of shipping the book to someone becomes $6.45, so that comes to about $12 or so. The cost of signing the book is about $4 (not counting the ink used, and I kind of have a box of 50 pens I got for free due to Amazon free shipping shenaginags so whatever).

For the record, and I don’t think I mentioned this yet and probably should have, the new edition of Slubes will have a price of $12. I don’t give a fig for this $#.99 nonsense. Psychological pricing, pfft. Also while looking up the name of that I came across the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Hats off to the UK. Not that I’m wearing a hat. In my case it might be hair off. Not for another month or so. Where was I? Oh, right.

$12 for Slubes normally, minus whatever percentage off Amazon might do at any given moment, plus shipping unless you have some membership with something or spend another $23 or so. $12 pledge on Patreon for a copy with no shipping cost, and $15 pledge for a signed copy with no shipping cost. Ebooks, meanwhile, are $1 regardless of Patreon or directly on Smashwords. And I don’t think I can sign ebooks…

That’s about it for this informationativel update. More fun stuff later!