It’s the spooky day of Halloween, so let’s have a new Wandering Fortuneschapter a day early with the frightening prospect of singing oh no! Oh, there’s also horrible monstrous abominations, too. Chapter 11: Traveling Down Terrible Lane. Will they get out of this one? Will they find a job? Will Top pick up a new instrument?
By the way, having a chapter of scary monsters on Halloween was not planned. This was a coincidence. A scary coincidence!
Speaking of scary, I really hope to have news on the final release of Darmenzi in November. I’m hoping to have that news before the month is half over, at that. Regardless, those who give to my Patreon at $3/month will get to read the final book a month early, so that’s cool! A free copy a month early, at that. Anyone giving at any level gets a free copy when it releases. Also, patrons can learn more about the Schalindras later today when I post a profile on them. Plus you’ll get to read chapter 12 half a month early, in mid-November! So what are you waiting for? Begging? Because that seems like jumping the shark. What? You now want me to beg while jumping a shark? … i’ll think about it
The not-quite-tournament is under way with chapter 17 of Darmenzi! Numer faces his fears, Pocerni shows his experience, Cherry gets some punches in, and Sawn gets a bad deal. Will Conrad finally get his day and destroy his nuisances? Who will take the final orb? The answer may surprise you!
We’re in August now, and I’m expecting this month to be called back to the day job. When this happens my social media presence will probably have to die until I can get out again, probably in February. By then Darmenzi will be finished and a new story will begin. I’ll keep everyone posted.
A couple weeks or so ago I got a call from my dayjob that I’m currently on sabbatical/furlough from. I went nearly to slightly crazy at the end because I don’t do well with “normal” schedules and “holding down a steady job” or something. Of course add writing into it which is basically a second job and I don’t have much time for Things.
Anyway, the call. They were ready for me to return after just a month and a half. About maybe a week later another call set the return date for Tuesday. Monday they called and said it’s not happening. At least, I think that’s what they said, I was kind of asleep when they called, so if it’s not then I probably won’t be going back at all!
But so yeah, I spent a week or so expecting to return and then didn’t, so I got a little scuzzled. I got Slubes released and then spent the next several days not doing much in preparation for suddenly doing a lot, and then I wasn’t doing a lot. Now I’ve gotten my brain realigned and I’m doing more writing.
Actually, wait, that’s not true. I totally forgot, I spent a lot of time on Sunday editing the website. Thursday it might have been I did some editing throughout, I even updated the quotes section with a few quotes (I rarely remember to write down what I say). Then I went to town rewriting all the species pages, improving it and making it more consistent and better. By the end I was figgin exhausted. Somehow editing the website wears me out. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the site editor loads badly and acts slow and makes my computer sad? I don’t know, it’s weird.
So the last thing I wanted to mention today is Wattpad. I’ve had it mentioned one or two times and read something on there sometime ago, and I’m going to take a closer look at it soon. Early next week expect a post on what I’ll be doing. I will either skip on putting Slubes there entirely or just put the old prog version there in its entirety at once and move on to Darmenzi every week until it catches up to now. I feel that since Darmenzi is the sequel the first should be there, but the prog Slubes just has so much outdated and not-good that it almost seems counterproductive. Maybe I coul
Seriously, the WordPress post editor is like glitching out on me, it kept switching the focus from the post to the list of tags. I don’t know, I still liked the old editor better. Anyway, maybe I could just put the beginning sample of the final product of Slubes already available here on Wattpad. I’ll consider options.
I mentioned around the middle of June that I was planning some big changes, and here they are!
If you’re like me and prefer to read than watch someone yap about it, here it all is in text form:
Slubes Availability, Editing
The first change is my first novel, Slubes, will no longer be available through Createspace and Amazon.com. I’m sure you’ve heard about Amazon using jerk tactics to get better deals from companies that inevitably hurt writers. So I’ve been looking around for somewhere better. I’m considering Lulu.com, though I haven’t totally decided yet. However, in the meantime, Slubes is getting a makeover. I’m getting a professional editor to help me make Slubes, well, better. Wait, no. Amazing! I currently have no estimate for completion of that.
During this time, Slubes will still be available as an e-book on Smashwords, though, of course, it’s the old edition. However, over the next while or so I’ll be uploading it online to this website in a serial format–each month (my plan is) I will upload the next part of the novel for free online. As of now the first Day of Slubes (split into two parts) is available. I plan to do this with each novel–what I upload will be a sort of pre-final draft before getting it professionally edited. Along with this, I have another announcement…
Patreon
I have decided to get a Patreon account to go along with my writing and to help me out. Patreon is a website where fans of creators–authors, cartoonists, musicians, whatever–can become patrons and pledge money per month or per work. The idea is a little give and take: the creators make something and put it on the internet, the fans give them money, and then the creators make more stuff–patrons can get rewards for pledging, and milestone goals give them something to work towards.
In my case, it’s per chapter (or short story)–every time I post a part from a story, I’ll receive the money from my patrons. Since I’m trying to aim for a per-month basis, this would basically be per month, but as it’s per chapter it’s not set in stone.
Patrons can also receive rewards depending on amount given: $1 per chapter lets you see my Patreon activity stream (which I’ll use to post updates and secret information) and also gets you a coupon for the e-book of my latest novel (you’ll be put on a waiting list if you pledge before the second edition of Slubes is out); $5 gives you access to a live video stream I’ll do each month where I read from my novels and short stories–including the possibility of some I haven’t released yet–and take questions from people watching; $9 gets you a free signed physical copy of my latest novel (like the e-book one, you’ll be put on a list before Slubes is out); finally, there’s a $100 reward that I don’t expect anyone to go for. But hey, it’s there if you really like my writing and have extra money.
The milestone goals I have begin when I’m getting $50 per chapter, at which point I’ll give this site a bit of an overhaul with a WordPress premium account, letting me add custom fonts and colors and get a proper web address and remove ads; at $100 per chapter I’ll try to post a bonus chapter/short story each month without applying it to patrons’ pledges (so that you don’t suddenly give twice as much per month as before); after $250 per chapter I’ll begin writing a (planned monthly) comic where characters in the Cloudy Cuckoo Cosmos answer e-mails sent by real people on Earth, drawn by a talented artist (i.e. not me); finally (for now), at $500 per chapter I will consider everyone awesome, have to think of more milestone goals, and begin work planning an online Cloudy Cuckoo Cosmos text tabletop-type role-playing game, the details of which are long and complex, but more information will come up if we begin to near this goal.
The Future
As I said, I don’t have a projection for when Slubes Edition 2: Professional Editor Ahoy will be done, but at the beginning of each month I’ll be posting online (for free!!) here the next part of Slubes. The entirety of Day 1 (which was previously up as a free preview) is up now in two parts (as is the short story Tough as Blades), and at my projected schedule, Slubes will be all posted on here as of March 2015, so Darmenzi will begin being posted April 2015. It would be nice to have Slubes finished (for reals this time) by then, so I’ll go with by next March as my goal-date.
I think that’s everything that’s happening coming up. I’ll keep everyone posted on what’s going on. Seriously. Everyone. I will break into the homes of the entire world populace and leave letters on what I’m doing. I will then eat your milk and drink your cookies and fly off on a reindeer-powered chimney. HO-DE-DO, VERY IFFMAST!
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 