Note: I used to schedule posts without any issues, but that’s twice now that I’ve accidentally posted a newsletter early and then pulled it back. Sorry!
Thanks, mom 🙂1
Also, happy birthday to my amazing wife! (She’s a Jedi—May the Fourth be with her.)
You want more heartwarming, random moments like that to start off your weeks? Subscribe below! Subscribing is also a good way to make sure you’re the first to know when Halfwhisker goes live. You’re not going to want to miss it…
Writing and Publishing
Looking Back
Last month, I finished Part 5 of Halfwhisker… Which means I have one more part to go (Rattankoig!), and then I’m finished with draft 2 of Halfwhisker. That’s going to be the big focus this month. I doubt I’ll finish this month—but, hey, I’d rather set aggressive goals, so let’s see if I can finish it this month.
Approaching 300k words, by the way. I’m really glad I structured this as a series of short stories that can be read as one, single tome, because the average reader gets scared when they see something the size of a Brandon Sanderson novel, without his name on the cover. (Then there’s readers like me who explicitly prefer novels that are going to take a long, long time to finish, but I don’t think we’re a large enough audience to court exclusively, particularly since we still read the shorter stuff.)
Looking Forward (UPDATES)
— Halfwhisker —
I’m feeling really good about where Halfwhisker is so far, and I don’t think that’s going to change much when I finish it. But there’s still going to be a lot of work to do.
I’ll give the book a read-through and tweak as I see needed. Then I’ll make a plan whether or not any larger changes are needed, or if I should just focus on line and copy edits. I need to order some art for the book. I’ll need to find beta readers. I need to chapter the novel, give each chapter a name and in-universe quote. I also want to write a one-to-three-thousand-word short story to act as interludes between each part, acting as in-universe myths or fairy tales, but also tying in thematically or emotionally to what’s coming up next.
And then, once I’m ready to pull the trigger… I think I’ll have enough pure book at that point to go full-throttle on Royal Road, selling ebooks as I finish each part, and maybe doing a Kickstarter for the final omnibus. (I’d like to stuff it full of art, if possible, and maybe an mini-encyclopedia at the back—I like it when books do things like that.)
I’m pretty confident that Halfwhisker will last long enough I won’t need to finish the whole first “season” of Mouse Noir before I start releasing everything, but we’ll see.
And that’s all a lot further down the road than a month or so, so we’ll see what plans change.
— The Blog —
I’m going to slow down significantly with blog posts. There’s a few reasons for that.
My first reason is that I’m an author of novels, and that’s what I want to put my primary energy into. While I enjoy writing other things, I only have so much time, and this year I pretty strongly felt that weekly blog posts wasn’t the best way to use that time.
My second reason is that I don’t think my reviews get much traction anyway. And, you know what, fair enough. I enjoy writing my articles more than the reviews, but those take significantly more time and effort—and, as I said, I’m trying to reserve what gas I have in the tank for getting my books out into the world. It’s been too long since Inner Demon was published, and since I first started Halfwhisker, and I don’t want to only put out a book every two or three years. My goal is still a hefty novel every year, although that’s probably not going to be achievable until I (somehow) go at least part-time as an author.
Anyway. I like the articles (as few as I’ve written), and I think you guys do, too, but they can’t be my focus right now. I’m not here to sling content—I want to create art!
The Blog
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not shutting down the blog, or anything foolish like that. I’ll still share reviews every once in a while, or an article if I’m particularly inspired. I’ve got something from Ark Press that I quite like and am excited to share, and I’m hoping that review will go out launch week for said book.
Anyway—I think April had some good options for entertaining reading, if you’re interested.
- The Islands of the Blessed: Jack is back with his last adventure, one that has him encounter everything from undead evils to ugly mermaids.
- I Miss Owning Things: “You’ll own nothing and be happy”—if anything more dystopian has come out of the evil World Economic Forum, I’m unaware of it. Unfortunately, we’re already experiencing some of that reality in the ebook space, among others.
- Hitch: A delightful Will Smith romcom from 2005.
My Reading List
Speaking of Ark Press, and that mystery novel… I wish the press kit had provided a better image of the cover to share. Ah, well.2
Here’s the gist. Red State Mars. Spacefaring, colonial, military sci-fi. Texas versus China. Hard science fiction, deep family values, and fierce independence warring against the “warmth of collectivism”.
Goodness gracious, this book is amazing—so far. I hope the final review ends up with the same message.
As for what I’m reading next—that’s still up in the air a bit. I bounced off of A Princess of Mars before starting Red State Mars, so I’m feeling iffy on Burroughs. I might give Tarzan of the Apes a try, or, moving to classic works by other authors, some Conan short stories. I have a handful of free novels from the Baen library that I’d still like to get to, and I have indie novels I’d like to give a try if I can figure out how to buy them and actually own them.
Right now, I just care that I keep reading while life is going crazy.
Finally—What Else do I Recommend This Month?
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared!
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is… a bizarre, surreal spark of pure creativity that lives in my head rent-free. It exists in two versions, both of which feel very different but, in my opinion, are just as good: a web series and a TV series. You can watch the web series for free here.
The web series emphasizes horror more than the TV series. The TV series still has its scary moments, but it largely hilarous. Both are extremely surreal, abstract, absurd, and the exact kind of art I’d normally mock… but, in this particular case, it just works for me.
Also, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared features a lot of amazing puppet work.
As a side note… Print-to-order exists for books, and I wish an equivalent existed for DVDs/BluRay. I’d buy the web series and TV series in a heartbeat.
- This was specifically in response to I Miss Owning Things. ↩︎
- Also, the press kit didn’t specifically mention any embargos of sharing the cover, or mentioning that the book exists, prior to the release date. I hope I’m not screwing up something that you’re just expected to know when given an ARC—I’ve never been sent one, before! ↩︎
Boo Ludlow 
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