It’s finally Fall around here. Harvested all the grapes and pressed them. (Got about a quart of juice all told, because none of the vines are fully mature yet. Probably two years for everything.) Got all the apples and most of the pears. Will harvest the last few boscs this week. Getting ready to bring the citrus trees indoors for the winter.
It is the time of year when things slow down. But I need you folks to speed things up a little for me.
Right now, we’re in the mushy middle doldrums on the Story Bundle: Extreme SciFi. It has sold fantastically well, but the line has flattened out. Thank you to everyone who got out there and bought it early. (Some nice reviews of Fairchild in places like Amazon would be good, too, ya know.)
Right now, I’m talking to those other folks. Those of you who saw it and said to yourself that you’d get around to getting it. Now would be a good time. We’ll be starting down the ramp to the end in a few days, and then the bundle will be gone forever and you’ll have to pay full price for the books if you want to get them individually. You should get yourself an early Halloween present and buy the whole bundle.
The other thing you could do would be forward the link to all your friends with a good note. If you’ve liked my stuff up until now, those are the sorts of actions that get me closer to that day when I don’t have to get up and go to work in the morning. Seriously, every little bit helps. There is a very specific number of books I need to sell on a daily average. We’re nowhere close today, but getting closer. When that day happens, I expect my productivity to double pretty quickly, which means more things to entertain you with. (Because God knows, I’ll be dead at my keyboard long before I run out of stories to tell.)
So let everyone know they should go buy the bundle and read Fairchild. And help a whole slew of writers all get closer to that day as well.
In other news, a reminder: Goddess of War is up for pre-order everywhere. As many of you will remember, I did an offer with my most recent newsletter that everyone who responded would be put into a drawing. (You are on my newsletter list, right?). I reached out to the winner on Friday with the ebook package, so by now, it is possible that a fourth person has read Goddess, behind me, Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm), and Nerdy Editor Babe(tm).
The e-book will go live on Oct 11. Interestingly, the paper book is already live for real-time order on at least Amazon, if you can’t wait two weeks.
Meanwhile, I’m hard into the fifth Jessica novel now: Flight of the Blackbird.
Goddess of War was the longest thing I’ve written so far at 110,000 words, plus a few. (Auberon was 75k. Queen 95k, Immortals 88k). Blackbird feels like it will be at least that long, maybe longer.
To me, all the practice this year seems to have added detail and depth to the writing. The story is still there, but I’m trying to add setting with a trowel as I go. Places where I used one sentence before are getting a short paragraph. Minor characters are all getting at least one memorable line as they go. It makes for more words, and hopefully better ones. You’ll have to be the judge. Book should be out late spring 2017, Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.
Not much more to say than that. I’ve been political on my other feeds and don’t feel the need to hammer on some of those points here.
I am who I am. I won’t convince people to change the way they think, except by example and Socratic method. And many of those folks I would talk to are too wrapped up in themselves to even consider how they appear to the rest of humanity. Because Blaze Ward is an overtly public figure, I think about how I want to be thought of. Or rather, which sets of people I want the good opinion of.
This year has been rough on everyone. I try not to alienate fans. God knows there are a few writers who will never get another penny from me, based solely on their viciously-bad political views, but that’s my choice. I have reached a point where I don’t want to talk politics with you. Or religion. Or much of anything else.
Instead, I’ll stick to Moirrey’s two favorite topics: glitter and unicorns.
Because, you know, unicorns.
shade and sweet water
BD
West of the Mountains, WA
Oh my God Blaze,your comment section is working for me this time around. Been a long week here too. After setting up all my Macs with the yearly update I got my backups refreshed. Read a book years ago where the outlawed A.I. had over 50 backups scattered around(the cops took out the last one at the bottom of Lake Michigan with a small submarine and that was it for our machine friend). I’ve compromised with 12-15 scattered all over the place. And now,1Password seems to be trying to move its customers into a yearly subscription model(like Adobe)-that rubbed me wrong and I figured what the hell I’ll set up my own system. Ain’t a programmer but I am devious. Using nesting folders in Safari for login sites,Aple’s secure Notes for a vault,and Safari’s auto fill I have managed to get a workable system. While I was at it decided to get rid of any duplicate passwords and replace weak ones with 20 to 30 character logins(where possible) to upgrade security. Gawd,one more password change and I’ll scream. Took the last 5 days to get every thing smoothed out-I’m beat. Later.