Category: E-557 trilogy

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Writing update for July 17

[progpress title=”Epsilon” goal=”90000″ current=”51081″]

 

Progress on Epsilon is coming along very, very well at this point, though the fact that I’ve been working on it so hard lately has caused a bit of concern amongst some of my friends (who have since been reassured that I am not, in fact, going completely off my nut).  Book 1 is past the midway point and the critiques I’ve been getting at Critique Circle have only pointed out one or two things, which is good and makes me that much more confident about what I’m doing.

I have quite a bit more work to do on The Last Colony, however, but I think I can handle that–and if I can’t, well, the only person that gets hurt is me.  Awakenings is doing okay, though hits are down the past week or so.

I’m under deadline to get the short story “Falling Stars” prepped for a possible anthology.  If the anthology itself falls through, I’ll probably expand it slightly and then release it through smashwords as a 99¢ short story ebook, probably with a preview of Epsilon book 1.

If anyone’s got ideas on a title for Epsilon book 1, please leave me a note to that regard.  At this point, it’ll probably be three sections, two from Aaron’s point of view and one from Caren’s point of view, bringing everything up to the beginning of the Unification War.  Book 2 will probably deal mostly with the Unification War, leaving later books to deal with later conflicts.

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Well…at least something’s getting worked on…

 

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[progpress title=”Ashes to Ashes” goal=”80000″ current=”14094″]

 

In between binge-reading Caitlin Kittredge‘s Nocturne City books (as lovely and dysfuctional as Luna Wilder is, she still doesn’t hold a candle to Pete and Jack from Black London, if you ask me) and blankly staring at very obnoxious children (thank god most of them are going home tomorrow so the pool will be a quieter place) I actually got some work down by the pool today.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t The Last Colony.  Brendan, Lindsay, and the rest aren’t very talkative right now.  No, it was Epsilon, and good progress, too–progress I’ll probably continue tomorrow.  I finished off Chapter 10 and moved on to the last chapter for Part 1, which is Chapter 11 of the first book.  I’m still not sure how long it’s going to end up being–it might end up being two parts, it might end up being three.  It depends on how long Part 2 ends up being.

For the moment, Aaron’s angst is delicious.

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It’s good to have goals…

 

[progpress title=”The Last Colony” goal=”80000″ current=”57678″]
[progpress title=”Epsilon” goal=”90000″ current=”39567″]
[progpress title=”Ashes to Ashes” goal=”80000″ current=”14094″]

 

I’ve already posted it on Facebook and I might as well make it official by posting it here, too. I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit the past month or two, and I’ve decided.

Goal-setting is good. Hopefully, I’ll manage to meet this goal (and if I don’t, it’s mostly me that gets hurt, which kind of means it’s the best kind of goal).

A while back, I was posting a lot about The Last Colony and the E-557 universe, which comprised my 2009 and 2010 Nanowrimo projects. The Last Colony is actually fairly close to being done, I just have to finish up another few chapters and polish it up (I probably underestimate how much work I’ve got to do) and then it’s done, I’m going to hand it over to some volunteer editors (probably two, one for spelling proofs and such, the other for continuity errors–I have two people in mind already, it’s mostly a matter of talking them into it). The reason for that is because I’m planning to release it as an ebook at some point in the near future.

Of course, this also means I’ll have to finish the second E-557 book, Ashes to Ashes (tentative title, honestly), and plot the third.

Plus finish at least the first book of the Epsilon saga, since I think that’s going to be more than one book (otherwise, it’d be one really, really long book that I’m not sure anyone would take the time to read), and manage three updates for Awakenings a week.

But it’s a goal, and it’s good to have goals. In reading about the future of publishing, it seems like Smashwords and e-publishing just might be a good direction to go in.

 

Wish me luck.

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A new webfiction podcast goes live!

So right now I’m listening to the first episode of the Webfiction podcast put out by the folks at Webcast Beacon, who’re the same people that brought us the Webcomic Beacon podcast.  I’ve read some stuff by one of the hosts, A.M. Harte (specifically, I’ve read her serial DarkSight and I’m awaiting the next installment), but not anything by MCM, who’s the other host.

I’m listening to it right now as I’m writing this post, and it’s pretty good.  I don’t listen to many podcasts (this, Made of Fail, and a couple on medieval and British history) but I think this one is addressing something in publishing that’s kind of important to address.  They make a very good point of stressing the fact that just because the entry level for webfiction is pretty low, that doesn’t mean the quality of work is low.  There’s some very good fiction out there–one of my current favorites is A Traveller’s Guide to Jovan by Ellipsis (it’s the one that I currently load up every weekend, eagerly awaiting the next entry into the story–I think it’s also the only story I’ve given five stars on the Webfiction guide, and I think I gave it a 9 or a 10 on Muse-Success).  Part of what’s neat about web fiction is that people are able to take risks.  There’s a lot of stuff out there that traditional publishing houses might not take a chance on, but is no less good than any book I’ve read from Tor or Orbit (and better than some that I’ve read from the even bigger houses, like DelRey, Random House, St. Martin’s, et cetera).

Some of what’s coming up in the webfiction circles I’m exploring actually dovetails a bit with what I’ve been reading at Stormwolf.com, which is Michael Stackpole’s website.  He’s been advocating electronic publishing, electronic self-publishing at that, for a while now.  The industry is clearly changing, and much faster than a lot of outlets seem to be able to keep up with.

It’s a glimmer of hope, though.  I no longer have to stress out about an agent wanting to buy my work or that my work fits into traditional niches.  The world of publishing is a lot different now, and it’s kind of interesting.

On this note, the trilogy that begins with The Last Colony may be released in ebook format when I get finished with the first book and get deeper into Ashes to Ashes, which is the second book of the series.  That’s still a little ways off, though.  Stay tuned for updates!

Work on Awakenings is going in fits and starts, better now than it was a few days ago.  Chapters will be getting longer from here on out.  As always, the link for the Awakenings site is http://awakenings.embklitzke.com.

Happy reading (and listening)!