It's Friday, I'm tired and to be honest more than a little bored. I'm actually writing this in my office, and technically I should be working - but the chunk of Java code that I've been working on for the last few days is giving me more than a little bit of a headache right now so I've quit looking at it. Blogging sounds much more appealing at the moment. This will be a short update on a few things that are going on.
The PREVIOUS Writing Project
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Harper Voyager had a two-week window during which writers could submit manuscripts directly, and my script for The Artemisia Chronicle was ready just at the right time so it went in (and it wasn't the only one I submitted; see below). Harper tweeted just after the window closed to say that they'd received 4,563 submissions. It's going to take them a while to go through that pile so I'm not expecting to hear from them any time soon (or ever; they say that if they decide to pass they'll be too busy to notify writers). Still, I think I have a fair chance with them. Please wish me luck, gentle reader.
The CURRENT Writing Project
Coming along slowly but surely, if more slowly than I'd like. It's close to eighty thousand words right now, and I think I'm looking at a first draft that'll be somewhere around the 95-100K mark. As I think I mentioned, this is a Steampunk story set in an alternate 1850s London (and Paris, as it happens) and might best be described as action/adventure. At the point I've reached, our three heroes (or more accurately, two heroes and a heroine) have foiled the bad guy's plans but they still haven't actually caught him (and in fact, don't know who he really is). Coming soon: a big fight, and a shocking revelation about the bad guy. I'm hoping to get another five or six thousand words over the weekend, but that's going to depend on...
Mile Hi Con
This is going on in Denver, and in fact I think the doors opened about an hour ago as I write this. I was looking forward to this and really hoping to be able to spend a full day there tomorrow; there are a lot of SF writers there and they'll be doing workshops and things that I was hoping to learn something from, as well as a lot of fun stuff, special guests Cherie Priest, C. J. Henderson and Steven Brust, and more listed participants than I can count. But there's a problem... my wife Kate is flat out in bed, sick with one of the worst colds I can remember her having, and even if she suddenly gets over it during the night I can't see her being in shape to spend all day at this shindig and three hours in the car getting there and back. Damn, damn, damn. Anyway, follow the action on Twitter: @MileHiCon
Pavonis (The PREVIOUS Previous Writing Project)
Sales have flatlined. Marketing a self-published eBook is a sod, even when it's available from as many well-known booksellers as it is. I'm plainly not doing everything I could be to generate a bit of interest, but frankly I'm at a bit of a loss with regards to what else to try. But things may still turn around - since I still have the rights, Pavonis was eligible for submission to Harper Voyager and so I sent it in the day after I submitted The Artemisia Chronicle. So again, gentle reader, please wish me luck.
Twitter
I found that auto-following everyone that follows me is a mistake, in that I ended up with so much traffic that I couldn't read it all. I'm not a follower-farmer - I follow people because I want to read what they have to say, not because I'm trying to boost my follower count. So I'm sorry to say that I had no choice but to quit following a few people (mostly ones that sent out nothing but promo-tweets, and a few that would send out endless bursts of retweets that ruptured my timeline and that I didn't have time to read anyway). In fact I think I only dropped about a dozen, but it's made a big difference. If I'm still following you, be assured that I read everything you tweet.
Until next week, then, stay safe and be happy. And if you happen to make it to MileHiCon, send me a tweet - you never know, maybe we'll make it there after all.
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