I’m enjoying how this is turning out so far. I think I’ll have Faustina in hospital recollect everything right up until the rod dropped and she was badly injured. Things will all be real-time after that. And I have a suspicion where – one of the world’s functioning fusion reactors – she and this story might be headed. Two parts? Three? We shall see; I always knew she would get her own novel!
Tag: love
Worlds Without End
Going into a lovely early Fall weekend with little to do? Need something to while away time with the cool breeze and falling leaves? If you have not yet, download and read “The Fourth Law” and “Echoes of Family Lost” FOR FREE (while you can!) then go on to read the latest addition to my future history of Machine Civilization just now released! Cheers!
Getting Graphic
With my copyeditor seeming to have some issues right now, I’m falling back on Grammarly and some proofreaders for the first edit of “Worlds Without End.” We’ll see how that pans out once I’ve a physical proof copy in my hands. Shame, really; Monica has been a source of strength to my works for four years now.
In the mean time, here’s the penultimate cover, from Jacoby Alley Designs. Professional, nimble, responsive. If any of my readers are self-publishing, please reach out to them for a talk and/or a quote. I’ve much to do: my deadline of 30 September is upon me.
Empire’s Agent – End
Finally! And what a way to end! This 21k “short story” will be the anchor of my collection of similar for my book in the early months of 2020. Right now I think the shorts will be arranged chronologically, so this will be pretty much in the middle. To-date this gives me ~31k words for that book; I’ll try to flesh one of them out a little more and am sure I’ll have one or two come to my mind in the next few months.
This was a lot of fun! Unfortunately what comes next, besides the final edit of “Worlds Without End” is the last tweaks to the awful “Crosses & Doublecrosses.” Yuck.
Satur-Date!
Finally! Saturday and it’s time for Arpad and Lily’s date! Here’s the lead in and parts one and two. I’m hoping to see part three (when they talk together in the park) later today and tomorrow. My goal is have their last scene – which is going round and round in my head – no later than Tuesday. After that I will turn my attention to my “Worlds Without End” edit to get it released by 30 September.
Dinner & a chat
Finally got Friday over for Arpad! I’ve already written when he picks up Lily and have them just to the park late Saturday morning. Which, unfortunately, is likely when I’ll have the next chance to finish the scene. It’s there, just needs writing! Making good progress for once!
Half-halt
It’s what you do in English Saddle riding to collect your horse. That is what the last few days for me have been. In the last ten days we took more supplies to Daughter #1 at college followed by my DayJob becoming evening job for the last week. That means I wrote nothing for ten days. In that time my copyeditor informed me she will have the MS for “Worlds Without End” back into my possession by 31 August. I used that to goad my cover designer to get a-move on and wrap things up.
I was off yesterday, Friday, as well as this weekend. I made some minor changes to WWE and wrote the back-cover blurb as well. The stemma I revised and enlarged. Finally to DO SOMETHING I returned to the Arpad/Lily love story. It’s coming in fits and starts. Or complete stops. That’s where this installment ends: at the start of a fight. I know I don’t write those well and will need all my wits about me to flesh it out tomorrow.
It has been a long while since I touched on this short story. The thread of it is here (https://machciv.com/category/empires-agent/). The next installment is below the fold.
Departing Friends
I am, by many measures, a failure as a human. I have no empathy, no sympathy. I am not emotionally expressive. This past weekend we saw Daughter #1 formally off to college. My wife was a wreck. I gave my girl a hug and said “call or text if you’ve problems; later.”
It’s not that I don’t have and express emotions, it’s that I choose where to do it and even then can get blind-sided. I thought the short story of “Old Friends” was going to be a harmless reunion. Until I was more than halfway into the project did they show me that John Brunelli was unwell. Nichole’s reaction to that was so severe that I was unable to write. Yes, you read that correctly: a character’s reaction to a revelation in my own head was so strong I couldn’t function properly.
I was finally able to sneak up on it in pieces. I could split it, but why make y’all any more miserable than I was? Here’s the last part of “Old Friends.” I so need to write something light and fluffy next…
Older Friends
On fire for this short story, it seems. Wonder what they will show me tomorrow?
PS Spoilers for my novels ahead.
Pro-prologue
I’m sure there’s a word for something like that. I’ll shoehorn this intro-short into the front of WWE somehow…
I’ll have a little banner across the top front cover that says “A sequel to Echoes of Family Lost” and include the same in the descriptor of the Amazon page. If someone wants to buy it anyway – and Lord knows I bought dozens of SF/F books as a kid, not knowing they were halfway through a series – then what’s below the fold should give them enough traxion to get into the story.
Need a good copyeditor? Monica is your gal.
