Coming Up Short

Well, it had to happen eventually.

I’m almost $80 short of the $250 for Chapter Twenty-One.  $79.65, to be exact.  So no new chapter tonight.

Of course, there are still twenty-three hours left in the day.

Chapter Twenty has been posted

Chapter Twenty is up.

Chapter Twenty-One is completely written and about one-fifth paid for. Chapter Twenty-Two isn’t.

A warning: Due to having spent far too much time moderating comments from spammers who post nothing but “Nice site!” or “Cool site!” and a link back to their deliberately-misspelled (to make it harder to block) website, I am seriously considering blacklisting the word “site” entirely. If I do, and you try to post some harmless comment using that word, it will disappear unseen into the bit bucket. My apologies for the inconvenience; if you substitute “page” or “cite” or some such approximation, you should get through.

Thanks for your understanding and your support.

Chapter Nineteen has been posted

Chapter Nineteen is up.

I have just $15 toward Chapter Twenty, which isn’t written yet. Been busy with other stuff.

The protagonist’s name is now Emmis, rather than Vengar; “Vengar” just wasn’t working for me.

I’ve started talking to printers about that limited first edition; it looks financially viable, though a bit more costly than I’d hoped.

I’ve sent out all the copies of The Spriggan Mirror that I had on my list; if you think you should have received a copy and it hasn’t shown up, let me know.

Chapter Eighteen has been posted

Chapter Eighteen is up.

Chapter Nineteen is about one-third paid for; I don’t think I’ve written a third of it yet, though. Again, I have a week.

In other news, I have now sent out all the copies of The Spriggan Mirror I’d promised, except for two where I can’t locate the intended recipients, and a few where I’m waiting for more money to arrive, either because the donor paid in less than $15 initially, or the donor is overseas and I’ve asked for another few bucks to cover shipping.

There are maybe three extra copies. Maybe. I won’t be offering any more for sale until I’m sure I won’t need these. You should be able to get copies from Amazon, though.

Chapter Seventeen has been posted

Chapter Seventeen is up.

I’ve collected about $40 toward Chapter Eighteen so far. Alas, Chapter Eighteen isn’t actually written yet, but I hope it will be by next week.

I think I should probably warn everyone — the protagonist’s name is likely to change soon. I’ve decided “Vengar” was a bad choice. Haven’t settled on a new name yet, which is why it hasn’t changed yet.

I got my copies of The Spriggan Mirror last week, and have packed up all the ones I’ll be mailing to last year’s donors. Maybe a third of them were mailed out before the three-day New Year’s postal holiday; I hope to get the rest on their way tomorrow or very soon thereafter. This has been an educational experience; I now know what a book weighs, what overseas shipping costs, and so on, and can therefore say this: $25 donated now will get you a finished copy of The Vondish Ambassador when it’s ready if you live anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. If you live elsewhere, $30 should cover it.

I messed up several details; out of about 180 copies packed and mailed, I screwed something up on maybe a dozen. If you were one of those, and got an unsigned book when you’d asked for an autograph, or your book went to your old address, or whatever, I apologize; it was my first time doing this, and there were a few bugs in the system. I hope to do better next time.

I’m still trying to locate Richard Russ and Robert Allen. (A third missing person has been found.)

A happy new year to you all!