Realms of Light: Progress Report Thirty-Four

The finished book of Realms of Light is now available, and I have the donors’ copies piled up on our dining table. I’ll be sending them out in batches over the next week or two — they should all be on their way by Thanksgiving (that’s November 25th, for you non-Americans).

I should have had the first batch in the mail by now. I don’t. This is because I didn’t have the chapbook of Setting the Stage ready; I kept putting off finishing it because it didn’t seem urgent. Keeping up with The Final Calling and family matters seemed more immediately important. I had the text partially done for months, every so often getting a bit further, but it was always a low priority.

Then one day the books showed up, and it was suddenly very urgent, so I spent three days doing very little else, and got it all written and ready to go. (My printer ran out of toner while cranking out the first batch, which didn’t help with the timely completion.)

And of course, though I did try to edit and proofread it, I found a stupid typo after I’d printed them — there’s a missing “of.” There are probably others, as well. My apologies.

I sent out an e-mail asking donors to confirm their shipping addresses, and to tell me which of a couple of possible extras they wanted. More than half of the donors have responded, but there are still several I haven’t heard from, so I’ll be sending a follow-up. At least one response somehow wound up in my spam folder, so it may take a few rounds before I have everyone squared away.

Right now the major bottleneck is that I’ve run out of packing supplies — I hadn’t stocked up yet. See above about not thinking it was urgent, and then spending three days working on the chapbook and therefore not going to Staples or Office Depot. I’ll get more Monday, when I mail off the first batch.

Anyway, everything will be shipped out reasonably soon.

If you aren’t a donor, or want additional copies, you can always buy the book from FoxAcre Press — they have a package deal if you buy both Nightside City and Realms of Light. You can also get it from the usual online sources.

There’s no e-book yet, but FoxAcre does intend to release one in the near future.

So, with the book published, what happens to the serial? Not much. I’m no longer taking donations, and the remaining five chapters of the first draft will never be posted. I’ve removed the buttons and most of the “about” page.

I think the failure of this project has demonstrated why I stopped writing science fiction, and why I don’t plan to return to it. The publisher at FoxAcre has asked me to write a third Carlisle Hsing novel, and I’ve told him I have no intention of ever doing so. This novel delayed the serial of The Final Calling by about a year to no good purpose, and generated so little net income for me that I really shouldn’t have bothered. I am severely disappointed that nothing I said or did could convince more people to support it. I think it’s a good story, and I very much appreciate the support and enthusiasm of those who did donate money, but clearly, it wasn’t what most of my readers wanted from me.

I’ll know better in the future.

Meanwhile, thanks again to everyone who sent money. I’ll get those books shipped out as quickly as I can, and I hope you’ll enjoy them.