The Serial Box

Chapter Five is now online.

Sorry this is late; I posted all the other notices last night and flat-out forgot this one, and when I got up this morning a storm had taken out the power. It wasn’t out for very long, but I’ve only just now managed to get my computer (her name is Chloe) back up and running.

Anyway, Chapter Five is up.

I’m partway through writing Chapter Eleven.

The serial is paid for through Chapter Thirteen. Chapter Six will be posted Wednesday, July 21st.

A further note on moderation: While you’re welcome to post links, including one in a comment puts that comment in the moderation queue rather than letting it post immediately. I’m willing to consider removing that requirement; if anyone has strong feelings either way on the subject, please let me know.

And here we are.

Chapter Four is now online.

I’m in the middle of writing Chapter Nine, and everything’s paid for through Chapter Eleven. (Thank you for your support!)

In case anyone was hesitant about commenting — please, feel free! I’m happy to hear from you. Be warned, though, that if you haven’t commented here before, I’ll have to approve your post; I get a lot of comment spam. It may take a few hours for me to notice and attend to it.

Once you’ve had a comment approved, though, any future comments from you will go straight through, unmoderated, though of course I can delete them later if I decide they’re somehow unacceptable. (I don’t think I’ve ever had to delete a comment.)

An unhappy note: I’ve recently discovered that overseas shipping rates have gone up, and may go up again before this novel is completed. It’s possible I’ll have to raise the $35 amount presently required to guarantee a copy of the finished book outside North America. If that happens, anyone who’s already sent $35 will still be covered; it will only affect later donors. I’ll try to give a week’s warning.

I think that’s everything for now.

Chapter Three is now available online.

I’m paid up through Chapter Nine, which isn’t bad, but I know better than to get over-confident; these things can slow down quickly.

I’m partway through writing Chapter Eight, getting into one of the parts of the story that’s plotted in less detail than I might like, but I don’t expect any problems. Chapter Seven, incidentally, is the shortest to date, but still half a page over my minimum.

Chapter Four will be posted on Wednesday, July 7.

Chapter Two is now online; enjoy!

The serial is paid for through Chapter Seven.

I’m currently writing Chapter Seven.

Chapter Three will be posted on Wednesday, June 30. I’ll be maintaining a weekly schedule as much as I can; I’m going to miss two weeks in September while traveling.

Well, here we go — Chapter One has been posted. This is very nearly the same text as “The Warlock’s Refuge”, but not exactly — it’s been revised to fix some errors and inconsistencies (some pointed out by readers, some that I found myself).

All future chapters will be all-new, never-before-seen material.

The announcement went out less than three hours ago, but the next two chapters have been paid for. Chapter Two will be posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, and Chapter Three will be posted on Wednesday, June 30th. This bodes well.

As far as the writing goes, I’m a page or two from finishing Chapter Five.

A reminder: The serial of Realms of Light is still active; I don’t see any problem in handling both at once.

Please feel free to spread the word; I’m always looking for new readers.

I welcome comments!

In case anyone was wondering: Yes, the serialization of Realms of Light will continue even after the serial of The Final Calling starts; there’s no reason I can’t run both at once. It will continue after the finished book is published, too, unless the fine folks at FoxAcre object. I see no reason to stop. And contributing to the serial will remain the only way to get the chapbook of “Setting the Stage.”

(The serial of The Final Calling starts on Wednesday, by the way.)

I’ve written about a third of Tom Derringer and the Aluminum Airship. When I finish it, The Final Calling moves to the top of my priority list, unless some well-paying job crops up.

Meanwhile, I’ve written most of Chapter Two of The Final Calling. (I’m on page 24.) Once I’ve started Chapter Five, I’ll have enough to launch the serial.

I do not know how long this will take, and can’t give a definite launch date, but it will be this year and probably no later than August. Could be much sooner.

If anyone wants to get an early start on sending me money, donations to “The Warlock’s Refuge” do count toward The Final Calling. I did mention this somewhere, but it hasn’t been widely publicized, and so far I have less than half a chapter paid or.

Each chapter of The Final Calling will cost $250. $25 will definitely guarantee anyone with a U.S. address a copy of the finished book, if and when there is one — Wildside Press has expressed interest in publishing it, if and when it’s written, but of course there’s no contract yet. It’s possible, though not particularly likely, that I might cut that to $20 or offer an e-book option, so if you want to wait and see, you can. Shipping costs being what they are these days, though, a cut to $20 is unlikely, especially since this may (or may not) turn out to be a significantly longer book than my previous serials.

Changing shipping costs and exchange rates mean I don’t yet know what the minimum for Canadian or overseas donors will be to guarantee a copy.

Of course, you’re welcome to send less than the minimum, to help get the thing online; you just won’t be guaranteed a bound copy until your donations total $25 or more.

Please note that when I say “guarantee,” that’s a conditional thing; it only applies if the novel is completed and published. If I don’t finish the book for any reason, then no one gets a copy, whether it’s because it didn’t bring in enough money, or because I got hit by a bus. This is why I call people who send money “donors,” rather than “subscribers” — you’re donating money, not buying something. You’ll get a book if there is a book, but I’m not promising one.

It’s much too early to be thinking about what extras might be included to donors.

Incidentally, if I were doing this properly, rather than yielding to fan pressure, I should have written Dumery of the Dragon before The Final Calling. Alas, I didn’t realize that until after I was committed to the present course. Ah, well. It’s not a perfect world.

Chapter Fourteen of Realms of Light has now been posted.

This is fourteenth out of twenty, but Chapter Twenty is so short that should the serialization get that far, it will be included free with Chapter Nineteen. That means a grand total of $1,248 more will get the entire first draft online.

Even though the novel has been revised, adding about 2,700 words in the process, and has been delivered to FoxAcre Press, this web serial will continue to be the first draft for as far as it goes.

Donors have the option of receiving the complete first draft in e-mail, in either RTF or PDF, but the final version will only be available through FoxAcre.

Regarding the various projects described a couple of weeks back in Progress Report Zero, here’s how they stand:

• One-Eyed Jack is complete and has been delivered to my agent.
• Realms of Light is complete and has been delivered to FoxAcre Press.
• Vika’s Avenger has been shelved for the moment. No one seemed all that enthusiastic about it.
• After some preliminary discussion, the gaming company has been quiet for a couple of weeks, so I’m not sure where we stand with that. Unless negotiations pick up again, I won’t let this get in the way of The Final Calling.
• I’m about 20-25% of the way through the first draft of Tom Derringer and the Aluminum Airship, and intend to write the rest.
• “The Warlock’s Refuge,” which will be Chapter One of The Final Calling, has been posted to the web. Unless something else comes up, I intend to start writing the novel as soon as I finish Tom Derringer and the Aluminum Airship, and I’ll start the serial once I have at least four, maybe five chapters written.

So there you go. The Final Calling is second in the queue at present.

I’ve just sent the final (I think) version of Realms of Light to FoxAcre Press. I’m hoping it’ll see print, both on paper and as a Kindle edition, some time this summer.

I’m still $23 short of posting Chapter Fourteen of the first draft. There are twenty chapters in all.

At this point you may be thinking you’ll just wait and buy the finished book, which is perfectly reasonable — it’ll almost certainly cost less than $25. However, anyone in the U.S. who donates $25 or more to the serial will receive a copy of the finished book, and, if they want one, a copy of Nightside City — I have about a dozen copies of the Del Rey edition that will be sent out on a first-come, first-served basis to those donors who request them, and others will get the FoxAcre reprint, which includes an “Afterword” the Del Rey paperback lacks.

Also, donors will receive a copy of a chapbook, tentatively entitled Setting the Stage: The Eta Cassiopeia System, by Lawrence Watt-Evans & Sheridan Simon, describing the two stars and four rocky planets of the star system where the two novels are set. (The system might also have a few gas giants; we never bothered about them, as they don’t appear in the stories.) Some of this will be drawn from Dr. Simon’s original letters describing the planets I’d commissioned him to create; the rest I’ll write. It will include a lot of background information that never found its way into the novels, and will also explain references in the text that may have been somewhat mysterious.

This chapbook will only be available to donors and to Dr. Simon’s heirs; it will not be offered for sale, and if and when the serial is complete, that’s it, there won’t be any more copies printed or distributed.

Thanks for your support.