Realms of Light: Progress Report Eighteen

Chapter Nine has been posted. Finally. Got a donation today that put me over the top.

Chapter Ten is written and has been distributed to those donors who signed up to receive chapters as soon as they’re written.

Chapter Eleven is less than half written, unfortunately. I’ve been busy with other matters, such as page proofs, copy edits, and delivering a new novel to Tor, and also with preparations for relocating — we’re selling our house here and buying one closer to where my wife works. We have a buyer and we’ve found a house we want, so if all goes well we expect to move in early June. Which is exciting and wonderful and very, very time-consuming.

I do intend to complete Realms of Light whether the money comes in for the web serial or not, but unless the cash flow takes a huge jump, it’ll probably be a very slow process.

Thanks to all of you who have supported this project.

16 thoughts on “Realms of Light: Progress Report Eighteen

  1. let’s see. It’s been a little under 20 weeks now. So this is averaging right about $100 a week. I think the Ethshar books averaged comfortably over $250/week. Have there been fewer donors, or less money per donor or both?

  2. Many fewer donors. For the most part amounts have been similar, but on The Spriggan Mirror there were some extra-large donations, and those have been scarcer this time.

    It’s partly bad timing, with the holidays and the state of the economy, and partly my own fault, as I haven’t put in as much marketing effort as I should; I’ve just been too busy with other concerns.

  3. The only reason I know about this is because I periodically checked here waiting for the next Ethshar novel. I haven’t seen any references in other locations or blogs.

    I also wonder if there are any two other works of yours with LESS crossover appeal than Ethshar and Nightside City other than perhaps The Nightmare People.

    I also think that your decision to email finished chapters to donors, while commendably fair, does tend to decrease the incentive of the small group of truly interested donors to donate further. Ahh well.

  4. I started this serial because people had asked for it — but yes, it was people who don’t much care for Ethshar.

    Ah, well.

  5. Well, I am a big Ethshar fan, but I like Nightside City and the War Surplus books also. I’m actually finding it rather disappointing that there are this many fewer folks interested in a non-Ethshar serial.

  6. Any plans to do a War Surplus book in the future? I realyl enjoyed Wizard and the WarMachine….Esthars still my fav though. My real issue on this story is that I never read the first book…so I’m feeling I should know something that I don’t

  7. The third War Surplus book would be The Exile and the Empire, and I don’t have any definite plans for it; it’s on the list of possibilities, but not near the top.

    I started to say “the last War Surplus book,” but then I realized I don’t actually know it’s the last, particularly if you consider some of the other projects I had planned way back when.

  8. Have you considered doing an Ethshar book in parallel with this one? If more people are coming here, then this book might move faster also?

  9. That’s an interesting possibility.

    Right now, we’re too busy with moving to even think about it. We’re in the new house (and loving it), but there are still dozens, possibly hundreds, of boxes we haven’t unpacked, and at least three rooms where we haven’t figured out how to arrange the furniture, let alone put everything away. There are settling-in issues with the phone service, our wireless network, etc.

    So adding any writing to the schedule is still a week or two away, at least.

  10. Been thru the moving process more then once myself. First lesson learned was to pack lamps in boxes marked on all 4 sides with “LAMP” in big letters. This allows one to find them quickly at the new location and get them out to allow for working later into the evening/night.

    Good luck with the new house.

  11. This house has lots of ceiling lights, so lamps weren’t an urgent need.

    It’d be really nice if I could find my drill, though…

  12. Not bad. The thing is, we left behind a few hundred running feet of built-in shelving, so we have tons of stuff with no obvious place to put it yet. Unpacking is an ongoing process.

    Also, we’re the first people to live in this house, so there are lots of little things that weren’t ready yet — no shades, no towel bars in the bathrooms, that sort of thing. We’ve been putting a lot of effort into getting those finishing touches done just right.

    And I’ve got new office furniture due to be delivered tomorrow. That’ll help.

    I’ve gotten a little writing done since the move, but mostly on the new Tor series, rather than Realms of Light or Ethshar or whatever. I’ve had two sets of proofs to deal with — one for the FoxAcre edition of Shining Steel, one for A Young Man Without Magic (Tor, November 2009). Busy, busy.

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