Status report: Summer of 2017

Got a bunch of stuff that I hope will be out this summer.

First off, Stone Unturned is at Wildside and they said they wanted to get it out ASAP. I have no details, though.

Tom Derringer in the Tunnels of TerrorTom Derringer in the Tunnels of Terror has been edited; I’m not quite halfway through incorporating (or overruling) the editorial changes. I spoke to the illustrator yesterday; she says she has the pencils done for the frontispiece, but hasn’t inked them yet. I’d guess it should all be done soon and should be out in July if all goes well.

The audiobook of Dragon Weather, which was originally scheduled for Christmas 2016 but got delayed, is now entirely recorded, but still being edited. I haven’t yet listened to it to give it final approval.

My short story “The Lady of Shadow Guard” will be in the Roger Zelazny tribute anthology Shadows and Reflections, which is scheduled for next month.Shadows and Reflections

(I have two other new stories in upcoming anthologies, but they won’t be out this summer. One’s scheduled for October, the other for August 2018.)

There’s this anthology with a June 1st deadline that I was invited to submit to. I had an unfinished story called “Fearless” that I thought might be a good fit; I dug it out, looked at it, re-read the anthology guidelines, and decided no, that wouldn’t work.

So I got out another unfinished story called “The Dancing Teacher,” and worked on it off and on for months, and kept being unhappy with how it was going. I repeatedly backed up, throwing out several pages each time, to try different approaches, and eventually decided that the problem was that the story I had set out to write years ago did not want to be forced to fit the anthology guidelines. It wasn’t a good match after all.

So I put that story aside, and started an all-new one that’s now on its third title, “Sorcery of the Heart,” which was designed from the start to fit the anthology guidelines. I’m on page 8 of an estimated 25-30. I haven’t had to back up, really, but I did revise the lead character’s backstory pretty drastically. With less than ten days left, I don’t know whether I’ll meet that June 1st deadline or not, but it’s what I’m working on right now.

7 thoughts on “Status report: Summer of 2017

    1. There have been delays. Not on my end.

      The edited manuscript is in the mail to me — I have a tracking number, so I know it really is — and should be here in a day or two. Then we’ll see where we stand.

  1. I read Stone Unturned in two or three sittings. Wonderful addition to the series! Without spoiling anything, I will say I was worried about the multiple perspectives, btu boy do they work well. I did find the dates were more important to pay attention to than I thought and had to flip back and check the timeline at one point. Wasn’t really paying attention to the dates up to that point.

    Good job!

  2. I was going to comment elsewhere, but since this entry has some comments already…

    I just finished _Stone Unturned_, and I had some spoilery questions. But first, I enjoyed it. It was nice reading a longer Ethshar book, although I also like the shorter ones, too. It felt like a quick read, despite the length, so if there’s anyone hesitating because of that, I don’t think it’s an issue.

    [spoilers may lurk below, in my questions]
    Also, I should say that I don’t think that these are plot holes or other *problems* with the story, just a couple of things I thought of and was curious about.
    OK, here we go.
    * Does Tarker ever lie in the story? (_Can_ Tarker lie? Tarker seems aware of the concept, and may be able to detect falsehoods told to it, but _I_ didn’t notice any place where Tarker *did* really lie…)
    * Would the kitchen have been an effective hiding place from Tarker? (I understand why the characters involved _didn’t_ think of it, and I understand why, from a story point of view, the characters involved huddling in the kitchen wouldn’t have furthered the plot; I’m just wondering…)

    Thanks!

    1. Tarker can lie, but does not do so at any time in the story. He needs a reason to lie, it isn’t something he does merely on a whim. (Demons don’t think like people; their minds are much simpler.)

      I don’t think hiding in the kitchen would have worked, since the connection between realities is so open, but I’m not really sure. If I’d had a good plot reason for it to work it would have, but I didn’t.

      1. Thanks for your answers! I didn’t mean to imply that the kitchen was a plot hole — I didn’t think of it until later, and even then it was clear in the story that Morvash knew (or at least suspected) the kitchen wasn’t in a different reality, but he had no reason at all to mention it to anyone who knew that being in a different reality might change Tarker’s behavior.

        And, of course I trust that if you had a good plot reason for it to work you would have done it — after all, you came up with the kitchen in the first place (I wish I could have an extra-dimensional large kitchen in my not-very-large apartment…) And I thought it was a great plot! I never would have guessed that Reqevx jnf cynaavat gb navzngr n zbhagnva [rot-13 for spoiler protection], yet it fits in, thematically, and there are a number of hints in retrospect.

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