Category: Progress Reports

The Final Calling: Progress Report Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven is now online.

I’m $39.61 short of paying for Chapter Twenty-Eight.

The writing’s gotten a bit weird. I’m nominally writing Chapter Thirty-Three, but it’s running very long, and there’s a natural break-point a few pages back, so I’m thinking I may actually be writing either Chapter Thirty-Four or Chapter Thirty-Five — I might either just split this one, or split it and then insert one from another viewpoint between the two halves.

I’m already well over 100,000 words, which was my original target for the finished book.

I don’t know how many chapters it will be; every time I make an estimate, the confounded thing gets longer. My best guess is thirty-six to forty, but I wouldn’t put too much faith in that. I’m going to write until it’s done, then stop, however long that may be.

(Yes, I do know where I’m going. It’s just taking longer to get there than I expected.)

As mentioned in my previous post, the fine folks at Wildside Press don’t think The Final Calling is a grabber title for readers who don’t already know what the Calling is. Therefore, we’re looking for a new, catchier title, and so far the leading contender is Allen Dobkin’s suggestion, The Unwelcome Warlock.

I won’t be re-titling the serial, though — that would be too confusing. It stays The Final Calling, but I’m warning everyone here and now that the finished book may well be called something else.

Guess that’s everything for this week. Hope everyone’s surviving the harsh weather that seems to be hitting pretty much everywhere.

Addendum: Noon Thursday: It’s snowing.

Chapter Twenty-Eight is now paid for, and will be posted on Wednesday, December 22nd, but not at the usual two-minutes-after-midnight, give or take. I’m picking someone on a late flight up at the airport that night, so I won’t be able to upload the files until I get back; depending on weather, traffic, and other variables, it could easily be 4:00 a.m. before I have a chance to post it.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

The Final Calling: Progress Report Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six is now online.

I’m $37.11 short of paying for Chapter Twenty-Seven. Tell your friends. If you haven’t kicked in yet, this would be a good time.

I’ve just started writing Chapter Thirty-Two, which is definitely not the last chapter. I’ve been getting through plot more slowly than I had anticipated, so I’m now pretty sure we’re looking at either thirty-six chapters, or thirty-five chapters and an epilogue. (Epilogues are free.) It will definitely run longer than 100,000 words, which is kind of a surprise, actually.

I think that covers it; hope to see you next week!

Update: Chapter Twenty-Seven is paid for, and we’re making progress on Twenty-Eight.

The Final Calling: Progress Report Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five is now online.

I’m $112.13 short of having Chapter Twenty-Six paid for, but there’s a week to go.

Update, 3:00 a.m. EST: Okay, Chapter Twenty-Six is paid for.

I’m writing Chapter Twenty-Nine, but only just started it. There will be at least thirty-two chapters, but no more than thirty-six unless the story surprises me — I think I have it all plotted out, and thirty-six chapters should do it. I’m guessing it’ll run around 100,000 words in first draft, and I’m hoping to have it written by Christmas.

The whole Realms of Light project is over and done, books mailed to donors, regular edition available from all the usual outlets. The Kindle edition is now available, as well. I did send at least one copy, and possibly as many as four, to an out-of-date address, so I may need to deal with some returns, but other than that, it’s finished.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and happy Chanukah to those who celebrate it.

The Final Calling: Progress Report Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four is now online.

Chapter Twenty-Five is just barely paid for, and will be posted on Wednesday, December 1.

I’m midway through writing Chapter Twenty-Seven. There will be more than thirty chapters; I don’t know how many more.

I’ve sent out all the donor copies of Realms of Light, but about half a dozen went to unconfirmed addresses; I hope they’ll reach the intended recipients safely.

I had originally planned to include a copy of Nightside City with each copy of Realms of Light where the donor wanted one, but at the last minute I offered a choice of books instead, which meant that I wound up with several copies of Nightside City left over, which I’m putting on sale this week — see the left-hand column of any chapter page for The Final Calling for details.

I think that’s everything. Hope you’ll all have a grand Thanksgiving!

Realms of Light: Progress Report Thirty-Five

Okay, if you donated $25 or more and e-mailed me to confirm your shipping address, your books are either in the mail, or in the last box on the dining room table that I’ll be taking to the post office Friday afternoon. Domestic shipments went out Media Mail; foreign ones went Airmail First Class. I hope I got everyone’s book choices right, and autographed everything that anyone wanted autographed. (In one case I had to re-open the package, sign stuff, and tape it closed again, when I realized I’d missed an autograph request. I hope I didn’t miss any others.)

Nineteen people have not confirmed their addresses. I’ve just sent another e-mail out to those nineteen. If you’re one of them, please respond ASAP.

Update, 5:00p, EST: Thirteen left unconfirmed. If I don’t hear from you by Monday, I’ll assume your address is still good and you want Option No. 2.

If you donated less than $25, thank you, but you don’t get any books. The window to upgrade has closed.

There will be a Kindle edition of Realms of Light. It’s not out yet because of a communication glitch between FoxAcre and myself, but it should be available by Christmas. FoxAcre is also acquiring the e-book rights to Nightside City, so there’ll soon be a Kindle edition of that, too, but I’ve had to remove it from Fictionwise.

Other e-book editions — well, we’ll see.

Oh, and if you asked to have your copy of Setting the Stage autographed — check page 26.

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.

The Final Calling: Progress Report Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One was posted on schedule; sorry I didn’t get to this progress report until now. Even though I was traveling, the delay isn’t entirely my fault — my website host has been down intermittently for the past couple of days.

It’s up at the moment, though, so — Chapter Twenty-One‘s available.

I’m about two pages from finishing writing Chapter Twenty-Five.

Chapter Twenty-Three is paid for.

Chapter Twenty-Two will be posted on Wednesday, November 10th.