Chapter Seven is now online.

Chapters Eight through Twelve are paid for. Chapters Eight and Nine are written. I’m midway through writing Chapter Ten; I should be further, but it’s been a busy week.

I’m still estimating it’ll run twelve to fifteen chapters in all.

Chapter Six is now online.

Chapters Seven through Twelve are paid for.

Chapters Seven, Eight, and Nine are written.

It’s going reasonably well, but as I said in the preceding note, this first draft is rougher than my previous serials. I suspect it’s because I’m working from a very sketchy outline.

I’m estimating it’ll run twelve to fifteen chapters in all, but I could be way off. If I tried I could probably wrap it up in Chapter Ten, or if the plot gets away from me it could run eighteen or twenty.

Enjoy!

I want to mention that this first draft is rougher than my usual, probably because my outline was sketchier than usual. There may well be internal contradictions; I hope I’ll catch them all and fix them in the second draft. Feel free to point them out in comments in this blog. The general rule is that later chapters are more reliable than early ones, so if, say, Chapter Ten contradicts Chapter Six, Chapter Ten is probably correct, or at least closer to what will be in the final draft.

Chapter Six will be posted Friday night/Saturday morning. Chapter Nine is written. Chapter Twelve is paid for.

Chapter Five has now been posted.

Chapters Six through Eleven are paid for.

I’m halfway through writing Chapter Eight, so I’m maintaining my safety margin. I’d like to increase it, but for some reason this story is slower going than Ethshar usually is.

My best estimate — which could easily be way off — is that this story will run about twelve chapters, and 30,000-35,000 words. Which is technically, by modern standards, a novella, rather than a novel. Sorry about that.

The old pulp magazines used to advertise anything over 20,000 words as “a complete novel in this issue!” though, so there’s precedent. And it may wind up longer than I expect.

Chapter Four has now been posted.

Chapters Five through Nine are paid for; Chapter Ten is 90% covered.

I’ve written Chapters Five and Six, and I’m halfway through Chapter Seven — I got held up by a plot problem for awhile, but I think I have it beat now.

Chapter Three is now online.

Chapters Four through Nine are paid for.

Chapters Four through Six are written; I’m a page or so into Chapter Seven.

We’re rolling along pretty well, though I need to get going on the actual writing.

Chapter Two of The Sorcerer’s Widow is now online.

Chapters Three through Eight are now paid for and will be posted weekly.

I’m almost done writing Chapter Six. Yes, I should be further along. I’m not.

Thanks for your support!

I still have some reservations about doing this, but I don’t really have a good reason not to, so let’s see how it goes. The first chapter of the new Ethshar serial, The Sorcerer’s Widow, is up. The terms (which are slightly different from last time) are also posted.

I’m partway through writing Chapter Six. No donations have been received yet.

Okay, lots of donations have arrived since I posted the above. Fear not, at least a couple more chapters are paid for.

Okay, I’ll be serializing The Sorcerer’s Widow soon — I don’t have an exact date, but soon — but there are a few things about it that concern me.

The main issue is that it’s going to be either the shortest Ethshar novel to date, or not quite a novel at all; it may wind up a mere novella.  It’ll still be long enough for Wildside to publish it in book form, but I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking they’re getting more than they are.  Domestic donors of $20 or more (not the usual $25) will receive a paper copy of the finished book; $10 will get you an e-book (available formats not yet determined, but probably epub and mobi).  $25 will get both.  List price for the final versions will in all likelihood be less, but you’re helping get it done.

It’s still $250 a chapter.  I’m estimating twelve to fifteen chapters, though that may turn out to be way off.

I’m also thinking of making individual chapters available in ebook form, in addition to the web version — Chapter 1 would be free, and each subsequent chapter would be 99 cents.  This would not be an economical way to read it, but some people might think it’s worth it for the convenience.

And… I’ve been wondering whether there’s some way to move these serials to Kickstarter.  Any comments?