The Final Calling: Progress Report Seven

Chapter Six is now online.

Chapters One through Fourteen are paid for.

Chapters One through Twelve are written, and I’m working on Thirteen.

Chapter Seven will be posted on Wednesday, July 28.

For those who missed previous mentions, there’s now a fan-created Ethshar Wiki you might want to check out and contribute to. (I’ve made some corrections, but I’m not writing any of it.)

I don’t know how long this novel will be; it’s a safe bet it’ll be more than twenty chapters, but beyond that, I don’t have a very clear idea at all.

Realms of Light: Progress Report Thirty-Two

Alas, no new chapter yet, but I wanted to let readers know that the contracts with FoxAcre Press have been signed, and the token advance has been paid.

There’s no publication date yet, though; the publisher is in the midst of relocating because of his wife’s job, so everything’s at sixes and sevens. (I love strange old idioms like that.) It may, I regret to say, be awhile. Realms of Light is next in the editorial queue, but we don’t know when he’ll get to it. We do have cover art.

Further bad news: In a recent computer crash I lost the entire working file for the half-finished “Setting the Stage,” and no, I idiotically didn’t have back-ups. I’ll need to rewrite it from scratch. (I was able to recover the other two damaged files, but not that one.)

On the other hand, I wasn’t happy with how it was going, which was why it was only half-finished, and the delays at FoxAcre give me more time to get it right. I do still have the original letters.

As for the serial, I have $137 toward posting Chapter Fifteen, out of $250 needed. Inching forward very slowly…

The Final Calling: Progress Report Six

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.

The Final Calling: Progress Report Five

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.

The Final Calling: Progress Report Four

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.

The Final Calling: Progress Report Two

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!

Realms of Light: Progress Report Thirty-One

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.)

The Final Calling: Progress Report One

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.

Realms of Light: Progress Report Thirty

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.