Word Count: 23,475

It is, perhaps, odd that I write a post today. There isn’t really a compelling reason for me to be posting something today…or, at least no more compelling reason than just about any other day. And, sure, I could just be posting one of those bs “let me catch you up on shit” kinda things but I’m much too tired for that. And while the comic there is old…I’m not working on my thesis, obviously, at this moment I resemble Kilian there much more than is probably healthy.

 

So why am I even posting something?

 

That’s a valid question…

I’ve recently re-focused my free time to actual writing of actual fiction. Or, more precisely, I’ve re-focused on finishing novel #1. The first iteration of that work clocked in at 151,696 words, and as the title of this post suggests, I’m currently just north of 23,000 on the re-drafting. The initial push was difficult in that it required a complete rewriting of about 18,000 words. It was a task that had been necessary for, well, ever…I suppose. But now that it’s done the rest of the process moves along more swiftly as I’m essentially doing an edit over the rest of the manuscript.

 

The word count, at this point, seems to be following about the same trajectory and if that trend holds, then I’m 1/6 through the process. Assuming I have time to work on it (not something I would normally assume…) I’m hoping to be done with the entire process in the next month or two.

 

And at that point, I’m just going to start selling it digitally. I’ve become dissatisfied with the process of trying to work with a publishing company. In the end, I’m not expecting to get rich, and waiting a year (or more) for a rejection letter just seems a real waste of time.

 

But, of course, as one works toward releasing a book for actual consumption by readers who might be willing to spend money, a number of previously unimportant considerations must be…well, considered. For instance, what kind of book cover should this thing have…OK, sure, it will be a digital cover, but it needs one nevertheless. So, yeah, I know this guy Gilgrim, and he’s no slouch with a Wacom, so that’s one item off the checklist.

 

Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my time writing and teaching writing, it’s that I’m shit at copy editing my own work. So, that’s kind of a problem. People are less likely to tell all their friends about this awesome unknown fantasy writer if his book is full of typos. But I have also requisitioned some assistance in this area…I think. I mean, there were some emails exchanged, and then some assistance offered, and them some further emails sent later…and I’m still waiting on getting anything back. But that’s a problem for another day…

 

So you might be wondering what prompted me to go the whole digital publishing route. Particularly when I scorned such action just a couple of years ago. Remember; publishing industry = plodding to a slow death. Now, that’s not to say I don’t think the publishing companies are total shit. In many ways, they still act as a valid way to aggregate literary content…in the same way that record labels continue to operate in an iTunes world.

 

For more on this, see this Planet Money podcast from April of 2010 featuring Damian Kulash from Ok-Go. And, to be clear, I’m not saying I believe I’m in the same situation as Ok-Go, that I can control my content better than a large corporation. In fact, I’d say that I will control my content much worse than say, Random House, but I’ve yet to get a publisher to want to control my content, and I’m not getting any younger.

 

And, to be honest, I’m well aware that the vast majority of fiction writers make less than 10,000 dollars a year from writing fiction, even when published by a New York publisher.

 

So, from a strict monetary stand point, there isn’t much incentive to continue to try and pound my head against the wall that is the slush pile when the end result is, literally, just a few more dollars.

 

But the thing that really pushed me over the edge was Red Lemonade. Now I’ll admit that, as an active member of the red lemonade community, I’ve been very bad indeed. But in my scant trips through the goings on there, I’ve been very inspired by the work and the people. And so I figured, what the fuck, it’s time to get this thing finished and move on.

 

So the last thing I have to do…you know, besides finish redrafting…is work on the conversion. I believe I’ve found a process that works well, and I’ve tested an epub conversion in a couple different ways with success. The best part is, the process I’m using is free and easily accomplished on my crap 3 year old laptop. Huzzah!

 

If I’m honest, I suppose there is one other nagging issue to resolve…the title. For more than a decade, the title of the book was “The Zany Misadventures of Lucifer the Fallen One.” I have a fondness in my heart for that title, not the least of which, it was a phrase I coined, literally, 17 years ago whilst swimming in red tide infested waters and fending off mutated crabs that had come up from the depths of the Puerto Vallarta sewers. So, its one of the few…I don’t know, memorable, I guess…things I’ve ever come up with…along with this…and this…and also this. Of course, as with all things NR comic related, much and more props must go to he who is known as Gilgrim for his visual geniusness and editorial insight. But, “The Zany Misadventures of Lucifer the Fallen One” that shit I came up with all on my own, and it still makes me chuckle even to this day. But to be honest, it doesn’t really fit with the tone of the book anymore. But when I mentioned to the wife that I thought I needed a different title, one would have thought our dog died. That’s how important those few words have been to me for more than half my life.

 

And for a while, I just had no idea what the title should be. Eventually, I came across a phrase I liked while reading The Age of Wonder. It came from the diary of Caroline Herschel (who discovered a number of astronomical items, most notably comets) where she is writing about her work at observing the night sky and refers to it as “minding the heavens.” And that phrase, “Minding the Heavens” is currently the working title. I did have a discussion with someone (via text message) about this very subject and we came to some consensus, but neither of us can remember what that consensus was, so now I’m back to Caroline’s phrase.

 

As a way of saying, hey thanks for reading all this shit, feel free to download the epub file of the first five chapters….here. I make it available to you, however, with the following caveats:

1. Don’t steal my shit….not that I’m proposing this is the next American Gods or anything, just don’t be a douche.
2. Understand that this file has not yet been copy edited. I know there are typos, and all sorts of errors, and I’ll thank you for not pointing them all out…unless you’re volunteering to actually proofread this shit…then that’s a different matter.
3. The cover is just a panel of a classic NR strip because I don’t have an actual cover yet.
4. Do feel free to pass it on.  I mean, hey, at some point I want to charge like five bucks (give or take) for the whole thing but for now, if you know anyone that might like it, I’ll take all the free publicity I can get.
5. If you don’t have an ereader, you can easily (and freely) find reading apps/programs all over the place.

Thanks and happy reading.

kilian

 

 

 

 

 

See America Right

The Mountain Goats