That Time Again?

Posted on by Nathan Lowell 41 Comments

My webmaster reminds me to put a post up every single week.

Too frequently of late, I’ve let that reminder go begging. It’s been two months since I posted on this blog so let me catch you all up.

I’m clearing away the Gredok story — The Gangster. It was due in February and it’s taking what little effort I can apply right now to get it finished up and moved over to Dark Overlord for editing and revisions. I should be done with it this week.

So anyway. There is some good news and some bad news.

The bad news

I’m nearly blind. Literally.

I have zero vision in my right eye and my left eye is about 70% occluded with cataracts. It makes it stupidly difficult and frustrating to deal with writing because I can’t find the cursor on my screen. Copy editing has been all but impossible because I can’t tell the difference between a comma and a period, between a quote and an apostrophe. Luckily I know a lot of accessibility tricks, but they’re time consuming and knowing them is a far cry from being fluent in their application. Everything — including this post — takes twice as long. At least.

The good news

I’m getting it fixed.

Last week I visited with the eye surgeon and next week I’ll have the first of two surgeries to correct my vision. He’s repairing the right eye first and we’ll go back for the left on the 20th.

That should be the end of my major medical trials. I finished up the dental issues a couple of weeks ago and, with my sight restored, I hope I’m going to get back on the production train.

At the end of the month we’ll have a house full of company visiting to celebrate my elder daughter’s graduation from high school — assuming she does, in fact, graduate. That will not be conducive to new work, but should be fine for applying the copy edits for Captain’s Share. I can sneak in a few hours of work between family hours.

It’s been a long road since November. I had high hopes that I’d be re-issuing the books within a few weeks and have the series complete by the end of the first quarter. Yeah. So much for that plan.

The Current Plan

When I get The Gangster off my plate, I’ll be re-publishing Double Share and then releasing Captain’s Share to text for the first time. While that’s happening, I’m getting Owner’s Share through the editing process, but it’s a huge book and I have no idea how long that will take.

My goal is to get Double and Captain out by the end of May…which my calendar assures me starts tomorrow.

Yikes.

I will get Owner’s Share out just as soon as possible because you’ve been patiently waiting for the print for way too long. I’ve learned enough about editing and publishing to know that it won’t be perfect–no matter how many editors I hire or how much time I spend on it. My goal is to make it as good as I can within a reasonable time frame. If the other two books get off my desk by the end of May, I’ll be shooting for the final volume of the Trader’s Tales to be out by the end of June.

After that I have only South Coast to produce in July and that will be the last of the completed works published.

Then I’ll release all the books in epub format and get the paperbacks (and hardcovers) in production. I’m focusing on Kindle as the first pass because that’s 95% of my market in one upload.

A half-dozen or so of you have begged me to publish on B&N so I’ll also be uploading there for you folks and starting up the Kobo store to start building international sales.

I will not be uploading to Smashwords, Apple, or Google books. At least not directly. Several colleagues have recommended a service that supports some of these fringe markets. I’ll be looking at that after I’ve finished initial release of all the works that I have completed and before I start writing the new books. That will put every completed work out in all the text formats.

New books – Cape Grace and The Hermit of Lammas Wood – are on my schedule for the second half of the year.

If I can get all that done by year end, it’ll be far short of what I wanted to do, but will clear out the backlog of everything I’ve got currently on the big white board beside my desk.

Sorry for not keeping you updated more. I do post on the other blogs — Solar Clipper and Lammas Wood — and you can get an almost daily update from me at Talking on My Morning Walk. Even that has had problems lately as I wrestle with a new flare up of arthritis that prevents me from walking as often as I would like.

That’s about all the news for now. Next time you hear from me, it should be the re-release of Double Share.

Fingers crossed.

Zypheria’s Call

Posted on by Nathan Lowell 39 Comments

Sometimes the longest journeys are within.

Tanyth takes passage on a ship to make her way to Gertie Pinecrest. Storms and ice block her path, but her most serious enemies may be people she has never met.

As her power grows, she must come to grips with the changes within her and wrestle the fear that she is going mad.

To accomplish that she must answer Zypheria’s Call … and survive.

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Available at Amazon.com

Hearts and Flowers

Posted on by Nathan Lowell 11 Comments

It’s been too long since I left an update on publication status here. I forget that not everybody follows Talking on My Morning Walk nor does everyone check Solar Clipper or Lammas Wood.

So on this weekend after Valentine’s Day please accept my apologies … and this status update.

Covers:
I now have them for all the books that are currently written. They should appear here as the new titles get re-released. It’s taking longer than I’d hoped.

Re-releases:
Full Share has been at Amazon for a week waiting on ebook review. It’s only supposed to take twenty-four hours but they haven’t told me there’s a problem and there’s nothing I can do until that clears. Half Share and Quarter Share are already out and Double Share has been edited. It’s just waiting for me to wade through the copyedits and fix them. I’ve got that on a schedule for March. Fingers crossed.

New Releases:
Captain’s Share has been back from the editor for a couple of weeks now, but I haven’t been able to get to it to get the changes made. That’s on the schedule for April. Owner’s Share hasn’t been to the editor yet. It’ll be awhile before that’s ready but mid-summer is not out of the question.

South Coast has a cover as well, but needs editing. Haven’t been able to get that to the top of the pile yet.

Project Pile:
I’ve got a bunch of projects that are moving now. I’ve just finished a narration for Crime City Central and have another one for Protecting Project Pulp in my audio editor. I’ve got a couple more small pieces that I’ve promised people.

The podcast of Zypheria’s Call is on the schedule for release on the vernal equinox. It should be eligible for the Parsec competition this year but won’t be if I don’t get it done. I missed having a book in the running last year. I don’t want that to happen again.

I’ve got a novella promised to Scott Sigler for his Galactic Football League series — The Gangster. It’s the story of Greedok the Splithead and I’m really looking forward to having a little fun with this.

Looking forward:
The last book in the first Tanyth Fairport series — The Hermit of Lammas Wood — is next on the block. I’m shooting for a Summer Solstice release on that to wrap up the first series featuring Tanyth. I suspect there will be more work set in her universe.

Cape Grace – the much promised sequel to South Coast — is next on the schedule and I’m *really* looking forward to digging into this one. I’ve learned a lot since I wrote that book and I think Otto and Sarah will surprise a lot of people.

After that, we’re back into the next Ishmael Wang stories. I’ve been banging ideas together to see where sparks fly and I think it’s going to be fun. Ishmael has some unfinished business in the Deep Dark and those who’ve wanted him to meet up with some of the Lois McKendrick crew will get your wish.

There’s also the matter of more stories in Odin’s Outpost. That kinda got set out there and left. It’s still one of the more popular stories I’ve published and I think I may try to sandwich a bit of criminal activity in between the other books. We’ll have to see how things go.

Looking backward:
There are reasons that the progress hasn’t been as fast or as regular as it might have been. When I got the titles back from Ridan in November, I thought it would be easily handled and re-issued with new books out by Christmas.

Didn’t happen. In this case, it’s all on me. No fingers to point. No excuses. I just didn’t get it done.

Several things have happened in the last few weeks that have allowed me to get back on the horse and start riding along the trail once more. Chief among these was the passing of my younger sister. She lost a two year battle with cancer on January 31 and, with her passing, a very difficult period is drawing to a close. I’ll be flying to Maine for the interment ceremony in the spring when the ground thaws. She was a remarkable person, my sister Laurie. Some of her lives on in Tanyth Fairport and much more lives on in my heart. I’m comforted knowing that she’s come to the end of her journey and beyond the pain. As her burdens have been lain to rest, now I find that I’m looking forward to picking up my own again with renewed enthusiasm.

Thank you:
I’m grateful for all of you who’ve been waiting — patiently and otherwise — for the next steps in the saga. Without you none of this would be possible. Here’s to a brighter tomorrow and many more stories.