AQATWW: Happy Birthday, Alex!
It's March 22, which is Alexandra's birthday. She would be 26 today, and coincidentally, I just wrote the chapter in which she turns 17.
In my last progress report, I said I might be able to finish by the end of (last) year. Hahahahaha.
I also said I was going to try to keep book six from getting more bloated than book five. Hahahahaha.
I'm on chapter 52, my outline now says there will be 64 chapters (Hahahaha) and I've written just shy of 300,000 words.
Clearly the lesson here is, don't pay attention to anything I say.
However, I have been writing. Not as much as I'd like, but steady progress is being made. From now on, I absolutely refuse to give even a half-assed estimate for completion, but, y'know, I'm getting there.
Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War has more of everything than previous books: more violence, more deaths, more profanity, more dialog. (More sex. But not a lot more. Don't get uptight.) A lot of dialog. (Man, can Abraham Thorn go on...) A lot of it should probably be cut. Those of you who think David has been missing for the past few books will be happy that he's playing a more significant role. Those of you who love the Ozarkers... well, be patient.
The problems in the book remain much as I described last time: in order to keep going, I am plowing past plot holes and weakly linked events and just a general lack of narrative consistency that I strive for, knowing I will have to go back and tighten that shit up. There are, as usual, entire chapters and side quests that are probably unnecessary bloat, and more than in previous books, I feel like at times the story becomes almost episodic: Alexandra does a thing, and then some time passes, and Alexandra does another thing. This is not how I like my stories. Alexandra is by no means being passive, but there are times when she's being very reactive, and waiting for others to act, and that ain't Alex, is it?
Also tying up all those threads I've been leaving open for six books is... hard.
So be patient. I'm going to try hard to whip this into shape before I turn to my betas, who I'm sure will then flog it harder. AQATWW is meant to be epic, and it's also going to leave some scars. So I want it done right.
Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above ebook and print copies
I am working on the remastered ebook and print-ready PDF for AQATSA. The same artist who's done the print covers for the previous three books is working on book four, and it's coming along nicely.
And in case Russia goes offline...
So apparently there is some unpleasantness going on in Europe.
Dark humor aside, I just don't have anything to say that a lot of people haven't already said. It's terrible, and I know I have at least a few fans in Russia and Ukraine. Also, some of my commissioned artists have been Russian or Ukrainian.
However, for those of you who don't know, LiveJournal is owned by a Russian company. So far there is no sign that Russia, or all Russian social media companies, are going to be completely removed from the Internet. But the possibility exists of temporary or permanent disruptions in service.
Yes, I know some of you have been making fun of me for years for still using LiveJournal. I maintain it's still a perfectly good blogging platform and has almost all the features I want for a low-maintenance blog like this.
You know, "blogging." That thing we did back in... oh nevermind.
So anyway, I have also had a Dreamwidth account for years. For those of you for whom this is also ancient history (gods I am getting so old - Get off my usenet groups you damn kids!), Dreamwidth was created as a fork of LiveJournal and it's relatively easy to mirror posts from your LJ account to your DW account.
Until recently, I had not been keeping up with my mirroring, but in light of recent events, I am going to try to do so more regularly. So in the event that LJ becomes inaccessible, you will still be able to find me at https://inverarity.dreamwidth.org/
(Since I never miss an opportunity to shill my book reviews, six years ago I read Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, by Garry Kasparov. Kasparov is rightly doing a lot of "I told you so"s right now.)
In my last progress report, I said I might be able to finish by the end of (last) year. Hahahahaha.
I also said I was going to try to keep book six from getting more bloated than book five. Hahahahaha.
I'm on chapter 52, my outline now says there will be 64 chapters (Hahahaha) and I've written just shy of 300,000 words.
Clearly the lesson here is, don't pay attention to anything I say.
However, I have been writing. Not as much as I'd like, but steady progress is being made. From now on, I absolutely refuse to give even a half-assed estimate for completion, but, y'know, I'm getting there.
Alexandra Quick and the Wizard War has more of everything than previous books: more violence, more deaths, more profanity, more dialog. (More sex. But not a lot more. Don't get uptight.) A lot of dialog. (Man, can Abraham Thorn go on...) A lot of it should probably be cut. Those of you who think David has been missing for the past few books will be happy that he's playing a more significant role. Those of you who love the Ozarkers... well, be patient.
The problems in the book remain much as I described last time: in order to keep going, I am plowing past plot holes and weakly linked events and just a general lack of narrative consistency that I strive for, knowing I will have to go back and tighten that shit up. There are, as usual, entire chapters and side quests that are probably unnecessary bloat, and more than in previous books, I feel like at times the story becomes almost episodic: Alexandra does a thing, and then some time passes, and Alexandra does another thing. This is not how I like my stories. Alexandra is by no means being passive, but there are times when she's being very reactive, and waiting for others to act, and that ain't Alex, is it?
Also tying up all those threads I've been leaving open for six books is... hard.
So be patient. I'm going to try hard to whip this into shape before I turn to my betas, who I'm sure will then flog it harder. AQATWW is meant to be epic, and it's also going to leave some scars. So I want it done right.
Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above ebook and print copies
I am working on the remastered ebook and print-ready PDF for AQATSA. The same artist who's done the print covers for the previous three books is working on book four, and it's coming along nicely.
And in case Russia goes offline...
So apparently there is some unpleasantness going on in Europe.
Dark humor aside, I just don't have anything to say that a lot of people haven't already said. It's terrible, and I know I have at least a few fans in Russia and Ukraine. Also, some of my commissioned artists have been Russian or Ukrainian.
However, for those of you who don't know, LiveJournal is owned by a Russian company. So far there is no sign that Russia, or all Russian social media companies, are going to be completely removed from the Internet. But the possibility exists of temporary or permanent disruptions in service.
Yes, I know some of you have been making fun of me for years for still using LiveJournal. I maintain it's still a perfectly good blogging platform and has almost all the features I want for a low-maintenance blog like this.
You know, "blogging." That thing we did back in... oh nevermind.
So anyway, I have also had a Dreamwidth account for years. For those of you for whom this is also ancient history (gods I am getting so old - Get off my usenet groups you damn kids!), Dreamwidth was created as a fork of LiveJournal and it's relatively easy to mirror posts from your LJ account to your DW account.
Until recently, I had not been keeping up with my mirroring, but in light of recent events, I am going to try to do so more regularly. So in the event that LJ becomes inaccessible, you will still be able to find me at https://inverarity.dreamwidth.org/
(Since I never miss an opportunity to shill my book reviews, six years ago I read Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, by Garry Kasparov. Kasparov is rightly doing a lot of "I told you so"s right now.)