Two posts in one, more or less!
Black Wolf, the novel
Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t do a post here when Black Wolf was officially released on Smashwords!!! Of course, I spent a large part of that day re-uploading it, trying to make the inexplicably cranky formatting behave itself, and I desperately hope that it’s now doing so for readers. I have to admit to walking away that evening not wanting to think about it any more for a day or two. So, belatedly:
Black Wolf is officially released, as of Hallowe’en!!! For info on how to get a copy for yourself, drop by here: http://prysmcat.com/black-wolf/
Now Yin-Yang isn’t sitting out there all by itself! And there’ll be a third sibling for them this spring, if all goes as planned – an other-world fantasy, rather than another urban one.
Moonblood, the serial
Now, finishing a novel leaves a hole, a space that’s full only of potential: what shall I work on next? The fastest way I know to sabotage myself is to choose based on what I can complete the most quickly, because I’ll lose interest in it rapidly. However, there are a few projects that were previously released here and have been removed for revision before official publication, and they do have some claim on being near the top of the list. With Lamia still in limbo (I seem to find more that I’m unhappy with every time I open the file, even though I adore the characters and it has several of my favourite scenes I’ve ever written), that pretty much leaves Moonblood.
Moonblood’s a bit of an odd one, though. It’s not really a novel. It’s a set of characters having adventures in another world, each of which is largely complete in itself, though the first few do have an overall loose arc. Some of those adventures are fairly substantial at 20k+ words. Some are much shorter. It was intended to be open-ended, potentially able to go on indefinitely, swapping through the characters that part ways, have separate adventures, and recombine in varying combinations as time (quite a lot of time) passes. I have considered turning the part that encompasses the arc into a collection, in ebook and print-on-demand forms, and I still probably will. But… between now and then, I think I’m going to try something different.
Moonblood is going to be released in serial form, on a blog sister to this one. See here for where to find it!
At shortly after midnight Eastern, on Tuesdays and Fridays, new content will be published. That means only about three hours from now, as of this writing, the first post will come up.
I promise not to abandon the story in mid-adventure (I would never do that!), and I have enough material already that (with revision, mind you) I can keep going until at least March, with more on the way. There are occasional headaches, mainly points of consistency that didn’t occur to me in the previous version (languages across an entire large continent are not going to be the same, and this setting doesn’t allow for a Universal Translator or TARDIS translation matrix; working out the phases and rising times of 5 moons on different cycles, which I’ve been forced to simplify somewhat but they are goddesses; I really need to make a map!). Despite those, it’s a concept I’ve been playing with, in various incarnations, for a very long time, and one that those exposed to it have tended to find intriguing, and I’m looking forward to sharing it.
I’m rather excited by this whole new approach, but also a bit apprehensive. I tend to find that new developments late in a work can have an impact on what happens earlier on, so I spend a fair bit of my time adjusting the past in light of the present and future, so to speak. Serial release isn’t going to leave me the luxury of easily tweaking things before people ever see it. Retconning strikes me as clumsy in most circumstances. So I suppose, once it’s in writing and it’s appeared publicly, I’m just going to have to live with whatever it says as official. I’ve got lots written but it does need some polishing, so I’m going to have to stay ahead of things. As you can see by the post dates on this blog, I’m not necessarily good at that!
On the other hand, if I’m really lucky, maybe I’ll pick up a few new readers who might enjoy a couple of thousand words twice week. I could consider it a learning experience as well, a bit of a challenge to just keep going with whatever I’ve already got, and everyone needs to stretch sometimes. And, if I’m particularly lucky, I might get some feedback as I go, which is always a good thing!
So, if you like other-world fantasy, consider dropping by to check it out!
