Another Release

My goal last month was to get the audiobook of Kingdom of Flies and Fireflies finished and submitted for publishing on Audible. I managed to get it finished almost a week before the month came to an end. Once you submit it, you just have to wait for it to go through some sort of quality check, which tends to take about two weeks.

Today, I got the email saying that the process is complete and the audiobook is now available. So, if you've been waiting for the audio because that is your preferred format, then the wait is over.

The square version of the cover, because it's audio.

You can find it on Audible or on Amazon (which is actually Audible anyway, so you just wind up in the same place).

Vanity?

That's probably all this is. It's not what I want it to be, but it's probably all it is. There's places out there that will publish books for people that they know won't sell. They do a small print run and charge a large price of the authors for the pleasure, and they're called vanity presses. I suppose print-on-demand and Amazon is putting those folks out of business. Why pay a bunch of money and get a bunch of copies you can't sell, when you could just order one and get it for the price of what a book usually costs?

Speaking of that, I just got my copies of Battalion of Ideas today, one paperback and one hardcover.

They look pretty good, I'd say. I really like how they turned out. The cover looks nice.

They're a good size. They look like legit books and not just something from a vanity press. Of course, what do I know. I'd never be able to afford vanity press books, so maybe this is what they look like.

The one thing I'm not as happy with as I would like to be is the blue text for my author name on the spine. It doesn't stand out on black as well on the book as it did on the computer screen. I thought it would be fine, but you can't even really see it there, right? I don't think I'll change it...but maybe I should...I don't know.

The inside looks nice.

Here's the table of contents, so you can see all seventeen stories that are in it.

And each story starts with a page that looks like this:

It's pretty neat to have, and it makes me happy to see...really tickles my vanity, I guess. I can't help but smile to see them. It's a lot of fun. I guess I should get to work on the next one.

April In The Books

Ooh, is that a clever title for this? "In the books," see what I did there? Because it's a writing update...and I'm writing books...and it's in the...

Well, I don't care if you think it's totally lame. I like it. I think I may call my writing updates "In The Books" from here on out. I like it. Did I mention that I like it?

Anyway, let's talk about April. How did it go? Well, my goal was simply to continue as I was doing. 1,333 words a day. 1,333 words a day times 30 days = 39,990 words. So that was my goal for the month. As you know, Bob, I had a couple of bad days this month. I mentioned it in my last update at the halfway point of the month. One day I spaced it, and didn't finish my words because I thought I already had. Another day, I was traveling and so busy that I straight up forgot to write. So, with those blemishes on my previously pristine record, did I hit my goal?

There you go, I got 41,314 words this month. That's a couple thousand over my limit. Even with two blown days, I managed to get a few thousand over my goal. Not only that but I beat every other month in this whole process except for my record month of last month. I beat February by a few thousand, and I even beat my previous record of January by five words...that's right, five. January was 41,309 and this month was 41,314. Funny, if you ask me, for it to be so close.

Anyway, the best part about the whole month was that I had a few hiccups, but they made no lasting difference. I didn't collapse into a quivering mass of gelatin on the floor like I would have done in times past. Instead, I shook it off and moved on. And because of that, my average, even with two bad days, was higher than it was for any other month so far.

1,377 is a good 55 or so words higher than my third highest average. I'd say that's something special. And, check this out. Here's my total for the whole year up until now:

That's the whole process in one shot...it's been just over six months of this...six months and four days since I count from my birthday at the end of October. It's hard to read anything on a picture that big, though. Let me zoom in on the totals for you.

Check that out. This whole process has netted me 229,888 words. The final goal is 304,475. Or, if we round both of those numbers off, I'm 225,000 into a goal of 300,000 words. That's 75%. Even if I don't round them off, it's 75%, as the percentage box there at the bottom demonstrates.

So, at the 50% mark of the year, I'm 75% of the way to my final goal. I'm not a mathalete, but I think that means that if I keep up my pace, I can hit 150% of my goal by the end of the year. That's approximately 400,000 words. That's a lot. That makes me pretty excited to consider.

So, I guess what I can say is that I'm doing pretty well so far. I said in previous editions of this report, I have written a novelette, a novella, and two novels in that time. Now, we can add a second novella to that list, because, as I said a few days ago, I finished up "Digital Wizards" as well. I haven't just been writing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over, and that's a plus too. You'd think by now that I would have descended into that insanity but no, I continue along as sane as can be.

So, what about the other goals that I set for myself this month. I pledged to get my second audiobook published, the audiobook for Kingdom of Flies and Fireflies: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume One. If you were to look over on Amazon, you'd find that it's still not listed, but it will be any day. Around a week ago, I submitted the files for the finished audiobook, and they are in review. That takes 7-10 days or so, as long as there isn't any issue, so they should go live any second now, maybe even before this post publishes, who knows?

If there's some kind of problem, then my goal to publish that book may get pushed to May. It'll become my goal to fix and redo whatever needs to be done. Otherwise, my goal is to get the audiobook of A Battalion of Ideas: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume Two moving in the right direction. I was going to say that I wanted to be at least 25% done, but then I remembered that I had four or five stories already recorded and edited. I should check what percent I'm already at...okay, after a bit of work on the spreadsheet, it turns out that I am at 28% of the book done already. That leaves 72% to go. I'll do half of that this month, 36%. So, I'm going to make my goal to have 64% of the book done by the end of the month. Then I can do the same amount next month, and have the whole thing done.

The last goal I set was to spend time going through the Tyler Mowery videos on YouTube and use them to plan out my next project, which I was thinking would be "Skeleton Crew." However, I did none of that. I watched like...one of the videos, and did almost no pre-pro work for "Skeleton Crew." Then, when "Digital Wizards" finished up, and I needed something to start on, I had different ideas. I wanted to do a Lazerfist adventure instead. So, I started writing on that. I guess I'll be working on that for a while, so "Skeleton Crew" will have to wait. But hopefully, I can get the preplanning done and be ready to start by the time I finish up the Lazerfist book.

So, I guess that means I'm not Brandon Sanderson after all, because I didn't achieve all my goals. I didn't even come close on that last one...and I think it's one of my biggest failings as a writer. It's something I really need to work on. I need to get a groove for pre-pro like I have for the writing part itself. Not totally sure how to go about it though. I'm thinking that I need to come to terms with zero word days that happen because I'm working on outlining rather than writing. I think that's a goal for a month or even a year to come, however.

For now, we roll on as is. I'm going to keep the 1,333 words per day goal, That's going pretty well, and I don't feel like I'm ready to take it higher. I'll work most heavily on recording and editing audio to get A Battalion of Ideas ready for Audible, and I am going to put some time into publishing the next collection as well. I have enough stories for two more still, so I ought to get going on that, and then get some novels published as well. I'm way behind on the publishing here. I really got to get to work with this stuff. So, publish the eBook, paperback, and hardcover editions of the next collection, which will be called "Two Vampire Weekend" is the last goal.

I should make a list of them all like Rish does in his posts. Here we go:

1. 1,333 words per day, 41,323 in total for the month
2. Finish 64% of Battalion of Ideas audiobook
3. Publish eBook, paperback, and hardcover of "Two Vampire Weekend"
   

May is gonna be awesome.

ADF & BBBE Carnivore | Did I Make It To One-derland Yet? | Week 48 Roundup

I'm only weeks away from the one year mark, it's week 48 already, and I'm only a few pounds away from One-derland. All I have to do is weigh in under 200lb once. Did I manage this week. Did Carnivore and Fasting get me there? Watch and see...

Anklecast 66: Euthanasia Is Available on Patreon

The newest episode of the Anklecast is now up on the Patreon feed. It's pretty cheap to become a member over there. You can get early access to all the shows for as little as $1 per month. If you're not a member, you should consider checking it out.

It's the story of Trent and Brent, who were two children with rhyming names but vastly different life paths to travel. Brent was brilliant, a boy genius, destined to do something amazing, Trent was average and prone to mischief that would eventually lead him down a dark path of suffering and regret. Their paths would cross again, however, and when they did, Brent would be the one who didn't get it and Trent would be the one with the plan...

Afterward, Rish and I talk about whether certain things should be allowed in stories for entertainment or not. We also talk about our adventures in publishing, and let you know what's available now. Enjoy this if you can, and mind the trigger warning.

And, this week you'll be able to hear Rish Outfield, Jonathan Wilson. Tena Kolokowski, and Wendy Wilson contribute their voices to the mix!

Aldready Feeling It

I mentioned in my post about The Expanse series that doing the book posts that I've been doing lately are dangerous to my pocketbook, and here is the proof of that.

Yesterday morning, just 24 hours after I'd written that post, and the next volume (the final volume? Or is it the penultimate volume?) of the series was in my hands. I immediately spent that money. Stupid consumer.

Well, now the next James S. A. Corey book is in its place on my shelf.

If I keep this up, I'm going to have to throw away a bunch of books to make space for the new ones. That's probably fine, though. There's a fair number of books on my shelves that I don't love, so I could trade them out with the ones that I do.

Nostalgia Purchase

Back in 2016, I went to a used book store and found that someone had unloaded their entire collection of Piers Anthony Xanth novels there. I loved those books as a teenager, and I jumped at the chance to buy all twenty books. Then, because a few of them in the sequence were missing, I went to other used book stores to acquire what I didn't have. Now, I have the first 24 Xanth novels in the old mass-market paperback format. Along with the first three books of the Apprentice Adept series (plus the seventh, but I'm missing 4-6), and a couple of books from the Mode series.

I normally don't get the little mass-market paperbacks, because they don't go well with hardbacks on my shelf due to their significantly different size. However, I made a special exception in this case, and even made a special shelf for them to sit on.

Last year, I went through and downloaded a ton of the audiobooks for these in the attempt to go back and reread the books I knew and then go forward into the books I never had read. I only made it through book five, Centaur Aisle, however. The books weren't as good as I remembered. It was a whole lot of taking long journeys through Xanth and fighting with the crazy magical inhabitants of the areas, and much less of plot and character. 

It's funny, because I remember Ogre, Ogre being one of my favorites from back in the day, and that's the one I stopped at and never read. Maybe I ought to go back and try listening to a few more of the audiobooks. Maybe if I did a just a few a year or one a month or something, they wouldn't get as repetitive and tedious as they became when I was bingeing them.

Anyway, having these books really takes me back to the early days of me as a reader. If it weren't for Piers Anthony, I probably wouldn't be what I am today. His imaginitive worlds lit me on fire as a teenager, and of course I loved to read books with art like this on the cover:

Just look at that griffin! Isn't it awesome? I sat and stared at that picture for so long when I got that book.