The art of the blurb.
City of Roses by Kip Manley is the closest I came to a really well-crafted, character-driven fantasy.
—posted 4613 days ago
All quiet on the western slopes.
Saturday evening and we had no plastic eggs, so I walked down to the Fred Meyer to get a half dozen or so imprinted with animal faces and pastel bags of Kit-Kats and sour jellybeans, and I ended up getting a bottle of bubbles, too, because why not. On the way there the sun had been setting, and when I left the store it was almost entirely down, and Hawthorne stretched up away ahead of me into the deepening gloom and at the head of it the far-off colonnade of the Seminary’s front porch catching the last of the light on the ankles of Mount Tabor—and just for a flash, the way you see these things, I saw it: a flickering winding line of candles held in sure and steady hands, a procession making its slow way up the paths there among the trees toward the long-dormant (but not dead) caldera, and I knew how it was all going to end. —Oh, no one’s doom was sealed at that point; those have long since been written down and sealed away in envelopes, days and dates, hows and whys. But what would be done about it, what it’s all going to do to the city: now, with that one glimpse, I know a little more.
Slowly, solely. —Less than a week from the 16th of April. Something will appear here then; something more will appear on days thereafter, but when exactly, which, I don’t know, nor whether it’ll all be done by the 27th as advertised, as promised, sloe, slew, slhoa.
So we’ll set the marker down, here: next week, Monday, April 16th, will see the online première of no. 18, “Dazzle,” with installments appearing, um. Pre-orders? I’ll get back to you on that.
It should all be wrapped up in plenty of time for the “Moon” to come in June. (And so forth; and so on.)
I will be places as well in the next little while. Perhaps I should mention them?
Stumptown and VanCAF will be joint appearances with the Spouse; Readercon and the PZS, I’ll be on my lonesome. I should have at least a couple of books and chapbooks at each of these, and also a warm smile and hearty handshake.
—posted 4615 days ago
Things to keep in mind:
The secret of your audience.
The 9-year-old who discovered The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is genetically identical to the 54-year-old who cannot travel without Calvino’s Invisible Cities and the OCT of the Iliad; if these are not the same reader—if between them lie many, many obsessives to whom the current occupant of the body can never return—the project of improving a book with a view to “the” reader is obviously a non-starter.
—posted 4639 days ago
Things to keep in mind:
The secret of mawdlen.
The fifth is mawdlen drunke; when a fellowe will weepe for kindnes in the midst of ale, and kisse you, saying, “By God, captaine, I love thee. Goe thy wayes; thou dost not thinke so often of me as I doo thee; I would (if it pleased God) I could not love thee as well as I doo;” and then he puts his finger in his eye, and cryes;
—posted 4647 days ago
Intermezzo.
Your eyes do not deceive you; Wednesday’s fit has yet to appear. Tonight; tomorrow morning terribly early at the very latest, with the conclusion to appear not long thereafter. So not so much late as not on time?
—There were some blocking issues. And some last-minute but rather fruitful questions as to motivation. End-game’s a dicey time at best, you know.
In the meanwhile: Joey Manley (no relation) went and interviewed me as part of his series on webserialists, who we are, what we do, why (dear God, why). Go and read it while you’re waiting, if you like. Hints are dropped. Innuendo languidly draped. That sort of thing.
(—I should maybe one day read Steppenwolf, huh.)
—posted 4662 days ago
The light is only perfect
for a very short time.
Whether moonlight or streetlight or the light that shines beneath doorways, and for that very short time we can finally do what we might: Monday, February 13th, will see the online première of no. 17, “Deliverance,” with installments appearing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through the 24th. Pre-orders for the paper version should be available within a couple of weeks, and will be announced at that point, along with the track listing.
And then it’s “Dazzle,” due in April—just in time for Stumptown—and then, and then…
—posted 4685 days ago
Things to keep in mind:
The secret of Chekhov’s gun.
Wenn ich Kultur höre…entsichere ich meinen Browning!
—posted 4690 days ago
Things to keep in mind:
The secret of exposition.
Fuck the exposition.
—posted 4700 days ago
90 scenes 90.
Six chapters left at roughly 15,000 per and averaging not that I’ve done the math but this is a gut-check one thousand words a scene that’s, well. 90 scenes left and we’re done, out. Finished.
That’s it.
—What? I’m fairly certain I’ve mentioned the thing about how there’s 22 episodes before. The underlying structural metaphor has always been a bog-standard Yankee genre TV show; the average number of episodes per season for such is 22; the fact that the Major Arcana has 22 cards should in no way be seen as anything other than a coincidence, honest, for true. (I know I must’ve made that joke before. Mustn’t I?)
Can I show you something?
That well-worn piece of paper is about six years old, I’d say. Sometimes. Other times, I’d say it’s seven, or five. —Ever since whenever it was I scratched it out, it’s been somewhere around my writing station, wherever that might be. Currently it’s hanging square above my monitor from a gooseneck clamp. It’s pretty much what passes for an outline, hereabouts. —You don’t see it? Each hashmark is an episode, see? I’m plotting out the act breaks over the course of the megilla, seeing how much room I had here and there and where I had to start thinking about the MOWs, the Monsters of the Week, and if I got the first act break wrong (the knighthood and the duel happened in no. 9, not no. 7), well, I damn well nailed nos. 14 and 15, didn’t I, from oh so long ago. (Of course everything after 15’s a bit off or worse: I mean, “shoots Orlando,” well, that happened in no. 8, for fuck’s sake, and as for the rest—but that would be telling.)
Three acts, then, of (roughly) seven episodes each, with an extra at the end for the big finish. That’s one way to break it down and look it over—but whichever way you do it: 22’s the number.
Six left, then:
No. 17: Deliverance
No. 18: Dazzle
No. 19: Moon
No. 20: Sun
No. 21: Gallowglas
No. 22: Maiestie
Six to go. Fifteen per. 90,000 words; ninety scenes left.
(Of course, most every Yankee genre TV show aims to last at least five seasons of 22 episodes each—)
—posted 4714 days ago
The year in roses that was.
So! Last year a pledge, a promise, a proposal was made: to have written six full chapters by about now. —How’d that go?
Not so much; despite a valiant end-of-year effort to Get the Dam’ Thing Done Already, we’re going to have to call it at four-and-a-half done out of six.
Oh well.
(I am working on it. Honest.)
Of course, there was also a hope: that there might come to pass “some additional formats such as ebooks and audiobooks and suchlike”—
So there’s that. —And while the serial nature of this enterprise is paramount (“It’s terribly—episodic,” the Editor says, having looked it over, or the Agent, with that Tone in their voice that tells you there’s a Look on their face, so I say, “Well, yeah—”), there’s something about a neatly bound stack of paper, you know?
Expectations are raised, however, when a work becomes a product in the marketplace; benchmarks ought to be set, and checked, to see how well one is, what’s the word, performing—so I figured, there’s hope, yes, but let’s not let it get too high, you know? Say, a nice round figure, maybe on average we sell a book a day? —Nothing exorbitant.
Well. So much for that.
(You might, if you take a close look at those numbers, say, but Kip! There’s 91 sales via Smashword in November! —And I’d say, well, but: those were giveaways. —And so.)
(While we’re opening up the books, here’s the average daily traffic for each year we’ve been around:
(One takes what solace one can from the general upward trend?)
But. But but but.
The whole point—one of the whole points—of doing this the way it’s being done is precisely to do whatever it is without the contant checking of those benchmarks and the checking them again; to never be in a position where an Editor might come from a meeting with Finance, shaking their head sadly and sucking their teeth, pondering how best to pull the plug. Means of production and all that. There’s only one number in all this heap that means much of anything:
Four. And a half.
—In 2010, only three chapters were completed; this represents another year-over-year increase in output of fifty percent.
So I feel pretty confident (being Editor, and Agent, and Finance, and Plug, all at once) in projecting an actual six chapters completed in the coming year. —Ladies; gentlemen; those otherwise designated by preference or design: I give you—
More on which anon.
—posted 4715 days ago
