The Near Future

Blog Post No. 433

It’s getting to be crunch time for Break/Interrupt. With the usual deadline of getting the novella to the printer by the end of March in hopes of using a discount code for the setup cost, I’ve got less than three weeks to wrap it all up. Right now I’m still waiting on the last edits to come back, but (hopefully) since it’s in the final stages of the editing process, there won’t be too much to change. Fixing typos is easy enough, but rewriting sections due to plot holes or other mistakes this late in the game is a tough nut to crack. I’ve done it before, though. I should be able to do it again. If not, I just bite the bullet and pay full price. Besides, I’m the one who set the April release date. Not only does that leave the whole month open for me to actually get the book published, but I can always change it. It’s not like I need the books for an upcoming event or anything.

With that downer in mind, I’ve made a decision regarding the novellas. Number five, which is tentatively titled Snow from a Distant Sky, will be the last one for a while. The original goal of the novellas was to have a new release every year for all the events I was going to at the time. It was difficult to justify spending the time and money to drive to another city and sit at a table all day when everyone interested in buying a book had already bought what I had the year before.

The novellas were also meant as a way for me to have something local to sell to the people who were actually reading my stuff around the Windsor area. Having a new book every year might have helped keep me in the public consciousness (not sure if that one worked or not). Also, they were just cool. It felt good to write them, put a cool cover on them, and release them to the public. Novella number five, though, will give me three books that I haven’t brought to events. I haven’t sold many copies of Broadcast Wasteland in general (mostly because I haven’t left the house much since this time last year) and I doubt anything will be different for Break/Interrupt. I’m appreciative of the people who have told me (or others and it’s gotten back to me) that they are excited for the new book, but I can’t spend that much time making them when I won’t be able to even make the initial investment back.

Snow from a Distant Sky will answer some of the questions brought up in the previous four books, but it’s not a conclusion. I intend to go back to the novellas when it makes sense. To be honest, I need to focus my time and energy on writing novels and short stories. Something I have a chance of getting traditionally published. The sooner I can get an agent and a publishing deal, the sooner I can write full time. Maybe whatever agent I get will see some kind of potential in the novellas and will sell them to a publisher. Maybe they will be something I squeeze out between the bigger releases. The point is, I hope to continue to write them for the rest of my life. They really are fun to make!

For now, Break/Interrupt should be out in early April and Snow from a Distant Sky will come out in April of 2022. I’m going to spend the summer editing the Invasion Novel and writing a couple of short stories when I can squeeze them in. I have the idea for the next novel percolating in my brain and I can’t wait to dive into it (but the current novel comes first). I want to get as much editing done as possible before August when I’ll start working on novella number five. Wow. That looks like a lot all written out like that. On a side note, I managed to get 1000 likes on this blog. It only took eight years, but that’s a pretty cool milestone.