The Synthetic Albatross

Blog Post No. 539

I’m feeling a little disconnected right now. It’s April and for the previous five years in April I had a book come out in the Synthetic Albatross Series. This year I don’t and it’s very strange. Normally, this would be the time when I would be scrambling to get the final copy to the printer, or anxiously waiting for the review copy to come in so I could see what horrible mistake I missed (costing me more money) or what kind of horrible state the printing (or binding, or positioning) would be in. Not that I’m doing any of that in 2023.

Breaking it Down

Blog Post No. 514

I’m a little embarrassed at how long it took me to get back into the edits on the Invasion Novel, but I’ve finally started to go over Christian‘s notes. As I suspected (and worried about) he had a few big picture suggestions that will really make the book better. The problem is that now I have to make those changes which involves going through the whole novel and making sure I connect all the dots so it makes any kind of sense.

Snow from a Distant Sky is now Available

Blog post No. 491

I may be milking it a little by now, but this is a short post to announce the official release of Snow from a Distant Sky. In case you don’t already know, it’s the fifth book in The Synthetic Albatross Novella Series that started with The Thinking Machine in 2018. As I’ve mentioned a number of times, the series is now on hold for the foreseeable future. One of the main reasons I wrote the series was to have new books each year for the annual events I was attending. Now that I have Broadcast Wasteland, Break/Interrupt, and Snow in my pocket for when I do go back to events (you can read last week’s post to know why I’m not taking part, yet) I think my time is better spent working on some novels.

Bowling Ball and Pinhead

Blog Post No. 470

Most of the artists I know don’t have a ton of extra scratch to pay for things. Sometimes when you’re making, say, a book, you need things like good looking covers. How does an artist pay for a good looking cover when they don’t have enough money to get a kindergartner to finger paint for them? That’s right, they trade for it. I was lucky enough to find someone to trade with in Glen Hawkes. He did the covers for Broadcast Wasteland, Break/Interrupt, and is working on the cover for the upcoming Snow From a Distant Sky. He’s not only a talented painter, he’s a skilled graphic designer, so he knows how to make a cover.

Update: Snow From a Distant Sky

Blog Post No. 469

My main project at the moment is editing the fifth novella in the Synthetic Albatross Series, Snow From a Distant Sky. Like the last two books Broadcast Wasteland and Break/Interrupt, I wrote the first draft in a mad sprint. Broadcast was started in September but seeing as it went long, I bumped Break up to August. (It ran even longer, so it was good that I gave it the extra month). This time, I actually managed to get the first draft of Snow in before the end of August and I somehow kept it from ballooning out of control.

First Draft of Snow from a Distant Sky

Blog Post No. 459

It may not be a record for the most words written in the shortest amount of time (I’d have to do math to verify it) but it is a record for the fastest first draft I’ve ever written. In 29 days I managed to write just under 40 000 words and somehow managed to stop writing any more. That is to say, the last three installments in this novella series all went longer that I had intended (some much longer than others). But now it’s early September (and the weather has finally gotten a little cooler) and I’m done the first draft of the fifth novella and taking a short break before jumping into the edits.

Cold Writing in Hot Weather

Blog Post No. 458

It’s hot outside. Like, seriously hot. Some people have no idea what the part of Canada where I live is like. The area used to be a swamp. In the summers we get heat waves that may look quaint to people who live in more southern climates, but our heat is wet. It sticks to you. When we reach 32 degrees Celsius (about 80 Fahrenheit) it feels like 40 degrees with the humidity (104 F). Again, that doesn’t look like much to someone who sees 120 F in Arizona, but the humidity is a killer.

Writing a Book for the Second Time

Blog Post No. 455

I’ve been working on the fifth novella, Snow from a Distant Sky, for a couple of weeks now and I have to say, I’ve enjoyed getting back into writing. I’ve been editing since I finished Break/Interrupt last September. I went right from editing the fourth novella into editing the Invasion Novel. I kind of wish I would have forced myself to write a short story or two in between the two big edits. Not just because I need to get back to working on shorts in general, but as a bit of a pallet cleanser. I had all kinds of plans to write some shorts and wasn’t able to get it done.

Invasion Novel, The Next Step

Blog Post No. 449

I went back in this blog and looked up the first time I mentioned the Invasion Novel. I’m sure I spoke about it before, but the first time I called it the Invasion Novel was November 8th, 2018. The post was about finishing the first draft of The Neon Heart and how I was getting ready to start the first draft of the novel. I may have also said something about wanting to get the first draft done faster than it took me to write The Neon Heart, but clearly that didn’t happen. What has happened is that I’ve finally managed to finished the second draft of the Invasion Novel.

Morning, Noon, and Night

Blog Post No. 443

I’ve picked myself up off the floor, dusted my myself off, and gotten back to work. It’s only a start, but I feel like I’m rebuilding the routine with editing the Invasion Novel. I’ve said it many times, but routine is everything to my productivity. With a good routine, I can get a lot of work done with time to spare. I still have to get back into the daily workouts. As little as they were, I felt good getting at least that much done regularly, and having the novel and novella to write helped me keep at it (and vice versa). Getting a little exercising in helps with sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time, too. It’s nice to feel like I’m building some steam again, but I’m not necessarily out of the woods.