Slouching to Bethelehem
It is the part of the trip that just requires one foot in front of the other. I have mentioned "the juggle" before. And it still looks like three Jorune projects and four books relaunched in the next sixty days.
CLIMBING THE SPIRAL MOUNTAIN, everything it prepared to plug the final text from the editor to the electronic version (first) in the various electronic publication platforms - Kindle, Apple Books, and about a dozen more. Then, the print version from Amazon goes up, which requires a printed proof. This has priority. It is also the book of which I remain most proud.
The problem is getting people to read and review on Amazon. The problem of promotion is dependent on the cooperation of Amazon readers willing to post a review. Amazon withholds some tools until you hit 16 reviewers, and 16 isn't that big a number. But <16 means - no.
I'm getting my part done and may offer a day of free downloads to encourage readers, whose reviews can be accepted.
But that isn't the only thing I'm working on.
SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #13 - About 80% done. Some art to be done.
ORFA: JORUNE, simplified role-playing game "One Role Fits All" to be applied to Skyrealms of Jorune™ to encourage gamemasters to recruit new players into live games and into the world. About 95% done. Character sheets, done. Text, I am just adding some specs on the creatures of the world - primarily so people can know when those animals have been killed. Cruel, but surprisingly fun. (And no animals are killed in the game session... Jesus killed fish, so chill.) And I haven't finalized the cover.
SONG OF ORPHANS, the fantasy novel from 1977 that has been out for a little while, but which has not had any serious promotion. It will follow the trail blazed by CLIMBING THE SPIRAL MOUNTAIN - electronic versions first, print through Amazon, and print through DriveThruFiction.com to tap into the fantasy audience in role-playing games. Cover art by Fred Lang will be used again - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. His cover is beyond not broken. Interior - one more pass for typographical errors (like carriage returns in the middle of paragraphs).
The novel was an early working of my favorite theme - the journey to self. This time it involves an adolescent alien and a human barbarian who are forced into a trek to find their futures.
THE TASTE OF FIRE, the short story collection, is in exactly the same position as SONG OF ORPHANS. The cover is done. Manuscript requiring the last pass for typography.
The stories include two segments of what could have been a series involving empaths who find employment with medical professionals to reach patients beyond other communication. Also, the aftermath of a mining disaster, a different murder mystery, an after-life journey (me and my road stories), the narrative of a refugee who returns to the continent from which he came to find a new home (do you detect a pattern yet?), and a few that even I have difficulty describing.
But they are all my babies and I do love them all.
Not everything I write gets that treatment. I have a couple of projects that never came to term. One was a philosophical mystery that devolved into a catalog of how to commit self-righteous murders, and I decided the world did not need more of that. Turning on the evening news gives the same story.
One is a detective ghost story, which could still happen. I just don't know if it should be a screenplay or a novel. With the complete lack of response I've had from Hollywood since I left in 1989, probably a candidate for prose.
THREE PLAYS, my favorite plays of a modest body of about 20 scripts that were produced in L.A. in the mid-1980s. Same as SONG OF ORPHANS and THE TASTE OF FIRE. A new cover is done. The current manuscript will get the typographical detailed review.
I have one play I am trying to get out while I'm doing all this "publishing" stuff. Talk about Juggling.
Now PROSPERO'S DECLINE is my version of the dementia narrative. Last month show biz pioneer Elaine May just garnered a Tony award for doing is also about dementia. (I need to find out more about her show to make sure I'm not in the same waters again.)
After that things go very Jorunish. Skyrealms of Jorune.
THE COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER - This Jorune title is completed, needs the cover - which means I have to do it. This is the complete webzine from the early 2000s, from the original editor and author, Kym Paugh. This looks to flesh out over 200 pages and looks like fun for Jorunis. But it will be up and ready to plug in to the distribution stream after the THREE PLAYS.
THE COLLECTED BORKELBY'S FOLLY - from the mist 1990s-2000 from the editor and writer Ray Gillham, with other authors. It was a fresh breath of Jorune from the UK and should top out around 300 pages. Need a cover but the interior has had two passes with an editor. So far.
When those are out, we look at what comes next.
There is a new indexed edition of RECOVERY READER, for those who know about such things. And a couple of new articles. That would continue to be available through various free channels with the Creative Commons license, but the indexed version will be up on Amazon. Not a big money maker, but people have benefited from the volume.
That should take me well into the Fall of 2019.
CLIMBING THE SPIRAL MOUNTAIN, everything it prepared to plug the final text from the editor to the electronic version (first) in the various electronic publication platforms - Kindle, Apple Books, and about a dozen more. Then, the print version from Amazon goes up, which requires a printed proof. This has priority. It is also the book of which I remain most proud.The problem is getting people to read and review on Amazon. The problem of promotion is dependent on the cooperation of Amazon readers willing to post a review. Amazon withholds some tools until you hit 16 reviewers, and 16 isn't that big a number. But <16 means - no.
I'm getting my part done and may offer a day of free downloads to encourage readers, whose reviews can be accepted.
But that isn't the only thing I'm working on.
SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #13 - About 80% done. Some art to be done.
ORFA: JORUNE, simplified role-playing game "One Role Fits All" to be applied to Skyrealms of Jorune™ to encourage gamemasters to recruit new players into live games and into the world. About 95% done. Character sheets, done. Text, I am just adding some specs on the creatures of the world - primarily so people can know when those animals have been killed. Cruel, but surprisingly fun. (And no animals are killed in the game session... Jesus killed fish, so chill.) And I haven't finalized the cover.
SONG OF ORPHANS, the fantasy novel from 1977 that has been out for a little while, but which has not had any serious promotion. It will follow the trail blazed by CLIMBING THE SPIRAL MOUNTAIN - electronic versions first, print through Amazon, and print through DriveThruFiction.com to tap into the fantasy audience in role-playing games. Cover art by Fred Lang will be used again - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. His cover is beyond not broken. Interior - one more pass for typographical errors (like carriage returns in the middle of paragraphs).The novel was an early working of my favorite theme - the journey to self. This time it involves an adolescent alien and a human barbarian who are forced into a trek to find their futures.
THE TASTE OF FIRE, the short story collection, is in exactly the same position as SONG OF ORPHANS. The cover is done. Manuscript requiring the last pass for typography.The stories include two segments of what could have been a series involving empaths who find employment with medical professionals to reach patients beyond other communication. Also, the aftermath of a mining disaster, a different murder mystery, an after-life journey (me and my road stories), the narrative of a refugee who returns to the continent from which he came to find a new home (do you detect a pattern yet?), and a few that even I have difficulty describing.
But they are all my babies and I do love them all.
Not everything I write gets that treatment. I have a couple of projects that never came to term. One was a philosophical mystery that devolved into a catalog of how to commit self-righteous murders, and I decided the world did not need more of that. Turning on the evening news gives the same story.
One is a detective ghost story, which could still happen. I just don't know if it should be a screenplay or a novel. With the complete lack of response I've had from Hollywood since I left in 1989, probably a candidate for prose.
THREE PLAYS, my favorite plays of a modest body of about 20 scripts that were produced in L.A. in the mid-1980s. Same as SONG OF ORPHANS and THE TASTE OF FIRE. A new cover is done. The current manuscript will get the typographical detailed review.- THE MAMA LAW premiered November 6th, 1980. The government does away with police and courts and assigns everyone a MAMA, the representative of the Metro-Rural Agression Management Administration. Who has the authority to kill you on the spot if you don't behave. It has become distressingly current again.
- FEVER was my first great experience in theater. Three previous scripts had reasonable productions but the combination of script, cast, and audience made a damn near perfect run in the summer of 1982. It was the kind of magic that makes all the heartbreak of small theater worthwhile.
- LIVING IN THE HOUSE OF ANGELS was a response to the plague years of AIDS and the hospice story that made an emergence when no one else would stand up to face the challenge. Written with help from the participants of the Chris Brownless Hospice in Los Angeles, Visiting Nightengales of San Francisco, and Lutheran Social Services (before the church became ELCA) in the fall of 1989, this play has had dozens of readings around the country with a half dozen full stage productions. A period piece now, but it stands up.
I have one play I am trying to get out while I'm doing all this "publishing" stuff. Talk about Juggling.
Now PROSPERO'S DECLINE is my version of the dementia narrative. Last month show biz pioneer Elaine May just garnered a Tony award for doing is also about dementia. (I need to find out more about her show to make sure I'm not in the same waters again.)
After that things go very Jorunish. Skyrealms of Jorune.
THE COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER - This Jorune title is completed, needs the cover - which means I have to do it. This is the complete webzine from the early 2000s, from the original editor and author, Kym Paugh. This looks to flesh out over 200 pages and looks like fun for Jorunis. But it will be up and ready to plug in to the distribution stream after the THREE PLAYS.
THE COLLECTED BORKELBY'S FOLLY - from the mist 1990s-2000 from the editor and writer Ray Gillham, with other authors. It was a fresh breath of Jorune from the UK and should top out around 300 pages. Need a cover but the interior has had two passes with an editor. So far.
When those are out, we look at what comes next.
There is a new indexed edition of RECOVERY READER, for those who know about such things. And a couple of new articles. That would continue to be available through various free channels with the Creative Commons license, but the indexed version will be up on Amazon. Not a big money maker, but people have benefited from the volume.
That should take me well into the Fall of 2019.
Comments
Post a Comment