Moe Lane's Blog, page 876
July 13, 2020
07/13/2020 Snippet, TIPPED ON A STIFF.
Yeah, the short story collection probably needs a Tom Vargas story anyway.
Patreon!The dame sat down like she owned the table. And from the look I was getting of her earrings, she might have. It never fails: a noble might dress up in jerkins and jeans to have some rough fun, but they’ll be damned it they wear costume jewelry. It’s a rookie mistake. Sometimes it’s the last one they ever make, too, depending on how rough the fun was.
This one didn’t look that clueless, though. She didn’t look clueless at all as she took out a cigarette and waited for me to light it. As I did, she said, “I’m being followed, Shamus.”
I shook my head as I snapped a smoke out of my own pack and flicked the lighter again. “You youngsters. Always rushing the story.”
“Flattery is nice, Shamus Vargas.” my new companion said, “but we both know you’re about my age.”“Ah,” I said. “You’re a high noble, then.”
“Why?” The noblewoman sounded actually curious that I had pegged her so fast.
“You have to be that high up to not give a damn how old people think you are. How many, how soon?”
The sudden subject change didn’t phase her. “Three, at least.” She thought about it. “Maybe five minutes. They’re definitely going to come, though.”
FROZEN DREAMS book rewards mailed out!
Oh, not every single copy from the Kickstarter rewards. Some people haven’t filled out their surveys (FILL OUT YOUR SURVEYS). But I spent the last day or so prepping ’em and checking ’em off the lists, and earlier this afternoon I dropped ’em off at the Post Office. Then I drank a beer.
And then I dozed for a half hour, because people either drink more or drink less these days, and I’m in the ‘drink less’ camp. But FROZEN DREAMS is still out the door. That’s a big, big step towards finishing up the Kickstarter. Huzzah!
July 12, 2020
First wave of FROZEN DREAMS, ready to be mailed!
Guess what I did this evening? That’s right: I signed, and I stuffed, and I taped, and now I have a ton of padded filled manila envelopes ready to go to the post office tomorrow. I’m going to need to get a cart to transport them, but that’s OK.
Fortunately, the second wave is much smaller: I need to pick up a few boxes to fit the orders that did multiple books, and there’s an international order that needs to be mailed special. That can possibly be done tomorrow, too. But I’m getting these books out of the house ASAP. I love FROZEN DREAMS, but the sooner this stuff is taken care of the sooner I can take care of everything else.
Moe Lane
PS: FILL OUT YOUR SURVEYS.
Just signed 3.25 boxes’ worth of books…
…it went faster than I expected, actually. Listened to a bunch of AC/DC and Beastie Boys and everything just flowed. Lettering and so forth to follow, then packing ’em up, and yay but I can get this off of my list!
Patreon Microfiction: “Gimme Some Sugar, Baby.”
Everybody’s got a line they won’t cross, hey? There’s a book lurking in the background of ‘Gimme Some Sugar, Baby;’ I just don’t feel like writing it. It’d likely end with the narrator dead, lying face down in a huge pile of cumin powder. I’m a bit of a moralist that way.
Patreon!July 11, 2020
The FROZEN DREAMS books start getting prepped tomorrow.
Got all the stuff I need.
The first wave is the easiest: multiple-copy and international orders I think I’m going to have to handle at the post office itself. Fortunately, there aren’t that many of either. Most of the FROZEN DREAMS orders are pretty straightforward.
So, hopefully by Friday that part of this project will be done. Then I can work on everything else. Huzzah!
Book of the Week: Storm Between the Stars.
I started Karl Gallagher’s Storm Between the Stars this evening. ‘Tis good! Got that space opera vibe that I like, with a nice quasi-nautical theme to it that sounds like it’s been thought out. Check it out; I think readers here will like it.
07/11/2020 Report, FERMI RESOLUTION RPG Worldbook.
Had a sudden realization today: the worldbook is supposed to come with six beginning characters, and those characters are going to require a page each, because there’s art involved. And I am trying to keep the worldbook page count to 64. Which kind of means that it’s almost all done at this point, at least for the first draft. I’ll be hacking at it more tomorrow.
‘Was It Really You?’
I understand Tweets like this better now:
New performance by @KenStringfellow of @theposies: "Was It Really You?" by Mangled Grapes. It's a song I wrote around 1992, and I'm thrilled to see it performed by one of my favorite musicians of all time. https://t.co/s0OjVXXzGH
— Patterico (@Patterico) July 11, 2020
There is something thrilling about having something cool you made appear up there, in public and where you can — this is an important thing for me — get paid for it. Fame is good, kudos are wonderful, and even the oft-maligned ‘exposure’ has its tawdry charms; but there’s just something magical about that ka-ching!
Song’s good, too, if you’re into 90s music. Otherwise known as the music of my youth, God save the Republic…
