Richard Raley's Blog, page 14
February 6, 2022
How it Started-ish
One of the first set of notes I took for The King Henry Tapes, probably in 2009 if I had to guess. On the right, you can see King Henry's name finally circled, the Institution's name and me misspelling Visalia.
Many of the Ultra titles stuck outside of "Deathlich" which I thought was a little too Metal and replaced with Bonegrinder and Faceshifter was the same as Shadeshifter and got changed to Facechanger. Was just listing the possible powers as they came to mind, so I had to switch Aeromancy and Spectromancy on the tiers and Xylomany went bye bye as I decided wood and plants were mostly the same thing.
Also my population calculations were way too common for Intras and rare of Ultras and got changed completely.
February 5, 2022
Updating Reading Order + Planned Novels
AUTHOR'S SUGGESTED READING ORDER
The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady [FM1]
Little King Henry, Short Story
The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes [FM2]
Conquering Hero, Short Story
Friendship is Madness, Short Story (T-Bone)
Second Take, Novelette (Welf)
The Foul Mouth and the Troubled Boomworm [FM3]
Griefing, Novella
The Foul Mouth and the Headless Hunny [FM4]
Meet the Bonnies, Novelette (T-Bone)
The Foul Mouth and the Mancy Martial Artist [FM5]
King Henry and the Three Little Trips, MancvVerse Moments Novel (T-Bone/Eva/KH)
The Foul Mouth and the Pit of No Return [FM6]
Assault on Dread Fortress Paine, MancyVerse Moments Novel (T-Bone/Eva)
The Glassbreaker Goes Home, MancyVerse Moments Novel (KH)
The Everchanging Dilemma, MancyVerse Moment Novel (Evelyn Strange)
The Foul Mouth and the War to End All Wars, A Final School Story (Forthcoming)
Vicky von Welf and the Mancy Masquerade, MancyVerse Moments Novel (Vicky ) (Forthcoming)
The Foul Mouth and the Most Obvious Trap [FM7] (Forthcoming)
The Foul Mouth and the Runaway Rumble [FM8] (Forthcoming)
The Foul Mouth and the Black Bird Bash [FM9] (Forthcoming)
The Foul Mouth and the Six Realm Drop [FM10] (Forthcoming)
The Foul Mouth and the Queen's Revenge [FM11] (Forthcoming)<---this title is probably changing
The Foul Mouth and the Asylum Ascendant [FM12] (Forthcoming)
*author reserves the right to randomly write MancyVerse Moments novels as he feels like it, but has no current plans for more.
February 4, 2022
More Beta Reactions
"This book FUCKING ROCKS!!"
"Don't you dare cut the final part! It was fabulous!"
"The pay-off! Oh my!"
"Slow start, into dread, into semi truck."
February 3, 2022
Spine/Back Update + Beta Started
So...physio twice a week for at least the next five weeks going forward. If how I feel at the moment continues that means I'll need 4 days total a week devoted to that with each session and then a recovery day in bed. I'm barely managing to sit up right now typing this after a super long nap...and we haven't even gotten into stretches and exercising portion of the torture routine...
He indicated that in his mind he was trying to prepare me for spinal surgery, so the aftermath would be shorter and easier on me, so...not looking too go on this being a solution.
Writing wise, beta copies are out, some have finished and no one hates it so far...yay?
"One of your best."
"Still a fan, buddy."
"Far more intense than most of the earlier books."
They could just be suck ups...but... 👍👍👍
OMG I have emotes... 💩
I have FM4-FM6 to still reformat and plug in a few typos that people have mailed me over the last 3 years (in addition to what the beta readers have found for DILEMMA) since I last did the whole series bells and whistles update, so...that's what I'll be up to when I can manage to sit up straight!
Man, I suck at lying in bed just watching tv now. Like...can't do it. Just want to write 12 hours a day and pissed I can't. Weird how I snapped back so hard from all those grief/sick years where everything seemed...miserable and pointless, I guess.
Made me a better person and a more aware and empathic writer, I think, but wasn't so fun...
Feb 15th!!! Piss on your Bengals in the Super Bowl! Piss on your Post Valentine's Day What Am I Covered In Please Tell Me That's Chocolate Shower!!! But the book!
February 1, 2022
Everchanging Dilemma Release Date: February 15th!!!
Coverage!!!
Blurbage!!!
Captured at Dread Fortress Paine, Isabel Soto lies helpless and comatose, but the sedative controlling her quickly grows ineffective and its limited supply shrinks by the hour.
She has already escaped the Cleansing Sphere of Reform, the only prison with a chance at holding her. Pregnant with the Curator's child, killing her is an option only the heartless can stomach. Most troubling, inside her broken mind are precious secrets about Obadiah Paine's clandestine network, information that might save hundreds of Mancer lives, bring the fugitive Three Queens to justice, and destroy their Wilder Army.
Yet Isabel remains one of the deadliest beings on the planet: the Maximus of the Body, the Queen of Temptation, the Everchanging.
How do you hold her, how to you convince her, and . . . can you save her?
This is THE EVERCHANGING DILEMMA.
Follow Evelyn Strange, Eva Reti, Ceinwyn Dale, and others in this new KING HENRY TAPES side novel as Richard Raley marks his return from illness and grief, let's get the MancyVerse back on track!
One Catch: Beta read is running February 2nd to 11th, if my back goes out or if I get COVID like we all have to deal with lately, Feb 18th will be the push date if I need more time getting the edits into the file.
But for now...if all goes well, Feb 15th!!! Finally, again!
Until then I'm working on reformatting and updating the older books in the series in preparation for the new release (and hopefully some new fans), after that I'll be going hard on WAR TO END ALL WARS writing with the bed-desk-thingy. I'm like 6.5 out of 13 chapters into it. It's a big one. Let's put it this way: it's already longer than the book you're about to read. Chonky chonky boi. 100% King Henry crazy high school antics.
January 31, 2022
Is it Weird I Teared Up Over a Laptop?
My twelve year old Compaq Presario has officially fulfilled her last duty reformatting, organizing, and updating my writing files. She'll stick around in the closet as long as I have a home, ready for emergency duty if required, but...she's earned the retirement ten times over.
She ran loud and hot, lost her disc drive just yesterday, had her wifi pulled years ago, still runs Windows 7, and never gamed a day in her life unless you count Solitaire. She outlasted two other laptops, three desktops, an XBOX 360, and a PS4.
EVERCHANGING DILEMMA is the first novel I haven't written on her in some form of the process whatsoever.
A true changing of the guards is upon us.
A new fraught age of laptops with Football Manager and Wordle and...the terror before me!
We salute you, Old Betsy!
F
January 27, 2022
Final "Everchanging" Stretch?
18 Month post surgery doctor appointments out of the way. Still alive, yippy. No panic attacks, yay? Not stuck horizontal in bed today from the pain, double yay?
Physical therapy for my spine starts next week and sounds like that is a 2/3 times a week deal of pure torture, so we really have a small window to get this shit done!
But!
We ARE mostly done at this point. Rewrite is done, all in the computer, I've been working on the third draft and only have, I think, 12 pages left to get through which I plan to do tonight. After that we have the last 3 chapters of the fourth draft on the Kindle. They're generally smaller than what came before, with chapter 3 being by far the biggest in the novel by a large margin. (Chapter titles are: Everchanging Body, " Mind, " Soul, " Task, " Dream, and " World btw).
First 3 chapters are actually locked at this point outside of typos. Done done DONE.
After the fourth draft we have formatting. Shouldn't take too long. Might write an author's note for the general audience about what I've been dealing with and why I vanished for a few years. Or not, haven't decided. Then, "also by" and copyrights and "about the author" and all that fun official stuff.
Then beta reading and, a couple weeks later, typing in those fixes/corrections.
Then release.
So...very close to having a release date for you.
Little more work!
After that? Probably finishing WAR TO END ALL WARS. More writing, less blogging. VICKY VON WELF AND THE MANCY MASQUERADE is also half done. I think. Both those novels keep getting bigger the more work I put into them.
But...small morsel appetizer of The Crazy very soon, main courses in the oven baking away.
January 24, 2022
Tease: Guess the Speaker Edition #4
“I’ve tried so many times to kill myself, Eva. It’s really really hard.”
January 23, 2022
So Tired, So Sore
But...the ending of EVERCHANGING DILEMMA is done and into the computer. We are totally in editing with no new material needed and a ton of that editing has already been done. Everything is moving along. Obviously got all those drafts to catch up on for the last 10k now, but we're doing some damage.
Also, with the bed-desky-thingy I'm pretty hopeful about my ability to make progress writing new material going forward with WAR TO END ALL WARS and the Vicky novel, even if my back getting better and being able to use a chair for longer than an hour would be preferable!
It's late, brain is mush, my bed is calling!
January 21, 2022
Encanto Hot Take
Surface Pressure > We Don't Talk About Bruno
Mini Editing Update: So I was able to get a lot of work done on my back yesterday (that's what she said!) with the bed desk thingy I bought, so much work I'm officially brain dead tonight for the first time in forever (just all the Disney songs up in this post). Feels good.
I have like...7 pages left to type in? Although, AGAIN, typing in handwritten pages like this is a bit like a second rewrite in itself since I'm changing half of it and adding and mixing all over the place. But very close to done. It's a whole chunk of new material to end this puppy too. Should end up over 70k words. A weird scenario, since now 90% of the novel is in its 4th draft, but 10% of the novel is in its 1st draft, so...some extra work to do there. I have actually started my "Kindle" edit on the first 90% and I'm like 20% through? Disney songs AND math, just what everyone hopes to read about at 9PM!
Point is: progress continues and thank you bed desk thingy!
