Richard Raley's Blog, page 5

First Draft Done

 Brain mush.

Last Big Scene Down

3 falling action scenes left to write and the Seismic Semester is over.

Also, the cover is finished!  Probably reveal it and give you lot the first chapter in November if all goes well (December if all does not go well...January if things go very badly).

Quick Notes September 2024

1.  RFA C4-C7 is finally a go for October!  This should bring the most relief I've gotten so far, now that they've narrowed down where the problem area is.  Best news I could've asked for! (other than the spine spontaneously healing, I suppose)

2.  As such, October will be ****ed.  But November onward could be heavenly.

3.  Blogger is tagging posts as not sensible for public standards if I curse too much, hence the above self censorship.  **** you, AI overlords!

4.  Cover work on Seismic Semester is ongoing.  King Henry will not be the character on the front.  Chill!  It's still all from his POV and a Tape (Sessions 81-92), I just have the 6 covers with him already and 3 more in the bag (WtEAW/FM7/FM8).  So I thought adding some variety going forward would be fun and this character being on the front is pretty fitting given the story.

5.  As I've said many times, it's a photoshop cover using stock photo elements, they try their best, but it is not an artist spending weeks on a newly created personalized painting that I'm spending thousands of dollars on, so adjust your expectations accordingly.

6.  I got tired working on the readthrough.  Finished FM5, but the idea of two weeks on FM6 broke my spirit.  I'll get back to it in a couple months.

7.  Edited Session 91 for the first time instead and now I'm typing it into the computer while having even more brilliant ideas, of course!  Sessions 91 might be the best chapter in the book.  I don't know...pretty proud of Session 83 too.

8.  Plan (also known as whatever makes me happy) is to edit what I have of Session 92 (14k words already!) and finish the first draft on Seismic Semester before I enter RFA burnination territory next month.  Have like...ten day window in the middle of September and another ten day window ending the month into early October, so decent chance I might manage it.

9.  I hate the International Break...so, so much.  The season just ****ing started!

10.  Might finally watch Furiosa tonight.

11.  Speaking of great watches (I hope, don't let me down, George Miller), I finally checked out Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix and can't recommend it enough.  Maybe my favorite thing I've watched this year?  Fallout was good and Delicious in Dungeon too, maybe I'm forgetting something else, but...lots of disappointments and faffing about too (hello Hashira Training Arc).  As far as BES, Any show that blasts a Japanese cover of For Whom the Bell Tolls while the main character is tripping balls on some psychedelic flower while fighting a heavy to the death with a glowing blue samurai sword forged from a fallen meteorite...what more do you want in life?  End WAS a bit "and we have a second season too!" but, I'll forgive it, since...we get a second season!

12.  100+ degrees for the next week.  **** me!

This was the Most Necessary, Stupidest Idea I've Ever Had

 This "readthrough" is killing me.  AKA massive note taking session.  Just hit 46 pages.  Two months and counting of homework.  Finished FM5.  I don't think I've done this much background work since I started writing the series.  Mostly because I'm addicted to writing and dislike all the other aspects of this profession...

It's been so needed for so long, but...and like I don't write a lot in the summer because of how ungodly hot Fresno gets, but...schedule also got imploded by spinal procedures and the root canal so it made since to do it now when I couldn't write much anyway, but...and I have pet peeves that have developed about my writing in the last few years, pet peeves I keep seeing OVER and OVER in these old novels and I'm just...it's only two words Richard, two completely unneeded words but like 99.9% of your fan base has never noticed you do it over and over, so why do you care, huh?

Pfff...

Going insane.

But needed.

All of this will be so useful heading forward.  Checking info will be so quicker.  I have a file now that is just a list of every mancer and when they attended the Asylum and historical events as they happened and who must have played who in the Winter War and who must have been a student-advisor here and everything is just categorized, nothing getting lost through the cracks.

Also, as far as writing Seismic Semester, with the way the pain was so overwhelming at times, I just didn't look things up like I used to.  Pain really limits your ability to handle multiple tasks.  Writing was hard enough.  The idea of sitting at a laptop and searching through old chapters seemed impossible.  So...I made mistakes that I'll need to fix or explain before it's released.  Got that all figured out now because of this.  Nothing that should need huge rewrites, but an extra sentence or paragraph of explanation definitely.  I actually did pretty good considering how fuzzy I was on the painkillers and muscle relaxers.  The biggest one is that the Camping Test in Seismic Semester is only one night long.  Cuz I forgot it was multiple nights in FM2.  But there's is a simple reason to explain the change away.  So all good.

Well...I have Three Little Trips, FM6, Dread Fortress, Goes Home, and Dilemma left to get through.  Spending two weeks on FM6 alone might send me to a real asylum, so...wish me luck.

Release on Seismic Semester is looking like Feb/March btw.  We aren't making November without a super rushed edit process (one I don't know my spine can handle) and I don't release during the holidays.  Cover is getting done as we speak!  Feels real with a cover!  It's alive!!!

Ultra Class 2015 Reveal

Have I done this yet?  I feel like I haven't done this yet.

If you want to go in completely blind, obviously SPOILERS and stay away.

I could possibly change one or two names before release, only this feels pretty locked.  It will appear at the start of the novel just so you have reference since there are so many kids.  The day-long introduction to the class takes up multiple sessions in Seismic Semester and is one of the most complicated things I've ever written.

On the whole, and I know this sounds like sacrilege, I think 2015 is more complex and interesting than 2009, which was very top heavy with a lot of empty names (granted one's I've slowly filled in and can fill in more!).  Having almost finished the novel, I definitely have a couple favorites.  One of which I was very much not expecting when I started...

Maxwell Lamont - Hydromancer

Francisco “Paco”Garcia - Necromancer

Olivia Root - Necromancer

Nile Kane - Pyromancer

Sahara Kane - Pyromancer

Juliette Maes-Welf - Aeromancer

Dat Bao Nguyen - Electromancer

Adeline Hyde - Electromancer

Makoto Ikazuchi - Electromancer

Valko Nenov - Sciomancer

Leah Townsend  - Sciomancer

Gavin Gullick - Spectromancer

Roshanara “Ra Ra”Davani - Spectromancer

Summer Atwell - Cryomancer

Agnar Magnuson - Cryomancer

Ella Diaz - Floromancer

Jackson Shaw - Floromancer

Reginald “Reggie” Pike - Floromancer

Connor Coney - Faunamancer

Sigrid Erikson - Faunamancer

Kailani Kalani - Faunamancer

Alessandria Espinoza - Faunamancer

Douglas Moseley - Mentimancer

Cicero Yates  - Mentimancer

Divjot Malik - Corpusmancer

Gabriella Harper - Corpusmancer

Tatiana Itani - Corpusmancer

Chris “Fucks PigsChris” Miller - Corpusmancer

Chris “Never Seen aDarkie Chris” Olson - Corpusmancer

Chris “Cursing Chris” Lee - Corpusmancer

August - Return to the Grindstone

Only two appointments this month and no procedures (assuming they don't surprise me with the RFAs instantly instead of October like I expect).  Yay!

Probably the hottest month in all of recorded human history.  Boo!

Back at working on the series, specifically the readthrough.  Halfway through FM4.  Just hit 100 on my numbered notes for that book alone.  Almost 20 pages all told.  I'm definitely paying for my past self's laziness on not already doing this.  The Great Asylum School Year file grows and grows as I insert every odd, random, casually mentioned student across the whole of the series.  Ideas for the upcoming books are flying in.  Ideas for callbacks as we wrap up the school story as well.

Like...in FM4 during the recruiting trip I mentioned a 14yo girl named Marybelle who was good at making prized jams and assumed to be an Ultra Floromancer.  It's a one off reference without any real impact on the story but...that means she's Class 2013.  Thus, 2015's competition in the Winter War.  So remembering these things are very important.

Just...busy.  12 hours each, the last couple days.  Super glad I've done this.  Though having Seismic Semester sit at 10k words from being first draft complete is an itch in need of a scratch, I will say.

We'll get there, we'll get there!

July/August Seismic Semester Tease

I caught sight of Max returning from the showersalready, towel thrown over his shoulders and flippered hands scrapping hisknees on account of his freakishly long wingspan.  “Hey, if Tat chases Juliette then you have mypermission to tackle her and hold her down until she comes to her senses.”

Max did not blanch.  Max blushed. Guessing he had more than a few dreams that started exactly like that.  “I’m…I’m not sure I can…she’s…a whole lot ofwoman…”

“Well, that whole lot of woman ain’t ever gonnalet you kiss her, much less do anything else with her, until you prove you’reher match, so think of this as practice. Just…you’ve seen what she can do to a soccer ball, so make sure youcross your legs.”

“Don’t say things like that out loud!”

“The ball thing or the kissing thing?”

“All of it!”

Taking at least a week off, maybe two.  Very beat up from all the dentist and medical procedures.  Also, it has been so stupidly hot in Fresno for so many days in a row that I can barely think at the moment.

Now Introducing: Hell Fortnight

Second MBB tomorrow.  First one was miserable.  3 hours of relief into incredible pain all night.  I'm usually anywhere from a 4 to a 6, post MBB I was at least an 8.  This is, of course, with tramadol in me, so you can imagine how bad it would have been without the painkillers.  Also, I'm pretty sure I'm incredibly harsh on my pain grading scale since to me a 9 is like...physically can't get out of bed, and some of other patients I listen to at the surgery center throw them 9 and 10s around like candy.

Some of it is probably my own fault, since the minute I had that relief I was using my hand in ways I haven't been able to, flickering my fingers about and stretching the ligaments.  Another weird side effect is I regaining feeling my my left big toe, which I haven't felt in...3 years.  So, it's definitely the right spot this time around.  Super weird since they're working on my neck, not my lower back, where the actual nerves responsible for the lower extremities are located.

Nerves are weird

Went into the dentist once for crown prep.  I guess there's quite a bit of work to be done since it's so close to the gum line, so I have to go back next Thursday, extending Hell Week into Hell Fortnight.

One bright spot:  readthrough and notetaking continues despite recovering.  Finished FM3 and the Short Book, just about to start FM4.  I have ten pages of notes now.  Good stuff.  Just little details I'd forgotten or lines I can do callbacks on or ideas for future novels I've had while reading.  Getting into the LONG novels now, so doubt my progress will be as swift.  But on the other hand the writing is better, so I'm not dying of cringe like I did with FM1...

Probably going to go directly into editing Seismic Semester after I finish this.  Then when I get to the end I'll write the last 10k and...do it all over again.  Then again.  Then release.  Then flipping back between the Vicky novel and War to End All Wars.  I don't know how much more high school bullshit I can take without taking breaks...

FM3 was really important to reread for War to End All Wars since it has all the Winter Ball and Winter War info in it.  Similar to FM2 being important for Seismic Semester since it has all the Camping Test info.  Though the Camping Test in Seismic Semester is quite different since it's under new management...

And with that cruel tease, I fuck off!!!

Hell Week Incoming

Medial branch blocks on the 12th and 19th; dental crown on the 16th.
Do not expect much, if at all, work to get done during this period, with probably a 3 to 7 day recovery afterwards.  Totally blowing a hole right in the middle of July's chest.
Just started FM3 on the readthrough.  By the way, when I say readthrough, this isn't me just blitzing through the novels.  I'm taking pretty copious notes on little details and phrases I'm planning to highlight in the next few novels.  Much more like studying for a midterm/final than casual enjoyable reading.  So, it is major prep for editing Seismic Semester, outlining War to End All Wars, and brainstorming for the Vicky novel, FM7, and onwards.
This is something I kept putting off because of how much pain I was in and needed to put all my eggs in the writing basket to get any progress made, but...it is VERY important to increasing quality and connections through the series.
Also...a few typos and mistakes I've noticed along the way.  And copy and pasting the new "also by" section for when this all gets uploaded alongside Seismic Semester and an author's preferred reading order I did up for the end of the novel so people stop hopefully skipping any book that doesn't start with "The Foul Mouth".
Weirdos.

FM2 In-Joke

This is totally at the mercy of 2012 Google translate accuracy (not very) and probably doesn't work phonetically, but Lon Ga, the Vietnamese restaurant that delivers as a distraction, if flipped to 'ga lon' supposedly means "large chicken".  So...it's a huge cock joke...