Update: Argh, Tedious Proofing is Tedious

Maybe it’s aliens The Costs of Using AI Editing Tools

Update: Argh, Tedious Proofing is Tedious

Okay, so,

A) I GREATLY APPRECIATE ALL EARLY READERS; TALENTED PROOFREADERS ARE PEARLS BEYOND PRICE

But, wow, if I expire from boredom during the coming week, you’ll know exactly why.

I am in fact still proofreading and tweaking HEDESA myself, which is juuuuust about exactly as boring as scanning through comments from someone else and correcting and tweaking the manuscript. Which is to say, extremely boring. I’m very, very ready to be finished with this book ….

B) Which is why I have been working on FAR less boring projects in the mornings.

Yes, that slows down proofing etc. for HEDESA, but on the other hand, I haven’t actually died of boredom, which was starting to feel like the merciful option. One of those projects is SEKARAN, which is sensible since it’s about half finished. (Or who knows, at least the first 100 pages or whatever is sitting there, whatever proportion that turns out to be.)

However, I have to admit that I also started Tuyo Book Eleven: The Thing That Happened In The West, which people are going to be very curious about when they hit a certain moment in HEDESA. I chortled my way through the first few pages, which is about as far from dying of boredom as you can get. I wouldn’t necessarily call this one started-started, but on the other hand, I do have about 9000 words here, so that’s getting close to enough to declare I’ve started it.

***

So, when will I drop HEDESA at my Patreon?

Answer: as early as July 2. I have one more chapter scheduled to drop, which will happen tomorrow. The next Tuesday after that is July 2. If I can’t hit that, then the next Tuesday after that, which will still be three weeks before it goes live at Amazon.

Oh, I better ask for a paperback cover. And the hardcover cover! And put together an audition script and see about the audio version! Aagh, stuff to do!

Anyway, it’s under control.

***

How ABOUT that title for The Book That Will Not Be Called World of Tiers?

I like a good many of your suggestions, but not necessarily for this book. I guess I should file a lot of these suggestions for later. In particular, I have a book I’ve started which would be a PERFECT fit for Ascend the Glittering Winds. I mean, I would need to make sure to tweak the book a tiny bit to make sure, but this would be super easy for this particular book, and this is a neat title, so … filing it. Maybe I should show you a snippet of that one, but it is immensely far from finished and I don’t want to tease with something that might not be finished until heaven knows when.

ANYWAY

I still like Thirteen Petals. I don’t actually care if that implies fragility. Worlds can be fragile; indeed, in fantasy novels, they often are. It’s fine if that image suggests a non-linear structure to the world; the world can be imagined in a non-linear way, particularly because the idea that the world has a center is important. AND, I personally just like the title. Throw a dragon and the hint of a nightmare tiger on the cover, plus lotus flowers, and boom, it’s fantasy. In other words, I agree with whoever pointed out — ah, Tuyo-fan, yes — that the cover image is important in combination with the title, AND that the vibe changes quite a lot if you put “the world” in the title.

By the way, Elaine, “Boys of Bedlam” has been running through my mind continually since you got me to look up that poem. This isn’t bothering me … yet … but we’ll see how long it continues.

***

MEANWHILE

It’s now full summer and I’m dying, or I would be if not for air conditioning. Schedule now includes: take dogs out at dawn, the only time it’s remotely cool enough to tolerate. It’s hard to believe humans evolved as endurance hunters in Africa.