Update: Probably tomorrow

I’m going to try to do the last of the proofreading tweaks to Hedesa today AND make a decent-looking epub file today, and if all goes well, then I’ll schedule that to drop at my Patreon tomorrow morning. If necessary, I’ll finish sorting out the epub file tomorrow and drop it as soon as it’s ready, which still means it’ll probably go live tomorrow, just later in the day.

As a perk of setting the preorder date for August, there’s no huge rush about the paperback or hardcover versions, which means that for the first time I will be making (virtually) all the corrections to just ONE file and then creating the other files, rather than having to make a hundred corrections to three or four different files. I plan to enjoy that, as it’s the only less-tedious part of this particular proofreading task. Special thanks to Linda S and Anna S, who each proofed two drafts and thus suffered through the majority of the typos. As always, I’m stunned to find things such as, oh, it should be “astrologer” but it’s actually “astrology.” Ugh, hideously obvious typo. I’ve done significant tweaking that is much less obvious, but I think is important. But, as I say, I’m about finished with that.

MEANWHILE

I really did work on other things most mornings to reduce the wear and tear of tedious tweaking and proofing, and I will just say that Sekaran keeps getting longer, as I think, “You know, I think I’ll add a chapter right here … and another one right here …”

Something that arises from writing something so episodic is that the scenes are so distinctive and so disjunct in time that I can write them completely out of order without the least difficulty. Since the whole point has been “Save Self From Dying of Boredom,” this means I’ve been kinda writing the most fun bits of different chapters, skipping around, so at this point eight chapters are completely finished and three are partly finished. There should be about fifteen chapters total, unless, I mean, I DO keep adding chapters. It’s at the 150 pp mark at this point. I expect it will most likely turn into Tuyo: Book 11, while the thing that happened in the west will more likely be Tuyo: Book 12 — that just hit the 50 page mark — and that means Tano’s next book, picking up immediately after the ending of Hedesa, will be Tuyo: Book 13.

MEANWHILE

I just got comments back on World of Tiers Not It’s Real Name, and I’m relieved that the first reaction is: Yes, it’s in good shape. Fiddling will of course ensue, but (a) the cover should be started soon, by a very fast cover artist, so soon I will have to truly decide on the title and then I will put this book up for preorder. I will look over editorial comments once more, but I expect I will set it to release at Amazon September 2, with the expectation that I will drop it at my Patreon two to four weeks in advance. This is what I meant when I said the back half of the year would have a lot more action than the first half.

MEANWHILE

These aren’t honeybees or bumblebees. They all appeared yesterday with a whoosh after the rain stopped and the sun came out. I think they’re miner bees. They’re extremely placid — most bees are, really — and easy to photograph.

There are 20,000 species of bees in the world, give or take a few thousand species, which is why the occasional panic about honeybee colony collapse is the single silliest ecological worry that has ever or will ever be promulgated. Honeybees — you may know this — are invasive, except people like them and support them, so no one calls them an invasive species. But they are, and they have had fairly dire effects on native bee populations on every continent except wherever they originated (different theories, but it wasn’t anywhere in America). Miner bees, however, are fine, relatively speaking. We have hordes of them around. They aren’t as pretty as the metallic blue and gold and green bees, not as cute as the tiny black bees, but I like them. Miner bees are a solitary species. Each female digs her very own little burrow and lays eggs in it with a pollen supply. You almost can’t get them to sting, always a plus for insects. Just don’t actually put your hand down on one and you’re fine.

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