Tentatively serial

There’s a visual pun here, but I’ll let you figure it out.

Right. This week. Busy one. Getting ready for Emerald City Comic-Con coming up next week, and I’ve got a number of things to get done before that.

First off is a story called “Chunked” which just went out to an anthology, though I can’t say that I wrote the story just for it. This is an idea that’s been kicking around for a while. The first draft of it got finished several weeks ago, maybe a bit longer. Science fiction, of a sort, with its feet in a familiar set of mythologies, though I did a lot to distance the story from its roots and dare I say invert things. Yeah, that’s obvious, but in this case, it’s been a long time coming. Originally it came in at over 6600 words and felt about right. Too bad the anthology is looking for lengths of no more than 4000 words.

I don’t know about you folks, but 4000 words is on the low side for me. I usually roll about 6-10k more or less. I’ve gotten better at being shorter (my first short story assignments called for 10k and first drafts came in at 20k or so – just wish I could draft longform that quickly.) So, cut 2600 words out. Almost half, more than a third of the length. Some of the big cuts were easy, say the first thousand or so. That’s structural. The rest of it came from trimming little bits of structure and barely-mentioned plotlines that had to be abandoned altogether.

I’m pretty pleased with what was left, but then I’ve been pleased by all my short stories. However, any that I haven’t been specifically contracted to write haven’t been picked up, so I know what me liking them is worth. It’s still a trip through the slush. Which is honestly pretty frustrating. I’ve talked about content-less rejection letters, so I won’t any more.

I’ve got to get the next STRANGEWAYS short story (tentatively titled “Ballast Scorcher”) out the door, or at the very least drafted before next Friday. That one’s supposed to be 3-9k and I’m pretty sure it’ll be on the heavy end of that. The story isn’t due until the end of the month, but I know I’ll do better with a cooling off period between the draft and the final. Better being relative. I know I’m not the best editor of my own work, but I don’t have a reading group (nor do I likely have the time that really participating would require).

The other big current project is taking RAGNAROK SUMMER, an early novel of mine (originally drafted in 1994, whether you believe it or not) and breaking it into smaller, more episodic chunks for Kindle Unlimited, specifically to try something with a more serial approach. I’m not the first writer to do the math on this, where borrows from Kindle Unlimited end up paying a lot more than the thirty-cent share that I’d get for selling a .99 episode. Like I said, it’s an experiment. The novel will probably get broken into five or six sections, perhaps more. Trying to find the best breaks in the story that will feel satisfying but also immediately lead to the next section.

Honestly, it can’t sell worse than the book already has. Riding the long tail and all.

That said, the book has a lot going for it. Yeah, I’m fixing some of the language and earlier tics that I was suffering from, but I’m leaving the work itself alone, for the most part. Maybe it’ll flow a little better.

Here’s the back cover copy if you think you might be interested:

Ragnarok came and went. The gods won. The giants retreated to recover from their wounds. But even in victory, the gods are uneasy. Hammerless, Thor quit Asgard in disgust. A half-machine Tyr interprets the babblings of a sightless Odin and Loki is imprisoned, both jester and reminder of the gods’ costly victory.

There is a rot at the center of the world, at the heart of the world-tree Yggdrassil itself. But only Thor will acknowledge it. Chasing the source of that corruption, astride his twin-engined steed, Thor retuns to Asgard after his hundred-year exile.

Part magic and part technology amok, RAGNAROK SUMMER here is a maniac journey through the transformed worlds of the norse gods: to the stomach of the Midgard serpent, to glittering spires of Asgard City, to the frozen wastes of Niflheim and ravening infernos of Muspellheim, and to Hel itself where Thor and Loki pursue the secret of a failed apocalypse.

Of course now I’ll be accused of bandwagoneering on the success of Thor from THE AVENGERS and the like, but hey, twenty-plus year old manuscript so…

I figure the revisions won’t take much more than another couple of weeks, once I get rolling on them, just that it’ll probably have to wait until April. I’ll post some more of the manuscript here, just to give readers a taste (there’s already some on the site, but it’s the old text and there’s some stuff that I prefer to be fixed, so I won’t directly link it right now.)

Outside of writing, I started watching HANNIBAL, which I find more interesting than infuriating (and there’s plenty I don’t like about it, don’t get me wrong.) I kinda suffered Lechter over-exposure awhile back and while he can be an interesting character, he can very easily be tipped over to the ridiculous. Suspending disbelief in the show can be difficult at times, but the desire to see the story unfold is outweighing that so far.

Though it does point out what’s so much at the heart of that critical tool. We ignore the faults of things we like. If we don’t like them, we call them “unbelievable” and look for other hooks on which to hang our critique.

At any rate, I’m watching it as much as a study of the reveal of the story in a serial form as much as for pure entertainment. I’m well aware of my (many) limitations and will steal solutions or blinds for them from any place that will offer them. I’m not proud. This is all sleight of hand, and while my dexterity (particularly in manipulation of structure) isn’t as strong as some, I figure I have strengths that I can emphasize and use a distractions.

And yes, a new round of submissions ahead for BLUE HIGHWAY/BLACK TRACE, though I do begin to wonder why I bother with that. I mean, I know why, but the effort to return ratio is pretty thin. Factor in the response from agents (ranging from content-less to “I liked the grit but…” it seems like I’m the only one who has any investment in the book. Or wants any investment in it.

On top of all that, I’m working on researching THE GLASS DIAMOND. Yeah, I should be spending time on another project, but that hasn’t been happening. If you’re interested in what THE GLASS DIAMOND may be about, you can visit the research tumblr I’ve set up for it. Though really, this will only tell you about the time period. The actual story won’t be given away.

Okay, that’s enough for this week. Blogging isn’t exactly writing, neither is yammering on Twitter about whatever (but it’s a useful semblance of social interaction). If you’re at the show in Seattle next week, look for me. I’ll probably be the shell-shocked guy flipping through the cheap bins for more Bronze Age treasures. That or taking pictures of urban profiles or grubby textures.

 

Current listening:

https://lobsterpriest.bandcamp.com/album/hallucinatory-pagoda-smr2

https://giallodiscorecords.bandcamp.com/album/black-september

https://redshift2.bandcamp.com/album/redshift

 

Current reading:

THE GOLDEN GIZMO – Jim Thompson (just finished, actually)

THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR – Gene Wolfe (super dense, super-rich but have to pursue with a clear head and energy, which I don’t always have.)