Category Archives: Checking In

One… more… dollar

Checking In, The Healers' Road (Book 1)

I bumped up the price of The Healers’ Road to $2.99 US from $1.99, where it’s been for … a while (couple of years?). So all three of the current Healers books are set at $2.99. It’s just based on Amazon’s floor for 70% royalties – at $1.99 I make 70 cents per ebook, and at $2.99 it’s about $2. I’m not a huge fan of the Zon overall, so I’m not saying their system is particularly fair or great, but I am too tired right now thanks to Mystery Not-Covid Cold or Whatever (with bonus day-job stress) to get into the whole wall of text.

Basically, ~$2 seemed nicer than 70 cents. And if you’re interested in reading the book and that dollar makes a difference, I will gladly send you a copy by email for zero dollars. I’ve always said that, and it continues.

Writing update: Therapist book 4 has passed 10k, which means it’s… a quarter to a third of the way done? This novella thing is wild. On a whim, I also skimmed through my Healers-verse side project the other day, and … I still really like it? Once Therapist is done, I might come back to that before deciding what to do with Agna and Kei. As long as I keep working on something, anything, really, it’s serving its psychological purpose here.

Gaming, which is all my brain has energy for today: Fire Emblem: Three Houses spoilers for about 2/3 of the way through Azure Moon.

Truly what the fuck, Dimitri

Two wolves, as usual:

Checking In, IseTher (Light-ish Novellas)

One is worried about burning out

The other is excited about seeing a project through in fewer than 4 years for once

Just started Therapist volume 4, the last one I’ve planned out. I keep saying that because I’d like to leave the door open for other stories or projects in the future, but I will have finished what I set out to do.

There’s more road ahead: books 2 and 3, written back to back, still need edits and beta reads. But I think I’m good for it. I’m on day 65 of writing every day, averaging about 1,300 words a day; 85,000 total across this series, a little bit of Healers, and some errata. Reminding myself that I’ve done longer streaks than that. Just not lately.

Sure, plenty of people write 5,000 or 10,000 words every single day. We call them Real Serious Authors. Let’s note that I’m not one of those. I’m just some asshole with a keyboard. I’m working on establishing better habits like outlining and consistency. I’m learning how to put together a story that moves from point A to point B in a linear fashion, but also gives enough (but not too much) time for the story to breathe. It’s really hard, y’all. Hah.

Not really Fire Emblem: Three Houses spoilers; just rambling

February: January II

Checking In, IseTher (Light-ish Novellas)

Therapist volume 3 has one more chapter left in the first draft. I think I have the skeleton of an outline for volume 4, which should be the last, at least in this hell-bent sprint I’ve been doing. (55 days of writing every day, totaling about 65,000 words across various projects. Which is a slightly-slower-than-Nanowrimo pace.)

I’ve accepted internally that at least some of this is a way to get my mind off the not-catastrophic, just-moderately-annoying, probably-permanent health stuff I’ve been dealing with. I’m pursuing medical care as far as I can, but day to day, sending myself off into a mostly-fluffy fantasy story sure beats stewing in my own worries.

One of the themes of volume 3 is how escapism can become unhealthy. Self-own.

More: Fire Emblem: Three Houses (minor Golden Deer House spoilers)

Two notes: print and WTF

Checking In, IseTher (Light-ish Novellas)

Just two things before I forget, it’s been a long day:

  • Took print off the agenda for Therapist. I did a print layout, but the spine is so tiny that I can’t get a reasonably readable title to fit on it. It feels like a silly outcome, but oh well. I plan to continue with ebook releases and then put together a print edition if (when!!) the four novellas are done. An omnibus would be comfortably book-sized.
  • In the anime roundup, I forgot to mention another back-catalog series we started: Kemono Michi: Rise Up. Boy, where to even begin. Pro wrestling. Magical animal loving. Isekai. Yeah, I guess you begin there. Nearly every character is wholesomely dumb as a bag of hammers, especially the lead, who lives to a) pet every animal b) cause cartoonish bodily harm to anyone who harms animals and c) nothing else, that’s all, that’s the whole list. This was Spouse’s choice (as a pro wrestling fan), but I’m surprised how much it’s made me laugh. Who knew?

Why am I neck deep in romcoms

Checking In

Writing update: According to my notes, I started writing Isekai Therapist 2 just before Christmas, and yesterday I hit the end of the first draft. So it’s going well. In no way have I set aside Healers; it’s still brewing in the back of my mind. The change of pace continues, is all. And honestly, at this point I only have 4 novellas sketched out (#4 and #5 collapsed into one, I don’t think it’s going to condense more than that). At this pace I could have all four off the table in appreciably less than a year. Weird.

Game update: Got a new controller, continued Garden Story, it’s cute. Continuing my usual refrain, I’m not particularly good at Zelda-likes, or anything that needs reflexes. But it’s going fine. I seem to be ~90% of the way through the story. I think there’s just a final dungeon left, so I’m collecting all the collectibles and such.

Anime update: How did I become a person who keeps up with the current seasons, seriously? Within the last year. Very strange.

Continue reading Why am I neck deep in romcoms →

Meanwhile, 100 years later

Checking In, Recs

Somehow today feels like a hundred years after the last time I posted, one week ago. Maybe just from returning to work? It didn’t even go badly, heading back after the holidays. I don’t even know.

Just noting a couple of little things to check in:

  • Started writing a little bit of Healers 4? I don’t have the whole thing outlined in detail, which is exactly how I ended up meandering for years before finding my way two out of the last three times? I’m making the exact same mistake again? Hooray!
    It’s okay. I mainly wanted to try out some scenes and see how they felt. I have notes. I have themes. I have… some conflicts. It’s cool. Ish.
  • Got to beta read another excellent book; there are so many talented people out there!! aaahh! Another one that I hope to put on the official “read” list eventually, as well as plugging up to the sky on my teeny tiny little platform.
  • I thought I’d do more base-building in No Man’s Sky, but it didn’t grab me after all, so I set the game down. At least for now.
    Yet. Another. Switch controller is developing a bad stick — it was already pretty bad, but I could deal with it during most of No Man’s Sky — so I have only barely started another game, Garden Story. It’s a pastel-cute Zelda-like. Just for maximum contrast, I guess.
  • Anime nerd update:
    • Finished The Little Lies We All Tell. It continued to make me laugh? There were a few feels at the end? Who knew. Glad I tried it on a whim.
    • I think I mentioned Heaven’s Design Team already. If not, well. Heaven’s Design Team is effing adorable and surprisingly informative, and continues to be delightful. We’re coming up to the end, though, nooooo.
    • Following my spouse’s suggestion, we have started watching My Roommate is a Cat, which is uh… hashtag relatable, let’s say
      It’s about a (full-time, though) mystery novel author with extreme social anxiety who adopts a cat. You get about half the episode from his POV and about half from the cat’s POV. There are gentle hijinks, and more realistic cat behavior than you usually see in fiction. It makes a great wind-down show now that we’ve finished Laid-Back Camp. (except for the movie, still gotta watch that)
    • Finished my second watch of my aggressively weird extremely gay darling Sarazanmai, then started The Aquatope on White Sand. All I know about Aquatope is:
      • There were accusations of queerbaiting (two episodes in, and I see why)
      • It’s about an aquarium
      • That’s it
        Actually not a great pick for watching on the treadmill — it’s pretty and slow — but oh well.

That’s it. Working on establishing a habit of writing some fiction every day. Even a little bit. It’s been going well for a couple of weeks now. Time to continue.

“I’m gonna make it through this year if it kills me”

Checking In, Uncategorized

One week till a medical appointment that will take me out of this health-related limbo; two weeks till the end of the year. Oh yeah, and a holiday in there, which I keep trying to care about as much as other people do. I feel bad about that, I really do. Theoretically, I like a winter celebration. I love fireplaces/bonfires, baking, coziness, etc.; I think I just hate the stress related to gift-giving and gift-getting. Oh well. I do my best to keep my incorrect feelings to myself.

Anyway, the trend towards infographic-ing everything you do throughout the year is… sure something. It makes sense, in that apps want people to post about them on our increasingly bizarre social media landscape.

It’s been a weird one.

“I paid for Crunchyroll and I’m using it, dammit”

Checking In, IseTher (Light-ish Novellas)

We’re about a week out from my self-declared due date for novella feedback, which means that if all goes well, I can launch it within a couple of weeks?!

  • collect any other feedback
  • make some more edits based on that (I’ve gotten some great comments already!)
  • finalize text, test digital version again, lay out for print
  • design paperback spine/cover (have the digital/front cover now)
  • Today I’ve managed to outline most of 5 novellas in the series, to complete the overplot that’s teased in this first one. ???? I mean, none of this existed even in the slightest glimmer 3 months ago. I’m consciously deciding not to question it, and to run with this as long as it lasts.

Still working on outlining the next Healers book, too. I feel like I’m still in the “dump out all the Legos on the floor and sort through them” phase.

Fall 2022 Anime Rambling

It’s the season of hot beverages (here), rejoice

Checking In, Recs

Little updates:

  • The Healers’ Purpose just hit 100 copies on Amazon; round numbers are neat. Several on Gumroad as well. Ironically, Gumroad sends me an email each and every time a copy of something sells, but I pay less attention to it. That doesn’t seem right. I ought to either check it more often or turn off those alerts. Maybe both. Anyway, that’s nice.
  • The new side project is in the hands of a couple of beta readers; thanks, folks, even though you can’t “hear” me here! Commissioned a cover illustration that I really love, and sent it over to my usual titles/design expert with a bunch of examples of English light-novel covers and an explanation of what the hell I’m trying to do here. Should be fun.

Recommendations / book talk:

In which I squee, a lot, about Mindtouch