PIECES ARE COMING TOGETHER

The good news is that NETHERWORLD is taking a lot less time than PURGATORY (7 years and a bit vs. 15 years).

This is in spite of having lost almost a whole year to finding a forever home in California – we moved from New Jersey after selling The house where Pride’s Children was written.

And a lot of time to the pandemic when so many things slowed down as we watched the statistics, waited for the vaccines, entered lockdown, and lived in a much restricted retirement community.

The original years included the heavy-duty extreme plotting, and learning to write to my own standards; the years since the 2015 publication of PURGATORY have included more of my careful inching through the plot, and somewhat less learning the techniques of writing fiction (except when a new kind of scene had to be scoped out – there is always something new that you need to learn how to write).

If you know me or have visited my Writing and everything blog, liebjabberings, you know that whenever I figure out some new tool for the writing toolkit, I sum it up in a blog post, on the off chance it will help some other writer who writes as I do or because I can go back and read my own posts when I need to reload something into my brain. I’m benefiting from that now, as I go back to posts on formatting and covers and language and…

Meanwhile, in the real world

I’m in the Virology Blog!

We writers will take whatever mentions we get, and be grateful for them, so my thanks to Dr. David Tuller, our Public Health PhD from Berkeley, who keeps the room uncomfortably hot for bad scientists and their recommendations for treatment of the great mystery disease ME/CFS (and other post-viral syndromes, now being joined by masses of long-covid victims).

ALL human concerns are suitable for novels, and many times those who have something are best placed to see the implications for the field of fiction – in having a character live through the details real sufferers can’t escape.

Done badly, you have what disabled people call ‘inspiration porn,’ observing life through the lens of “I am SO glad that will never happen to me!” Not particularly inspiring.

Done right, with a light hand and no preaching, the reader will find a richness in the characterization, and, by living along and identifying with the character, can live a life that reveals some of the nuances without having to get the disease. My intent is to make the stakes in this story very very real.

Reviews are always welcome.

I persist in trying to find reviewers who are ‘one of us.’

As one of my favorite reviewers has said (I use his words with his permission):

“I cannot recommend this book, this trilogy, highly enough – but not to everyone. This is a book for readers who appreciate literary fiction and a very deeply developed romance with a thoughtful debate on ethics. I believe the pace and the delayed gratification will frustrate many modern romance readers who look for fast-burning romance, titillation, and simple love stories. However, if you are a reader who will appreciate a modern ‘Jane Eyre’, this trilogy is for you.”

D. B. Rose

He has lovely other words I go read when I need a boost – fulsome praise is occasionally necessary when new fiction words are proving slippery (or my brain is fogged – unfortunate speedbump in the production of those new words).

The point is that I don’t expect everyone to like what I write – dense complex novels take time and effort to read AND to write – but, in a world with over 7 BILLION souls, some of whom speak English, I hope to find a lot of readers who want more of what I write. Gotta love math!

Best use of time going forward

Fiction has to come first. You are not following my deathless prose per se. Not here, anyway.

You are here because I’m taking a long time to produce the next book in a trilogy you’d like to keep reading.

So these missives will be relatively rare unless the writing is happening faster than I expect – or I find myself unable to produce acceptable (to me) quality because the brain is fogged again.

Just wanted you to know there is no giving up this task, not while I have any say in the matter.

I know WHAT happens (that’s my job), but I’m having a splendid time discovering what none of us know yet, HOW.

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Please recommend Pride’s Children PURGATORY to your like-minded friends. It is a huge gift to like something well enough to know who else might enjoy it. Word of mouth is the BEST possible advertising!

And, for anyone looking for paper, Amazon is running a sale. I suspect they may have a bit of inventory.

My Patreon is closed for now – not enough subscribers to support the considerable amount of time taken away from writing new fiction – but if PC takes off, it can be revived (I save everything, and there was a lovely start). Getting me to talk about what I’m doing, and pull out some of those interesting cutting room floor edits, is easy. Finding the time and energy, not so much. But I like the idea of having the author be able to provide more to the smaller contingent of readers who can’t get enough – and there is a MASS of stuff already written to pull from. Watch this space.

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