Hello, my friends and the occasional relative!

I’m sorry I missed last’s weeks epistle. Very busy. I thought about posting an introduction to one of my new characters in the not at all fast fiction I am still working on starting, and then decided it just contained too much cool stuff I wasn’t ready to share yet. The wonderful delusions of the early writing process, when everything you write is stunningly original, even when you are absolutely playing with old conventions and stereotypes. But in a cool and original way, you understand! My writing chums and pals out there will totally know what I’m talking about.

I do have another apprentice’s report I wrote some time back that I should add to the website. It is, by its nature as a commentary on the main text of The Killer and The Dead, rather riddled with spoilers, but to my eye nothing story breaking. More than anything else it does give away more of the lives of the World Belt’s wizards, and in many ways it references a section I actually cut from The Thief and The Demon. I could have cut more, but it is what it is – I was a young lad in my mid-forties, didn’t know what I was up to. That is true, by the way. I have learned so much since then, and still remain wildly ignorant. It is strangely exhilarating. I’d put that bit back into the book now of course, if I was going to do a second edition, which I’m not.

So I have now buried the lede beneath two fat paragraphs. I have a publication date for The Gardener and The Goddess. March 31^st 2025. Ebook and paperback are uploaded and ready to go. I have businessy stuff to do still. So the date isn’t absolute. Yet. Hardback is coming, but I need a non-dust-jacket cover for it. One day I will embrace Ingram Spark and use them. One day.

For now a paperback proof copy is winging its way to me. I’ll have it by Thursday. I already have the pleasure of seeing all three of my books on my bookshelf and in the series page. Very nice. Having a physical copy will be fun, until I open it and see my formatting in print!

A few weeks ago I said I hated a sentence opening a chapter. I didn’t change it. Didn’t seem so bad when I looked again. To make up for that I removed a random adverb. Definite improvement.

I have a lot going on IRL, as they say, so my attitude now is to get the book done with and out. Useful distance has been achieved, enabling me to look at it as a task to be completed so I can get other stuff done. I need it out of the way so I can focus on other things, including new writing, but I can’t lie, my time is much more limited now, and probably will be for the next few months.

I have spent a good wee while with publisher rocket choosing categories and keywords. The KDP page is not always so co-operative in giving me the carefully researched category I want to assign. I go with the next option. I should go back to the first two and update their categories and keywords. It is tedious work, but I see the virtue in updating what might be redundant categories, and being more effective in keyword choice than I was before when I was pretty hit and miss with it.

But hey! Publication date! Book formatted and ready to go, two of three versions uploaded and ready. That makes this a good week.

A good week to all of you out there.