And a cheery Falltime greetings to you!
Do you ever thing about how all the internet conjoinedly celebrates these seasons when the weather is largely flipped in the southern hemisphere? It’s fascinating to me: to think that not everyone truly enjoys “Fall Vibes” at the same time.
Anyway, I hope you’re ready for a cozy little monthly update. I actually have a lot of talking to do, and now much showing off (yet again.)
But first, I have a jazzy mix for you:
Sometimes, when I’m alone in my bed at night, I think about how fun it would be to be a jazzy goose strolling through a country market and causing slapstick comedy-esque trouble for the peace-loving villagers. When they finally catch me and force me to go do therapy I’m sure they’ll have lots of fun figuring that one out.
Discipline: The Crux of Expression
I’d like to say that lately my neuroticisms have reached brand new heights – I’m reaching levels of silly and concerning thought untouchable for me before. I’m under constant surveillance, but they won’t stop me. It’s an inevitability.
Despite me not coming out with ANY BOOK AT ALL this year, heed my words when I say this has been perhaps the most developmental year I’ve ever had. I’m electric with energy and progress, and finding new exciting ways to balance life, family and work that border upon art.
Looking back on my “behind the scenes” progress this year, I recognize there’s been many frustrations that have turned out to be valuable lessons, particularly in the dimension of collaborations and partnerships. It’s not at all an exaggeration that roughly two novels of effort have more or less been waysided due to partners not following up on their agreements, contractual, implied, or otherwise, and if that’s the price for me to learn that this fundamentally relies on me, then so be it.
The majority of the “indie” world is largely unserious about completing the work, releasing the thing, and showing it to the world so that they can enjoy it. It feels like time is unlimited on the internet, but if we’re being quite honest with ourselves, it’s never been more limited. It’s never been more crucial to cut out your little forest home from the old tree. This may all be my own perception and simply too anecdotal to bother with, but for me, I’m arriving at a place where the collaborative will and the old workhorse mentality of my first few years are coinciding.
It’s strange, despite my disappointment, I feel more confident than ever. Everywhere I look there’s new possibilities, and the change wasn’t the world, or some collaborator reaching out to me: it was just me and my perception of the world.
Reality is such an incredibly big thing, and we can make it anything we want, so long as we spend the time to organize, plan, and then work towards that goal.
As a little fellow, I was not particularly good at organization. I had believed that if I wanted something enough, I’d be willing to expend the time and willpower to go find it every time. I lost a lot of things that way. Now, I’m older, and organization and planning is one of the most important values in my life. It boggles my mind now to think people simply figured this out, or perhaps their parents led them onto that path early.
From all the trials and tribulations, from all the moments in which my mind begged me to quit and return to a simpler life, I’ve developed a sense of restraint and aim that feels so keen that it borders on superhuman. The irony is that I’ve become the sort of person I had looked down on in my youth as “slow” or “uptight”. It’s true that there are some organized people that are those things too, but I’ve come to see it as more of a poise that can check one’s impulses.
Interesting developments on the inside, for certain. As a kid, I never thought I’d still be changing so much even this far in my years.
Enough stream-of-consciousness.
This next year, you’re going to see a lot of my old things reappear in new ways, better than ever. Once most of those projects are revitalized, percolating in the new website’s store one by one, then the new ambitious projects will begin. It will be different this time, however. At first it will be a trickle, and then, if my estimations are correct this time, it will begin to happen as if all at once. I have faith in a future where fiction can point to the greater things again: the things that are best said with many books across many genres across many characters and universes, rather than a single novel.
We’ll see how I perform in retrospect once The Great Work is completed. I’m very excited for the future- I hope you are, too.
Featured Art of the Month: Dunklestein the Daring – by Dudinka
I’ve commissioned this one specifically to try and extend the universe of the Eversea out in an artistic direction. We get to see The Captain all the time, but how about our brave and questionably motivated deckhands?
No, it’s not King Shark – I’ve never even seen that movie.
Cursed under the sunken star of the god Carcharhinon, Dunks is a big dude who learned most of The Eversea’s lessons the hard way. From a trigger-happy kip to the man we see him as today, he’s honed his skills and proved himself over the years to be a capable planner, a fierce fighter, and of course a cool-headed Officer of The Men for The Nocturna.
He’s got quite a few chest tattoos, but that’s for another time. His drink of choice is “Long Shot,” a 9.5% Imperial Stout under G Corp (not to be confused with Grange Holdings LLC).
Anyway, that’s the shark man. Look forward to some more Seasorts in the coming months as I continue to collaborate with this talented artist.
Things I’ve been working on:
For the sake of transparency, here’s a list of what I’ve been putting my effort towards recently:
Xforce book 2 release (on lockdown as I talk details over with publisher. We’re still splitting hairs on this so I apologize for the delay.)
Xforce book 3 draft (on hold until the situation with 2 can be resolved.)
NL Episode 14 draft done, in editing now
NL Episode 15 writing now
Several short stories to round out the next short story collection offerings I’m whipping up
Planning the 5th and final Courts Divided book
Audio editions for Substation 7, as well as “final” ebook and print editions for all books. (A whopping 12 products total from this?!)
Conclusion: you guys are great, so get ready for a huge sale!
Before I cut you lose… I wanted to announce that I’ll be thanking you in a big way.
Next month, I’m going to run a super-mega-giga sale with all the older versions of the ebooks on amazon.com.
“How much,“ you might ask?
As much as a whopping 80% off much!
I wanted to do something nice and encourage more participation with the series considering so many of these are going to change (in very small ways, however some particularly eagle-eyed readers might notice). This is a necessary expansion from Amazon, however – that pool is too small for a fish like me when I’m trying to reach a global readership with a distributer that doesn’t consistently mess up my reader’s print orders, has a support team comprising of more than two rocks smacked together by an ape, and a revenue-share model that borders on something other than spitting in my face and demanding I thank them for it.
Next year, I’ll emerge from that jungle, and together we’ll see a whole new world of new books in new formats in new places.
Also, for those of you that have been holding out for print editions of everything – the time is closing in.
Yes, that’s a lot of promises, but I think you and I will both agree a year from now that it’s on course to fulfillment.
This is probably going to be the only time I’ll do this, so if there’s any of my series you’ve been wanting to get into, next month’s Keller (like, killer?) Sale will be the time to do it. I can’t cut deals on paperbacks or audio yet thanks to amazon being the silly geese they have to be in order to operate at their scope, but next year you will see things like discounted print and audio copies as well.
Consider this my appreciation for you sticking with me all this time. It’s been a long road, but with the new website coming out, including direct sales capability, we’re going to be moving fast into new terrain, and I wanted to thank you all for being here with me before I really start ramping it up.
All the best,
Kell
One Response
Amen to discipline!! Thanks for sharing 😀