The Year to Come

Cross-posting this to Hero Go Home as well, because a lot of what I’m talking about applies there.

I’m starting off the year feeling pretty energized about things. Things are coming to a head in Hero Go Home, the novel. They are about to kick into high gear in just a few weeks, and when I say high gear, I mean you haven’t seen anything yet. That alien invasion back in Chapter 11? Small potatoes. Our heroes are about to get tested in a very big way, and after that… well, after that, look to Chapter 1 for a clue.

The current novel is a little over halfway done, I’m thinking, which means that it should be finished sometime in May, maybe. Since the donation model hasn’t been working, I’m thinking of different ways to generate revenue. But that’s contingent on getting people to actually read the story and be interested in how it turns out, which doesn’t seem to be happening much. I’m getting more visitors, but not a lot of hits on the actual novel pages.

Still not sure what’s to be done about that, although I may go back and revise the earlier chapters. Some chapters combine several unrelated scenes, because I wanted to provide a minimum level of content each week. I may break those down into shorter, punchier chapters. I’ll also do some smoothing, because as the plot has adapted, and as I’ve run into deadline crunches, some chapters were rushed and are not as good as I’d like them to be.

When it’s all done, though, in the second half of the year, there will be a Kindle edition with everything included, plus some extras, as well as the option of an actual dead tree edition. And I’ll be starting another Digger novel, which will probably be the prose version of the aborted webcomic story from a couple of years ago. I’m hoping to actually not bog down on the damn car trip to the hotel this time. There was some funny stuff you never got to see, and some characters I really want you to meet.

And in the meantime, sometime within the first three months of the year, I’m going to be adding something new to the site. I’m not going to say what it is just yet, but it’s darker than Hero Go Home and will not be serialized in the same way. Ideas are still being firmed up.

Weekly Extras are going away. I still have some Extras in the works, but trying to come up with one every week in addition to all my other obligations has resulted in some less-than-satisfactory work, in my opinion. So the Extras are to be more sporadic, but better quality.

Out of the Vault and Super Movie Monday will continue like before, though, and this year, I’m getting a little more organized and planning further ahead in the hopes of both avoiding a crunch and putting together some really special things for Halloween and Christmas. There will also be an occasional non-super movie featured on They Stole Frazier’s Brain.

And that’s basically it, for now. Is that a lot? It seems like a lot. And I haven’t even mentioned my whole other Secret Project. Whew.