Hello again! As per usual, I can’t catch a break. Events have conspired to make me homeless come mid-September, so I’ve little choice but to go live in my parental’s store cupboard (pretty much) a hundred-odd miles away. It’s impacted on my working routine and plans somewhat, to say the least!

Currently my time is being spent filling in detailed character profiles based on everything I’ve written thus far. I need a more solid reference source for these things than I currently have (mostly: my head). There’s a lot more to editing and revising than simply correcting spelling and grammar, after all. If you’d like an idea at the work involved, pick up standard trilogy of books and read through them, making notes on every little detail, from a character’s age, to their favourite food, what their hair smells like, and how their eyebrow twitches when they tell a lie. And the same for locations. And events… you get the picture :S

Anyway, I’m hoping to set up a tumblr specifically for releasing information regarding the story. It’ll be a lot easier to follow than this on-site thing, especially since this site will likely undergo some form of overhaul before year’s end. Ah, things will happen when they happen! I’ll figure it all out eventually XD

Time for another little update on my summery progress, though I’m finding the heat is making it quite difficult to focus on anything!

Firstly, to elaborate on ‘the ebook strategy’ I mentioned in the last update: I’ll be releasing the monthly ‘episodes’ through the Amazon Kindle store and Smashwords, at the very least, while this site acts as a hub for information, extra content and further reading.

To put it another way: the ebook market is a bigger than the ‘webserial’ equivalent, and will only grow bigger still as the devices capable of displaying ebooks increases. I can work my arse off for a small web-based readership, or embrace the new era and actually earn something. Evolve or die, as they say.

Anyhow, I’m still working on the first two ‘episodes’, which will be released together in one nice bundle, currently entitled ‘the Mysterious Princess’. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to post some definitive chapter titles, and maybe a preview of the cover design.

I will say this, however: the new prologue features a young Dionysus and Freyr at the South Pole. Poor Dante, but in hindsight giving him the prologue was a bad idea XD

Really! Well, it’s starting to feel like that, the more I look into ebooks and stuff!

Indeed, “the eBook Strategy” has been the main focus of my attention in recent times. I’ve decided to split the story down into four-chapter ‘episodes’ (it breaks down rather too well!), which will initially be released monthly, at first, before becoming fortnightly next spring. Each episode will be priced at under a dollarpound, and according to my estimates I ought to produce a survival budget with a mere 500 sales per month (so, effectively, 500 regular readers). Yeah, I live cheap :p

Because of this, the current version of the story will be locked behind closed doors at the end of the year – but I’ll leave a back door open for you people who have stuck with it. I’m still debating whether to continue releasing the ‘beta’ version of the story concurrently with the eBook version (again, exclusive access to you people). I’m also weighing up my options in regards to posting the revised edition on the website – perhaps after a certain amount of time has passed since the ebook release. That way, people can still read it for free, but those who want to most recent release(s) will have to pay money for the privilege (I’ve got to survive somehow, you know!).

I want to make sure those people who have supported me thus far don’t feel cheated, however. That’s why I’m still going to publish chapters up until the end of the current arc, at the very least. And anyone who sent me donations will be welcome to some free ebook funtimes.

Speaking of which, the first release – which will come around October/November – will be a ‘double episode’, just like some kind of televisual special/pilot episode. Those eight chapters, however, will only cover the events of the what happened in the first two in the version you know – this is where the bulk of the expansion is happening, as I devote more time to the relationships between Phantasia and Dionysus, Faye and Thetis, and to developing the faeries’ ethereal world. Effectively each chapter now becomes and episode of four chapters D:

The rest of the story won’t receive such thorough revision. Or will it? I guess we’ll find out – but I’ve decided to keep everything up to the end of the current arc within the bounds of 26 ‘episodes’, all of which I hope to release by the end of 2012. It seems so far away, but it’ll get here sooner than you or I think…

That’s about it. I don’t have much to say about those remaining arc chapters, only that I’ll release them when they’re ready, and probably in sets. There’s only about 9 chapters left, now it’s just finding the time to finish them all!

I’d like to have something more concrete to show off, but much of what I’ve been working on lately can be best described as half-finished notes and sketches. I’ve accepted that 2011 just isn’t a great year for me, and I’m not going to force myself to stress out over things. It’ll be better for everyone that way XD

What I have been working on is the revised version of the early chapters. There’s still quite a bit of work to do, and a lot of new material to write, but I’m hoping some of the pacing issues will be resolved (among other things). The main reason I’m focusing on this and not writing new chapters, is that once I have these revisions completed, I can start publishing them Proper Seriously Like, and actually earn some Proper Serious Money. At least, that’s the idea…

All I can say for now is: be patient! I’m going to get through this arc and reach the 100th chapter! After that, I might put the focus on the revised editions, though. At the end of the day, however, I’ll have produced about 5-6 books worth of material in less than 3 years, and I’ve been doing it without profit (advertising revenue and donations have ultimately covered site costs). I need to rethink my strategy!

Right-o, I’ve recently started using Tumblr as a means of blogging about my life/exploits. It’s 728% better than Facebook, which I think is a nasty, cliquey place that doesn’t service us arty people too well. So have a look if you’re into that sort of thing. Especially if you’d like to network, which is something I’m pretty terrible at tbh XD