Well, its been a few months and this update I wanted to share where are I am in the series and what happened when Draft2Digital pulled out. They were the first publisher that I actually trusted. They made things easy. Based in OKC I worked with them and never had problems. Even when I discovered that I shouldn’t be putting lyrics in my novels, they never said a peep. The books went out and while they sold poorly, they never had a problem with supporting me. Which is part of the bigger problem.
Invisibilty because of sale let to this delusion that I would always be there. I could put out what I wanted and there would never be problems. I customized everything so it was easy. I wanted a print book, I could go through Blurb. I didn’t so I kept pushing out the narrative, building the world and throwing people into mythic notes as I came across them. (I am approaching 200, more on that later). Then came to physical book beta and the creation of ‘Song of the Assembly Vol 1‘ (I embeded the new link to the Kindle edition which is free with Kindle Unlimited, or $20 for a updated second edition [a few more diction edits].)
Thanks to Man in the middle’s actual review,(link there) I felt I succeeded. It would be only a brief feeling because I didn’t know the bridge would fail soon enough. I published several more print books. Some I forgot that I write in 8×11 on Word and I need to format the pdf as 6 x9 for a normal book so I have some ugly ones like ‘Song of Reconciliation‘ (which I republished through Kindle in 6 x9). That ebook KDP hates the cover of so I still haven’t gotten it to render. But thats neither here no there. I kept publishing. I could taste the excitement when I finished ‘Song of Dreams, Memories and You‘ because I knew it would fill the gap between ‘Homecoming Song‘ and Christmas Circle (which wasn’t even intented to be a published novel but Blurb let me because its more vanity publishing but that neither here nor there.
Just so you know, H.P. Lovecraft didnt really make that much from his writing. It paid the bills but most was pulp publications and people critizited them endlessly to the point that he stopped writing shortly before his death. So me not making money to the level of say Stephan King or Rowlings or Grishim, isn’t an issue. Its out there. Its seen and that is all that matters. Draft2digital was buying and merging with Smashwords, and that I believe is where the problem began. Smashwords is & remains a magnet for fan fiction. I get it. I would love to personally incorporate more other fiction into the Assembly reality (more on that later as well) but if I want to actually say this is 100% mine then the copyright is clear. It has to be unique. I can use celebrities, and a couple other none unique real world things but the creative sphere is limited thanks in no small part to Sonny Bono’s actions (him and Disney)
So, when my novel was rejected and they basically gave me the middle finger, I felt abandoned, hurt and alot of other emotions. You know all that. The ultimate end is I discovered that while I will miss Draft2digital, the platform isn’t what I should care about. These are designed for people to push out works while the old publishers still curry to the celebs and the occasional one good book that an editor is pleased by. That is really lotto. My day job its easy to give my tag line and see people light up. ‘Mermaids are the Illumanti’ but as I learned with selling the programs for them that they actually came in for, its alot harder to make that sale. I’m not ruthless enough on the sale end. So it languishes.And that leads me to where we are now.
There are actually only two books left. Song of Portents and Song of Victory. Neither are in process nor do I have notes for them. I have the background material for the Song of Portents and foreshadowing in Song of Hope (I haven’t republished) but they are waiting unil Mythic Notes is done. I discovered if I finished the two books I wouldnt finish Mythic Notes. I do want to tell stories outside the current characters so I decided to focus on this. Also, it will be more narative and less this scholarly encyclopedia feel. It also will run in chronological order.
The basic structure I established two blog posts ago hasn’t changed. The historical part will be the largest and will contain the narrative. The charts will indeed be charts, mostly images that are public domain that will explain stuff. Historical and assembly will have pictures. My goal is a picture of everyone (well one two people the picture wont be an actual picture but thats because of time and other things). Yes it is approaching two hundred people across 6000 yrs, which is good. Some are poeple who probably didnt expect. For example King Peter the first of Portugal, Baku of the Golden Horde, Samuel Hirsh are discussed (none have entries by the way). I also have a origin of the Atlan themselves. The book is a set piece so when this series finishes I can convert some public domain works inward (the aformention Lovecraft items, and some other ideas)
This also allows for more fan fiction. Which leads me to ‘the Romantics’, a 2010 American romantic comedy film based on the novel of the same name by Galt Niederhoffer. While the movie’s cast of Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Anna Paquin do good in their jobs of giving life to the characters and personally I will watch anything Diana Agron is in, the movie isn’t that good. The book matches it in spirit as its directed by the writer so she saw and approved of the script, but the book is unfinished. Gail didn’t want to answer the final question which was does Laura and Tom love each other enough to commit since Tom really is only committing to Lila for safety.
Me being a romantic at heart myself and liking the story itself (saw the movie then read the book) I was crushed it had no end. So like Faking it, I wrote an actual ending. Since this pulled me away for sloughing through the 13th century Portugal, I shoved the Romantics into the assembly reality very subtly. Its called ‘a thing of beauty is a joy forever‘ It fits right after Song of dreams, Memories and You, in Sept 2010 according to the book.
And finally to round this blog out, I am introducing several explainations into who things work across the biographical entries. One involves Belize, another involves corn. More on that on a later blog post. Right now, goal is to finish Mythic Notes by years end. Also on the horizon, an audio version of the first three novels.Yes AI has got to the point where I can do that so, I already have the first chapter done. It sounds good. The one where I did different voices…not so much. Save that for when AI can make movies (you think I am joking. Deep fake will evolve trust me)
Next Blog post I should have an update on when and how much it will cost. It wont be Amazon unless Blurb or someone else decides to go for it.There is a way with Audible hopefully. Anyway, the title is all about remembering the most important things in live. Mine is Jesus, and creating. So be blessed and I will report soon. (oh, no I am not uploading the ebooks for free sorry)
Our Song 