04/05/2020 Book Report, FROZEN DREAMS.

Today, I had discussions, or at least a discussion and maybe started another couple. The ‘maybe’ discussions involved inquiries into map prices, and I’ll know how they went in a few days. The full discussion involved the audiobook stretch goal; I sat down with my audiobook narrator and worked out what she would do and her rates, should it fund and/or I put the money together otherwise. She’ll also be hopefully recording a blurb/sample in the next few days, which I will absolutely use to try to entice more people to back the Kickstarter.

I’m not sure how well that will work out, assuming that it funds; but every time I’ve gone I don’t think people will pay good money for that about something in this Kickstarter I’ve turned out to be wrong. Besides, if it works it’s a revenue stream worth looking into. And, honestly: I kind of like the idea in general now. Pulp detective stories lend themselves well to dramatic readings, I think.

04/05/2020 Snippet, TRADE NEGOTIATIONS.

At this rate, I’m going to be calling it an all-new story. I don’t know when we’re getting back to the authentic Old American blue jeans.

It didn’t like the crossbows, and it didn’t like the staggering volleys that the two squads proceeded to toss into it, either. Fire and air elementals weren’t always the brightest spirits out there, and it took another two crossbow volleys before the elemental calmed down enough to toss back fireballs with something approaching actual aim. But by then the crew was ducking out of sight, into cover — and far, far away from any barrels. When wood explodes from being fireballed, it explodes nasty.

Jimmy and Leo hadn’t fired after the first volley; in fact, the volleys were there to keep the fire elemental distracted while they moved. Not that Jimmy minded softening up the damned thing first. He even allowed himself the ridiculous hope that a stray bolt might hit the restraining charm that was keeping this elemental captive and mad on this plane of existence, although the odds of that were roughly equivalent to picking all six numbers in the next Greater Hershey Stupidity Tax. But even if Jimmy didn’t hit the lottery today that way, the two were still getting closer to the time and place where they could do something useful with their time.

04/04/2020 Book Report, FROZEN DREAMS.

Mostly spent fixing up existing stretch goals for the FROZEN DREAMS Kickstarter and making arrangements for new ones. I also spent the day reminding myself that Kickstarters have a burst at the beginning, then steadily tick along, and then usually have a burst at the end. Did reminding myself like that help at all? …Well. Technically.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/moelane/frozen-dreams-a-novel

Ehh, I just have to keep on keeping on. This is going extremely well, after all. And not under the best of conditions, either.

Book of the Week: The Screwtape Letters.

Ahem. From CS Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters:

The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakably real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality. Thus if you had been trying to damn your man by the Romantic method — by making him a kind of Childe Harold or Werther submerged in self-pity for imaginary distresses — you would try to protect him at all costs from any real pain; because, of course, five minutes’ genuine toothache would reveal the romantic sorrows for the nonsense they were and unmask your whole stratagem.

Continue reading Book of the Week: The Screwtape Letters.