Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote...

I'm a quarter of the way to my desired word count for the day. Now just waiting for the work day to be over so I can get back to it.

As always, the times I can't write -- due to being busy, or due to feeling blocked -- are the times I get the most ideas.

So here's the latest plot bunny of the first days of summer. The Athena Fox Chronicles.

I thought of this before when KDP had this great idea about serialized fiction. Which didn't work out. And I've been working this past couple of weeks to push the social media marketing.

Turns out KDP has turned off the feature that let you put a preview widget on your blog. Still works on Facebook, though, so perhaps I'll finally get around to sprucing up my Facebook page.

Explored options for what is sometimes called Pocket Book (a trademark which has gone generic now), or Mass Market Paperback; the 4.25" x 7" format that fit into those wire racks you still see at airports (if nowhere else). Since I was a little kid reading science fiction I wanted to see my name on one of those covers. The larger Trade Paperback just doesn't feel "real" in the same way.

IngramSpark has that as a trim option. Probably not worth it just yet but if I do manage to get The Tiki Stars finished I'll bring that out in that format first. Just for the effect.

Anyhow, thought about posting excerpts on FaceBook and whatever else works. This blog gets about 250 hits a page so even if those mostly human, not bots, it isn't going to do much for my sales. And pretty much nobody sees the author's webpage I set up. I do need to spruce up my Amazon Author page at some point, though.

And thinking about excerpts reminded me of the thought of doing a set of shorter stories. Which, since the serial outlets turned out not to work that well, would be packaged in a single omnibus.

Originally the thought was to do some of the germs that didn't feel like they'd expand into a full novel.

But the better thought could be that these are explicitly presented as written by Penny, back when she was putting out scripts for that college video she did.

Which is to say, license to grab on to all the crazy fun that comes with letting go of strict historical realism. Or realism, generally. And the sop to my conscious is the framing story where older-and-wiser Penny apologizes for her college-age self and lists a few of the more egregious errors.

But write them as straight-up serious adventure stories.

Honestly, I posted today because I thought I'd jot down a few ideas and I didn't feel like opening the Scrivener series home file to do it. But right now nothing is jumping out. I'd like it to be a mix of oldies-but-goodies, and bizarre stuff that might be hot in the news but in any case not as many people have heard of.

And take the chance to put Athena Fox (because this would be that character fully realized, not a student cosplaying her), into places and situations I don't think I could do a proper job on in any realistic story. Like crashed flying saucers at the South Pole, or undersea cities, or.... well, why not do some period pieces too, while I'm at it?

But since none of those ideas are coming to mind right at the moment, I'll go ahead and start a new Scrivener home file and...try not to dilute my excitement by writing too much down now.

***

And I've got the first one. "The Stone Tape." Someone invents a "psychometric amplifier" -- riffing off Tom Swift's "Electronic Retroscope" as well as Nigel Keane's scripted BBC production and similar ideas used in the same author's Quatermass, specifically "Quatermass and the Pit." And the particularly invasive haunting in what is considered the worst X-Files episode filmed (the "Face on Mars" one).

Which underlines that the problem with both casual writing and well-trodden paths is you end up with trite and often-done ideas. But still sounds like a fun situation to build an adventure around. The focus could be on the psychic activity itself, the haunting so to speak, or on historical mysteries unveiled in the process. Or in the excuse to unleash a particular past on the present day -- perhaps a psychically resurrected Pharaoh? Or...just to both get to play with Victorian London and the Penny Dreadfuls, but to bring back something a little more obscure, Spring-Heel Jack!

Zombie Invasion

...and of course I wake up wanting to work on The Tiki Stars (and not the book I'm supposed to be finishing, or the one I just decided to edit).

Should not have listened to all that Les Baxter while trying to wake up (still trying to kick that energy thing that hit two weeks ago).

I was just thinking about how I am free to be less detailed in the descriptions on this one, painting a much more Impressionistic picture with quick strokes. And an entire opening scene sprang into my mind. One that touches on the world-building and the way I intend to present that world to the reader, the character of my protagonist (rough-and-tumble with a heart of gold, in this example), and lays groundwork for character and story arcs to come.

Trouble is, when I feel like this, it is usually just before I fail utterly to get more than three words written. Then take really ill.

At this point, I'm struggling enough with work I might need to retire early to get any writing done. Plus, I'm really missing theatre. If I could find some contract design work I think I'd rather like that.

Anyhow. Turns out I did start an edit on The Fox Knows Many Things, even if with what I know -- and what I think -- now, those notes would only get in the way. It really is the kind of work I do quickly, though. As opposed to charting my way into new territory: The Early Fox has just reached the edge of the clearing where I'm not revising old scenes but instead hacking into the jungle of completely new scenes.

My biggest plan right now is to explore an alternate to writing over brunch. Not because eggs cost so much these days, but because there's a natural slump when I leave the bottomless coffee cup behind (and start digesting), and it too-often lasts the rest of the day. At least when it comes to following up on the progress of the morning.

Maybe a Scottish breakfast (oatmeal) makes more sense. Ah, but I'm really wanting that big breakfast right now...

***

I hate being right. I still haven't kicked that thing and it's been three weeks now.

The Scottish Experiment was a failure. I ate at home, and...I didn't write. Not until far too late in the evening, when I somehow got it together to get through the Roswell sequence.

Did have one of those nice moments of discovery writing. For pretty much no reason (well, I'd included a mention of the Gort diorama in the description of the place), when time came to describe Random Museum Dude I decided to make him a ringer for Michael Rennie.

And then when I maneuvered them in front of the space exploration exhibit to name-drop the Drake Equation, I was able to work that into a little payoff. Well, probably only a payoff for those who remember the film, but still...

Anyhow that's 1,800 words in the can, and now on to a chapter I've been calling The Railroad, as the Lon Gunman runs Penny around Alamogordo playing with dead drops before he finally deigns to meet with her in person.

The Fox Knows Fewer Things

I've been putting together a cover order at 100 Covers. But not for the upcoming book. I thought I'd try re-staging the first one and possibly get some attention on the series.

And for some reason the book is very clear in my head at the moment. Okay, might have been I needed to look up her description of her parents for a conversation I was working on for The Early Fox. And I ended up reading straight through from that conversation to the end.

But for whatever reason, I feel like I could edit and it wouldn't even be that hard. Because I'm not thinking about trying to fix everything. I'm just thinking of sanding down a few really high spots.

There's seven I can think of right off the top. That I've been thinking of for a while. One of them that's important for reasons other than there being too much damned stuff.

The lecture on the Acropolis. I was still learning how to write this damned thing, and I was using her having a lot to say as a way to pace the scene and space out other description. I don't need that much padding or space or length. I can happily get to Spooky's dialog faster.

The conversation with the French couple. Alexander and Diogenes is too fun to skip but the whole sequence is too long.

The history discussion at Ariadne's store. It always dragged. Plus, the motivations are wacky and I know enough better know I could clean that up.

Penny's delve into some darker corners of the internet. I've made enough of a point about racist idiots; I don't need to underline them or straw-man them. There's entirely too much in both of these scenes about defending the plot, as well.

The talk with Vash at Oktoberfest. No, it isn't too long. It just kinda sucks and I should be able to write a tighter version.

The lecture about the Hermes of Athens. Just too long and too rambling.

The museum. I love the whole vibe of the scene with Penny running around looking at pots and flirting with Marcos, but she doesn't have to strawman the Dorian Invasion quite so hard. And there's more history here than is really needed. 

And for once, not a lecture; the spinnaker bit in the voyage of the Wanderer. Again I put it in for pacing reasons, but the pacing doesn't actually require it.

And there's quite a bit of trimming and clean-up I can do as well. Funny thing is; I don't expect to lose that many words. If it takes a thousand off I'd be surprised -- and since a lot more of that is in tightening up, I can easily make up that much and more by decompressing some dialog. I can even trade dialog and actual "business" for some of the place descriptions that go on too long.

Did I get that guitarist on the steps of the Acropolis? Because if he isn't there, I could happily add him in now. 

Epic Quest

Finally moving forward again with The Early Fox. Yes, I'm re-using some concepts and snippets of description, but still basically I hacked out almost a thousand words today on the Part II opening.

(And still not really happy with explicit "Parts." I might end up using the "vignettes from the past" as dividers instead. Or I might end up cutting those, leaving only the "White Sands girl" prologue and having the rest of the book in simple first-person, past tense, chronologically linear narrative.)

Which was also one of the big reasons to rewrite the "Pickup truck" and "Roswell" chapters so thoroughly. My first draft used au vis openings and that meant a whole bunch of back-filling in awkward past perfect.

That revised opening sequence, though, is finally taking proper shape on the page. There's a certain feel I'm trying to achieve with it.

Yeah, I've mentioned just how amazing the Horizon Zero Dawn series is at organic world-building, where your understanding of the world and the back story, the nature of the quest and the stakes evolve in parallel with Aloy's own understanding. Even on a second or third playthrough, you feel this opening up as the game takes you through these huge changes of perspective; from the Proving, where Aloy's world expands radically from being an outcast of the Nora to learning there are other tribes, history and politics in her land -- and some of those other forces have just taken an active interest in her, to when she enters Carja Lands, especially Meridian, and both enters a new nation and new (desert) biome, but also becomes an active part of political events there.

And it just keeps on, with the final revelation that you are trying to stop a techno-god from eating the world happening extremely late in the game.

Forbidden West has less of this, although the moment the Zeniths enter is a startling game-changer. It remains, however, a slow burn game. That opening title there is at least an hour of game-play in.

And notice how gentle it is. Three minutes, with a song to boot. Not a cramped cinematic of explosions and fisticuffs and world-ending stakes -- although these are very much there, from the start of the game. This is almost elegiac, and no accident, as her ride takes her through the territories of the previous game one more time before you move on to a new setting.

The other reason for why it unfolds this way is the story isn't just about Aloy trying to save the world. It is about her accepting the help of others, even if some of them will die on the way. Through the game, she stops being the one person who can save the world and begins to share her knowledge and skills.

Not really directions I'm going with my own opening cinematic. There is a thread I'm carrying through the book, the image of a woman carrying her child as she journeys to a new world, but for various reason The Early Fox is about cutting Penny off from chatty companions and letting her experience a desert solitude. So my Part II opening is about the lure and the loneliness of the open road.

Oh, and this is Penny's story. Penny without an existing role or expectation to fall back on. Which means, very possibly, the name "Athena Fox" will never be spoken within this book.

One more question for the cover creator.

Pronoun Trouble

 

I'm at least four months out on The Early Fox but am already thinking covers. Kindlepreneur is doing a thing with 100 Covers. 100 Covers wants examples of similar books on their order form. So back to Amazon -- PublishRocket does this now, but I am not in the headspace to figure out how that part works -- to find "similar genre."

There are more books showing up in my searches that take smaller liberties with history -- that don't require aliens or magic as part of their "Archaeological Thrillers." I still can only think of maybe one series so far, though, where the action is more towards Cozy Mystery and less wild shoot-outs and exploding helicopters.

But that got me thinking again about rewrite, relaunch, restaging...and POV. Because there are problems with doing this sort of thing in First Person, and advantages to Third. 

I originally picked First because the plot for that book had her mostly alone without anyone else to talk to, and because I really wanted her to talk about history. As of the current book I am working so hard at backing off on all the internal chatter even she has noticed it. First is also an easier POV to lie in. It seems paradoxical, but Third Immersive (the standard approach) is almost forced to reveal things about itself that a First Person POV can chose not to talk about.

The advantage to Third that got me thinking about this now is that so many of these other thrillers are more thrilling. More action. And it isn't as easy to look heroic and badass from inside. That bit of narrative distance of Third makes it easier.

In the case of the basic conceit of the stories, that protagonist Penny is often called and confused with "Athena Fox," First actually confers one huge advantage. And that is that they don't usually talk about themselves in the Third Person.

In the Japan books, my protagonist can be dealing with her complicated feelings about becoming the mask, as various people address her by her name or as "Athena Fox" -- but she remains the same person within her own head, as she is always "I" there.

The same thing with The Murderbot Diaries; the name "Murderbot" is rarely used. In fact, while the protagonist will at various points answer to "SecUnit" or "Rin" (a thin-as-paper disguise of an "augmented human" who works as a security consultant), it is usually "I" within its own head. The same way it isn't gendered, or even explicitly non-gendered (aka "it") -- again, simply "I."

(A problem immediately faced by the AppleTV show, as there is a male actor under the helmet.)

The other difference is in background information. A First Person POV can dump background but at the risk of attracting attention to the artificiality of the narrative. When a First says something like; "I was educated at the Sorbonne" it immediately implies that they are aware of the reader. That they are in fact narrating their experience. "Dammit, six years at the Sorbonne had not prepared me for this!" instead maintains that fragile fourth wall, keeping the reader from having to think about why they seem to be able to hear this person's thoughts.

This isn't hard-and-fast; the mirror scene alone demonstrates that you can't do everything in Third. But you can get away with more before you break that fourth wall.

To me, though, this is much like the secrets issue above; First is handy for when you want to keep secrets, but it is lousy when you want the reader to understand who they are and what they are thinking, because they just might not want to talk about it. And if they appear obligated to talk about it, it immediately distances from riding along in their skull while they have the experience, to being told about this great experience sometime after the fact.

Detail Diatribe

I'm up to where I stopped on The Early Fox. I've been trying all week to do a top-to-tail read. I kept having to stop for something, and by the time I got back I'd lost the flow.

I've been fighting off the weakness thing that comes over me on a regular basis. Didn't take any time off to rest this time. Meant it stretched on longer.

Today, finally, I read the whole thing. Reading as a reader would (or at least trying to). What are their questions, what might they misunderstand? Always important, but critical in the early chapters where you are lying out where we are, who our characters are, what they are up to, and why we should care. The last being, well, the plot. What is at stake; is the plot of the book I see, the handle toward my hand?

Okay, almost all the way back. I have the last scene to straighten out still. It works, but I changed a bunch in the last rewrite (kicked several plot beats down the road). I was struggling anyhow to get this pressure relief thing going, where Penny is basically in trouble at her job and she sort of turns that around to get sent out on an investigation.

Those beats still aren't quite happening. But my brain isn't there after a long so I'm heading to bed.

I no longer have confidence in writing. In anything I'm writing, in anything I will write. I passed my peak; I'm still learning new things, but I'm less and less able to apply them efficiently.

Detail is still part of it. I got sort of walked into a level of detail on this series. Now it is an expectation. And it is the process that is slowing me down. Not exactly the research (although I always want more time than I have), but what having all that to handle does to my writing sessions. It sort of infects everything, meaning I have more plot beats and character nuances and other things going on. Which I all have to juggle.

There's a place here and there, especially on the latest book (because I planned to do exactly that) where most of the distractions are pared away. Her first walk into the desert, I also kicked the beat of realizing the desert is a flourishing ecosystem until I do the bigger walk out to the test bed.

A sequence I am looking forward to, mostly because that has the first scene with Jackson and Sanchez.

The desert stroll I did is now pared down to Penny taking a walk and slowly kicking the impression other people gave her of White Sands as this bombed-out military wasteland. That's it.

I also realized today, in the read-through, that I don't have to dread the archaeology research. It is basically done. The detailed description of Penny working her first dig...that's written. Her late-night attempt to nail down the chronology of the thrice-dug grave is mostly going over the same ground.

Like I said, I don't believe in any of this. But I enjoy the process. Even if almost nobody is going to read it (and absolutely nobody is going to comment), I am still looking forward to the -- call it a technical challenge -- of writing some of those scenes.

Writing. As much as I still have a stack of research I already started and feel obligated to finish (reading a history of nuclear weapon secrecy right now), and as much as I know there's things ahead I will have to learn more about before I write those specific scenes, I am at the moment a lot more interested in writing the scenes themselves.

If only it were faster. I'm boiling over on ideas for the next book already. It is taking so damned long to write the current one!

AI Conundrum

At some point I'm going to finish another book. At that point, I'll need editing, cover art, possibly interior graphics. I am rethinking the latter slightly and may use a different layout for the next "Fox" books, but anyhow.

How can I tell that I'm not getting AI back?

Okay, already there was a big problem with editors and art and similar labor-intensive book services, and that was vendors geared towards providing a product. Their business model is not based on them understanding the needs of your book, but instead doing something of sufficient quality that you will pay them for it.

Can you get SEO advice from someone who actually knows the SF field? Can you get editing from someone who understands the peculiarities of historical fiction?

I pushed a little with my cover and interior artists; instead of sending them a reference image, I'd describe it in art-student terms; "...like a Toulouse-Lautrec cabaret poster."

On places like Reedsy and Fiverrrrrr, you don't even know if you are talking to the artist, or if you don't share a language and they are shoving your order into Google Translate. That makes revisions awkward, and rarely productive, as well.

Well, AI has made this distinctly worse. Even if there is a human hand holding the pen, you know that the person handling orders at the Art "R" Us you are contracting with just fed whatever you said into ChatGPT and asked it to spit out whatever it is they could do in an afternoon with a stock image site.

Not only do they not know anything about theory, history, or tradition of art, they've a business model that makes it so these things do not matter. They can get a result that gets them paid. Bottom line.

Which by the by over just the years since I published the last book have been so overrun with AI generated "stock" they barely even bother to identify it anymore. All of their efforts are to cash in by offering their own AI implementation for your needs.

Well, actually, most of them are going out of business. It has become much more difficult to get the typical stock that was used in so many book covers over the last few decades.

But there is still a moral and possible a legal ground as well. KDP stops you at several points during upload for a self-published manuscript for you to declare if you have used AI. As of the moment, this doesn't matter. But it could change in a moment, and every trend in the market suggests it will not change in a way that is good for those who declared.

The best outcome is that Amazon unveils their own AI engines, and declares their legal department has determined you must pay the extra charges to have their AI used on your work instead. Which contract by the by will also require permission to use your work for training data. No, I haven't heard any rumors of this. But KDP is so far from hurting for more books, they could easily dump all of the self-published works that used AI, probably without hurting their bottom line in the slightest.

How can I find these editors and artists now? What protection do I have that even a well-meaning person who I have contracted with before isn't feeling the crunch as real artists are being crushed under cheap AI crap, and is forced to sign with that devil in order to pay their own bills?

None.