A plot too late

The plot finally came together.

It isn't a great plot. But I think it lets me hit some beats that advance the character development and serve the goals of the series and tell a story that makes use of the Japanese setting.

So Kyoto is in it. Also Kusanagi, and Kitsune (mostly the Inara shrine.) And Kul..I mean cult. Although I'm dropping a lot of the UFO cult aspect. The Takarazuka is in it, as are mall ninjas. And there's a training montage, er, chapter (or two).

 Stuff I'm sort of drawing from and may or may not be folding in includes Speed Tribes, Memory Water, Roppongi, Geisha, the Silver Pavilion, Heaven's Gate, Graham Crackers, bro science, plastic rocks, magnet bracelets, minshuku, Miho Museum, Aberanbo Shogun, Lupin III, lies-to-children...

The big theme here is Authenticity, and that's also one of the archaeological themes; the other being Artifact. The history will be thin, and largely the meta-subject; the perceptions and use of history. The big historical perspective (and not that big) is post Black Ships; the modernization of Japan and their ongoing effort to keep something that is true while also adjusting to a changing world.

Already I have scenes in mind at the Toei (or is it Toho?) studios, the mountain shrine, a lighting ceremony (not quite the right time of year though), the old Geisha district of Kyoto, a quite wild climbing gym in Osaka, Osaka Castle, the Ginza...

So the next task is to start taking stuff out and connecting things and otherwise reducing.

Pity. I'm enjoying the walks to work, but this is no longer a time for pure brainstorming. This is time to get out the index cards and seeing how the scenes and settings and themes and plot points and so forth can be arranged.

***

Meanwhile I have no new reviews and only two purchases of the new book. And it is too early to put it on giveaway. If I had any confidence, I'd drop another hundred bucks on a review service (yes, it's legal). 

I've started running some theoretical math, though. Ran into a comment that someone else would make a book free for a month and give away a few thousand copies. And get one or two reviews back. But that made me think about the numbers. I was at #20 in Travel Adventure Fiction when the book was free. It has since dropped down to 1,300 (and Fox and Hounds gets no higher than rank 5,000).

Well I don't know everything that goes into the algorithm, although I do know it weighs the last 90 days of activity more strongly. But. Having 5,000 distinct ranks implies that, besides there being at least 5,000 books, that there are 5,000 calculable steps from one to the other.

Again, who knows what goes into the algorithm. It does suggest, though, that there are books that are selling 5,000 copies over that target period. 

Basically, at my current numbers, I'm not seated at the table yet. I'm not even doing enough business to be properly counted.