Breaks

 My workplace is shuttered for the rest of the month. (We had a worker test positive.) It was going to be a short week anyhow, what with the holidays. And we're all getting tested.

With tap water and an overnight trickle charge I was able to get my old battery to start my car one last time. Then I drove to O'Reilly and put a new one in right at the curb. Other than that, though, I walked and I intend to keep walking.

I am feeling the change in my health. By the time the gyms open up again I might even be ready to go back. 

***

Walking is great for hashing out plots. I still don't know if I'm actually changing anything, or just rolling over what I already came up with until I can accept it. The basic premise for the next Athena Fox book is exactly what I put in the "next time..." blurb of the last book. One of Japan's "New Religions" collects archaeological artifacts and their charismatic leader has already noticed Athena Fox. An equally mysterious Japanese ministry tricks Penny into coming to Japan so they can use her to find out what the "Ascension" that is happening in only two weeks is all about (and if they are looking at another Heaven's Gate, or worse, an Aum Shinrikyo.)

So basically they want the actress. To play the role and to nod head around some of the worst excesses of pseudo-archaeology, Ancient Astronauts, triple DNA and all. So this is coming out of her "be an archaeologist or be an actress" choice from the last book, but to her dismay, she finds she's not a good enough actress, either. There's some hard work, including with the Takarazuka Revue, there. A contact which also informs and confuses her on not just gender roles and expectations in Japan but the uneasy relationship between the mask and the player.

She's also sadly out of shape. She recognizes that too, even as she recognizes that some of this is the mysterious and flamboyant Ichiro trying to shape her to his own ideals. So she's getting the chance to work out and get back in touch with her physical skills -- in of course spectacular Japanese scenery. And there's a minor note here with Bro Science and health woo; the cult is quite rich on the proceeds of get-healthy-quick charms and tonics.

And there's ninja. Of course there are. And her otaku friend Aki, on headset in Boston, giving her tips on Japanese culture that are drawn from anime and manga and are not always helpful. 

So this is basically character beats. It gets me a chance to do a soft introduction to some ideas of bad archaeology; the fixation on Artifact, and the Ancient Astronauts nonsense. What I don't like, is that this is little of the Japan I experienced and researched. There is little here of post-war Japan and less of ordinary lives, as in the process of presenting an attractive Athena Fox, Penny is hanging with the rich and upper class, doing clubs and parties and high-end tourist digs.

So it is kind of the James Bond view of an exotic locale. At least I can leverage some of my previous knowledge of rock climbing, workout culture, health woo, Japanese society and language. But it is also leaving me with an uncomfortable amount to learn about the New Religions, UFO cults, the history and the para-history of the Ninja, changes in the modern Japanese fitness landscape...

I've got a long reading list already. 

***

And to add to the reading list; I joined Pubby. Not sure yet if I am sticking with it. I got my first review there but it hasn't posted yet so I haven't been able to look at it.

I went through this on my first novel. While I was sending it out to publishers and waiting to hear back I wasn't able to let go. It stopped me from being able to write. In that case, it lasted almost ten years.

It has been a terrible struggle to keep writing while I am waiting to see if my Amazon numbers ever kick up and for readers to give me actual honest appraisal, both what I am doing wrong and what they like and would like to see more of. I can't trust the family and friends (well, unless they say something negative. That I trust!)

I need to throw more advertising on, as well as kick that third or even fourth book out there. But at the moment Fox and Hounds is still showing one single rating (not even a review, but a rating) of one star.

It looks terrible. With a single one-star, it looks like it isn't even a real book. I can't send anyone to that page, via advertising or anything else, because they will look at that rating and go away.

The best route I have right now is to not-really-trade reviews at Pubby. (They get around the Amazon restrictions on review trades by anonymizing a reviewer pool, and they get around the no-pay-for-reviews by the fact that you are only paying the host to be there. You earn "points" to allow your book to be made visible to other reviewers by turning in your own reviews.)

BTW, Amazon has modified their stance slightly. In the current FAQ, they answer "can friends and family leave reviews?" with the somewhat vague but heartening assurance that being friends, on social media or elsewhere, won't automatically get a review taken down. Elsewhere, they've indicated that for their purposes, "family" is defined as people sharing a household.

Pubby rotates a very small number of selections and there is no way to save anything. As far as I can tell, merely clicking on an entry commits you to reviewing it. And the only books that made me really itch to review (or to give the writer some helpful hints) required things I didn't know if I had or not...and couldn't find out unless I clicked!

My review of Pubby, in other words, is a terribly organized badly designed confusing mess.

And I really need to have more things that need to be read. I am itching to start putting scenes together.

***

Oh, and hashtag DisneyMustPay.