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NEWS AND VIEWS - SEPTEMBER 2024
My latest novel, a fantasy called Lillandra, is currently being serialized on Royal Road and on my Patreon (patrons get to read ten chapters ahead). It's a fun little fantasy; I think it's worth checking out.  I also released the latest Signalverse novel last month, in case you missed that. Here's a link to that one. But it's been a pretty quiet month for me overall. I've been doing a lot of writing -- my usual daily quota, when I'm working on something, is 500 words a day, but I've been really pushing myself the last couple of months, in order to keep up with Lillandra's release schedule; I've been hammering out new 2,000-3,000-word chapters every couple of days. It's hard for me to keep up this pace, and my insomnia usually gets in the way at least once a week, which makes it even harder. But I'm hanging in there, for now. Lillandra is shaping up to be a substantial novel -- I'm expecting it to run approximately 150,000-200,000 words, which would make it the longest single book I've ever written, by far. So I'm going to be working on this one for the foreseeable future. And, I haven't really thought about what my next project will be. I think I'd like to write a Western, or at least a Western-themed fantasy with some steampunk elements, but it's just a vague idea; I haven't started outlining anything yet. I'm also interested in writing more Playground Noir stories, but I couldn't get anybody to read the first collection, so maybe that's not such a great idea. Sam Fortune? I'd like to write at least one more book, to turn this series into a trilogy, but again, the Sam Fortune books haven't sold very well and I'm not sure people are really interested in this kind of old-fashioned adventure stuff. But that's understandable; the Sam Fortune books are really more for me. As for the Signalverse, well, I still haven't decided whether I'm going to add any more books to the series. I would like to assemble an updated version of The Complete Guide to the Signalverse, however, and that would probably include a new short story, so I wouldn't call the series dead just yet. And there's always the possibility I'll write a new Signalverse novel at some point in the future, maybe two or three or five years from now. Just for fun, here's a pretty good depiction of Volta (generated with AI), one of the newer members of the CrossGuard, who appears in City of Strange Gods. 
I'm pretty happy with some of these AI images I've made, of Signalverse characters, and I've been thinking about including some of them in the updated edition of The Complete Guide to the Signalverse, when and if I ever get around to assembling it. I'm reluctant to take that step, however, because so many people are so down on AI-generated art. They hate it with a fiery passion. I get where they're coming from, and I always prefer to hire real artists myself, but a single image, similar to the one above, drawn and colored by a professional artist, would likely cost hundreds of dollars to commission, and I'd need dozens of these for the Complete Guide. I can't afford to spend that much money on a little side project like this. So in this case, for me, the choice wouldn't be between hiring a real artist or using AI; it would be a choice between having AI-generated character portraits in the book or having no artwork in it at all. AI images like the one above aren't perfect, but I think they would add something; they would liven up the book and give the reader at least some idea of how I imagine the characters to look. What do you think? If you've got an opinion, let me know. As for what I've been reading/watching/playing this month...well, I've been watching a few Korean shows (Love Next Door, Hierarchy), and I started playing Resident Evil: Revelations and Hollow Knight this month, but I haven't done any serious reading at all; I've been too focused on Lillandra. I'm planning on picking up Greg Keyes' latest (The Wind That Sweeps the Stars) at some point, but I haven't got around to it yet. That's all. See you next month! |