Tag: housekeeping

Praise for $20,000 Under the Sea

This is a little bit of a thank you and a little bit of an ad heads-up, but while my own efforts to promote $20,000 Under the Sea have been proceeding anemically, the book has received some positive critical reception that I’m grateful for. I wanted to highlight some of it:

  • Self-Publishing Review: “An exceptional high-stakes drama on the high seas that brims with encroaching horror, $20,000 Under the Sea by Sam Locrian is a timely historical commentary and a masterclass in psychological suspense”
  • Indie Reader: “a fun, action-packed addition to the corpus of transformative works in the Lovecraft mythos”
  • The Hemlock Journal: “a mix of thrill and fantasy”

Thank you to these reviewers as well as others who have taken the time to read and review the book.

Additionally, this last month, I was able to have my first in-person event in quite awhile. Thank you to PH Coffee, my favorite writing spot in the Kansas City area, for hosting me for a book signing on August 9th! For others in the Kansas City area, perhaps I will see you at a future event!

Top Image: The Mask

Mandatory Vacation in Dimly-Lit Locales

The other day I made the mistake of visiting FextraLife’s Elden Ring lore speculation page, only to recoil, wailing, from the bilingual Time Cube that resides therein. While I try to refrain creating content based primarily on being mean to people, there are only so many claims like “House Hoslow is descended from the Nox because their armor has silver in it” that I can read before I push my fingers so far into my temples that brain pulp begins extruding from my nose.

While it wasn’t surprising, I was pleased to find that Shadow of the Erdtree added substantially to the Elden Ring analytical picture. I hope to write a more substantial post about it, ideally something between the structure of my previous Elden Ring post and the Dark Noon series. It’ll involve fingers, Jesus, and really disgusting jars. But this is not that post. This is mainly to remind/assure you all that I’m alive and that all of the previously in-progress efforts are in the same, slow, grinding motion they’ve been in for months. Beta reading for $20,000 Under the Sea is coming to a close. I’ve found a real editor to take a look at it, so that’s still ongoing, still with a projected release date of this year (I’m looking at 12/20 at this point). And of course, all the Rale-universe work (“The Apiarist”, the Crossroads sequel) is still going. You can, of course, still find updates here. On my website.

Top Image: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree promotional image

Broken

Apologies for the slow cadence of posts lately. I’ve had a number of things cooking, but they are all in such a way that none is quite ready to post here. And then I went to the hospital this last weekend, which threw a wrench in most of my plans. I will have something new up in a few days. It’ll be a little weird–but hopefully pleasantly so.

Partial Eclipse of My Writing Schedule

Posting since it’s been a minute since my previous spree of relatively high-frequency updates. Everything is still underway–a new Apiarist excerpt is forthcoming (hopefully within the week), and editing for $20,000 Under the Sea is hopefully nearing its conclusion. However, travel to see the recent eclipse, while absolutely worthwhile, has put a kink in my content pipeline that I’m only now beginning to sort out. I hope you all are well and that you spent an appropriate minimum of time staring directly into the sun in the past week and a half.

Kindness, Revisited

Not all opinions are equal. But some are, and whereof one cannot speak…

My bandwidth for ancillary writing has tanked recently, but amid the ongoing trek of editing $20,000 Under the Sea, a trend has emerged in my media intake that is explicable in the way a full-length review is not.  It’s particularly convenient to blog about because I’ve blogged about it before–five years ago.  Back then, I was reminiscing about the increased weight Nabokov’s (admittedly abrasive) instructions had taken on in my evaluation of media.  More recently, I’ve seen a good clip of amateur reviews run across my newsfeed, and boy, would you know it, all that shit is still relevant.

If you’re in the habit of writing reviews, especially if you are an amateur reviewer (which we mostly are here on WordPress), you would do well to read it.  Too long?  You’re a dirty liar, but fine, whatever, I’ll give you a highlight:

In your capacity as a critic, check your damn ego.  Be kind.  Lean on mainstream takes before you pan something.  Don’t trust them, of course–the mainstream is often very stupid–but at least take it mathematically: Is it more likely that you saw through the marketing and vacuous acclaim of the idiot masses, or…did you maybe miss something?  Was the draw simply something that wasn’t for you?  Did you let the fact that you didn’t care for a book’s main character shade your interpretation of all the rest?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to dislike anything for just about whatever reason.  The problems only come when it’s time to square perspectives with everyone else. And though I don’t care for a lot of people, I very pointedly do not throw rocks at (most of) their houses.

Winter is Ending

I’m having to bunt here since writing on the latest preview chapter for One Wing, One Eye is going slowly. But it will be done soon (hopefully by my next post), and in the meantime, I am very much still alive.

Content here over the next year is going to be a little tricky. Editing on $20,000 Under the Sea will mean that a fair portion of my output isn’t going to show up here (until the release of the book), and my new job is cutting into my writing time substantially. That said, I intend to find a way to make it work. In the meantime, thank you to all of you for reading and following. I hope you are doing well and that your winter ends soon.

Charting a Course Ahead

First off: Reminder that all of my books are currently on sale! Ebook versions are $0.99, and paperback versions are significantly discounted until the end of the month. You can find Promises for a Worse Tomorrow on Amazon here and Three and Two and Two from your preferred retailer (including Amazon if you so desire) here!

Beyond that, editing for $20,000 Under the Sea is underway, and since it is going to take significantly longer than past books, I may post some of the intermediary materials here as well. To that end, it’s all still in the early stages. If you have any interest in participating in beta reading, you would be most welcome–feel free to reach out to me at slhlocrian@saltpoweredllc.com!

Otherwise, upcoming content will theoretically be a little more short-form (book reviews, short nonfiction posts, a review of my recent reading list), though I will continue adding chapters for One Wing, One Eye as I finish them. I hope the New Year is treating you well!

Unresolutions

Happy New Year, everyone!

I know I’ve been pretty quiet for the past few weeks. It was actually quite loud for me, and I got to live out a lifelong dream of floating down the Amazon River, passionately vomiting every single damn thing in my gastrointestinal tract from sundown to sunup. It was perhaps the best vacation I’ve ever taken.

Meanwhile, my recent good fortune in day-job world has left the timelines for my upcoming projects with unfortunately little resolution. Not an auspicious New Year situation, but still, the original plan for $20,000 Under the Sea is more or less on track. The beta-reading/editing process has started, and I’m continuing to target release by the end of 2024. For The One-Winged Lark and the One-Eyed Crow, well, stay tuned. A new chapter should be up shortly.

And of course, one more bit of good news. If you’re new here or were waiting on a chance to read my work, I’ve adjusted ebook prices down to $0.99 for both Three and Two and Two and Promises for a Worse Tomorrow and discounted the Three and Two and Two paperback by 40% until the end of the month (exact amounts subject to platform and country; some platforms may take a minute to update the price, keep an eye on it).

May your upcoming year be resolute. Or at least, you know, nice or something.

Curtains Rising and Intelligent Wailing

Holiday pressures and life changes do often make it difficult to maintain post schedules for longform work, so I want to fill the gap today with a hybrid of housekeeping and history.

In the former theater, I’ve been blessed by/suffered with a number of developments. I’ve completed the handwritten manuscript for $20,000 Under the Sea, and you can expect the final two chapters to be posted here in the coming weeks. My writing process is to do first-round editing as I’m transcribing my handwritten work into a digital format, and those final two chapters are chonky, so bear with me as I’m getting everything in. Once it’s up here, I intend to initiate beta-reading and second/third-round editing, and you, as readers, have until that process is done (or near done) to read it here before I hide it like I did with Three and Two and Two and the material that went into Promises for a Worse Tomorrow. That said, if you are interested in beta reading, please reach out to me at slhlocrian@saltpoweredllc.com. I am not being choosy with who is allowed to offer me feedback (though I may be choosy about what feedback I listen to). The only qualification I ask for is interest in reading through the manuscript and providing me with your opinion (ideally with a minimal amount of follow-up required from me).

The beta-reading/editing phase for $20,000 Under the Sea will likely be longer than for my previous two books. This is because I’ve recently started a job, and my dedicated writing/editing time has been quartered. On the flipside, lack of uncertainty regarding my ability to survive in the hellscape of capitalism really has been a breath of fresh air, so motivation is in higher supply now at the very least.

Now for history. As my access to illustration for my work is currently limited, I’m looking at a more graphic-design-centric approach for covers/graphics/materials for $20,000 Under the Sea. In particular, I’m hoping to leverage the theme of historical photographs with which I’ve been adorning my recent Whom Emperors Have Served posts. Chief among the questions for cover design for the book is how one might use historical photographs to depict (or at least reference) the Nicholas. Fortunately, in the early days of submarine navigation, vehicle designs–likely the same ones the inspired Jules Verne–were wild.

In particular, see the Intelligent Whale, depicted at the top of this post. It was an experimental craft built during the American Civil War, sold to the U.S. Navy in 1869, tested (disastrously) once, and then condemned in 1872. Various sources indicate that the total number of people drowned in testing the sub may be as high as 42. Between the aggressively silly design and its outright unreliability, it feels…appropriate that it might be a stand-in for Captain Kneecap’s inimitable trash sub.

For a less exceptional inventor or navigator, the design may in fact be an inexpensive conveyance beneath the waves. Whether that’s desirable, of course, depends on how badly you ever want to make it back to the surface.

Top photo courtesy of chinfo.navy.mil

Updates and Recent Happenings

Hi there. I feel like it’s been a little while since we chatted. At least two weeks–while I hope you enjoy the fiction posts, they feel less like a connection with the world. Moreover, I feel a little bad that my post frequency has decreased below the once-per-week mark recently. Never fear, though, much is on the way!

Transcription is behind schedule, but I have three more chapters written and incoming for Whom Emperors Have Served. More exciting than that, I am probably within three chapters of completing the manuscript for the first book in that series (which will likely be published as $20,000 Under the Sea, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere).

Beyond that, I want to give some thanks to…

…those of you who have read either Promises for a Worse Tomorrow or Three and Two and Two. I hope you liked them. There will be more to come, but in case you haven’t checked them out, you can do so here and here, respectively…

…those of you who contributed to TimmyP7’s fundraising stream on Tuesday (featuring me). It was very short notice as far as my involvement was concerned, but we exceeded our goal by far and were able to raise some good money for Gamers Outreach, a charity which provides games to hospitalized children. I advertised this with some limited notice on my Instagram, so if you’re interested in more content like this in the future (admittedly pretty different from what I post here), stay tuned there.

Otherwise, I hope you all are doing well. For those of you in the U.S., enjoy spooky season, and I’ll be back with more soon!

Top Image unrelated to everything but Halloween season.