Tag: housekeeping

The Other Side

“‘I have seen what becomes of your kind when you become unburdened.  Consider it, and let dread fill you.'”

–Three and Two and Two

I’m aware I haven’t posted here in nearly two months. Of course I haven’t stopped writing. Now, finally in a steady state a year on from $20,000 Under the Sea being out in the world, I have an idea of how fast things are going. It’s not exactly fast. Faster, certainly, than before I moved out to the yellow-grass afterlife of consulting; slower, obviously, than when I had all of my time to focus on writing; but that’s life.

Part of this two-month delay has been work on One Wing, One Eye, Chapter 9, which is on the longer side of chapters I’ve written on that project, and that’s an alright place to be. Though it might not be clear to you from the minimal frills I put on my posts, Chapter 8 was the end of the book’s first half, and there is something heartening about hitting a milestone like that with some form of momentum, especially as I’ve felt like One Wing, One Eye has been comparatively bogged down compared to Three and Two and Two.

The other part, though, is that I’ve been sandbagging my writing (the aforementioned Chapter 9, a couple of short stories, some snippets) for a possible change in platform. WordPress is serviceable as an online signpost for my in-person interactions, and it’ll relay my screams unto the void along with the best of them, but I’m finding myself maybe a little hopeful that I can find a conduit that will deliver my work to a person who is interested in it rather than someone who simply wants to sell me something. Yes, I know, the grass isn’t all that green anywhere on the blogosphere either, it’s all mostly void and spambots wherever you go, but might as well keep searching, since after eight years, it’s pretty clear to me that this, while sufficient, isn’t quite aspirational.

To those precious few of you who have engaged with me here because you were legitimately interested in my work, thank you. This blog isn’t going anywhere in the near future, even if I do transition my updates to a different platform, and should I make a decision about what that platform is, I will certainly update you all here.

To those of you who have stumbled upon this blog, are curious about my work, would like to support me, etc., the work is always continuing, but every single purchase still helps me out. Give my books a look and see if anything speaks to you.

Living the Dream

In spite/because of my vaguely barren posting schedule, I did want to wish all of you a happy new year (and belated holidays, whichever you celebrate), with the exception of the decidedly persistent scammer who keeps emailing me from Nigeria with an AI-generated profile pic and email pitch. My holiday message for you is more complex:

  • I do not want to purchase access to your botnet, no matter how many fake reviews it will generate for me.
  • I am perfectly capable of Googling the various generically American names you have emailed me under (and finding thereof that no one with that name is in this line of work).
  • Your messages are now routing to my spam folder. Please move on. If you are given to self-reflection, please consider a career in which you commit less fraud.

For everyone else, despite appearances, my December has actually been rather productive, and once I figure out how to collate my output, it will start appearing here again (I had a professional engagement that ate up most of my October/November). I hope you all have been well, and I will see you soon, under a new calendrical quantum.

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.