Actually, Marta came first in a short story called “Treedle.” But the Long Look was the first in the Laws of Power series. I just didn’t know it was at the time. But, unless I have some sort of divine revelation, I’ve just wrapped up both their stories. The Final Chapter and Epilogue of The Seventh Law of Power are done. In rough first draft. I still have to do the rewrite. But I usually rewrite as I go, so I don’t expect it to take that long.
I’ll post when I have a publication date. I have no excuse for taking so long to get the darn thing done.
One thing I like to do now and then is take a flash story, generate illustrations, and put it on YouTube with my own narration. Something separate from the folklore. This piece is called “A Memory of Old Songs.” I think I’ll put them in a separate playlist and just call it “Story Time.”
The Seventh Law of Power is nearly 81k in rough draft now. I think it’s going to end in a…no, on second thought I don’t think I’ll commit to that just yet. But I do see it coming back full circle to Book1, The Long Look. How we get there is the fun part.
Since both First Reader and I were going a little stir-crazy, we drove up to the covered bridge at Salisbury Center and took a stroll around Spruce Creek. Sometimes it just feels good to get your feet on the ground, and it was a lovely day for it.
We’ve having what I guess they still call an Indian Summer. Close to 70 degrees and sunny, and has been for the last few days. This picture was taken on a previous visit, as I didn’t get a clear shot of the bridge this time.
Spruce Creek splits here. Part goes off to the right, part toward where I was standing, meeting again just after it flows under the bridge. Which meant we were essentially standing on an island, socially distanced from anyone else by several hundred feet. We had the place to ourselves, which was even better. It did us good to get out, even if just for a little while.
So we’ve had the excursions, now on to the alarums. I’ll be running a countdown deal on All the Gates of Hell (affiliate links) and a separate promotion on the 15th. However, assuming Azon has it together, the deal will actually start on the 14th, which is Saturday. The price will be .99 to start, then after a day or two (vague, I know) will go up to 1.99, then back to regular. The deal will only be good in the US and UK. Azon’s rules, not mine.
On that previous note, since Australia, Canada, and All Else were excluded from the last special, I manually put the price of The Long Look down to .99 US. That will end this Friday, so if you haven’t read it and want to, now’s the time.
In case it’s not clear from the reference and the cooling rack, that’s a rustic round (sort of) loaf of bread. Nothing to do with Covid; I was baking bread long before the lockdown. I’m especially proud of a version of foccia I do now and then. This one? So-So. Edible and all that, but would have been happier with a little more rise.
Which brings me to my second subject: I don’t know what I’m doing, when it comes to bread, and by extension, a lot of other things. My bread-making I owe as much to poor impulse control as wanting to probe the mystery that is bread. I get the impulse to try something new, and I do, and learn a bit, but seldom put in the time, concentration and focus required for real mastery. Maybe in a week or two I’ll try again. Maybe it’ll come out better, but I wouldn’t count on it. Otoh, if I need to write a scene involving bread-making, I’ll likely get that right. Nothing’s really wasted.
So how is bread-making like a price promotion? Same principles apply. As of today, there’s a Countdown deal running on The Long Look. I dropped the price to .99c until Wednesday. A separate Countdown Deal starts for the second book in the series, Black Kath’s Daughter, on Tuesday. I had intended the deals to be available everywhere, only that’s not how these things work, as a correspondent in Australia brought to my attention. US and UK only. So after the deals run (ending Sunday for BKD) I’ll do a manual price adjustment for the next week so anyone else can take advantage. Slight whoops, and could have been prevented if I’d paid better attention.
Just as I could have gotten a better rise in the bread if I’d been more careful in the second proof.
This is now the cover to The Long Look, first in The Laws of Power series. Those following the series might recall that the first cover was a bit different. It used the same artwork as the original Five Star hardcover which I still like, but subsequent books in the series went in a different direction by necessity, making the first book appear less and less like it belonged with the others. Which it does, even if there is a 500 year disconnect between the first and second. Thus the change. It also connects nicely with The Collected Tymon the Black, so that’s a plus.
The cover for the eventual release of The Seventh Law of Power should coordinate with the first three. So that, you know, it does sort of look like a series.
A few years ago I wrote a couple of stories about a fictional University attended by mythical creatures, monsters, and the occasional human. I thought they were fun. Other people whose opinion I respected thought I could certainly sell them but they were too different from what I was writing at the time (there is a strong element of the romantic) and best not put them out under my own name. I listened. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I did. Since I was adverse to shopping them around under a pseudonym, I just put them on Azon myself…under a pseudonym. There they rested until someone who knows my work outed me as the author.
I’m not upset about it. Rather the opposite. I’m glad the secret’s out because I don’t think I did right by them. Both were available as short reads and I have since de-listed them. My plan is to re-list them with a better cover, revised text, and together as a two-fer, under my own name this time. Tales of Bergstryker U, or something of the sort. Maybe I’ll even continue the series. You know, in my abundant free time.
I’m also pondering the future of this blog I’ve been doing since my Livejournal days. I said earlier that the blog will continue and I stand by that, but in planning revisions to this web site I’ve been considering a slight change in emphasis, which might entail moving the blog to an occasional subject of the Newsletter while the web site shifts to other duties. Still considering, but if ya’ll have an opinion I’d love to hear it.
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Richard Parks 