Talking to Myself
Save the date and tune in!
Hey! When is your next next?
There’s a wonderfully vague issue with trying to communicate clearly when using relative days of the week.
In my experience, people often disagree on which day is “next Friday” and which day is “this Friday.” A completely solvable problem once date numbers are added or clarity is provided, but it does lead to a common conversational dance:
“The show is next Friday!”
“Do you mean this Friday coming up or the Friday next week?”
“What?”
“Just tell me the date.”
So, in case you missed it or were otherwise lost in the semantics of this and next, I’ll be interviewed live on Facebook later this week!
Podcast on Friday
Samuel N. Harris invited me to join him for a conversation, an interview, an hour on the air as we discuss my books and my thoughts on writing.
This will be the fourth time I’ve spoken on a podcast as an invited author (although to be fair one of those times I invited myself).
I have a lot of experience with podcasts and speaking into a microphone, but until recently, it felt like I had given it up more or less for good.
The first reunion tour happened when I realized I could revive my old show as a way to promote Besnowed.
That’s a lot of winding to get to what I really want to say.
I’m a little nervous about this Friday!
It should be fun, but until we’re live I feel like I need to prepare myself for the interview—make sure I have the right words in the moment.
At the very least, I’m glad I created a landing page for Rhean!
Now, I just need to remember to mention it.
Time Has Come Today
The other big thing on my mind is how exactly I want to move forward with Rhean.
I originally thought I would sit in the query trenches for a while and attempt to get a deal with an agent. There’s a lot of prestige that seemingly comes with that—not to mention the arrogant air of validation.
However, there is also a lot of shady negativity looming in the shadows of the commercial literary industry.
The stereotypical “starving artist” often takes a bad deal, sold on the false hope of an artistic career. Margins are then smaller than even the tiny slice I see from my own sales on Amazon.
At its core, there’s a disconnect from the business sharks who view books as a product, and authors who view books as stories.
And I’m understanding more and more that the indie route allows for both in a unique way. I can retain more profits from sales, while also maintaining my own vision for the tale I want to tell.
All that to say, I’m probably going to self publish Rhean like I did my last three novels.
At the moment, I’m waiting for my dad to finish proofreading. That way I have a good excuse when all of you find more typos and errors in the first printed copies. Once he’s read through all my sloppy writing, it won’t be long until the new book is available on Amazon.
The other benefit of self publishing is that my sister’s art won’t go to waste. She made another cover for me, and it matches the style I’ve come to think of as the one that best matches my books.
I especially enjoy how the colors are a reflection of Maneus.
If you want to know why that’s such a great thematic fit, feel free to read through the rough draft on google docs:
Sidereal Times
I’ve also been stirring some thoughts on something completely different: a writing competition hosted by yours truly.
One part selfish self promotion, one part testing the waters of my own publishing platform, and the rest being a blind stab in the dark at doing something creative—I want to try putting together a compilation that I could attach to this newsletter as a way to promote other authors (and myself).
I don’t really have a theme at the moment, but I’m quickly settling into the name of Sidereal Times.
My intention falls more on the scientific definition of a day on Earth as measured by our position against the unmoving stars, but I like how it can be misinterpreted as side-real.
Regardless of individual understanding, it would also be a nice next step for Nightly Noise.
It’s been a year of me writing these every week and perhaps this is the way I can take my little publication to the next level.
We’ll see soon enough, I’m sure.
Until next time.
Cheers,
JMB