I'm not actually talking about living in a nudist park. This time.
I've been focused on getting City Limits ready for its public release on 23 June 2018. There is always something. My sister got her advance review copy and wrote back almost immediately that she'd started reading and there was a missing word on page one. Sheesh! She was right. That's not the only error that has been found. A reader here on SOL corrected the school name of the orphanage with a nice little lesson about masculine and feminine. So now, instead of Flor de la Día, it is correctly Flor del Día. Every correction I receive makes the release version stronger!
I love to write, either as Nathan Everett or as Devon Layne. I'm good most of the time with editing and rewriting. I'm a book designer for several different authors and love creating beautiful books. Where I fall apart is the business end of things. Getting sales and marketing going is an eternal struggle. But I'm progressing slowly.
I got my new website ready and deployed this week at http://www.nathaneverett.com. This is significant because it includes a listing of all six of my mainstream books with first chapter excerpts so people can read a bit of the story to see if it appeals to them. With luck, the release of City Limits will drive sales of some of my other books as well. There are also four short stories that you can read for free.
Accompanying that site, I've started a Patreon page for author Nathan Everett. https://www.patreon.com/NathanEverett. Originally, I planned to just have one Patreon page that served both Nathan Everett and Devon Layne. That just wasn't working. The majority of the people who read my mainstream fiction don't want to think about the fact that I write erotica, too. That's why I created two names in the first place. So, now I need to drive traffic to my new page without distracting from the old.
One thing about this is that I will be serializing some stories on my new website that will be accessible only to patrons. Those stories may or may not have a future publication elsewhere. I've been writing for over forty years and most of my manuscripts are stacked up in a box under the bench seats of my dining nook. Time to blow the dust off!
I'm also making a concerted effort to maintain weekly posts on my First Exit blog. http://firstexit0.blogspot.com. This is where I post information and pictures from my travels, thoughts about writing, and my own brand of selfish social commentary of which you've experienced a bit here on SOL.
Of course, social media is a big driver for any marketing these days. I'm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/wayzgoose and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Wayzgoose or https://www.facebook.com/Elder-Road-Books-887279807957064/. The Wayzgoose account is my daily short quips and observations with occasional quick photos, while the Elder Road account is strictly publishing. I invite you to join me at any of these social sites.
Part of preparing for my next long adventure is saving up as much of my meagre income as I can. I discovered in 2016 that I could travel internationally as cheaply as I could live in the US. I thought I might repeat an around-the-world adventure in the winter of 2018-19 but have decided I need to put more in the bank before I go. It's as cheap to travel, but it has to be paid for in advance. So I need at least half a year's expenses put aside up front.
So the new plan is to spend six to eight months after my 70th birthday next year backpacking around the world.
That means I've been looking for a cheap and warm place to spend the winter this year. I may have found it-or at least a region where I can find a place. I believe that I will spend the winter in South Texas, somewhere in the Rio Grande Valley. The area welcomes thousands of snowbirds and parking for my rig would cost no more than the site I have here in Idaho. There are interesting things to do, beautiful scenery like South Padre Island, and lots and lots of old people sitting around looking to get into mischief.
I haven't chosen an exact location yet but I'll announce it as soon as I do. If you have suggestions, please let me know!
Tomorrow: City Limits Chapter Seven: The Nut. Gee is navigating the turbulent waters of a new relationship and while dealing with his doubts he seeks comfort in the Forest. Whatever put the idea into his head that he should eat one of the poisonous nuts?