Any Pseudonym: Blog

Just a quick note. As is obvious, I am a slow writer, but I do actually have a good reason why I've been slower than normal the past few years.
I have had two... not strokes, but I can't remember what it's actually called. TIA or TIE, I think. Mini-strokes, basically. Still alive and kicking, but they seriously messed with my ability to type. Anyway, the point is, slowed down due to medical reasons. Not looking for more medical advice or condolences. It's just what it is.
Also posting a new story, "After the Monsters". It started as a desire to write a schlocky B-movie story, then evolved from there. Got kinda long, too (400+ KB file size for a pure text file)

Next chapter of the omake/alternate series has been uploaded and should show up online soon!

- The next omake chapter after this one has over 5500 words written already.
- The chapter after that is one that lost a few pages when my files got corrupted a while back (and still hasn't been completely rebuilt), so it's pretty short right now.
- Then the next one has over 10K words already.
- And the one after that has over 7500 words.
- And there are two other chapters that a little bit written but are really more concept than fleshed out, as well as vague plans for other chapters/characters.

I'm not giving chapter numbers because there's at least one floating chapter that can fit in almost anywhere, so when it's done, it will alter any chapter numbering I might have previously given.

(For reference, today's chapter has roughly a 12K word count, while the most recent main timeline chapter -- Book 2, Chapter 6 -- has ~34K words.)

I am not ignoring the main series, but that one requires actual thought and planning, so it goes more slowly.
At this point, I've definitely decided to split chapters again, so Chapter Seven will be set entirely in Texas, Eight will be in DC and Nine will be in Europe. (I kept coming up with things that needed to be covered or dealt with before Frank's next trip/meetings... and things that would just be fun to include.)

The good news is that I've been writing regularly, two to four days a week for the past month, with results varying from one to three or four pages a day. (With at least two different types of backups made for each file daily.)

The other good news is that the next omake chapter is reasonably close to completion. It's not a long chapter, but I only have one or two more scenes to write.

The bad news is that Chapter Seven is becoming too large. It's already over 32,000 words and I still have significant sections left to write. I might have to split it into one or more chapters. Again. (Seven and Eight, as currently laid out, were originally supposed to be a single chapter.) And the more I think about it, the more likely another chapter split becomes. At this rate, I'm never going to get them to Europe.

An anonymous (no reply) email pointed out that I've overlooked a category of characters -- comic strips, like Modesty Blaise or Li'l Abner. Some would fit in perfectly (esp ones like Modesty Blaise), and I am ashamed to have never even considered them. So, thank you anonymous! At this point, they might mainly show in the omake series.

Way back when, I wrote a humorous "omake" for Life With Alpha that broke from the main story into a parallel universe, where 'real' fictional women started coming through his fake dimensional portals. I just submitted the first two chapters in a sequel story to that omake.

First, calling this a sequel is a bit misleading. Most sequels tend to have things like plots, while this is just a collection of ideas that have been fleshed out a little.

I wrote the original short story because I had ideas I wanted to write which could not fit in the main Alpha story for multiple reasons. A while after I wrote it, I decided on the mysterious cause behind the arriving fictional characters -- I don't intend to reveal it because it would ruin the fun -- and realized that I wanted to write a little more in this alternate timeline. I don't have an end-game in mind for this tale, so just consider this a series of glimpses into the divergent world first seen in my original "Unexpected Visitors" omake.

Some of these stories will be as long as a regular Life With Alpha chapter, while some will be much shorter, perhaps consisting of only a single afternoon or incident. I don't know how many chapters/stories there will be, nor do I know how often they'll be released. (I'm slow enough with chapters for the main story as it is.) As I write this note, there are at least half a dozen stories which have been partially or completely written.

Anyway, I'm just writing these for fun. Enjoy.

First, thank you to those of you who wrote me with backup suggestions.

I've implemented some of them and am generally planning to do backups more often, both automated and manual.

Next, I've rebuilt maybe 70% of what I've lost so far. I think there are three main sections I haven't rewritten yet: one is 2/3 rebuilt as of today, one I haven't had time to rewrite and one I just haven't been able to remember. I know I did something with a specific character, but can't remember exactly what or where. I'm still hopeful that it will come back to me at some point in editing.

If the sizes of the corrupted files stayed the same after the system crash, then I lost 34kb of text, which is about the size of Rei's introductory chapter.

I don't think I'm going to have much time to write this week, but theoretically next week should be more open.

AP