aroslav: Blog

It's like this every time I get ready to travel. I'm ready to hitch up the fifth wheel and pull out, except I'm nowhere near ready! Nothing is packed away. The laundry isn't done. There are dirty dishes in the sink. The table top hasn't been seen in two months. My stock of books is in the middle of the unvacuumed floor. I haven't taken down my banner or sun screen. I need to empty the tanks. Something crawled into the storage space and died. And it's headed toward 85 degrees today so I need to do it all in the sun.

All so I can leave Quartzsite AZ and head north to Worley ID on Tuesday. The maps say its 1200 miles and 24 hours, so I figure I should be able to make it at my typical rate of travel in fifteen days. If you think you're along that route (Laughlin, Las Vegas, Ely, Twin Falls, Boise, Lewiston, Moscow) and want to get together for a drink or dinner, ping me.

In the meantime… my Advance Release patrons are finishing Double Take Book 1 today and will start Book 2 next Sunday. The Sausage Grinders-those brave souls who would rather read with all the errors than wait for the editors to get a whack at it-are getting a chapter a day this month of Book 3!

But not to be outdone, my alter ego, Wayzgoose, is uploading Chapter 1 of Wild Woods for posting here on SOL on Friday this week. It will post weekly for fourteen weeks. And since he's a glutton for punishment, he'll start posting Municipal Blondes on SOL on the 27th. That's the sequel to For Blood or Money, so if you thought that was the end of the story, you've got another one coming!

So, once again, as aroslav and Wayzgoose, I'll have three stories posting simultaneously for the next three months. And I only have 1200 miles to drive.

I suppose that if I'm ever going to get out of here, I'd better do the dishes.

I should have had the presence of mind not to post an important announcement on my Patreon page on April Fool's Day. The first thing I got back was an email saying, "You're kidding, right?" The second thing I should have had the presence of mind to think of was to include the announcement in my regular weekly blog post here.

That should tell you that my mind is simply not present but I've often been told I'm not all here.

So, here's the big whoopty-doo. During the month of April-and as long as I can maintain it afterward-I am posting for my Sausage Grinder patrons a chapter a day of Double Take Book 3.

A chapter. Every day.

'Wait a minute,' you might say. 'What happened to the rest of book 1 and book 2?'

Yeah. They get them all. And, no, it doesn't affect the completely free posting of the entire story here on SOL for as far as the eye can see. I've written enough of this story already to get us all the way to 2020 without a break. I continue to be committed to providing completely free access to just about everything I write, both under the aroslav/Devon Layne moniker and under the Wayzgoose/Nathan Everett identity. It's my Sausage Grinder patrons who make it possible for me to continue focusing on writing the stories that you get to enjoy here and I want to thank them in every forum.

Let me explain.

My Sausage Grinder community comprises enthusiastic fans who would rather read the copy before it's even been edited and cleaned up than wait for it to be released here on SOL. They get that rare privilege (or burden), usually reserved for my editors, by subscribing for $10/month at https://www.patreon.com/join/aroslav. Sometimes I even go back and change things that appear chapters earlier in order to make something they're about to read work. They live with it. One patron wrote to me recently to mention that something I posted really needed to be proofread. Yep. It does. My Sausage Grinder Community watches the raw words being ground up and stuffed in the casings of the story.

And because they are generous in contributing, I don't try to find other sources of income to support my writing. Being on a fixed income myself, I fully understand the desire to read stuff for free. I could never afford to buy all the stories I read here on SOL. I want to thank the authors who post here as well as all the people who support them and me.

So, as a result, my Sausage Grinders already read the final chapter of Book 2 last Sunday in my normal weekly posting. But since April is Camp NaNoWriMo month, I decided to up my game and pump out a chapter every day all month long and until Book 3 is finished. Today, I posted Chapter 105 of the ongoing saga.

New patrons who join, by the way, get access to everything in the series and to other stories I haven't published at all!

It might have been April 1st when I made the announcement, but it was no April Fool's joke. I'm just a little not present.

Another sign of how not present I am is that I thought I posted this blog last Wednesday. It was still sitting in my drafts folder.

Just a quick note to remind you all that a week from tomorrow, on April 15, I'll be hitching my fifth wheel and wandering north. It might get a little crazy as I wander in and out of areas where I can get an Internet connection. So, if you happen to pass a fifth wheel pulled to the side of the road someplace in the Great Basin, there's a chance it will be me, hurriedly writing down what my characters have said while we were traveling along the lonely road.

I suppose I could have left the post at that. But no, I'm a writer. I'll get to the point eventually.

First of all, I'm happy to see readers leave the queue for reading Double Take. No, I'm not happy but I'm glad. In a way. The thing is that if a story isn't doing it for you, you should find something else. There are 43,774 stories on SOL according to the little counter in the upper left corner of the home page. And time is short. We should spend our time reading things that give us pleasure, inspiration, and purpose. If a story doesn't do it for you, choose a different story. I am happy for you.

Second, it's tax time. In January, I thought this year will be different. This year I'll file my taxes early instead of getting yet another extension. Gotta do it. Gotta do it. All my working life I paid the government. Now they pay me. And I pay them for paying me. What was mine in the first place. Nonetheless, I have to say I'm glad for the socialist policies that established social security for old farts like me. I would have to die sooner if not for that. I'll spend this afternoon figuring the stuff out and rendering unto IRS what belongs to IRS.

Third, coincidental with the IRS deadline is the day that I pick up stakes and head north from Quartzsite, AZ. I expect to take about two weeks and plan to pass through Laughlin, Las Vegas, The Great Basin, Ely, and Jackpot, Nevada. Through Idaho, I'll pass through Twin Falls, Boise, Nampa, Lewiston, Moscow, and home to Worley. Of course, if I'm feeling adventurous, I might just strike up US 93 through Idaho and wander around in the mountains a while and through a corner of Montana, but that remains to be seen. Time is short and snow is deep.

Finally, time is also short for Wayzgoose to start posting his next two novels. The first will be Wild Woods, the sequel to City Limits, posted last year. Expect it about the third week of April. All things holding together well, you can expect Municipal Blondes to start posting about the end of the month or first of May. That's the sequel to For Blood or Money. If you want a story with a nice happy ending, tied up in a bow, with plenty of sex, give Wayzgoose a pass. That's why the alter ego aroslav exists. Not every Wayzgoose story ends with a downer, death, or divorce, but the idea of happily ever after isn't in his vocabulary. Don't read his stories. Time is short.

If you are a literary critic, I encourage you to buy the book and review it on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Goodreads, LibraryThing, or in your blog. Your reviews are valuable! That includes reviews left here on SOL. When I see a story has a review, that is what I read first rather than the story itself. Help other readers!

I want to thank all those who are continuing to join my Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/join/aroslav. These folks see everything I write under both names at least a week and sometimes months before it is released anywhere else. Hint: my Sausage Grinder community ($10/mo) received the last chapters of Double Take Book 2 this morning! My editors haven't even finished looking at that yet!

Okay. Accounting beckons! have a great Feast of Fools and I'll be around.

For being retired and having no set schedule, the week was exhausting. I'm writing this on Sunday morning while trying to decide if it's worth it to go to California for groceries or if I should just make do with what's at our little local grocery. Or if I can put it off another day or two. Probably.

I wrote 43,000 words this week. That's five chapters of Double Take and ten chapters (they're a little shorter) of Wayzgoose's Municipal Blondes. I got into rewriting Municipal Blondes a couple of weeks ago when For Blood or Money closed on my Advance Readers' site. Very few people knew that I wrote a sequel to For Blood or Money back in 2006, right after I finished FBOM. Even fewer people know there's a sequel to Municipal Blondes called Stocks and Bondage. BTW, the original title of FBOM was supposed to be Security and Exchange but people kept thinking it was a book about Microsoft email servers.

So, when I dug out the old first draft of Municipal Blondes, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was pretty damned good. My writing style has improved significantly in the past fifteen years. I think that showed in FBOM as well. But I should have finished this book and published it back in 2008 when FBOM originally came out.

Especially, now that the comments have been coming in on the end of FBOM here on SOL. And they're running about even between people who love it and people who hate it. Here's a selection of comments and email I've (Wayzgoose) received.

"What an extraordinary story! Thanks."
"Well, fuck!"
"Wow! Best ending--ever."
"AAAhhhhhhh I do hate unhappy endings. Oh well a very good story just the same."
"Magnificent story. The ending suits the tale."
"Too bad you seem to prefer unhappy endings to your stories."
"A great ending. More please."
"The ending was very disappointing. I'm not just talking about the unhappy ending, but all the loose ends. 1) The unsolved code 2) No letter to Riley explaining his decision 3) Nothing for Billie 4) Maizie will eat his dead face when he's not alive to feed her. After the Gutenberg Rubric, this story was a major disappointment. But thanks for writing."

Of course, of all the comments and email, the one I fixated on was the last one, not because it was negative but because it itemized the problems. That really spoke to me. It got me thinking about the nature of death and what it does to us. Well, it kills us, I guess. But I don't know of anyone who was truly prepared to die. No one has all the loose ends of life tied up in a neat package with every string resolved. Every time I think about this, I think of all the things I need to get put in order in my life before I go traipsing around the world next fall.

Does someone have the password for my computer? Does anyone know who to contact? Will I disappear from my story sites and leave a hole that goes unfilled like an Indiana pothole? What happens to royalties and patronage? Heck! I should clean my refrigerator!

Dag's life is not tidily wrapped up. It simply ends. It is no longer his concern. It leaves unanswered questions. It is left to those who survive to write the next chapter. One more comment I received:

"Thank you for the great story ending, it took me a bit and I had to re-read the last chapter to understand it… Any story that makes you pause and do some own self thinking about one's life choices is a good story. Your story is a great story! It made me just sit and think, as I'm dating a girl right now. Have I made my feelings toward her as known as I want them to be? So, I had a sit down and chat with her."

And the next chapter is what I wrote back in 2006, with a few updates and some improved storytelling and grammar. I plan to release it here on SOL next month, probably in parallel with Wild Woods, the sequel to City Limits. In fact, I'm planning a coincidental commercial release in June.

I've been slow in responding to email and comments this week because of the amount of time I'm writing but I'll try to get answers out this week. If I miss you, my sincere apologies. Your comments, email, and votes are greatly appreciated.

Let me reaffirm to you that I write stories with happy endings. Under the name of aroslav/Devon Layne. I write serious commercial fiction under the name of Wayzgoose/Nathan Everett. If it's happy endings you want, stick with aroslav.

I continue to write at a pace exceeding 35,000 words a week. That sentence includes both the old (I) and the new (35,000 words). I have very little life other than that. I went to a pizza lunch meeting for the resort on Wednesday, did a 100-mile tour to the Blythe Intaglios Friday, had a birthday breakfast with folks from the resort on Saturday. And I napped. Other than that, I wrote.

But I thought I'd update you as to where those words were going. You can read about the mundane things and my deep philosophy on my First Exit Blog at http://firstexit0.blogspot.com/2019/03/happy-st-patricks-day.html if you are interested in that.

1) Wild Woods (Wayzgoose) went to proofreaders last week and one has already returned over 100 typos. I can't say enough how much I appreciate volunteer editors and proofreaders! We are still on track to begin posting Wild Woods on SOL April 26 with general release to the public on June 23. My next task is to design a cover.

2) Double Take is running fast in all venues. Chapter 23, the beginning of Part III: Perambulation, posted this week and we are well underway. There is a total of 47 chapters in Book 1. Since Amazon banned it, the Kindle eBook is available only by dropping $3.50 to me at www.paypal.me/aroslav with your email address for delivery. In the meantime, I've begun funneling the completed chapters of Part VIII: Transliteration (the last part of book 2) to my editors and I've begun outlining Part IX. That will begin Book 3. I expect no delay between posting Book 1 and Book 2 with Book 2 beginning here on SOL June 1. We're tracking.

3) I just started rewriting an old manuscript for Wayzgoose, the sequel to For Blood or Money, titled Municipal Blondes. I'm excited about this story. I wrote it right after the first draft of FBOM back in 2006. The story holds together pretty well with only minor storyline edits required. The writing, I'm improving significantly. I won't be waiting for Wild Woods to end before I start posting Municipal Blondes. It is a shorter novel (60,000 words) and will likely start posting around the first of May. It's never been released before and may be available at the same time as Wild Woods in June.

4) Sitting outside having a martini and a cigar (someone has to do the hard work) as I contemplate what story to begin working on next. I usually have two in writing at a time and want to be working on a new story by June. Possibilities include rewriting The Props Master 2: A Touch of Magic and getting it ready to read or finally launching into the Swarm story I've been promising myself and others for a couple of years. Of course, any of half a dozen other stories that I have on the back burner (huge stove) could suddenly demand my attention.

So, there you have what I'm working on as I look at maps and plot my vagabond journey around the world in in October. If you're a fan from New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, India, Southern Europe, or the UK and would like me to include a visit on my schedule, let me know. At the moment those are merely the proposed destinations. Convince me I should include someplace else. I'm easy.

And don't forget to vote! The Clitorides Awards are now being decided. For the first time in several years, I don't have a story nominated, but several of my favorites are. Get out there and vote for your favorites. Authors depend on you!