StarFleet Carl: Blog

Chapter 21 is in the queue for Saturday. My thanks to everyone that's put something in the tip jar, it's appreciated, especially those of you getting Books One & Two, as those are actually both available for free on SOL. That's encouraging.

If you go back and read Book One on SOL, you may notice the first 24 chapters seem to have fewer errors in them. I've been working on that as well. When I have it complete, a revised copy will go up on Bookapy, which those of you who have purchased it will be able to get for free. There's not been any plot changes, just duplicate words, wrong word choices, and general grammar issues taken care of. Everyone that's been reading my books for a while knows that I did, upon (frequent) occasion in Book One, manage to get names wrong for girls.

For that one certain mooch - and you know who you are - there will be a bonus chapter posting, possibly before the end of July, depending upon reaching a certain milestone. Of course, that also means a longer wait with nothing new until Book Four begins posting on here around Thanksgiving. Sorry, I still have to sell property. (I've got a client coming in from out of state this weekend looking to buy half a dozen vacant lots in the city, so he can build on them, so I'm not chained to my desk, writing!)

Remember, End the Fighting, Destroy the bad Drugs, and Live in Peace.

How many of us remember that line, from the man in the Smoky Bear hat? Well, in this case, it's Chapter 20, and it's uploaded for Saturday.

Yes, I HAVE started writing Book Four. No, I doubt if I'll be posting any of it before Thanksgiving. Yes, when it's totally complete, it will go up for sale on Bookapy. No, I don't know when that will be. I do try to respond to all emails I get.

Book Three of Chapter 19 will get uploaded for Saturday tomorrow, with the Bookapy version (EPUB, MOBI, and PDF) all available for sale and download tomorrow. Please don't post spoilers for the book in the comments online - I will be monitoring that and have those deleted if you do.

Also, screaming, ranting, raving, and sticking pins in a voodoo doll won't help. They make may you feel better, but they won't help. For those of you who do get it and read it ... I gave VERY serious thought to ending it after Chapter 27. I decided that the angry mob that would descend upon Oklahoma at that point wasn't worth it.

According to Libre Office, which is what I'm using, A True History Book Three, with preface, is 408,766 words, two and a quarter million characters, and under standard, 14 point Times New Roman font, 966 pages long. It'll be longer than that when I add the cast of characters at the end - that's twelve pages all by itself. The completed book will go up for sale on Bookapy on July 1st.

I had someone ask what I planned on pricing it at, and I said either $4.99 or $5.99. They then asked, how can I justify charging that much for a book where most of it is already published. This was my response:

"People don't buy books on Bookapy that are available for free simply because they're in a hurry to find out how the book ends and don't want to wait two or three months. They purchase books on Bookapy as a way of saying thank you to the author for taking the time to create something that they found entertaining. If you feel that in reading my book, I have given you at least as much pleasure as eating a Domino's Pizza, (since they're $5.99 each), then buy a copy. If you don't, then don't."

I'm going to keep writing. I'm curious myself to find out what happens. I don't have a clue right now. I've started Chapter One of Book Four. I plan to start publishing it on here sometime around Thanksgiving. We're ready to buy the house, the paperwork got delayed for a month due to legal issues on the seller's end. I'm also working with several new clients still, and the housing shortage is still real in most of the country. (Good luck, New York City, you've screwed yourself!)

I've sent Chapter 90/30 off for final editing. Then I'll stick my fingers in it one last time, and that'll do it for Book Three. Just to avoid screwing things up, it will (knock on wood) go up for sale on Bookapy on July 1st. I know that's not a Saturday, but the method to my madness is, that starts the new quarter, even if it's on Thursday.

Which is good timing. We should close on the house on the 25th, so that'll begin the gutting and project time. I had several slow weeks in a row, and those have disappeared now. I've a closing this Friday, and four more home buyers lined up, including one who is an investor. As in, looking to buy an apartment complex (or two) type of investor. These take some time to get lined up, but when you're talking a commission check of $26,000 - certainly I'll get out there in the heat and humidity to make that deal go through.

I've been doing my final reads and edits of the rest of the unpublished chapters this week. Chapter 82(22) made me tear up. I was reading it, going to myself, damn, this is some emotional stuff, who's the jackass that wrote this? Oh, yeah, right ... (The Vietnam Memorial scene STILL gets me, and I wrote that more than a year ago!)

I have started - but not gotten very far - on Chapter 091(01) of Book Four. If you wonder why I'm writing the chapter numbers this way, it's because when I started this story, I had no idea it was going to go this far, or grow this large. What really ... I don't know if annoys, or scares, is the right choice ... let's go with bothers me, is how much stuff I'll casually write, and then three weeks later, sometimes even before it's published, see something about EXACTLY what I just wrote show up on the news as something that was discovered or has happened.