I didn’t forget about you. I was busy, enjoying the most enduring traditions of the season in the warm embrace of kith and kin. Since you had to await the completion of my holiday festivities, your present is a double dose of Subcommandante Mumbles.
I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as I did, and best wishes for the new year. It certainly has had an exciting start.
It’s strange to think that the Veil War started almost fifteen years ago. Any time a decade and a half goes by, you expect to see some change. But it feels like the pace of change is accelerating, and the world has moved on from those antediluvian times of 2011. Of less world-historical importance, a lot has changed for me, too.
Why exactly did more than a decade pass without any new stories about Lewis and goblins, or Mumbles and dinosaur Nazis? Lots of reasons, and fairly mundane ones really. There were no earthquakes, no terrible floods.
When I wrote the Veil War I had three kids. Now I have seven. Commutes got longer and at times more frequent. I got promoted, I got laid off. More than once for both. When COVID finally allowed me to work remotely all the time, I took the family on a year and half journey across the country in a camper. A year and half ago we bought a hundred acres of land in the country.
Now that the homestead is mostly cleared of the previous owner’s detritus, and chicken coops built, and kitchen remodeled – we’re saving to get some heavy equipment to start Phase II. My commute is a five second walk to my office and for the first time in a long time, I have something that resembles free time.
So that’s what motivated me to pick up Mumbles’ story once again. I had mostly finished part two years ago, it didn’t take long to complete it. Committing to finish episode three seemed a reasonable – and more to the point – an achievable goal. So that’s what I’ll do for now.
As for the Veil War, I’ve never not wanted to finish it. I’ve thought a lot about it over the years. It’s mapped out, I’ve seen what Lewis and the Prince will do over the next few years. I just need to write it down. And maybe now I’ll have the time to do that. But no promises, yet.
Seeing as I never made much money off selling Episode 1 of the story, I’ve re-published all the original Mumbles posts so you can read them here. You can scroll down to the bottom of the page and find a category archive for Subcommandante Mumbles, or click here and you can find all the Mumbles goodness you can have, even if it’s not all that you want.
I ran outta gas. I had a flat tire. I didn’t have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from outta town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts. It wasn’t my fault!
So I just barely managed to skate a new post in before a full decade had elapsed.
This is, I suppose, both good and bad.
Episode 2 of the Subcommandante Mumbles epic is complete. I’ll be serial posting this and you can be assured that you’ll get at least one whole new story. My aspirational but, I think, completely reasonable goal is to write a new chunk of Episode 3 every time I post a chunk of Episode 2. And I’ve got a four chunk head start. So barring a plague of locusts you will get a second whole new story.
One bonus point to the reader who can identify the movie this post’s title came from.
I’ve been seriously busy of late, with work and family of course – but I have not been neglecting the Veil War. That work has not been visible here, alas for you, but it is happening.
So what has been happening?
The story of Captain Lewis and his merry men is divided into three parts. Part one, up to the meeting with the crusaders, has been thoroughly re-written with much new material and additional points of view. Part two, the journey across Saudi Arabia, has been less rewritten so much as thoroughly edited, though there is some new material here as well. Part three, the climactic battle and departure from the Middle East, is in the process of editing and a bit of trimming, and is seeing less changes than the earlier two sections.
I am also nearly done with writing the other major part of the story – the tale of the 1st Regiment, Virginia Provisional Militia as they fight the invading Goblin hordes down the Shenandoah Valley. An earlier version of this I ended up discarding almost entirely, starting from scratch this last summer. This story is about half as long as Lewis’ tale, though the characters in it will feature prominently in the next couple books.
The last items on my checklist are to either write or complete several small scenes that illuminate various important aspects of the world of the Veil War that are necessarily beyond the view of the characters in the two main stories. One is already posted here – Curses. One has ended up being of nearly novella length, the others are all comfortably in the short story range for size.
So what will you, the long-suffering reader, see here in the near future?
I’m not sure.
However, my thinking at this point is to post the short stories and novella as I finish them. I may post the new versions of the chapters that are already here, or I may just send them to eager beta-testers. I’m still undecided about whether to post the Virginia story, but I may just do that anyway.
What you will see shortly, though, is a series of threads relating to events in the next book, or even the one after that. I have questions that I’m working my way through, and seeing as your collective help was just, well, helpful in the past – how can I not ask for more?
As the sound of exploding servers recedes into the distance, I am switching over to writing mode.
Stay tuned…
Our long, national nightmare is over. The job is dead, long live the job – I have left the land of four hour daily commutes and will soon enter the sunlit uplands of more-or-less reasonable commutes and bounteous telecommuting.
What does this mean to me, you ask? Aside from the everyday sort of distant and attenuated joy one feels at good news for someone they don’t really know, there is this: The Veil War, which has languished most of this last year, will resume its steady march toward completion. Upwards of twenty hours a week are about to be injected into my week, time which will in large measure be devoted to editing and expanding the Veil War.
More updates as I catch up on some sleep and begin to figure out where to begin.
After a long absence, here are some brief updates on things:
So there it is.
How was your day?
Thanks for all those who have bought Call Me Mumbles. And and even greater heaping load of thanks for those who have reviewed it.
Now ranked #42! (In science-fiction anthologies and short stories).
If you’d like to join the fun – and you should – you can buy and review the story here
::: SUBLIMINAL MARKETING :::
As of a few minutes ago, the first installment of the Subcommandante Mumbles vs. The Dinosaur Nazis saga became available for sale on Amazon. This is my first foray into the digital publishing (for cash money) business and, I must say, I am mildly excited. I’d be more excited, but my emotional spectrum runs only from mildly annoyed to mildly excited.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
For those of you that read the story, you would do me an enormous service by visiting the Amazon page for Call Me Mumbles to leave a review. And, if you enjoyed it, please consider buying a copy yourself.
OTHER IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you haven’t read it, go buy it. I guarantee you will get your dollar’s worth.
[also wik] Since the story is now available for sale, I’ve pulled it from view here at Veil War.
By way of a status report, a few items for your consideration and edification:
Informative, no? To allow you a peak behind the curtain, here is what’s afoot:
Editing on the Veil War is about 2/3 done. When it’s complete (more on that schedule in a moment) or nearly so, a couple things will happen in quick succession. Part of the novel will be offered for sale on Amazon. A kickstarter project will be launched to raise money for copyediting and artwork. Your help and support will be crucial in making this all work, and I’ll provide more details as the DAY approacheth.
The Mumbles story, which started as a joke but which you all seemed to enjoy more than I expected, will go up for sale on Amazon shortly. Strangely enough, almost certainly before Veil War and in fact – probably within a week or so. Once it is up for sale, it won’t be visible in it’s entirety here.
I’ve also written another Mumbles story, and I’ve sketched out plans for a couple more to make a full story arc. The resulting paste-up novel would end up in the ballpark of short novel length. Episodes 2 and onwards will get teasers he on the site as they go up for sale.
In addition to the Mumbles tales, I have completed three (3) whole short stories. One is in the world of the Veil, another is a ripping yarn of space opera co-written with my son, and the last is something else entirely. They are variously being polished, submitted and otherwise being prepared for you to read; more details as they become clearer.
***
The schedule for all this writing stuff is dependent on other, more important schedules. My wife and I are expecting, imminently, a new son. Once he arrives I’ll be taking time off from work, and in between helping out the wife I’ll be making a hard push to finish the edits on the Veil War, and get a few more random piles of text transformed into stories. The mere fact of not having to commute for a couple weeks should make that a reality.
So soon, there will be things to buy, and new things to read.
And just a reminder: you are all outstanding, handsome and clever people, and I am pleased to have you all as readers.
The Veil War 