The Veil War

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:

• #2 son is larger, more alert, and more mobile than he was last time I posted about him. Given that he was only hours old the first time, this should not be surprising.
• Editing on the Veil War continues. I’ve gotten some great feedback from grammar SMEs and violence SMEs, and the new version is shaping up to be a significant upgrade from version 1.0. Sadly, this is a slow process because of my work – and more to the point – commuting schedule.
• Other writing also continues. I’m finding it easier a lot of the time to do a little bit of writing on the smaller projects in the small chunks of free time I find than it is to get into the mindset needed for focused and quality editing.
• The Saga of Subcommandante Mumbles is about to have a new episode, which will also be available for purchase on Amazon. Other short stories are in various stages of completion.
• I am hopeful that the amount of time I spend on the DC metro area’s fine highways and public transit systems will precipitously drop in the near future. Any positive change in this area will speed the day that the Veil War is complete.

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.  I’m also setting up an Amazon author page, which should be visible shortly at this address: amazon.com/stephengustav.

::: SUBLIMINAL MARKETING :::

::: BUY MY STORY :::

By way of a status report, a few items for your consideration and edification:

• I’m not dead
• Writing continues to happen
• Editing continues apace

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.

No really, I just moved. Which is why Subcommandante Mumbles vs. The Dinosaur Nazis isn’t done even though there’s only only 500 words left.

But don’t worry, I didn’t suddenly keel over like the cartoonist in Quest for the Holy Grail. I’ll finish it as soon as my office is set up…

Hey! There’s a new pope! For those who are Prophecy of Saint Malachy followers, he wasn’t named Peter and doesn’t seem to have any Peter-type connections. So, we probably won’t get to see Rome in flames. At least not for that reason. In other news, the delayed bonus chapter is nearly done. I’ll probably post that tomorrow morning. But in the meantime, I have a special double-extra-plus bonus:

A new serial!

This is short story, but since posting things serially is kind of my thing, I’ll just run with that. I’ll post a short section of the story every day until it’s done, for about two weeks, starting today, in a few minutes.

Your bonus chapter is written and complete, but not edited. I hope to post it late this evening or tomorrow morning at the latest. FYI.

Also, may have a nice surprise next week.

The end is in fact near. With the decision to post chapter 36 in its entirety, the final chapter of the Veil War will post in less than a week. Does this mean that there will be nothing more to read, forever?

Not quite. There will in fact be a bonus chapter posted the week after. Material that was cut from Part I (in a series of maniacal editing binges occasioned by the harsh criticism of Ian Healy) has been revamped, polished, wrapped in a bow, set upon a velvet cushion and will be restored to a more appropriate location. To wit, right after Chapter 17. This interstitial chapter is a big one, approximately equal to two (2!) regular chapters. So there’s that.

But every ending is just a beginning somewhere else. So what else? Right now, I’m editing the entirety of the Veil War – both the parts you have seen, and that which remains unseen. Preparing it for publication. This will take some little while, given my work and commuting schedule. But in the not-too-distant future, The Veil War will leave the nest and be sent somewhere so that eventually you might buy it. At this point, I’m still wavering between the Scylla of self-publishing and the Charybdis of traditional publishing. I don’t know exactly how that will work. But I’ll keep you updated. (Hint: I’m leaning towards self-publishing, which should allow you to own your very own copy of the Veil War sooner rather than later.)

Now you may be asking, “When will I get more rollicking, exploding, profanity-filled adventures to occupy my lonely Thursdays?”

Soonish. After I finish the editing, I am technically free to immediately dive into The Veil War, Volume II (TVWVII). I will make that dive, but probably not until summer. I want to write some short stories and submit them to actual, paying venues. One is already complete, and two more are under construction. I intend to churn out a fair number of these because: money, practice, fun, money, and to clear my head a bit before returning to the Veil War. But also, and more importantly, because of a promise to my son.

The first several excuses should be fairly self-explanatory. The last one deserves some little comment. Back when I first started writing the Veil War, my son was obsessed with the idea. He woke me up an hour early every day so that we could talk about it. And he had a ton of ideas. Whole bulk-cargo ship loads of ideas. Most of which, sad to say, did not fit the Veil War’s unique and special idiom.

They weren’t bad ideas. In fact, rather the opposite. The unbridled id of an bright eight year old boy fed on steady diet of nature documentaries, violent cartoons, and a thin sprinkling of scientific knowledge can come up with some wild shit. In fact, the boy became upset the more I told him that his ideas didn’t fit the Veil War. (Son, where am I going to add a fifteen-mile long dreadnought of space with particle beam weapons that can boil oceans? Where?) So I promised him that after I finished the Veil War, we’d write stories that had room for all his ideas. In a universe not constrained by the prejudices of gun-forum habitues. I encouraged him to just cut loose. I took notes. And damn me if the result isn’t the framework for a freaking awesome Space Opera.

Galactic scale war, vast fleets, starkly unimaginable forces harnessed for the destruction of worlds. You know, the typical. But there’s more.

Some of the short stories will be set in that world. And I’ll be splitting any profits with the boy.

So, to sum up:

• One more chapter
• Bonus, double-length interstitial chapter
• Hiatus (behind the scenes editing)
• Short Stories!
• Veil War II

My thinking on short stories is that I’ll try and get each one published maybe twice. Anything that doesn’t stick for whatever reason, I’ll throw up here. Once I have a decent number, I’ll bundle them and put the result up on Amazon. Obviously, I’ll keep you posted on that front, too.