Once again I’ve fallen quiet on the social front but the clack of the keyboard remains a steady rhythm in my house. So loud, it almost drowns out the Bitminer operation.
Almost.
Turns out, if you want to do more than break even on a miner, you have to purchase an expensive little toaster cooled by the equivalent of a helicopter rotor. A precious little thing, screaming like a hellion as it teeters on the verge of melting its guts into a crispy puddle.
None of this is really my concern, nor distracting from the writing. My role is occasional network admin for my wife’s new hobby. But it struck me how timely this new development was.
First, in order to break even on this writing thing, you need a bigger investment as well. Thankfully not another metal Hellraiser box of heat and fury but an investment in words. You need more than one book (for fiction at least. Non-fiction is a whole different beast.) As such, all of my time has been going into upgrading my library and not chatting up the universal call of “I’m doing it!”
Second, I’m currently working on a short story for a near-future, near-earth space anthology. The main character hails from a mining colony. Not of the “bit” variety but of the honest to God, hands in the dirt type. And not just any colony but the first one established on the asteroid, Amun.
“One Lake, Three Hills” tells this first generation “spacer’s” (nod, Mr. Asimov) story and how after leaving the far-flung orbit of his home, he struggles to pursue his trade as a Facilities Manager. Right around 10k words, I’m putting the final touches on the first draft today. I’ve got until May, but I wanted to get a solid start and leave time for critique and feedback.
This one is a bit of a stretch for me. I’ve struggled with what to label my writing but as I’ve mentioned in the past, I always veer to some degree toward fantasy and rarely maintain the rigid, technical course required for hard sci-fi.
At the same time, I’m running my own cooling fans as I simultaneously hash out the words for my two main projects: Forge of the Jadugar and Crimson Son 2 (a decent title is on order).
Forge of the Jadugar is complete. I need one more pre-editor pass, and a nice block of uninterrupted time in which to do it. This story exploded well beyond my original intent, from one book to three, and I’m struggling with reigning it in and watching the sales ranks plummet while I complete the full trilogy. My marketing plan has always been to go full bore once all three books are available but it’s hard to watch it sit idle.
Next, Crimson Son 2 is still in the initial stages. I’m at roughly 17,000 words for the first draft. I haven’t set a solid release date but I’m hoping it happens before the end of the year.
Oh, and the Crimson Son audiobook is a wrap. We’re just waiting on Amazon’s approval so keep an eye on this space for more details.
That’s it for the update. I’m headed back to the mines. No canaries here – they’re not necessary ’cause if the vacuum of space doesn’t pop their little lungs the screeching of the miners will surely drive them insane.
Categories: Author News
RUSS LINTON 
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