The Announcement of Announcements (900 Words) (Patreon)

I have often remarked that I have one talent. Which is the ability to write a lot.

Not write well, not necessarily, but a lot. I am, after all, a young author on the long, winding road with lots of spiky bits and someone throwing mud balls at you...of writing. You can see that in Volume 1. I have often said that Volume 1 has many good parts that surprise me upon re-read. But 8 million words later, I can do better.

So I will. I plan to re-write Volume 1 once Volume 8 ends. I may take off 1-2 updates to devote to rewriting and I’ll probably stream it since it’s boring. Not all of Volume 1; just the first half or even third.

That’s a 2022 goal, which may make me finally feel good enough to release Volume 1 as a physical book and show it around. Early next year, rewrites…but it depends on Volume 8 ending, and we will go at least into January to get it done. Maybe even February, and I will certainly take a long break after I finish it.

I’m getting tired after a year of writing. I take more breaks and I’m slightly healthier in how I treat my writing lifestyle, but then again, I did write a comic book chapter in secret and you didn’t know about it. The Last Tide may well come out this month, and I hope you like it.

So that’s why you know I write a lot. So much, in fact, that I wrote a book and you didn’t know about it.

That’s right. You thought this was some kind of announcement about mundane Volume 1 rewrites? Think again. I wrote a book, and these last two days were for me to edit it and see how much is left.

You may ask how. The answer is in my ‘week off per month’, sometimes it was not a week off, it was me writing more words. I’d like to claim I did it all in these two days, but that would be a complete lie.

This has been a secret project in the works for a long time. In fact, it is still in the works and the revisions are ongoing, as are acquiring rights to use certain song lyrics in the book.

Do you know why I need song lyric permissions? Can you guess, now? It’s something I think some readers have noticed. A glaring omission. A rare underdeveloped through line, especially now. So, I am pleased, very pleased, and relieved to announce this:

Gravesong, Book One of the Singer of Terandria Series is coming out in 2022 as a physical book, e-book, and audiobook. You will get to read a semi-revised version without lyrics on Patreon…on New Year’s.

…Please clap.

In all seriousness, though, this is a book that is meant to let new readers enter The Wandering Inn via Cara’s life. You will get to know the story behind how the [Pop Star] became the Singer of Terandria. Mind you, this is Book One, but it is very relevant to now, and I was sweating to get it done.

Sadly, audio rights for song lyrics takes forever, but I am willing to forgo waiting for publication to give it only to Patreons and then remove that and post it on Kindle Unlimited or something.

What is the point? The point is this: I plan on taking 2 weeks off for the New Year. That’s my regular time off, but as Volume 8 is not done, I will devote one week to revision--then give you the 2nd Draft of Gravesong.

After that, it will go back to Diana Gill, who has been helping me edit Gravesong, and we’ll keep working on it and publish it sometime in the summer with audio rights, audiobook, and all and sundry set up. But you get to read a less-than-perfect version early.

So…yay? I’m very tired. I’ve known about this for a long time, so I can’t tell how hyped you are. I can say that it’s at least 135,000 words so far and likely to maybe pass 140-150k after more revisions. It’s um.

You know what it has? Cover art. Which I will not show you because I want to keep that for the official, Public announcement. But I will show you something amazing. And that’s Bobo Plushie’s promo-poster, which I hope to sell as an actual poster for Gravesong’s release.

Here it is. And yes, it’s got spoilers…of a sort! What does it mean? If you’ve been up-to-date on the hints in the story, you can guess who a lot of these people are.

Anyways, give Plushie lots of praise. They’re on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Bobo_Snofo and while I don’t Tweet, I encourage anyone to give the a…wait.

…I’m not sharing the Gravesong announcement just yet. So uh…just like every tweet? This is ‘secret’ from public readers, and I fully expect everyone of you to keep the vow of silence. I have complete, 204% confidence that this will remain a secret for months, possibly half a year if need be. 

...We'll probably announce it to the Public, maybe on Christmas, but they'll never get the early version of the book.

I’m rambling, so I’ll end it here. Gravesong.

I write books now. Pssh, wasn’t even that hard.

(Yes it was.)

Look forwards to it with the new year! Thanks for reading and making it possible for me to write in secret!

--pirateaba