I finished the cover to To Touch the Stars, I'll post it later.
Jory finished proofing TTTS despite his fender bender, he gave it a thumbs up. Unfortunately Thomas had a mishap so had to start over. I've dangled it out to a few of the other betas with a mixed reply. :)
Oh, don't hold your breath that the book will be out this month. I wish, but I know the betas need time, and I know Rea will need 2 weeks, I'll need a day or 2 to go over what she sent back, and Goodlife will need 7-10 days on top of that. My revised schedule is mid November if I am lucky. Hopefully sooner. I had hoped to get this done back in August. I seriously underestimated the summer heat. It made it very difficult to write. (Okay, yes that's an excuse)
Here is some eye candy, I also finished my first Thundercat project.
I copied the following straight from my deviantart page: (cause I'm lazy)
Obviously kudos go to Rawart and Dariofish for the base models. Also Stonemason for the awesome background and car pile, as well as Dreamlight for putting them together. The clothes and weapons are all over the place, too numerous to list here. I remember complicated eve, bonesmasher, magus, dragon master, mos invasion, magus, slicer, voyager, war hammer, war dog, war vixen, urban paladin, future wildness, and others off the top of my head.
I blended stuff from the various shows and comics with my own ideas. I also threw in a couple of my own ideas for cats too.
This is my interpretation of the cats in my universe. In my universe they are a unit of neocats, genetically engineered feline soldiers who fight in the 1st AI war.
From left to right:
Wilykit with the RPG (wildcat)
Pumyra behind her. (puma)
Bobcat kneeling in the foreground there
Behind Pumyra is Leopora (snow leopard)
Corporal Bengali with his hammer.
Sergeant Panthro in the deep background
In front of him is Snarfer (red, yellow, and white neo domestic cat with harness)
Beside Panthro is Cheetahra
Ocelo with the 2 knives and shades in the foreground (ocelot)
Lieutenant Lion-O in the center of course
Snarfette washing a paw in front
Lynxo (Canadian Lynx) with cybernetic eyes
Slightly behind and to the right of Lion-O is Wilycat. He liked assassin games too much.
General Claudus with the ax
An irradiated and slowly dying Master Sergeant Jaga with the staff
Snarf looking on
Sergeant Grune with the mace looking like a mountain
Jaguara with the rifle
Serv, also with a rifle in the foreground. (serval)
Caspiana (tiger) with the shoulder pauldrons beside Jaguara
Behind her is Lieutenant JG Tygra
The white neolioness with the bow is Corporal Naginata
Behind her is Panthera
and to Naginata's right is Lieutenant Colonel Tygus standing at ease.
They were dressed and posed in Daz 3D, rendered in Cinema 4D. I may do individual or smaller group shots at a later date. (count on it) Oh, I did the fur in post in both Gimp and Jasco's photoshop. (yes I'm not that great at it, and my new graphics tablet didn't work out as planned)
Okay, so maybe I adlibbed a bit up there. :)
In other news: I have stuck my toe a bit more into Ghosts of the Past. Enough to bump the page count up to 94 pages and more than half of that are still notes. (1 page of notes usually translates into 1/2 a chapter) I still have a lot of work ahead of me however. Not only research, but also going over my new notes and revising the manuscript, (the plot needs updating. I wrote it back around Fools Gold so it needs a thorough update) plus getting reacquainted with some 'old friends' I haven't written about in a while will take time. Then there is Darion's hyper tables, plus the notes on aliens and ship specs... I am hoping I'll get it done by mid November. Hoping. Ha! Keep your fingers crossed.
how do you pick beta readers?
ReplyDeleteSome were recommended, like Gord, Tim, and Minion Mike. Others came to me cold, either here in the blog or through an email with qualifications and an interest.
DeleteThe role has evolved a bit, the betas are supposed to be more focused on continuity issues over grammar/spelling. I was running the manuscript past each in turn, making corrections, then passing it on... but now I shoot it to a couple people and get feedback, then make corrections and shoot it to the next group. I try to give each at least 2 weeks to do the reading and get back to me. A short "It's good" Doesn't help. I need feedback.
Mainly an interest in the task and understanding they are doing it to get a peek at the pipeline, supporting material, cover art design, and input on story plot is what I'm looking for. That and speed. I can't hold a book up for months on 1 persons anticipated input anymore. Some people have interests in only specific stories too.
I usually test someone out with a short story after they email me and talk to me for a while so I can get to know them. Since this is my job, (income) I don't want someone taking my work and then passing it on to the pirates thank you. (Eden Project and the 13 degrees ones were favorites for a while)
Progress report: Jory finished TTTS and I passed it to Poon and Mike. I am up to 111 pages for GP, but some of that is back matter and the short story "Lewis and Clarke." I am actually working on that story first to get me back into the universe.
Oh, and I've been playing with my Thundercats a bit. Being a beta gets you the first look there too. :) I'm trying to resist the urge to write that story. It's hard though. That and AI war... I am so wanting to write that too. :)
Hey, i might give a its good reply sometimes....
DeleteI was actually just coming to dig around for an email to contact you on this very subject. I'm a little OCD and lot addicted to the written word, I love your work but the proofing gives me nosebleeds. I've done beta reads for years, various authors and netgalleys, but recently I had the chance to do proofing for a general fiction indy author that was willing to take a chance on me. It was a ton of fun, and they were pretty happy with the results, and only being charged...well, a fraction of what I've seen others charging, even independents. Apparently getting a 60 thousand word book back to him in 48 hours was unexpected. I can do 2 or 3 hundred pages a day, maximum turn around of under a week even for one of your lovely milspec bricks, maybe a little longer if it's an intensive job like the first bootstrap colony book.
ReplyDeleteI'd love a chance to do a test run, if you'd be interested. I'm not a pro, like I said, just a slightly OCD geek with a lot of time on his hands at home with a 2 year old. I like Indy authors, and indy publishing, just trying to find a niche that's useful to authors i enjoy and brings in a little income for a useful skill.
I'm reachable at syninthecity@gmail.com if you'd be interested in chatting.