I’m having a rare day where I can focus a lot on Powys Media stuff, so figured I’d pop up here and say hello. Most of the day has been spent working on formatting The Prisoner: Miss Freedom. Sigh. Not my favorite way to spend a day. The primary file we’re using has been through so many people over the years that it’s an inconsistent mess — in many cases I’m reformatting every line on a page, and that’s after using some mad Microsoft Word skillz to whip it into shape. I’ll be a very happy camper when that book is out.
I attended the Alpha 2017 convention a few weeks back for a couple of hours, long enough to arrange for the foreword for Odysseus Wept (if you read the Final Revolution and saw a familiar face pop up near the end…well…that’s all I’m saying).
Back to today. I’ve been sitting in one of those marvelous places where I have to figure out what’s going to happen next before I can really write anything more — and I’ve been stuck there for a few weeks. Think of Odysseus Wept as three small books laced together into one big one. I’ve got pieces of all three books done but primarily I’m focusing on the first book, I’m about 80% finished with that part I suspect, but that’s where I’m blocked. I’m hoping tonight I can get past that block point. The middle section of the book is where some of the darkest things will happen (Steve Foster’s worried now…), and then the third section will tip toward happier prospects.
In the meantime, I’m not getting a whole lot of time to get the Eternity Unbound Special Edition edited. Plus, I have a draft of Black Doves sitting in my email box that I need to get to. And a website to finish up.
Yeah, I know, sounds like a lot of whining, and maybe it is. The publisher hat and editor hat are totally suffocating the writer hat, which is the one I prefer to be wearing. It was great hearing people at the convention coming over and saying how much they enjoyed the Powys books. I doubt if you folks realize this but your comments on this web site (and some occasional posts on Facebook) are the only real feedback we get anymore outside of convention appearances. The forum on the Powys Website is locked to new members (you can thank the thousands of attempts at malicious hackings for that). But your old logins (if you had one) probably still work.
Anyway, back to work. I’ll give one little hint about Odysseus Wept. At the convention, I donated the first 35 or so pages of the current draft of Odysseus Wept to the auction and someone who has posted on this site in the past was the winner. The feedback I received after he or she read that portion said: “…it’s not going to be an easy ride for our Alphans…”
Yup. That’s pretty much what I’d say, too.
Off I go…