Good News--And Bad

Yep, I've got good news and I've got bad news.

Which do you want first? The bad news? Oh, all right.

Rites of Ascension III had a setback. A big one. I was plugging away at it and I was getting more and more frustrated. It looked pretty good but it felt like a shirt that's on backward: it just didn't sit right. So I went back and looked through it. And I tore out about a hundred pages. That means, yes, it's again taking longer than I expected. *Sigh*

Coincidentally, a few days later, I got a review for Blood of War: three stars. The reviewer commented he was concerned that the third book would become too religious- or too politically-based. I removed those hundred pages because it was, in fact, beoming too politically driven and that is not what the series is about. It's about exploring one man's process of growing up. The rest is chaff to make things interesting.

If you're really looking forward to Rites of Ascension III, then all I can do is apologize profusely and assure you that, setbacks notwithstanding, it's still on the go. As soon as it's done properly, I will release it. but as I said before, I won't release it unless I'm satisfied it's the story it was meant to be.

All right, that sucked. The good news then? (Try not to be too disappointed here; it's actually pretty important if you stop and think about it.)

The Amazon customer discussions are almost alive again. If you've never been there, here's some background:

For a long time, the Amazon forums were just rampant with authors and wanna-be authors all screaming, "Buy my book!" It almost killed all real discussion. The place turned into a self-promo wasteland. I never really went. I checked a couple of threads last year but I quickly got tired of "Buy my book!" so I stayed away.

I happened across a thread a couple of weeks ago and it looked interesting. I'd heard Amazon had banned self-promotion on their forums--except in one sub-forum. Frustrated about the progress on my work, I stopped in to take a break.

Okay, it's not perfect. There are a few trolls (for the uninitiated, a troll is forum speak for someone who posts comments that are negative and offensive for the sole purpose of being negative and offensive) and a few authors still post the odd self-promotional tidbit. A few of the more established authors who should know better have taken on the cause that it's their right to promote wherever and whenever they wish. *Sigh again*

But for the most part, conversation is starting to pick back up. Mostly, it's just a lot of fun, with a fair amount of silliness involved (guilty as charged; but please, if you check it out, I'm just goofing around!), There are some good threads starting up with good conversation, good ideas and good book talk. It's starting to be a decent place to get good reading recommendations.

Case in point, one poster, Angela Perry, posted a thread a little while ago, and the question she wanted answered was what did readers want in an online community. This exploded, and over the next several pages of responses, an idea for a new kind of website came out, one where the readers come first, one that, if it works, readers wil be able to use to get ideas to fill their Kindles and bookshelves from other readers.

The thread degenerated toward the end but the idea is a good one and I hope to see it happen.

Check out the forums at Amazon; they're a pretty good place to let your hair down. There are only two rules:

1) Don't self-promote. It's pointless and it angers readers who are sick of the self-promotion. That's why Amazon made it against the rules. If you're an author, self-promoting there will hinder rather than help.

2) Join in and have fun. They talk about anything and everything there.

I'll be there too when I'm on the verge on banging my head on my desk.