Welcome back to the bar. We have a lot of ground to cover, and David is impatiently waiting for some adult refreshment. We’ll enjoy that and work our way around Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt:
“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘starts with pro.’ Find a word that starts with ‘pro’ and use it any way you like in your post. Enjoy!”
If we were having a beer, you’d seem anxious to start drinking.
“I suppose you’re buying this week, Dan.”
“Why would you suppose that, David?”
“I figured you’d be in a good mood after that nice review your second book got.”
“Well, not to gloat, David, but that book has several nice reviews. I hope I don’t have to buy you a drink for each one.”
“Let’s try this again. Dan, it’s your turn to buy.”
“You guys can figure out who’s buying later. I’m going to start pouring your usual drinks unless you’ve changed your minds.”
“It is my week to pay, Cheryl, and I’ll have a Corona.”
“I’ll stay with my usual, too—a John Howell’s Special.”
“David, for the umpteenth time, you only need to call it that when Skippy is tending bar. I know what you drink and where to put the cherries.”
“I like the sound of it, Cheryl.”
“I’m sure John does, too, but you could just ask for a glass of Willet.”
“Nah, that sounds boring. Speaking of boring, Dan, are you bored now that all three books are finished?”
“Here you go guys, beer, bourbon, and stuff. And he’s not bored, David. He’s working on his next book.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because we talk about our writing projects. He has three books in the wild and is working on a fourth. Meanwhile, I’m getting ready to publish mine.”
“I am looking forward to reading your book, Cheryl. I love fantasy. But Dan… a next book? I thought you’d be working on promoting the books you already wrote.”
“For what it’s worth, David, I have to do a little bit of each.”
“Not that I’m eager to see, ‘Hey, I wrote a book’ messages all over the place, but why haven’t you been promoting them, Dan?”
“I released them in such quick succession, I didn’t want them to collide.”
“Collide?”
“The books, the blurbs, the reviews, and comments, all contain what might be considered spoilers. I wanted to give the people I knew were reading a chance to read them.”
“So, now that they’ve had six months, are you ready to promote The Evil You Choose?”
“I am, and Sally Cronin gave me just the nudge I needed with that review.”
“It’s a good book, Dan, and it doesn’t spoil anything in the first book. I’m not sure why you waited.”
“I was busy with the next book. As Damyanti said a couple weeks ago, it’s hard to do promotion and writing at the same time.”
“Is the next book coming out soon?”
“No, not until summer.”
“Then why not set it aside for a while?”
“I had to fix something.”
“Like this tab you’re running? You want another round?”
“I do, Cheryl. The book changed course midway through. I parked nine chapters on a siding and had to rearrange the rest of the train. I wanted to get that fixed before setting it aside.”
“The book changed course…? Don’t you mean you changed the book? I mean, you are the author…right?”
“Apparently not.”
“Here’s your beer, Dan. I bet I know where this is going.”
“Where’s that, Cheryl? Cuz I’m lost.”
“Sometimes the authors aren’t in charge, David. Did you have a character revolt, Dan?”
“I did, Cheryl. Has that happened to you.”
“Yes, and I’ve had to move chapters around—that’s hard—and I’ve argued with characters who wanted to be in scenes where I hadn’t planned having them.”
“You guys are making my head hurt. You’re both writing fiction. It should go wherever you want it to go.”
“David, it didn’t even work that way when I was programming and writing code.”
“Did that happen with the first three books?”
“Well, there wasn’t going to be a first book. I mean, I wasn’t planning to write Knuckleheads. And Billy was going to be an insignificant character that was mentioned in a couple chapters of The Evil You Choose.”
“I love Billy! I’m glad he argued for more. The books wouldn’t be the same without him. Wait, are you telling me the next book is part of the same story?”
“Yes and no.”
“I hate that answer, Dan. Yes or no. It can’t be both.”
“It’s not another Zach fights the bad guys book, but it features some of the same characters.”
“Characters who wanted a bigger role?”
“Characters who felt their story wasn’t complete.”
“Any new characters?
“Yes, quite a few.”
“Did they derail the train?”
“Nope. They were supposed to be the only passengers on the train. Several others decided to get on, and then it when off the rails.”
“Can you tell us who’s on and who’s not?”
“No. Not without…”
“I know, introducing spoilers. I get it.”
“You guys want some food.”
“I can’t Cheryl. My in-laws are coming over for dinner.”
“How ‘bout some fries? We could pick at some fries.”
“What’s your captain buddy say, Dan? Make it So!”
I am planning a soft promotional campaign for The Evil You Choose. It will be an on-again/off-again thing between now and the end of March. For those who have already helped with posts and reviews, I may revisit/reuse your kind words. If you’re interested in helping now, let me know in comments or via email. There’s a Contact widget on the sidebar.
In other news, I have enrolled all three books in Kindle Unlimited. In still other news, I have read Cheryl’s book, and it is amazing. When she makes it available, we will hire Skippy for the day and have her here as a guest.
All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
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