Finally, after endless technotergiversations, BOOK II OF THE FIRE-RIDER SAGA IS WINGING ITS WAY TO AMAZON!! WooHOO!
In The Spoils of War, the Okan war bands raid a farm outlying the enemy city they recently sacked and burned. The warlord Kaybrel, who tires of the endless fighting, performs what he believes to be an act of mercy and in doing so must deceive his fellows. (He resembles the wily Odysseus in that deceptiveness is part of his nature.) The men party down after collecting a great deal of booty and food, and Kaybrel learns enough about his young captive Tavio to realize that the boy is not what he seems.
I don’t have a link yet. As soon as I do, I’ll publish it here and at all other waypoints.
Good thing I set aside this whole day for Time Suck.
Holy MACKEREL, let me tell you about TIME SUCK.
Posting one of these things takes several hours. For the life of me, I can NOT, not for love nor money, get one of these documents correct the first time. The first installment, A Gift for the Kubna, took about ten tries before I got it right. And I’m sure today’s upload took at least that many attempts, maybe more. Spent a good three hours this afternoon wrestling with the ineffably buggy MS Wyrd 2008, and then another hour or 90 minutes struggling with WestHost and GoDaddy getting disappeared websites back online. What a hassle!
Technology is the Mother of All Timesucks.
A more ordinary timesuck absorbed the entire morning: at 9:00 a.m. it was off to the dentist. He actually occupied only about 40 minutes grinding down my back left molar so he could put a crown on it. That was fun.
However, while there I met a lovely, very sweet and innocent-looking young technician who spends EVERY LIVING BREATHING SPARE MINUTE OF HER LIFE reading erotic romances!!!!!!! She covets the very thing we intend to write and to get rich publishing.
She was extremely interesting and had a lot to tell me about why women read these things, what she’s looking for, what she prefers, and what about a cover or story draws her to buy.
So. Doc, grind away! I was beside myself with joy by the time I left his office.
I started working on the upload about 7:00 a.m., imagining I could get through it fairly quickly, having learned (I thought) enough in the first upload to move forward efficiently.
At 8:30, dropped everything to bathe and paint, then raced out the door at 9:00 a.m.
The appointment wasn’t until 10, but by the time I’d detoured to Costco to buy gas, I got there with just ten minutes to spare.
Then had to restock the pantry.
And now M’jihito is here and I must publish this without proofing it. And so away….