So, I scrambled through some work today, and tomorrow will be more of the same 😛 I’m going to TRY and avoid having this work bleed into next week, because I think the up-and-ups want these particular assets I’m working on ASAP…but we’ll see how it goes. It’s nice to be back on the Netflix team, even if it is only for a few days 😛
Then I’m going to finish TG1T. You heard it here first. That is official. Going to race through the rest of Season 3 next week so it is DONE. Even a teaser, I think. And it will be ready to go, once I commission the artwork and decide when we want to release it. Probably after I finish the first draft of my next book, or my next two. Something like that. We’ll see.
I finished my book today. Didn’t like it really. There were aspects of the book that I enjoyed, or would have enjoyed, but the execution just wasn’t there. The core part of the plot, that a pair of small black holes is shooting through our solar system is fun. How the author chose to tell that story was not fun. I didn’t connect with the characters, I didn’t connect with the actual plot-lines, which involved some really random shit going down in Italy and some super vague family drama that pretty much all happened off-stage, at least the motivation part of it…and the thing I was really struck by today was how important it is to plant seeds when telling a story.
You cannot manufacture crucial information at the very moment it is needed. That shit HAS to be planted earlier. Otherwise we just don’t believe you. We as readers don’t believe you know what the hell you’re doing; it reads like you’re flying by the seat of your pants and just making shit up as you go. That’s called lying. We don’t trust it. It’s an instinct.
There was also suddenly dark character shit happening at the end, which was totally inconsistent with the first 2/3 of the book. Like, all the sudden we’re killing people in cold blood. It was jarring. So yeah…another lesson learned: if you have characters who are capable of killing, establish that shit earlier on in the story.
All in all, it was an informative read if not particularly engrossing. It certainly made it EASY to read, because I was just going as fast as I could. And, man, that’s another lesson to learn: just because someone reads your book quickly doesn’t mean they actually loved it. Sell-through…THAT’S the ticket. That’s the stat to pay attention to (which is how many people go and read the next book in the series).
I have to say…I’ve been really disappointed by the indie author community’s work thus far. BUT…maybe that’s just because I haven’t found my perfect genre yet. That’s entirely possible. But, yeah…I haven’t loved a single book yet from a self-pubbed author. That scares me a bit. What world am I getting myself into, you know? But, then again…it could be a good thing. Maybe there’s a space for an author with my sensibilities that hasn’t come up in the indie scene yet. That’s very possible.
We.
Shall.
See.
Until tomorrow: go read a book. Even a mediocre-to-crap book is still worthwhile 😛
Tonight’s artwork reminds me of one of Josh’s cold opens from season 2 of TG1T. Its artist is, unfortunately, not credited where I pulled it from.