Yesterday I picked up the cover art for The Penny Dreadful #1, which should satisfy you that I am hoping to get the project out of limbo very soon. It's brilliant artwork. Perfect. Precicely the style I was looking for.

As for my main project right now, I am still polishing Metrognomes. The task became daunting on one chapter in particular where I found a number of things I wanted to reword to make it less confusing. Sometimes it's hard for me to differentiate between information that I think the reader should know and information that just jumbles the chapter. I can't help it. The world of Metrognomes is terrific fun for me, and I want the readers to know every intricate detail. I suppose anything I have to cut that isn't integral to the plot of the five books I can always post on the web site.

Crap. The spell check isn't working. Hope I haven't botched it. :)

I've polished the first eight chapters of Metrognomes. I'll continue to "polish" the manuscript one last time for the rest of the week. I'm also pretty sure that I'll go ahead and issue "The Gift" as a free e-book next year. I cheated with margins and font sizes, and now it's five pages long. Woo!

I wrote a new short story today. Actually, I just put it down on paper. I'd come up with the tale and told it to my youth group on July 23. I'm calling it "The Gift" for now. I wrote it down while waiting for the phone to ring at work. I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do with this one. It's only a page long. 594 words. That seems even too short for the regular free e-book treatment. The cover and indicia would take up more pages than the actual story. I'll have to think about it.
Aside from that, the new "face" of Glennsladeclarkjr.com went up today. Check it out if you haven't already. I'm happy with it.

Good news! Glennsladeclarkjr.com is back online! This lessens my stress for the time, so that I can focus all of my creative attention on Metrognomes. Having looked into the possibilities, however, I may still attempt a move in the future, but I am under no pressure, for the time, to do so. I am still not comfortable not being able to talk to anyone at Tripod, but at least I don't have to rebuild six years worth of web publishing in just a few months.

So now you can check out the latest incarnation of the Metrognomes jacket copy. Go to "In the Works" on the menue bar, then click on "Metrognomes." The new synopsis has been posted beside the cxover art.

So here's the deal: After more than five years, I am going to have to start a new web site from scratch. The lesson learned is, always make sure there is someone who will SPEAK with you for tech support. This situation with Tripod is ridiculous. I've been so happy there, no problems, until now. This new site won't begin its life until I have everything settled with the publisher for Metrognomes. I can't let myself get involved in two major projects at once right now. This part of it, "From the Author's Desk," will stay right where it is, since I use a different group altogether for blogging. Bogger.com hasn't given me any problems. Neither has cafepress.com, which means the Merchandise section will remain right where it is. Everything else, however, will be relocated. I am still not sure if I can save my domain name. I'll deal with that as I get to it. For now, I am continuing work to get Metrognomes in your hands. Peace!