The Brain with Two Men

Hey, guys! ("Guys" being used in its completely unacceptable gender-neutral form)

It's been a couple of months, so I thought I'd drop a quick note to update you on writer stuff. :)

I'm feeling so productive recently, it's crazy. I'm still working on The Legends of Nod, getting #5 ready for it's release later this month. It's weird working on Nod stories right now, because I know in the back of my mind that the entire publishing format is about to change for the series, so Author Glenn and Publisher Glenn are wrestling with different thoughts. We generally just let the characters have their way and stop thinking about it, which is why "The Mech Valley Debacle" ran so long and had to be broken into two parts for publication. The whole serial-novel-in-which-all-of-the-episodes-are-actually-self-contained format just isn't realistic for this group of characters anymore, since every planned "chapter" of the serial novel keeps running book-length. For now, we keep releasing them as though serial format is the intent, but realistically, by either story 5 or story 6, we are going to repackage the previous episodes as "proper books" and shoot for releasing five-or-so such proper books in the series every year. Like a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys thing, but also not like that at all, since Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were extremely silly people. I'm just talking release format. They'll be hardbacks, and there will be several a year, and I'll be writing this series well into my sixties, since now we're going from 130 "chapters" to 130 novels or novellas. I mean, really, with all the stories in my head, in all of the different series I write, I am never going to have writer's block. The worst I ever get is what I call "writer's blah," where I know what I want to write, but I'd just rather watch some of my favorite movies for the ten-millionth time and pretend that my life isn't real. I don't know why, but I get there sometimes. It doesn't last. Point is, I'll never run out of ideas, and if I do, I'll have written so many books by then that it won't really matter, and I can guiltlessly take to sea in a working replica of the Orca from Jaws and leave reality behind indefinitely.

So, as I was saying, the Nod reformat will be happening soon. All of the stories will be reissued in hardback, possibly in expanded editions ("The Dragons of Nod" will definitely have some additions), and "The Mech Valley Debacle" will be released in a complete edition as "Book IV." This won't disrupt the release of new installments at all, as the new ones will just come out as part of the book series going forward. This series, man. It's been a crazy ride over the years figuring out just exactly what it is.

I'm also still working on the hardback second edition of Metrognomes: The Shaman's Apprentice, which I keep going into "writer's blah" mode over, because it's intimidating. I love that novel so much, and I hate doing anything to it at all, but the fact is, I want the illustrations to be laid out better in the new edition, and that requires experiment, and I know it will look great if it works, and I know it will work, as long as the printer can handle the format, but I'm still intimidated by the thought of it. And I keep getting behind with Nod stories that run long, which gives me the perfect excuse to push the Metrognomes project back, because I want to prioritize new things.

But I'm getting my writer house in order these days, so I'm not going to keep postponing the only one of my previous novels that has never been released in hardback or Kindle formats anymore. I've been wanting to get the Metrognomes series back on its feet for years and years. I even have a spin-off book that's been written and sitting in my file cabinet since last year called The Demons of the Blood: A Metrognomes Adventure that Publisher Glenn has been reluctant to put out before the first proper sequel, but Author Glenn wants to see in print yesterday.

"The fact is, Publisher Glenn, the spin-off novel doesn't have to be what the main series is; it doesn't have to be full of expensive illustrations. That can be something we reserve for the main series books. In fact, the spin-off books probably should have a more bare-bones publication in order to keep the main series aesthetically separate and special."

"Oh, good point, Author Glenn. Now that you mention it, maybe it would be a good idea to go ahead and release it already, as a way of breathing life back into the franchise and showing the readers that the Metrognomes universe is still active. Especially since, at this point, it's been eight years since the last book came out."

"That sounds great, Publisher Glenn. How about next year?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking, Author Glenn!"

"Of course it is! We share the same mind."

"Oh, wow. We are crazy aren't we? We are both, collectively, one crazy person."

"No, PG, I'm crazy; you're practical."

"Right, right, AG, of course. However, there is the fact, that we are having a two-way conversation out of the same brain, and you are transcribing it in your blog for the entire world to see."

"Yeah, but I'm okay with that. I'm crazy, remember?"

"Quite. Well, enough of that then. You'd better get back to work writing."

"My thoughts exactly, Publisher Glenn!"

"Obviously."

I suppose that's enough rambling for now, dear readers. :) I'll drop another note soon.