Author: Teel

Interest has been voiced to me in the last week or two (ie: 5-10 days) in ordering my novel. Alas, it is still being looked at for final review by a few faithful volunteers, has no cover design, and no copy written for or about it yet. Also, Cafepress, who I plan to publish it via, does not yet offer the “Perfect Bound” binding option which you know and love as “paperback”, which is a technology I am waiting for before I offer a print edition.

I expect to have a final edit done before the end of October (I’m planning on writing yet another novel in November for National Novel Writing Month, by the way, and I fully expect it to take up the bulk of my free time that month), and to have three formats available before year’s end.

First available, a PDF version of the novel, sent to you electronically via email.

Also, an audio version of the novel, as read by the author (me). I have already invested in the hardware and software necessary to produce a quality audio version of a book, and as soon as I have a “final edit”, I will begin recording. At this time I plan to distribute the audio version electronically as MP3 files, though I am looking into a CD distribution and other options.

Finally, the bound paperback edition of the novel, which will be available as soon as the publishing technology is worked out.

NOTE: PAYPAL LINKS HAVE BEEN REMOVED.
The novel is now available for purchase.
…

The PDF and MP3 versions will be emailed to the address you pay with as soon as they become avialable. (That is, the PDF first, and the audio later, as I will be recording it AFTER I finish the final edit.) The paperback versions will be available as soon after the final edit is done as Cafepress begins offering Perfect Bound binding, or through another vendor if necessary so all pre-orders are fulfilled (shipped out) before 1/1/2004. Hopefully, much sooner.

:UPDATE:
You can now order an Advance Edition paperback copy of Lost and Not Found from CafePress. The Audio version will not be completed before 2/1/2004 at the earliest, so pre-orders will not be fulfilled until February at the earliest. If you would like your copy now, click here to order the Advance Edition from CafePress now. If you choose to pre-order, you will not receive anything until February at the earliest
:UPDATE:

If interest is voiced and sales reach 500+ copies (or pre-orders reach 100+ copies), I will also look into making a hardback edition available at a future date.

Pre-order today and save!

(Note: Final prices are subject to change. Pre-order prices are based on current cost estimates, and do not imply or guarantee what final prices may be. Please send any questions or comments to teel@modernevil.com.)

By sometime Monday, 562.0 A.C. (9/28/2003 A.D.), Modern Evil will have been seen by over ten thousand different computers in one month, this month, September. This is more than the previous “high water mark” by three thousand computers. That’s a lot of readers. Page views, or the actual number of different pages loaded everywhere on Modern Evil, is over seventeen thousand so far, and may climb to over twenty thousand, depending on volume of posts and readers in the next couple of days. (Previous high month of page views: around fifteen thousand)

Ten thousand.

Wow. Ten thousand.

That’s a lot of readers. What I want to know is who are these people? Comments aren’t up, much, and FYTH still gets 50%-60% of all page views, so … I don’t know what that says. There aren’t any stand-out search terms (like we had for our previous high, around valentine’s day) directing people here, just miscellaneous stuff. There isn’t a big referrer like Penny Arcade or Slashdot driving traffic to us. I don’t get it.

Maybe people really do like reading me whine about my life and ramble about whatever bizarre topics come to mind.

Now the real question is, when my first novel is made available later this year, how many of those ten thousand will buy a copy?

Heck, if ten percent of ten thousand people bought a copy in one form or another (I am planning on releasing it in paperback, PDF, and audio formats), I would not only consider it a huge success, but would basically be guaranteed a publisher for my next novel (already in progress). Who wants to pre-order?

I’ve been reading Neal Stephenson’s new book, Quicksilver, and it’s slower going than some other reading I’ve been doing lately, but not too slow. The book is set … around … well, between about 1650 and 1720 so far… it keeps jumping forward and backward through time and back and forth across the Atlantic as it does so… which is fine, I can follow all the different paths of the same characters fairly easily (elsewise I would never have finished Stephenson’s last book, Cryptonomicon)… but there is so much to it…

Just now, as I turned to page 194-195 in my reading, I found myself throwing up my hands, waving them back and forth between my eyes and the book to stop me from reading on, muttering about it being too much history… please, no more history… Page 194 is part of the family tree of the House of Burboun, and the last third of page 193 was so complicatedly knotted that one of the characters in the scene was unable to follow what the other characters were saying about … I don’t even know… probably something about english relations with the french… and I can take endless amounts of science and even relish at seeing historical figures come alive such as Ben Franklin and Isaac Newton (among others), but there is something about the politicking and intermarrying and warring of all the royalties, between the kings and queens and dukes and earls and courtiers just of England I get lost, and here we are mixing in the Germans and the French and the Dutch and … you lost me.

Much as I hardly care that we have a “President” “presiding” over the US (I believe the position is a figurehead only, that actual decisions are made behind the scenes by people you probably don’t know the names of), the much-more complicated and melodramatic turns of the european theatre of royalty, especially in this time period (Cromwell, the reformation, Louis XIV in France, etc…) just … can’t hold my attention enough to grasp their workings. It’s meaningless tripe to me. So whereas in the next dozen pages, the character who was as befuddled as I am now will likely go through experiences that make it clear to HIM, it is likely that it will be in one eye and out the other… (Wait, does the expression work with reading?) … that I won’t understand or remember the political intrigues of the royalty, but instead the effect these intrigues had on the scientists of the time.

Sigh. Time for bed. Tomorrow’s reading looks to start off slow. But maybe after a couple dozen pages we’ll jump back forward through time to the pirate armada’s raid on a lone, seemingly defenseless ship! That is sure to liven things up.

I was woken a little while ago… yes, I’ve been sleeping… yes, my body is sure I should still be sleeping to try to take care of this … sickness… faster… but I was woken by thunder and lightning and daylight. I could see blue skies out the window and scattered light clouds, but the thunder was literally shaking the room and startlingly loud. I walked over to the window and if I craned around I could see that way up and to the left was a dark mass, and then the thunder again.

Seconds later, water began to fall from the heavens all around me in sheets. It rained and rained and rained down, fast and furious, and although at has begun to slow somewhat, it is still pouring. We need all the moisture we can get around here, and we were actually expecting the clouds to open up yesterday at this time, but this is good. Rain is good.

Oh yeah, and the sunlight still streams through my window. Must be a hole in the clouds.

Not well… I’ve already slept three hours this evening, and I feel like I need to go straight to sleep again after I finish writing this… though I’ll probably write at least a couple of pages to Laura before I pass out. I’m so tired… and I think I’m getting sick. Got the runny nose and the sore throat and chills and … the opposite of chills… but not in flashes, so … I guess I don’t know the word for feeling like it’s too warm in a 70 degree room.

Anyway, yeah. Had a birthday Sunday, now I’m 25. Had a great dinner at the Casino in Payson, compliments of Debbie. Went down to Phoenix Monday evening, watched Run Ronnie Run and Roger Dodger on DVD (rented), then Tuesday went shopping, got some new jeans (Hooray for pants!), saw Underworld with my brother and sister and father (I liked it! I don’t care what other people think! But despite all the other things, the moment the characters started using “Abomination” as a noun to describe a being that is both vampire and werewolf, I understood White Wolf’s suit, in part), did some more shopping and bought Quicksilver (Neal Stephenson’s new book) and some red and black paint (I run out of these pretty fast lately…) and a used copy of The Thin Red Line on DVD from Zia. This morning came back to Pine and got some heavy lifting done; we’re making a lot of progress towards clearing the space for the new home. Zoe, if you want that stainless sink, we’ve come to it in the pile and while it has not come up yet, its fate will soon be decided – Dad, when you see this, comment with a price, if you remember the sink I’m talking about.

Anyway.

Have I mentioned Laura lately? I keep meaning to talk about her, but I’m never qure quite what to say here. I mean, I think she’s great, we’ve been corresponding more by phone lately… probably because while her letters arrive from Spain within 3-4 days while mine get to her not sooner than a week after I send them, sometimes partially shredded, and there are two missives I sent on 9/8/2003 and 9/11/2003 which have not yet arrived, while one I sent on 9/15/2003 has just arrived. I do not know what to do. I know this must be very frustrating for Laura. I know it is frustrating for me. I know I’m using enough postage; I walk in and talk to a person every time, have each letter weighed and electronically stamped, making sure it gets into the hands of a postal employee with their word that it has enough postage… I’m not just sticking 37cent stamps on international letters and hoping for the best. For 80 cents an ounce, I wish they’d at least get there.

Laura will be in the US tomorrow, and for a few days, to attend the wedding of her cousin. It’s a little frustrating to know she’ll be walking around on the same little island as me instead of one so far away, but that she’ll still be quite far away. This little island called America is a pretty big one. Then she’ll fly back to Eurasia, to Madrid, to be 3500 miles away instead of just 1875 miles…. an 1875 miles which is closer than the 2000 she normally is in the US, but still too, too far away. My arms are not long enough to reach her, to hold her, to hug her. My smile is not bright enough to warm her. Not from so far away.

Yeah. Well. That’s how it goes. Maybe in a few years I’ll have my act together and get out to Europe like I’ve always wanted to… by then Laura should be conveniently on another continent, I bet. But hopefully by then we’ll at least have met. I’m pushing to see her as soon as I can, actually. Silly thing about actually wanting to see the woman I’m in a relationship with in person.

I’m so cold and tired and this post is taking much longer than I expected. I’m going to bed.

And no, I don’t know why I haven’t been posting lately. Sue me.