Writer’s block conquered

…not that it means I’m writing in the main Timelines track, more like I’m writing a sort-of sequel to The Cross-Time Kamaitachi.

It started as a short story that was intended as a submission for an anthology that’s being kicked around by people I know.  It very quickly went past 6,000 words and is now north of 20,000.  So — probably a novel, though I might be able to rework part of it into a short story for the anthology yet.  (Sorry, the anthology isn’t official, so far it’s just an idea being kicked around as noted, so I can’t really say much about it.)

What happens when enough people believe strongly in an almost-entirely mythical person, she actually comes to life among them as an ordinary citizen of their town?  Despite the “myth” being an entirely-fictional depiction of a (probably) real person, whose life and actions are celebrated every year by a festival held in the town?

If you’re Horiuchi Tsurue, a plain, meek, unassuming Japanese woman from Ōmishima Island in Ehime Prefecture, in the post-Plague Japan of the year 2215, you hide in your work and never make any waves.  Even though you’ve “lived” for 250 years since the novelist wrote his book about you.  And even though you know you can’t leave the island, or you’ll fade away and die.  But you’ve lived so long that way, you don’t really remember the why of any of it…so you just work, and “yesterday, today, tomorrow” is the whole of your world.  You have no friends.  You have no boyfriend or husband.  You just have your shop and your work…and the odd stack of manga you’ve managed to collect over the years, to read at night.

But one rainy day in July, a certain warrior woman and her sidekick daughter show up to donate their weapons to the local shrine…and nothing is really the same after that.

Like I say — working on it.  The working title is The Tale of the Crane Princess (鶴姫物語) — and you can probably figure out who Tsurue’s character is loosely based upon if you search that 🙂  Though for what it’s worth, the movie of that name is even more BS than the original Japanese novel that came out in 1965 and prompted the legend to begin with.

The Cross-Time Kamaitachi is now in hardback

The Cross-Time Kamaitachi is now available in a hardback edition, via Amazon Print on Demand.  I’m working on putting the other Timelines novels into hardback as well, but The Cross-Time Kamaitachi took the most work due to the fact that Amazon PoD is limited to books of 550 pages or less.

Since the paperback edition was 622 pages, that meant I had to make some layout changes.  The hardback font is slightly smaller (10.5 point rather than 12 point) and of course the book had to be repaginated.  If you are a fan of larger type, I’d be inclined to say, save money and buy the paperback instead.

The hardback is $23.00 vs. the paperback at $15.99.  That’s just how PoD works; I do all the hard work, hardback printing cost is around $10.00, and out of that $23.00 I get a whopping two bucks, because of course Amazon needs to make its money, too.  But if you really must have a hardback for your collection, there is one available.

Also — you can get a paperback in a couple of days.  Hardback, nah, 2-3 weeks.

Anyway.  There it is, and like I say, the other books will be available in hardback soon.

Bonus image

Of course, everyone gets to see the image…Anyway, this is Yukiko, probably not long before she was transported away to apocalyptic Japan.  Didn’t know she was a photographer’s model.  She didn’t tell me that.  *shrug*

(Image is copyright © 2022 Nathan C. Brindle, all rights reserved.)

The Cross-Time Kamaitachi is released

The Kindle e-book is available now, both for purchase and KU.

I am pondering a paperback release. I think the book is too large for KDP POD. But we’ll see; though I doubt it would be ready in time for LibertyCon, in any case.  (It looks like it would be over 600 pages, after I did some fiddling last night.)

The e-book is $4.99 (sorry; it’s half again the length of the longest novel I’ve written previously) or read for free on Kindle Unlimited.

State of the Author, Late April

I haven’t posted since February? Sheesh.

Probably because I’ve been working on the book I mentioned in the previous post. The Cross-Time Kamaitachi.  Which is a “Timelines Universe Novel” since it isn’t one of the main novels in the series.

I just finished it last night. It came in at over 170,000 words.  (It was supposed to be a SHORT story.  It kind of grew like Topsy…)

So at the moment, I’m doing a proofing read-through, spell- and grammar-check, continuity, you know, the fun stuff about being an author.

Might be ready for ebookery by next week.  Not this weekend, probably the weekend after.

State of the author

The author is mostly stuck at this point after writing over 200 pages about Yukiko and her adventures in post-apocalyptic Japan.  But he’ll get out of that corner he wrote himself into shortly.

Meanwhile here are a few DAZ illustrations. (All © 2022 Nathan C. Brindle, whether marked or unmarked.)

Imperial Consort Yukiko at Court (2073-2074)
Yukiko in lab coat, official photograph for WVBCorp archives (2050 or earlier)
The Miko meets Yukiko (2055)
Yukiko in Japan Imperial Defence Forces uniform as Honorary Commander, Yamaguchi Prefectural Militia (ca. 2100 AD)

Something I’m working on

She is a character in a “related novel” in the Timelines Universe.  If you’re following me on MeWe you’ve seen some of this…but, in the meantime, “shall we dance?”

I did not land here intending to be a warrior, but a warrior I so soon became . . .

One moment, Dr. Yukiko Yamaguchi was in her high-tech singularity research lab in California, busily adjusting an electronically-leaky fitting playing hell with her instrument readings.

The next moment, she was falling through space, and landing hard in a wilderness area she would quickly discover was her family’s ancient stomping grounds in Japan – but with an apocalyptic twist.

A hundred years later, there would be legends of a great yōkai, a demon, whom some called a kamaitachi – a sort-of whirlwind, weasel-like creature with blades for claws, which catches up unwary humans and slices their skin.  But this kamaitachi is no ordinary yōkai – rather, she is

The Cross-Time Kamaitachi

Still work to be done on this figure, but I like how it’s going.

New Seasons short story: Autumn’s Smile

I just pushed the button on a new Seasons short story/novella and it’s available on Amazon now.

“Maybe it won’t be so difficult to believe someone who used to be a pagan Norse Valkyrja, and still acts in the capacity of a Norse semi-demi-hemi god at the orders of Odin All-Father, is going to tell what’s more or less a Christmas story…”

The former Valkyrja Sigrdrifa, now the very American pioneer wife Sarah Randall — who just happens to be the Queen of Autumn — tells a story of the historical Deep Snow in the American Midwest of 1830-31, as she and two other former Asgardians attempt to control the runaway heavy weather that began in the fall of 1830, while out of the woods come four children from a neighboring homestead with their own tale of woe.

Will a visit by the Ancient Wanderer cheer things up as the Solstice approaches?

Will Autumn yet smile?

New novella: A Huntress on the Rocks

I just pushed the button on a new short story/novella and it’s available on Amazon now.  Started writing it on November 30, finished it December 15, edited and proofread it today and put it up.

For those who have read the other Delaney Fox stories to date, this story takes place five years before A Fox in the Henhouse.