It’s been a few months since I’ve done one of these, so here’s the previous posts as a refresher course. New thoughts below the cut.
Tag: romance
Hunter Healer King, Book 2 is Here!
The name’s Chloe Fortebat, and I am in trouble. First I helped Maxim kill a werewolf, then I kissed him, and then I insulted him when I found out that he was roughly twice as old as he looked. Now Maxim is about to be crowned King of the Stormcrows aboard a luxury airship, and he has invited me to attend. But this ship feels more like a cage with each passing hour: a passenger’s horse has turned up missing, a crewman has turned up dead, and before it all started, I heard noises in the cargo hold. But Maxim has a mind as sharp as my banishing dagger, and between us, we aim to put an end to whatever monster lurks aboard the ship, no matter how awkward we feel around each other right now…
My name is Dr. Maxim os Storm, and I hunt the beasts that haunt the night. With my coronation mere hours away, something stalks the shadows of this vessel: a monster that answers to a human being..but who? And for what purpose? Despite our recent…complications, Chloe’s courage and loyalty make her my strongest ally as I pursue our enemies, and brace for the dreadful pomp and circumstance of my own coronation. The crown of the Stormcrows may await me, but first, we have a mystery to solve – together.
State of the Author, 4Q2024
-First off, I think my books are all in Kindle Unlimited now, free to anyone with a subscription to KU. If you see any sign that they are not in KU, please let me know in the comments.
–Undead Flight (Hunter Healer King Book 2) is now in the hands of my proofreaders. Barring complications, should be ready to publish by Christmas time. Ebook cover is done; blurb is done with AI help (stay tuned, my post on the blurbing process will be out tomorrow. Print cover is dependent on my final cleanup of the manuscript to determine page length.
-Also started Hunter Healer King Book 3 by writing a fairly dark and distressing scene from the last third of the book. This is kind of suboptimal, because stitching together scenes written out of order tends to add (wo)manhours to the first draft process, but I hadn’t figured out the opening scene at that point. I don’t know when it will be released but I know that I am aiming for Christmas of 2025.
-I have had a sci-fi Pride and Prejudice retelling in development for a long time; finally got the first scene down. No projected completion date at this time. My main inspiration for this concept was, weirdly enough, Star Wars: A New Hope. If you dig deep enough into the filmographies of the supporting cast, you will find one with a Pride and Prejudice connection in his earlier career. Regrettably, the catchy working title explicitly references Star Wars, so the official title will probably be something rather sedate of the “Pride and…” format.
-New ebook covers using AI art for Shadow Captain and Spider Star are done; still need to do new paperback covers for them, and ebook/hardcover for the 2 in 1 volume for the duology. Projected release date for the 2 in 1 is first/second quarter of 2025.
-Early stages of AI art covers for the Jaiya Series and Ancestors of Jaiya series. No text layout yet. A four in one of Ancestors might come out in third quarter of 2025; a seven in one of the full metaseries might be sometime in 2026 but a lot could go sideways between now and then.
Sign of the Times, Austen Edition…
(Disclaimer: I do have a Mr. Collins plot bunny I might write sometime, in which he commits Obfuscating Stupidity and is actually a pretty smart guy underneath, but I don’t intend to invalidate the Bennets’ experiences of him, or demonize Charlotte in the process.)
Rather than give us what would be the first traditional P&P adaptation in 20 years, and the first BBC adaptation in 30 years, the Beeb opts to adapt some fan novel that tries to nice-ify the self-centered hipster known as Mary Bennet, and the clueless buffoon known as Mr. Collins, at the expense of more interesting characters like Charlotte Lucas. And of course, flawed but self-aware Mr. Bennet has horns and a tail. (Although in fairness, it sounds like the author is an equal opportunity hater when it comes to the Bennet parents, which is a reasonable take). And somehow this deserves to be ten episodes(1) long, nearly twice as long as any actual P&P miniseries ever made? And it’s from the modern Dr. Who(2) people?
No, thank you.
(1) of an unspecified length, but it seems like the BBC’s norm in recent years has been for episodes to run about an hour.
(2) Disclaimer: am not a Doctor Who fan in general, so I generally don’t see the involvement of behind-the-scenes people from that franchise in other stuff as being a good thing.
Adapting Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, The Dashwoods and Ferrarses
I recently finished listening to this book on Librivox (the Karen Savage reading), and decided to start blogging again about adapting Jane Austen. For an introductory essay on the subject, go here. For subsequent essay, click on the Jane Austen category in this blog. As usual, we start with the characters:
Continue reading “Adapting Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, The Dashwoods and Ferrarses”Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: Mansfield Park, the Princess Bride version
Mansfield Park does suffer from very “period” attitudes, although not as much as its detractors claim. You will see moments below where I have softened the characters’ behaviors somewhat to plug plot holes or smooth over stuff that tends to rub modern readers the wrong way. I personally feel like the novel suffers more from not enough forward momentum and too much thousand-foot-view of what’s going on; we’re often told what’s happening in general terms without citing specific incidents. Mansfield Park also has a highly intrusive, somewhat fourth-wall-breaking narrator who delights in telling the reader about hypothetical alternative outcomes.
In a word, the best solution to filming Mansfield Park is to go full Princess Bride…
Continue reading “Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: Mansfield Park, the Princess Bride version”Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Characters of Mansfield Park
I’m starting with my take on the characters, as for P&P. All the characters of Mansfield Park itself should be able to swing between a somewhat more stylized, off-kilter performance for reasons that will become obvious in the next post, and a more naturalistic performance for the actual events of the story.
Continue reading “Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Characters of Mansfield Park”Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Major P&P Story Setpieces, Part 3
We’re entering the homestretch of the story now…
Continue reading “Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Major P&P Story Setpieces, Part 3”Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Major P&P Story Setpieces, Part 2
When we left off, the Bingley party had just left Netherfield. We resume some time later in London…
Continue reading “Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Major P&P Story Setpieces, Part 2”Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Major P&P Story Setpieces, Part 1
I don’t claim to hit all the high points, but these are the ones that come to mind…This is part one of however many it takes to get through the book.
Continue reading “Thoughts on Adapting Jane Austen: The Major P&P Story Setpieces, Part 1”
Jaglion Press 