Discussion

Erin Butler · Author · added over 7 years ago
Another half-chapter up and about today!

We just added a used book store to the locksmith shop three weeks ago, and it’s been a pleasant surprise for us; but that has also added to my workload, so writing has been moved down yet another notch as far as things demanding my immediate time.

It’s great (hanging around with people and talking about books always is) and I’m happy it’s being received as well as it is.  I am going to look into bringing in new books as well, as there isn’t a bookstore in town other than the grocery store, and their stock is pretty limited.

In the mean time, Farm Boy continues apace.  I rather like putting up one half(-ish) of each chapter: it keeps the  "other side" a mystery for you while seeing how the changes affect our students.  I won’t be able to do this much longer, as it happens - but you’ll find that out soon enough!

Thanks for your patience, your feedback, and (of course) your recommendations.

-Erin

Argh!

Well, a bit of a stacked workload showed up on the creative side as well as in real life - I have my own shop in a tourist town, and Summer does bring them in - which means we missed on the pre-order deadline this time out.  Spit.  I trust all the brilliant, kind, and no doubt sexy folks who did pre-order (Woo! to you) have been refunded and the band has been cancelled.

But never mind that!  I am continuing to write Farm Boy, just at a much slower pace than I started at.  The hazards of assuming trends of the past will continue into the future, eh?  When Summer cools and crowds ease I’ll be able to ramp up the writing here.  I’m also writing one play, directing another, and adding a bookstore to my shop, so at the very least it’s going to be fun.  And who knows?  Maybe even successful!

So missing the mark sucks, but isn’t the end.  I’m going to get this closer to a finished work, then return it to the pre-order stage once again, likely (HA!) in September.  I’ll need to sneak the writing in there before hockey season really gets going...

Thanks so much for following this project, and I’m looking forward to getting it finished for you.  Things are getting broken, and people are getting weird (or I might have that backwards).  The outside world is making a stand against the school, and that’s making for tough decisions within...

Erin

Erin Butler · Author · added almost 8 years ago
Yeowch!  Sorry about the massive delay, folks: life got interesting on me, and some of the characters followed suit.

Funny thing is, it’s not the principals that are causing problems, but the world outside.  Going through the outline and completed chapters, there was an event that should have come earlier than it did... which pretty much tossed out the following 70 pages.  Spit.  The change makes the story better, but the delay cost me a month, and that’s bad news.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’re going to make the e-book deadline this time out, but writing does continue.  I will be re-applying this story for funding - but with a longer deadline, perhaps.

I think it’s good enough to finish, despite the bad behaviour.  An appropriate message for Father’s Day, that.

Erin

’Morning, folks!  Tourist season in the town is slowing the writing down a bit, but the story continues apace.  Cracks are turning to splits in the institution, and things are sliding a bit sideways now.

Next part-chapter should be up by the end of this week.  Thanks for your support and encouragement, and you’ll hear from Chance soon.

Thanks for your support on Farm Boy, folks!  Doesn’t look like I’ll be getting into the Geek and Sundry top three, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped work on the book: there is still the publication deadline to shoot for, after all.

Speaking of which, the first half(-ish) of Chapter One (3) is now up and ready to read!  A bit of cruel foreshadowing in the utopian dystopia, with much more to come.

*ominous music here*

The fourth chapter is coming along well as more cracks start to show, and then...?

Hope you like it.

Erin

Erin Butler · Author · added almost 8 years ago
Funny story: the Significant Other and I have about two dozen bottles in out kitchen.  It looks like we have a drinking problem, but that’s not true!  If we had a drinking problem, we wouldn’t have such a storage problem...

But yes: rock we do.   8-)

Erin S. Evan · Author · added almost 8 years ago
Erin- "Whats in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" -Shakespeare. 

"My name is the literal poetic name for Ireland. Where’s my whisky?" - Erin Evan 

We Erins rock :-)

Advertising update (’orrible, innit?):

Elan Samuel has been kind enough to post up a three-question interview with me at the Warbler Books site, so if you’re curious about what I type like at 2 AM, you can wander over there for a chuckle.

http://www.thewarblerbooks.com/featured-author-erin-butler/

I’ve got a short radio interview done that I’ll post later this week as well.  Just a brief (13 minutes or so) friendly with the local station I had a show with for a few years, but it’s fun for the curious.

For Farm Boy itself, I have ended up redoing pretty much all of the third chapter because I realized almost the entire chapter was in flashbacks, and unless petite madeleines are involved that’s not a great way for the story to go.  So more revisions before popping out the start of the third.  A bit later than hoped, but for sound reasons.

A quick bit of cover art done for Farm Boy - close to the final design, but not quite.  The artist I have doing it is actually talented, but she’s also really, really busy!  So in the mean time, this is my placeholder.

I do like very simple designs (LOVE Peter Mendelsund’s work!), and went with the wheat stalk partially because of the name and partially because of the saying that the highest blade of grass is the first to be cut.

In any case, it’s certainly more interesting to look at than the black-and-white, no?

I sent the DJ for our little local radio station a link to the sample chapters, and now he wants to do an interview about it and Inkshares come Monday.  I guess that’s not a bad thing!

Only down side is he’s calling me a pusher for not giving him the whole thing.  Sorry, mate: only the first dose is free.  Ten bucks for a screen, twenty to get it into your hot little hands.

Hm.  Actually, he may have a point...  8-)