Hello again, and welcome to the June 2014 issue of Aphelion!

We're still working on the patio, here at Casa Vila. Adding more flagstones, getting a few gadgets that'll be useful, and generally having fun. I had to take a couple of bungee cords and tie the big umbrellas to the awning frame yesterday after the wind picked up a bit. Just a little pop-up shower blowing through. It turned out to be nothing serious. It was all over quickly.

I gave myself a little vacation from writing after I turned in the manuscript for the Mare Inebrium collection. A little time to decompress and unwind before tackling the next project. Stephanie Osborn has asked me to co-write book four of the Cresperian Alliance series with her. The working title is Heritage and the deadline is December of this year. I've read through the previous books in the series in order to get a feel for the characters and the general style. Thankfully, Stephanie and I worked well together on the Displaced Detective album, so I don't think there'll be any friction between us as we work on this. I also think that I won't have much trouble adapting to the writing style of the previous books. It isn't an exact fit for my usual style, but it is close enough for me to slip into harness, as it were. I believe that readers of the series will enjoy it once Stephanie and I are done.

To answer the obvious questions: No, we haven't talked money, or shares of the advance or royalties. Stephanie was more than fair in the contract we signed for the album. I don't expect the contract we'll sign for this will be any different in that respect. We'll probably divide everything up according to different chores of getting the manuscript finished. Pre-production, writing, editing, rewriting, post-production, etc. No, I can't tell you the plot. No, I can't post spoilers. And no, I have no idea when the finished book will be released, beyond my guess of possibly mid to late 2015. What I can tell you is that it is now time for me to start writing. Once I get into the flow of it, perhaps I'll be better able to guess how long it will take. For now, I'll have to study the notes, outline, and character list while I re-read the previous books for any dangling plot threads that I'll need to wrap up. I didn't see any the last time I read the books, so I doubt that will become any kind of issue.

As for the Mare Inebrium manuscript, my publisher told me last week that the book has gone into the production stage. He has a page count, he's lining up a cover artist, and I've got some free time before I have to go over the galley proofs to make any final edits that might be needed. Once we see how quickly the manuscript moves through the various stages of the process, we'll get a better idea of when the finished book can be released. He will send me a contract to sign, and that's when I'll find out all the details of any advance for the book, what I'll make per copy after the advance is paid off, and so on. Will there be a sequel? That depends on how many copies sell. If you folks want to see a second book of my Mare Inebrium stories, you'll have to buy copies of the first one and spread the word. If it makes the publisher enough money, he'll ask for another book. If sales are good enough, he might even ask me to edit a collection of the best of everyone else's Mare Inebrium stories! That's my secret dream, to eventually get the whole series in print, but for now, it is only a dream. Everything will depend on how many copies I can sell of this first book.

So, events are proceeding apace. Stuff is happening! Hard work is beginning to pay off--in a feeling of accomplishment, if not yet in cash, LOL! OK, enough blather from me. It's time I let you get to reading!

Dan

BOILERPLATE:

First off, if you do the Facebook thing, feel free to join us on the Aphelion page there. The link is Aphelion Webzine. As an aside, the Editorial Mafia and I have found Facebook to be useful while we transition between e-mailing lists. Given our different locations and schedules, it's come in handy as a way to discuss production details of new issues. Sometimes there are several of us using Facebook at the same time, so it's almost like the old chat room days.

Dan's Music Page This is my promo page here at Aphelion. All the links below, and more information about the albums, are located here.

The Never Bank On A Learning Curve CD on the Create Space website. My first album, with a wide range of styles and genres, covering the past three years of my working with the MAGIX Music Maker programs.

The Second Helping CD on the Create Space website. My second album, with just as wide a range of different musical styles, showing just how much I've learned in the past three years.

Dan's Studio-D Page on the Bandcamp website. Digital downloads of the albums, or each individual song if you prefer it that way. Just click on the album cover thumbnails and you'll see a list of each song on the album. Next to the song titles are links to read the liner notes, or to download the individual song. You can listen to each song for free. There is also a link to download each entire album at one go. I cannot say enough about Bandcamp! This is an amazing website. I have Rob, and many other friends, to thank for finally talking me into checking it out.

Here are some links to pages I have up promoting my music. When my book comes out I'll add those links to the promotion page, too. So far, there are links on that page to the Create Space Preview songs, the Create Space page for each album, the Amazon.com listings, and the link to the digital downloads page.

And here's a link to my Sound Cloud page:

Dan's Sound Cloud Page where all my music has been stored for your free listening pleasure. These are not as high a quality recordings as the ones on the CDs or on Bandcamp. But SoundCloud does have the virtue of having everything collected together in one place.

Check those links out, buy a CD or download if you like what you hear. And once again, thank you for your time,

Dan all my music has been stored for your free listening pleasure. These are not as high a quality recordings as the ones on the CDs or on Bandcamp. But SoundCloud does have the virtue of having everything collected together in one place.

Check those links out, buy a CD or download if you like what you hear. And once again, thank you for your time,

Dan