I got a snarky little Irish prick standing directly behind me, just to the left, whispering in my ear, "Don't cut anything. Let it go for as long as it wants. I'm worth a minimum of three books, dammit." And showing off my writing ability that way is appealing to my vanity and arrogance in ways I hate to admit, but it also means a LOT more work...and the truth is, I don't think anybody'll buy it. My other 3 volume opus, "Bobby Carapisi", is not selling well. I try to tell myself it's just because only volume 3 is in Kindle and Nook while 1 and 2 are only available in paperback, and not cheap ones, at that...but the reality is, it's WAY overpriced. The full set's over $50 and why would people spend that kind of money for it? I wouldn't. My threshold is about 11.95 for a trade paperback.
Y'know, "The Lord of the Rings" is cheaper than that, and it's had massive movies made from it and millions of people have read it and loved it (I'm one of the 5 people in the world who thought it was tedious so never even made it to book 3 and would gladly have strangled Aragorn if given half a chance, he was so damned perfect; Viggo Mortensen at least made him livable). And you can get it in a nicely bound set of hardcovers for just $13.00 more than mine, from Amazon and B&N. But that's fantasy and good v. evil and heroes and heroines and really, really bad guys and a world unbelievably detailed that has no bearing on human reality. I can't write that crap.
No...I shouldn't say that. I'm thinking of making another story idea into a 3 volume set, one I've already written two screenplays for (and won some awards for them but can't get anybody to produce). That one's Gothic horror grounded in Celtic mythology and starts 3500 years ago and...
Shit. Is Brendan jealous? Is that why he's pushing me into a 3 volume work? Is THAT why more and more details keep coming forward about his time as a child in Derry, and are presented in such a way as to show I have to keep expanding the story? I was aiming for something more like "Once and Future King" (against which LOTR fares VERY badly). But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I just want people to READ it. I don't want it languishing and meaningless beyond my own small circle of friends.
What I do know is, I'm having one hell of a time going through this book and keeping the idea it can just be a long novel like "War and Peace." Yeah, Steven King reworked "The Stand" into a ridiculously long version (1200 pages?) but he's Steven King. He's been making tons of cash off his writing since his first book. Me, I can't even get the guy who published my books to pay me the money he owes me (and by the time I sued him for it, it'd cost me more than I'd get).
Y'know...I think my muse is fucking with me for my earlier post. I better shut up before this thing becomes 13 volumes.
Oh, wait...it's Catholic guilt he's using on me. And I'm falling for it and I'm not even Catholic.
Y'know, "The Lord of the Rings" is cheaper than that, and it's had massive movies made from it and millions of people have read it and loved it (I'm one of the 5 people in the world who thought it was tedious so never even made it to book 3 and would gladly have strangled Aragorn if given half a chance, he was so damned perfect; Viggo Mortensen at least made him livable). And you can get it in a nicely bound set of hardcovers for just $13.00 more than mine, from Amazon and B&N. But that's fantasy and good v. evil and heroes and heroines and really, really bad guys and a world unbelievably detailed that has no bearing on human reality. I can't write that crap.
No...I shouldn't say that. I'm thinking of making another story idea into a 3 volume set, one I've already written two screenplays for (and won some awards for them but can't get anybody to produce). That one's Gothic horror grounded in Celtic mythology and starts 3500 years ago and...
Shit. Is Brendan jealous? Is that why he's pushing me into a 3 volume work? Is THAT why more and more details keep coming forward about his time as a child in Derry, and are presented in such a way as to show I have to keep expanding the story? I was aiming for something more like "Once and Future King" (against which LOTR fares VERY badly). But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I just want people to READ it. I don't want it languishing and meaningless beyond my own small circle of friends.
What I do know is, I'm having one hell of a time going through this book and keeping the idea it can just be a long novel like "War and Peace." Yeah, Steven King reworked "The Stand" into a ridiculously long version (1200 pages?) but he's Steven King. He's been making tons of cash off his writing since his first book. Me, I can't even get the guy who published my books to pay me the money he owes me (and by the time I sued him for it, it'd cost me more than I'd get).
Y'know...I think my muse is fucking with me for my earlier post. I better shut up before this thing becomes 13 volumes.
Oh, wait...it's Catholic guilt he's using on me. And I'm falling for it and I'm not even Catholic.
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