Updates and Stuff · 7:33pm Oct 30th, 2017
Howdy, folks! Long time no blag. I got a couple of announcement thingies.
First off, I posted a new chapter of Twilight Holmes: The Mystery of Basil Bones. I’m not exactly happy with the length of time between updates on it…the last year or so kinda got away from me. BUT, I am working on ponewords and I’m working on finishing this one, for those who are perhaps waiting for it to be complete before reading (which I wouldn’t blame you for. I mean, look how long it took me to update it). This isn’t really an announcement of ‘aw yeah, bats is back baybee’ because I am just terrible at making and keeping those sorts of promises. It’s more just an ‘I’m still here.’ I am still here. And I’m working on more ponewords.
Second off…I published a short story! Many out there may know that I fail to make deadlines with write original fiction as well as pone, and one of those stories was accepted in an anthology of ghost stories.
Restless: An Anthology
Featuring stories by: Raven McAllister, Aryan Bollinger, Robert Crow, Gordon Grice, Simon Lee-Price, Michael Leonberger, Joshua Rex, Michael “Bats” Weiss, Kevin Wetmore, and Andrew Wilmot
Can you guess which one is me?
No, not that one, the one with bats in the name. That’s me.
That’s neat, bats, you may ask, what’s your story about?
Thanks for asking! Were it ponefic I was posting here, this is what the cover art, tags, and long description would look like:
[Teen Rating]
[Paranormal Fantasy]
Jenny is a real homebody. Always more content to stay at home with her cat, she finds herself at odds with one of her closest and oldest friends. Lucia has grown fed up with the nights of staying in and drinking with Jenny and is determined to drag Jenny out on the town, despite Jenny’s reservations. Jenny finds that her reluctance isn’t the only thing trying to keep her at home, however, because despite enjoying spending time with Lucia she always feels drawn back to her apartment, and her cat’s odd behavior and the strange disappearances of stuff around her house are beginning to play tricks on her mind. As she pushes her own boundaries at Lucia’s insistence, she starts to question how much of a trick she’s really playing on herself, or if there’s something else in her apartment quietly collecting all her lost things. Something that doesn’t want her to leave.
But ‘paranormal fantasy’ isn’t a genre tag on Fimfiction…
Erm…yes, well, anyway if—
But that’s neat. Is it available for purchase?
What? Oh, right. Yes! The print book is currently available only on Amazon. You can follow this link here. The print copy is priced at $12.99.
Is there an eBook version?
Why yes, there is! Currently, the eBook version is available only on Amazon, by following this link here where it is priced at $5.99.
Okay. I am potentially interested in purchasing a jen-you-wine bats story, but I’m not sure I want a full anthology. Is your story, Lost Things, available to be purchased separately?
Indeed, it can be! All the individual stories appearing in Lost Things are available to be purchased separately, though only as eBooks. Lost Things is priced at $2.99 as a standalone eBook, and is available on the following platforms:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
And directly through the publisher, Frith Books
Huh. Why is the standalone available from those places, but not the anthology itself? Especially on the publisher’s website?
Hey, wait a minute! The Amazon page says this book was published in July!
Okay, so real talk. To my understanding of the situation, Restless hasn’t officially officially come out yet. I’m not entirely privy to all the hoops along the way that the publisher needs to jump through, and I haven’t been pushy about it. Stuff like this always takes a lot of time. The July launch on Amazon was, I believe, a soft launch, because it can be difficult to get books up on Amazon for small press publishers, so it was set in motion while the rest of the ducks were forced into rows for a hard launch. I was originally planning on just holding back on announcing anything here until I’d heard that the hard launch was happening, with it up on the publisher’s site and on all the other venues as well. I did receive my author’s copy a few weeks ago, so it felt like something that was happening soon, and for all I know it’s really close to the hard launch, but I haven’t heard anything yet. So again, I was planning on just sitting on things until thing. But…
Well, it’s a ghost story. And it’s Spoopy Scary Halloween Time! I felt now was the time to take my personal announcement into my own hands, if I was going to do that. So here we are! That means I might have a forthcoming blog once that hard launch happens, with additional links to other platforms, but for right now the book is out in a way that can be bought, so it’s out enough for this.
Any other questions?
I don’t have any money.
That…isn’t a question.
I’m sorry.
Don’t be! If you don’t want to buy the book or the short story on its own, or can’t afford to, that’s okay! I promise I won’t hold any grudges. I’m incredibly grateful and honored when you folks take the time to read the stuff I post on this site, and I know money is a much bigger ask than just clicking on a chapter header and reading. If you’re not interested in me writing about humans, the description isn’t your cup of tea, or you just don’t want to part with your money for any reason, that’s fine and I understand. We all good.
I don’t have any money and still want to read your story.
Hm. That’s a little harder to answer. If you have access to the service Kindle Unlimited, the eBook version of Restless is available on that service for free, but that doesn’t really count as free and isn’t available for everyone. In the meantime, it isn’t going to be available for real for free anywhere. At some point in the future, publishing rights on Lost Things will revert to me, and we can discuss what happens to it then after we come to that.
Speaking of money, are you making any money from this at all?
I am. The royalties off the book itself are split evenly with the other authors, and those off the eBook for my story go directly to me.
#SELLOUT
U no it, bby.
I would like to show my support for you, but am not interested in buying a book. Is there a way I could give you money directly?
What a magnanimous question, hypothetical person I am making up! 
So long as you’re getting meta about it now, I’m going to confront you over the implication that you only wrote a chapter of something pony so you weren’t announcing this completely empty-handed.
Sigh. Well, I mean, if it hadn’t been so long since I’d posted anything horse-related, I wouldn’t have felt self-conscious about this. It felt like just announcing it after an extended period of silence would be shitty, like I was thumbing my nose at the site and fanfic in general, and that is so, totally not my intention. I haven’t written much pone this last year because I haven’t written much this past year, period. I had some serious rust to knock off when I started writing again in September, and it’s still just hitches and starts for me. This isn’t something I’m happy about at all. I want to be involved, and I want to write about these awesome characters, and I want to balance that around the rest of my life and writing other stuff too. I think I’m getting to a place where that can be the case. It’s slow going though.
Those out there who have been bearing with me through all this, I want to say thank you. Writing on this site, meeting the people I’ve met here, and being involved in this community has been some of the best experiences of my life. And while I still can’t really say that I’m back, baybee, I am still here.
Anyway, if you have any questions about this, or about other stuff, feel free to ask. Hope you have an awesome Halloween.
They spelled your name wrong.
4712436
Funny enough, I totally did agonize over whether or not to go with lowercase b in my penname. I decided capital would be better in the long run. But I did think about it a lot.
Very cool stuff. I'm not into spoop but kudos on the new shortfic and chapter!
4712437
I am rather curious about what advantages you saw that tipped the scales. (Not a question, but implies one!)
4712446
Mostly that proper names are typically capitalized and it would likely look wrong/unprofessional to have it lowercase. I also was leery of giving publishers my pen name lowercase, and having them capitalize it, and then needing to request they change it and/or have it inconsistent over different publishers. Just seemed easier to go with the capital and leave it be.
Wait, a new chapter on a Twilight Holmes story? A blog post about it? Holy cow, bats is back!
It's great to see something from you again; it feels like ages since I've last enjoyed one of your stories. I'm excited to get home and read the latest chapter, even if I might have to re-read the rest of the story to remember all of the details. I'll also be ordering a copy of your book. It's always nice to see a pony author publish something "legitimate," so I'm happy to add something of yours to my shelves.
Cheers!
edit: Order placed!
Hey bats, glad to see you sort of back, even if it is to placate your guilt at not wanting to promote non-horsewords without anything small horse related to go alongside it.
I'm not into the spoopy myself, but I'd be glad to send some bits your way for all of the wonderful horsewords you've created over the years. Heck, I figure just the enjoyment I've gotten from Spellbound Fireflies, Room for One More, and all of the Twilight Holmes stories should at least be worth me buying you a few ciders
. I notice that you never answered your magnanimous invented interviewer on that question though. 
I hope that you stick around in an active capacity, especially since I'm one of those readers eagerly waiting for that Complete tag on Basil Bones, but either way I'm glad to see you still kicking around.
4712523
You were not the only one who needed to reread the story to get the details straight. You'd think my extensive notes would have been enough, but alas.
4712831
Ahem.
I didn't answer it, because it was meant to be a joke question, making a little light of how advertising a book for sale is basically just asking people for money. There was no expectation that anyone would actually want to do that, so...
I guess the first part of the answer is thank you. It's a really nice gesture, and I very much do appreciate it. The second part of the answer is, I guess, that there will be other books and/or short stories in the future, and not all of them will be ghostyspoops stories. The ponywords I've written have always been a labor of love, and I made a decision a few years ago that I'm not going to take money for them. This came up over people asking me if I would self-publish a few different stories as paperbacks to be purchased, and I'm just not comfortable doing that, either for profit or just cost of printing. Hasbro has turned a blind eye on such things thus far, so while it is a relatively safe gray area, the more people who do it, the less safe it becomes, and that's not something I want to contribute to, for the health of the fandom as a whole more than a concern over my personal legal situation. And while your offer isn't the same as that request, it does have a very similar flavor. The fact that you've enjoyed those stories is all the compensation I could ask for.
4713496
Actually, the story was memorable enough that I didn't have to go back and re-read the previous chapters at all!
4713803
Well, that makes one of us.
To be fair I was looking for specific details to make sure I'd set things up properly, rather than just needing to remember what had happened, so, y'know, rereading with a specific purpose.
Yay! Good to hear from you. Glad you are still kicking!
4713496
I can totally respect that, even if I do still wish there was a more tangible way that I could show my thanks than just saying it here.
I look forward to what you put out next, and hey we're both Denver bronies, so maybe I'll get the chance to buy you a cider one day anyway.
4713810
That all makes sense, of course.
Also, I was very tempted to order a copy of Maradonia at the same time that I ordered your book, just to mess with the "People who ordered this also ordered..." box. But it turns out I'm actually a good person after all.
You didn't answer the support question!
More specifically is there a way to send you a book?