October 2021 Newsletter · 5:00am Oct 1st, 2021
Happy October everyone!
My daughter's school district has not said anything about the mask mandate expiring lately, but so far as I know, it is still in place as I type this newsletter. That has helped keep my stress level a lot lower than it was during August when she started school.
I am still progressing through various things, moreso on two projects than others. Nonetheless, by next month, I plan to have one chapter of my new fanfic published.
Revelation Into Mercury
Reminder that this is the name of the arc for the audiobook project of The Master Mev, Chapters 12-20. I am recording my narration before bringing in other actors to streamline things when I am ready. In my last newsletter, I noted I was up to starting Chapter 17. In September, I finished Chapters 17 and 18 and started on Chapter 19. Because Chapters 19 and 20 are so long, I expect them both to take up most of October with Chapter 20 likely running through at least the first week of November.
That puts a casting call project still at likely November but closer to mid or late November, depending on how long certain things take.
Since I showed off the Spitfire role in August and the Maud role in September, let's bring in more to help keep my hype going. I present two roles this time around: Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse.
Since CCC seems to have stopped allowing formatting for the actual audition line boxes, that's why I moved the context up with italicizing the lines, then leaving a version is just the lines text in place. I do plan to change it for Spitfire and Maud too, when time allows. Those are the past couple of examples I've shown.
Here is the latest on the word counts table. The blanks are where I expect characters to eventually have lines but are actually calculated as zeroes in the total for now. The actual zeroes are where I do not expect characters to have lines. I caught a few mistakes two months ago on re-reading the newsletter, so it's possible some exist again. Nonetheless, this should give you a generally good idea of how the roles and counts are up to Chapter 18. Scootaloo gets a huge jump to pass significantly over Sweetie Belle thanks to Chapter 18.
Utaan 42
This project is still stalled. I have barely looked at it with most of my focus on RIM and Companion this past month.
Writing - The Master Mev
The Master Mev text version is still on hiatus. I didn't have time for it all this month, but the plan hasn't really changed to try and get back into things once the RIM audiobook project is in its next phase with the casting call.
I have edited the text of Chapters 17 and 18. These edits are minor and to help it sound better when read aloud.
Writing - My Vampire Companion
Companion was the code name, and I am more than likely going with the title My Vampire Companion.
I made a lot of progress on my drafts. Basically, I laid out three different plans since there were certain key plot points that could diverge quite a bit, depending on how things went. I ultimately stuck to my first plan anyway.
I've got a total of 9 chapters drafted though I am not committing to that exact number. Chapter 1 is way longer than the others though recent edits of both Chapters 2 and 3 have increased their word counts too, even if still not as long as the first chapter. Point being, I might merge or expand later chapters as necessary. Every time I think of splitting Chapter 1, I decide not to. The chapter simply insists it's going to be a long one, and I shall abide. I may merge or split later chapters, depending on what feels best.
Last month, I mentioned I might try for earlier in October to start releasing the story. After thinking it over, I am more comfortable with sticking to a later publish date that will most likely be either October 30th or October 31st. Halloween is on a Sunday this year, and Saturday mornings are my generally preferred release time anyway since they work best with my schedule.
For fun, here's some extra information on the title selection.
Other finalists:
Companion
Of Mares and Monsters
Restoring Loyalty
Begrudgingly rejected by me:
Pommel and Dash
I would prefer to have "vampire" in the title and still lean mostly toward "Companion," so that's how I'm ending up with the likely title of My Vampire Companion.
A CocoDash Vampire Story was another consideration and possibly most accurate, but I think I would prefer to not have a ship name in the title.
I want to come up with a picture sometime too.
Well, that's how things are now. Since the story will be published by the end of October, you might hear from me before then in a standard blog post for anything I feel like noting ahead of time.
My Little Pony: A New Generation
I watched it and liked it. In fact, I loved quite a bit of it. I wish I could say more, but that would take too long to draft. Believe me, I tried. I want to stay focused on the above noted projects, so after a point, I dropped the idea. Maybe later. I'll at least say that I loved the first two songs in the movie. They made me smile, and I'll be watching and listening to them again. I have also watched the movie as a whole 3 times and am happy to start including it in my background noise during a work day.
Closing
That's a wrap for this month.
