Here are some changes, if you are keeping track.

In November of last year, I explained that I had plans for self-publishing. Those plans are still firmly in place, but the schedule has changed — again.

The schedule for the five novels of the Menhir series were posted tentatively in November of last year. They were pushed forward in December. The first novel was planned to arrive this May, and that clearly isn’t going to happen. Now it seems that they are going to begin arriving about April of next year.

On the other hand, Learning from the Masters, originally scheduled for March of 2027, now looks likely to arrive this fall. The book scheduled for next February is still scheduled for the same month.

Well, I warned you. I said this in April —

My job should be to write books and leave the teases, the blurbs, and the come-ons to the publisher, but life never did give anyone what he wanted without some pain attached. Self-publishing is basically everything I never wanted.

I have been writing novels for fifty years, and I have gotten better over time. I’ve learned my trade, but self-publishing is different trade. Some skills translate. Most don’t.

I’m fortunate in one thing at least; I have also been painting all my life. Not frequently and not steadily, but enough to gain some skills. I can paint a duck that looks like a duck, but not like a duck painted by a real artist.

Fortunately I mis-spent by college days doing a lot of drawing; I was a Marvel comic artist wannabe. That will help. Also fortunately, I have been using vector graphics since 1986. I see my way forward as a mixture of drawing, painting, and captured photo images all turned in to a computer collage.

The roughout of Morning of the Gods above is what I’m talking about. There are two figures still to be placed in the foreground, mostly complete now but not perfected. He is painted, with added digital chain mail. She is digital and semi-translucent since she is invisible in the story. We’ll see.

I could just buy cover art. There is plenty of it around, but it not only has to look good, it also has to fit the story. It also doesn’t help that I am a perfectionist.

We’ll talk about cover art during the next few posts. For now, here are the specifics of scheduling.

The core Menhir series consists of five short novels — short by modern standards, that is. When I began writing, 40 to 50 thousand words was normal for a science fiction paperback. If it went much longer than that, it was hard to sell to a publisher for reasons revolving around the price of paper. I started Menhir in those days, and continued writing into the modern era when 100,000 words seems normal.

It never did see normal to me. I began in an era of brevity, and I still prefer it. The Menhir series has to be planned for a months long space of time. It needs four to eight weeks between books, but I could never keep up with a four week schedule because of the covers.

I have an unrelated book scheduled for next February. It really needs to be published at that time, so I am tentatively moving the Menhir novels into 2017. They should start in April and end in December, with eight weeks between each. I think I can manage that.

That leaves the rest of this year, but it’s no problem. All my books are finished, corrected, polished, and ready — except for covers. My present plan is to publish Learning from the Masters this September. I have that cover well in hand.

I hope.