My Patreon now has a video.
Getting the fine folks of Lawrence Systems to shoot it competently had a cost. They wanted to interview me. So we did. It’s sort of random, but a good time was had by all.
I will say: that is a lot of books.
New “Immortal Clay” short story
I’m pushing to get Bones Like Water, or Immortal Clay #3, finished by the end of 2018.
While you’re waiting for that, though, the latest issue of Boundary Shock Quarterly has an Immortal Clay short story. Shoot Through the Heart is about a couple of teenagers “survivors” having a really bad day while trying to make the world better. Get it at Amazon, Kobo, or anywhere else ebooks are sold.
Don’t want to buy a whole magazine for one story? Buy it for all the other stories too. I’m appearing with a bunch of other authors. If you’re not convinced, SttH will appear as bonus content at the end of Bones Like Water.
As it’s halfway through 2018, I should confess that I’m not going to accomplish my 2018 goals. Life simply hasn’t gone as I’d hoped. I’ve pushed too hard on projects I should have given up on, and not worked on projects that my heart is screeching to work on. But, there will be jails. And there will be watery bones.
After that, we’ll see.
New Patreon video
I’ve had a Patreon for a while, and it seems to be working okay.
So, with help from Lawrence Technology Services, I created a Patreon video. By “help,” of course, I mean that Tom and Marvin at LTS worked the camera, did the editing, provided the set, did the lighting, and probably dozens of other things I have no awareness of.
I did, however, write the script and blather in front of the camera.
If you have three minutes to waste, check it out.
I don’t know if this video is right for Patreon. I don’t know if it’s amusing. I have been assured, however, that it’s very me.
Book Fair, 23 June 2018
I’ll be at the Scriptorium Book Fest in Troy, Michigan this coming Saturday. No, my name’s not on the official list there at the bottom, but I’m a late addition.
The Book Fest features a few dozen local authors, all of us available for discussion, photos, and general abuse. We’ll all have copies of our books.
If you’re in Metro Detroit, come by and find your new favorite book.
Now, back to writing git sync murder and FreeBSD Mastery: Jails…
Author Discoverability
I’m at BSDCan, so it’s a great time to talk about the discoverability aspect of being a writer. My goal is to make a living as a writer for the rest of my life. My literary craftsmanship affects that, but it’s not the biggest factor.
When you read a book, a couple things can happen. You might get quit reading partway through and forget about it. You might read the book, take what you need, and move on. Or, if the author twiddles your brain just right, you’ll track down everything else the author has written and buy it all.
As a matter of craft, I need to improve my writing so that it’s more likely that people who happen to encounter my books experience that addictive dopamine rush.
But as a business, that’s insufficient. Businesses can grow, stagnate, or wither. I can scrape by on stagnation, but eventually my current readers will die and my business will wither. Yes, yes, dead readers are a tragedy and I’ll mourn each and every one of you, but more importantly, they’ll interfere with paying my mortgage.
So I need to grow my business, which means expanding my readership.
Growth means exposing my work to new readers. Every reader exposed to my text risks experiencing that dopamine rush and suffering addiction. This is called “advertising.”
I appreciate all the folks who tell others about my work. Frankly, a person’s word to a friend is the most powerful advertising you can have. But in some ways, I’ve achieved market saturation. If you run a BSD, you’ve been exposed to my books. If you watch BSDNow, you know who I am. I’m grateful that Allan and Benedict admit that I exist.
Parts of the non-BSD world know I exist. Every time Julia Evans says something nice about me, I get a sales surge. NixCraft supports my work with reviews and public statements. These folks help pay my bills.
So, I know my work can generate appeal beyond my core BSD crowd.
I’m now looking for other podcasts to appear on, for both fiction and nonfiction. I’ll be on IT in the D on 30 July. A couple other podcasts are in discussion.
Ideally, though, a book sells itself. A book generates buzz. One book that “hits” drags in many new readers.
I’ve had a viral hit in the last twelve months. A book brought in more readers than any podcast I’ve been on. That book is, of course, Savaged by Systemd.
When something works? Do it again, but differently. Maybe as a dystopia rather than satire. And with blockchain instead of systemd.
In unrelated news: I’m a bad person, and I should feel bad.
“FreeBSD Mastery: Jails” Sponsorships, and writing schedule changes
I’ve been scurrying to finish git sync murder, the sequel to git commit murder, so I could have it at BSDCan.
This isn’t going to happen. If I’d been writing anything else it would have been done, but the numbers show that cozy mystery is not my natural form. Most of the time I top out at about 500 words per hour, as opposed to the 1000 wph I achieve writing fiction involving flamethrowers and bare-knuckled amateur dentistry.
For the record, I’m fine with the speed. Quality beats speed any day.
I’m therefore falling back to my usual writing schedule: 1.5-2 hours per day on fiction, and the rest on nonfiction.
Per my 2018 schedule, it’s time to start writing FreeBSD Mastery: Jails. I’ve been idly assembling the parts over the last couple of months.
For you folks who said you wanted to sponsor it: have your choice of ebook or print.
Depending on how this book comes out, I might do a second jails book. Print sponsors of this book will have the option to sponsor the second book at a reduced rate. Those who sponsor both will get special jail-themed recognition. It’ll completely depend on how complex the book is.
The goal is always the best book.
New talks, and the F-bomb
The video from my recent mug.org visit is now online. It’s my ZFS introduction, as well as a brief talk about Ed Mastery.
I had originally planned a talk about ed(1), but the ZFS talk went too long. (That first speaker was a real blabbermouth.) Instead, they asked me to talk about why the book was a secret, how I arranged sponsorship for that book, and how the various versions of that book came to be.
This talk is a little rough, because I wasn’t prepared to give it. I completely winged the whole thing.
It’s also the first talk where I drop the F-bomb, live and on camera. Because I have to rehearse my talks beforehand if I want to eliminate the cussing.
My talk from BSDCan 2017, on the OpenBSD Web Stack, is now live. It appeared a couple of weeks ago, but I only found it now.
I’ve updated my YouTube playlist with all of these, as well as a couple older talks I missed and a BSDNow interview.
My Penguicon 2018 Schedule
Putting everything together, this is what talks I’ll be in this year at Penguicon. All the slots are an hour long unless specified.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
It appears that I’m a sysadmin for half the con, and then a writer for the other half. That’s just the way I like things.
Also, I must commend this year’s Penguicon schedulers. For the first time ever, my talks do not overlap the LN2 ice cream sessions. This could not have been easy to achieve, and I sincerely appreciate their efforts to accommodate my personality defects quirks.
See y’all four weekends from now!
Too Subtle for my Own Good
It turns out that part of my April Fool’s book release failed. More than one person has commented on the excoriating review of Ed Mastery posted on Dan Langille’s blog.
People missed the italicized text at the top:
Here’s a guest post by Michael W Lucas.
I wrote this review.
Of my own book.
Ripping it apart as a terrible idea, and myself as a terrible author.
Of all the parts of the Ed Mastery release that could be taken as a prank, this was the most prankish. I thought it was obvious.
The failure of a prank goes on the prankster. Live and learn.
Now, back to writing “git sync murder…”
“Ed Mastery” follow-up
Yesterday I released #mwlSecretBook: Ed Mastery.
April first is the perfect day to release such a book. I wrote a nice release announcement and everything.
Now that April Fool’s is over I should probably say: this is a real book. It exists. You can buy it.
The Manly McManface edition? Yep, that exists. It is a real thing. To my surprise, people have bought it.
The release announcement? Completely sincere.
While I normally don’t solicit release day reviews, this time I did. Because if I’m releasing a book on ed, on 1 April, I want it to make a splash. There’s a lovely review from NixCraft. Peter Hansteen and Justin Sherrill gave their thoughts. Print sponsor Stefan Johnson also wrote a review, but I didn’t arrange that in advance; he just liked the book. In the interest of fairness, I should also point out this scathing review that appeared as a guest post on Dan Langille’s blog. (I know that last guy. He’s been trying to get me to play in freeway traffic for years.)
Since releasing that book, a few men have contacted me saying that while they usually like my work, the existence of the Manly McManface edition has prompted them to donate to men’s rights organizations. A few have declared that they pirated the book and then donated to said MRA organizations. To them I say:
Thank you for demonstrating my point. The Manly McManface edition was created just for you.