#StarKnight: Book Two Updates

Another brief post.

The plot outline for Book Two is down to the details. Where it starts and ends is decided. The major points along the way are decided. Now it's taking notes on who is where, and what--in Executive Summary/High Concept format--happens at each point. I still have no clue about a title. Mechanical designs, heretofore not mentioned, are also coming along.

One new character being featured in Book Two is one implied by Reavers but not explicitly named: Count Robin, Gabriela's father. His role in the plot comes from his dissatisfaction with the performance of his cousin--Count Qis--to be his agent regarding Gabriela's security. In cutting off Qis from Gabriela, he's prevented Qis from easily tying up the loose end Gabriela is to him, but Count Robin doesn't know that detail yet. All he knows is that the silver-tongued courtier wrote a check with his mouth that his ass didn't cash, and Count Robin is not one to repeat his mistakes.

Qis also knows that the reason for this familial conflict comes from Lord Roland's report to him on the matter, an influence that had to include not only cutting him off from Gabriela, but to conceal her location from all but Robin and Roland due to concerns of retaliation by Red Eyes or his allies. Qis knows that Gabriela is the only witness to his treason; he has to get rid of her, and he can't kill her due to his deal with Azazel, or the entire jig is up. So his plan is to find her and get her out of the way; he has a Last Resort plan, which Count Robin forces him to use, to make this happen but the consequences of that action don't come until Book Three.

And Roland? He figured out that Gabriela has to be important to the mastermind behind Red Eyes's raid on New Edinburgh and Gabriela's abduction, but he doesn't know who that figure is, so he's using this vulnerability to attempt to flush out the identity of that figure. Part of Roland's aims in Book Two are to discover the mastermind's identity; once done, he's got the clout to push Qis's lord to cast him out and the Church to excommunicate him. (When you're one of the twelve greatest living heroes of Galactic Christendom, your name goes a long way.)

The Business: "Reavers" Is On Schedule

Again, this one is going to be brief.

I've gotten the manuscript back from my editor. Going over the edits and making changes is underway, and I will focus upon this through the end of the month. I want to be able to deliver in December, so that means finishing this step at best speed; then to get the cover, get the files formatted, and finally deliver to you backers in December before launching on Amazon after New Year's.

Book Two's outline is almost complete; the details of the plot are being worked out now. There is no title yet; stay tuned for that. If you're getting this via Indiegogo, please bookmark this blog or sign up for my newsletter. It's a far more reliable way to be notified going forward.

The Business: Arkhaven's Deplatforming & Reasonable Reactions Thereto

Last night, Indiegogo deplatformed Arkhaven Comics mere hours after founder Vox Day appeared in an interview at Bleeding Cool. Cirsova Magazine had one of the reasonable reactions to this development.

This $100K+ project that successfully funded was just killed by IndieGoGo and backers are being refunded.

Between this and Kickstarter's recent behavior, Cirsova will no longer be using either platform for any projects in the foreseeable future. https://t.co/lFqxEAcHij

— Cirsova: 2019 subs open; accepting issue 10 ads (@cirsova) October 11, 2018

The brief Twitter thread goes on to say that Cirsova is in a position where they don't need to rely on crowdfunding, but instead use it to make an event of the matter, and as such are able to walk away from Indiegogo as well as Kickstarter unless and until these abuses cease and desist. (Which is not likely, as both of these platforms are SJW-amenable if not converged.)

This would not be worthy of a post here, as a business post, if not for the fact that there is not a SJW-hostile competitor platform. Stripe (a payment processor) deplatformed Freestartr (where I formerly had an account) earlier this year, forcing the business to shut down; this is now the current line of defense used by the SJWs to kill competition to platforms/publishers/etc. that they control, with a further one (the banks and credit card companies themselves) being set up for when government action inevitably shuts this method down.

Bleeding Cool has already thrown the interview (and its writer) under the bus and thus knuckled under to the SJW Swarm Attack. They are #FakeNews, and will be treated accordingly hereafter. As for Indiegogo, I'm sufficiently under their radar that I can continue operating there until another Freestartr appears (at which time I'll move operations there), and once I get #StarKnight going I want to get the momentum moving such that I won't need to crowdfund at all a year from now; until then, I have to make do with the compromised options that there are, which means that I may have to consider doing some very old-school things like reminding people that snail-mailing Cashier's Checks by Certified Mail is still a thing.

So I am going to keep an eye on what Vox Day does about this, especially if it results in a bulletproof successor to Freestartr.

#AmWriting: #StarKnight Book Updates

This post will be brief.

The manuscript for Reavers is in my editor's hands. The cover that I revealed during the campaign is being colored. Backer email should be on its way to solicit those with appearance perks to contact me privately regarding that business; mind your Inboxes. Book Two is coming together; yesterday's post on the main blog showed one one of the showcase action sequences will be.

That is all. Enjoy your weekend.