Wednesday, August 31, 2016

August Update

I'm currently working on chapter 20 of Perilous Waif, so the end is finally in sight. I'm currently projecting that this book will be 27 chapter long, so by next month I should have a good idea of when it's going to be finished.

The audiobook version of Extermination is now available on Amazon. I expect that future audiobooks will be out within a month or two of the e-book version, since that seems to be how long production takes.

For those of you waiting for the next Daniel Back novel, I plan to go back to work on it as soon as the first draft of Perilous Waif is finished.

37 comments:

  1. Thank you for giving us an update on the Daniel black books I
    will be sure to check out your new series but I do hope that the next Daniel black book is out soon.

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    3. Hey so I was thinking wouldn't Daniels flying zepplin work better maybe if it was shaped differently? Like a saucer or something ? I mean he could put the viewing platform kinda at the top in the middle witch would give him a 360 degree view and would allow more weapons to be placed on the outside around the ship. I don't know I just thought it might be at good idea.

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  2. Thank you for the update. I read your Daniel Black series with kindle unlimited initially, then I bought them, then I bought the audible... Hope that gives you some indication of my priorities;). But, you never know, perhaps I will enjoy your scifi venture as well..

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  3. I've read hundreds of Syfy and fantasy novels and have found your work to be perticularly satisfying. So thanks for the update I eagerly await the results of your work

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  4. Woohoo ... can't wait. Ill certainly be interested in Perilous Waif, but I am seriously impatient for the next DB book. Ok, I'm dying here...can only re-read the first three so many times...

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  5. I bought and liked the audio books but the mispronciations are really annoying. I know some of the words - like Trebuchet - can be pronounced the other way but its still annoying. Why wouldn't you use the version of the pronounciation that is in more common usage.

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    1. Yup, that annoyed me as well. It less of the author's issue and more of narrator. I am not sure how the production process works, but I've heard audiobooks where certain parts sounded like it was re-recorded afterward, like the tone and emotions differs from the rest. So, regardless of why those parts were required to be re-recorded, I do believe it is possible, just more production cost.

      I'm under the impression that the author didn't partake in the final review process and just contracted it out. I'm totally used to the narrator's voice and it'll sound weird if another narrator picks it up. But I'm still waiting for the day that another narrator narrates it.

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    2. I did not know there is more than one way to pronounce trebuchet. How did the narrator pronounce it?

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    3. treb-bu-chet
      Common usage is Treb-bu-shay

      See here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZbfzFpGMMA

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  7. >I'm currently working on chapter 20 of Perilous Waif, so the end is finally in sight.

    yes yes yes yes

    >I'm currently projecting that this book will be 27 chapter long, so by next month I should have a good idea of when it's going to be finished.

    Yes Yes Yes Yes

    >For those of you waiting for the next Daniel Back novel, I plan to go back to work on it as soon as the first draft of Perilous Waif is finished.

    YES YES YES YES!

    ...out of curiosity, how do you do cover art for your books?

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  9. Ahhh, sweet relief! Finally some good news. Thank you very much, Mr. Brown, for this update. This clears things up quite nicely. Same as most of us diehard fans here, I will of course read your new book while waiting impatiently for the next DB opus. On the subject matter, I was wondering if were open to taking bribes to speed up the writting? :) For exemple, we could send some cookies on the "down-low", and for those of us like me who live in France, I'm sure there's lot's of other interesting stuff (snails not included).
    To weigh in on the pronounciation issue, "trebuchet" is a french word and in french you don't pronounce the "t" at the end, so there's really no reason to start doing in it english. That word in particular was really grating my ear, and I see I'm not the only one (not blaming you of course Mr. Brown).

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    1. Yeah and was just one example. There are at least 20 different words and names that he constantly mispronounced.

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  10. Hello Mr. Brown. I was wondering how long do you plan for the Daniel black series to go for. I know that it is strange to be asked this. I understand that a series will go for as long as it is popular, but I was just wondering on you plans for the series. Thank you for taking the time to read this message and I love your writing style. Have a good day.

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    1. Yeah I'd be interested in finding this out too since I love the series and just finished re-reading all 3 books over 2 days so I might want to wait till I have 1-x more books ready to read in one go again.

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  11. Been waiting a year to hear this! Woot woot!

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  12. Whoopee!
    So we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel….Daniel’s adventures will be continued.

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  13. While you work out your structure/storyline for the next (dozen?) DB-books….
    Could you feed us some background/information-tidbits?

    Some background information like you did with your sf-project (in July)?

    In September 2015 we got some Information about nature spirits (the tree-fairies) and in March 2015 we got some answers about magic and magic users.

    There are so many more topics…
    Information about magic, monsters, persons/organisations, history, races, countries, cities, geography…..please give!

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    1. Hello Mr. Brown. First of all thank you for the books - they are great! Love the characters and the world you have created.
      I'll second Plattmaker's appeal for more info-dumps about the world of Daniel Black.
      Pretty please!

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  14. After reading through the Daniel Black books for the umpteenth time……I stumbled (again) over this…
    Did I mention those great magical bags of holding of the dark elves this month already?

    Great dimension-space-compression-magic!

    A small belt pouch with the capacity of a locker (for example)…. you have space for ALL the plunder/trinkets/equipment.

    Every gamer can tell you: An unlimited inventory is priceless!

    Okaaay…on second thought…Daniel Black having a small or veery big bag will have absolutely no impact on the story….but it is still such a cool conception!
    And who knows maybe he will need a bag big enough for an apple tree or two….??

    Or put the enchantment on bracers (or Cerises fingerless gloves) for instant access to the personal weapons stockpile.
    2 dozen throwing daggers, 4 dozen throwing stars, 1 dozen javelins, dwarven battle axe, gun, twohanded sword, 2 longswords…. and the barbeque tongs for the after-battle snack…….no problem, it is all right here in my sleeve!

    Put it on boxes, lockers or even buildings to multiply storage and living space manyfold without changing the physical building dimensions.

    This is a fairy tale classic….a small hut on the outside and once you are inside you walk for hours through a grand palace!

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    1. I was thinking that the bag of holding would be used as an exotic weapon, say you set off a massive fusion reaction and hay presto you have a pocket sun then you'd just need to set up a delayed breakdown of the dimensional holding aspect and you have a sneaky bomb.

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    2. Also a short time directional bomb ;) open the bag of holding place opening of bag in desired direction and let it spew out. Should put the whammy on most anything hehe.

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  15. Is there a rough estimate of Daniel Black #4 release date?
    I just Love this series so much!

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    1. I think the last time he said something about it he said something to the effect of aiming for sometime in fall

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    2. Fall this year I believe but it has been long enough since he said that that I'm not sure.

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    3. Would oh so much like this to be true, but lets look at the progress rate(s) so far.

      Mai 8th: Perilous Waif Chapter 13
      Revenant Chapter 3 (stalled)

      July 4th: Perilous Waif Chapter 16

      August 31st: Perilous Waif Chapter 20


      Perilous Waif has been progressing at a rate of
      about two chapters per month (*), and as of the
      last update four weeks ago there were still seven
      chapters of a projected total twenty-seven waiting
      to be written. That means work on the first draft
      of PW can be expected to wrap in late November,
      early December.

      At which point Mr. Brown said he would pickup
      writing on Revenant again, which has currently
      three chapters in the can. Now the three previous
      Daniel Black books weighed in at fifteen, twenty-
      five and twenty-six chapters respectively, so we're
      looking at twenty-something chapters yet to be
      penned plus time for polishing at the editors.

      Mr.Brown also mentioned that with the worldbuilding
      and (rough) plot layout for the next three volumes
      already done writing on the DB series should pro-
      gress a lot swifter than on PW. Unfortunately even
      at twice his current writing speed that would still
      mean we're a good six months(*) until a finished
      first draft for Revenant, followed by another four
      to six weeks (**) of manuscript proofing before
      actual publication.

      And that's without any holiday breaks or the
      author's person- or professional life rearing its
      ugly head to run interference. Best case scenario
      for a realistic Revenant drop date is sometime
      late May 2017. If he where to _really_ hustle - as
      in write at quadruple his current speed, churning
      out two full chapters a week every week - he could
      theoretically shave a month and change of that
      date, but anything earlier than April next year
      just isn't in the cards imho.

      __________________________

      * = slightly less so far if average over the whole five months, but this is all guesstimates anyway so no point being anal about fractions.

      ** = based on the length of the proofing process of the last two books.

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    4. Thank you for killing my dreams so effectively....

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  16. Meh, despite all the naysayers: you sir survived my author's blog purge. Congrats. Jim C. Hines, Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss, Rick Gualtieri, Kelly McCullough, H. Jonas Rhynedahll, D.W. Jackson, P.S. Powers, Kevin Hearne, Jamie Mcfarlane, Lev Grossman, Brian S. Pratt, and Chris Hetchl did not. They got the ye ol' boot to the curb. Freshness level on zero, interaction level of zero, content level of zero, no releases of mention or the books that made their fame were driven into the ground or abandoned. Congratulations on surviving the purge!

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  17. In January you said as an experiment you'd be releasing two versions of the sequel to Extermination, one with explicit scenes and one with 'Fade to black' with not plot essential themes.

    Which version will be available on Audio?

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  18. I'm definitely looking forward to the next Daniel Black book, that series is amazing.

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  19. Perilous Waif was great fun. I am eagerly awaiting the next saga in the series.

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