You Will Get Your Witchfinder

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Tomorrow evening.  It might become a normal thing on Fridays.  Reason — I spend Thursday doing my normal writing.  Trying to cram the chapter in the evening leads to my forgetting plot points and will make it a b*tch to edit.  And, you know, part of the conceit is that I’m writing this just before I post.  So… late afternoon my time, which is evening most of y’alls.

The other reason is that I’m battling the flu or whatever this is, which means it takes me forever to do anything.  For instance, I’ve spent now a week editing a 20 page story.

16 thoughts on “You Will Get Your Witchfinder”

  1. Just wondering — Schlock Mercenary has a buffer, which Howard Tayler uses to keep his record going (a new post every day for… I think it’s over ten years now, without missing). I don’t think any of us would be too destroyed if you stayed a chapter or two ahead of us? That way, if you need to take a break for something, we could still get our weekly dose, and you’d have a chance to catch up? Seriously, I’d recommend setting yourself up a buffer of at least a couple of chapters. JIT writing… somehow doesn’t seem like a good idea.

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    1. yes, Mike, but Schlock Mercenary is his job. Right now the “day job” also known as what I get paid for is insane. I got back editorial letter on DSR, am overdue on the vampire book, and am trying to finish Noah’s boy, all while editing and proofing stuff to put up with Goldport. And don’t say “you don’t have to do all that at once” — there are instances why it might become mighty pinched monetarily around here in the near future (or we might dodge the bullet) and establishing indie publishing will help us survive that. OF COURSE to go full tilt on indie I need to finish contracts, and… ARGH. Do you see the problem?
      It will pass. And I’ll have one or two chapters of WF on hand, which I used to.

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      1. And I’ll add in the short stories, novellas and novels she also has contracted with NRP, including A Flaw in her Magic and the first of the kitten mysteries. ;-)

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          1. Bwahahahahahaha!

            Actually, it is their loss. Of course, they wouldn’t understand much of it, especially not the parts where you discuss what is wrong with the industry and offer realistic solutions.

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    2. Hmm, yes, cause it’s just so easy to pull this stuff out of your butt. As Sarah points out, that’s Tayler’s _job_. Sarah’s day job is writing stuff. I happen to know, because I’m one of her first readers, she has a ton of stuff currently under contract. Which doesn’t _Just_ mean she has to get it written. It also means she has to deal with editors, who may or may not have read previous work in the same series, but are demanding changes anyway.

      She’s kindly decided to write Witchfinder _in public_ basically _for fun_ and _for her readers._ It may or may not actually be a paying gig. So which paying job do you want her to neglect so you can get your free fix? The next Thenaverse? How about the next Shifter novel everyone is waiting for?

      I’m a journalist. I’m used to writing on tight deadlines. I’m not used to trying to do that while simultaneously MAKING IT UP AS I GO ALONG.

      Are you a writer sir? Do you have any concept of how hard this is? Do you even begin to understand the stresses writing — either non-fiction as I do, or fiction as Sarah does — puts on you?

      In either case it’s a highly creative process which is mentally, emotionally and aye, _physically_ draining.

      I know after a day when I’ve had to output say two or three _thousand_ words I come home mentally wrung out. And I”m just reporting what other people said. So how much more difficult must it be to make it all up from whole cloth?

      I repeat sir, exactly what paying job is she supposed to quit working on so that you can get your free fix on your personal time table?

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    3. My apologies to everyone that I seem to have upset. Personally, I’d be perfectly happy for Sarah to post whenever she feels so moved. However, there seemed to be some anxiety expressed about not posting “on schedule.” Since I know I get obsessive about hitting targets like that, even when self-imposed, I’ve also kept my eyes out for ways to try to reduce the pressure, and keeping a buffer works reasonably well, I think. Just a suggestion, nothing else.

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        1. I’m glad you weren’t upset. Yeah, the Catch-22 on getting ahead is that you almost have to declare a break to do it, especially when things are busy. Usually turns out to be great advice — for the next time around. Oh, well.

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  2. I’m all for whatever gets the author happy to write, m’self. I keep checking in, and sometimes there’s a bit of fic, like bonus chocolate!

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  4. I hope you feel better as well. The flu that has it here in Virginia has been brutal. We have a one year old granddaughter whe has been renamed the “Fairy Germ Daughter”. On Christmas Day she gave everyone the flu and the next week started passing around the cold from hell. Add in cataract the first surgery and it has been an interesting month.

    Your blog was the first I read on the Friday after the surgery. That is when I found out that I could read with my new multifocal lens using one eye. It is a true delight to realized that after next week glasses will be a thing of the past. Even the astigmatism has been fixed. There are few benefits in getting older but this is wonderful.

    Just post when you can. Your loyal readers understand and will keep checking.

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    1. Mary,
      Thank you. Around here it’s my son (17) who’s been nicknamed “Victor the Vector” (No, his name is not Victor, I just threaten to change his name to that twice a day.) Actually he’s gotten much better at not bringing stuff home, but he’s in a robotics club, working till all hours, not sleeping enough, eating in the same room with a lot of other kids, well…

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      1. Anecdotal, but — the malady appears to be all over, or at least all over the area of my experience, which is roughly bounded by Houston, Shreveport, Oklahoma City, Denver, El Paso, and Mexico City. The ground state appears to be a runny nose of greater or lesser severity, progressing to uncontrolled sneezing followed by sinus blockage; that may or may not become an upset stomach before swinging back through runny nose to clear breathing accompanied by cough, which may continue for a week or so before going back to the runny nose stage. The “blockage and upset stomach” stage includes muscle ache and a compelling desire for sleep; the “clear breathing” stage includes greater or lesser degrees of mental disorientation, including inability to bring things you know well to mind.

        Almost everybody I know has it. What I think is that the octopoids of Arcturus IV have landed somewhere in the unpopulated hinterlands of the area I described above. Their human slaves’ ancestors were captured eight or ten thousand years ago, so they form an isolated population which has developed diseases unique to them which we can catch — and have.

        Regards,
        Ric

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          1. Well, here we have three viruses. Younger son got one, I got another and my husband seems to have the one Ric Locke mentioned. It’s… interesting. Mine is mostly characterized by immense tiredness with occasional coughing.

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