Look, I’m Contractually Obligated to Do This

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

No Man’s Land is out!

Are you tired of seeing it? Probably. But it is still my book and by contract with the guy upstairs — my husband. He’s working in the office, directly above me, while I do all internet stuff in the family room computer. Then I go upstairs and work in the office — I’m obligated to tell you IT’S OUT, IT’S OUT, IT’S OUT.

Also, GLEEEEEEP! As I’m terrified it will sink like a stone. And for reasons I can’t even define, except its being my oldest and most long-held world, this one is heart’s blood. It hurts that it doesn’t look like it will hit #1 in category. (All my other ones have.) Ah well. Is what is. I’ve never wanted to lose a bet (with Dan) more. But it looks like I’ll win.

Laura Montgomery gave me a very nice review — no we’re not engaged in a trade. I sent out a wide swath of e-arcs to friends, and she sent me one of hers, and…. — and I’m very shocked she liked it so much, since her stuff is so much more serious and hard. I was actually almost too embarrassed to ask if she wanted to read it.

I particularly like she got what I put in which is not always the case. (Most often WHY my fans like books surprises me.)

She got the “feel” of an adventure in a (very) strange land.

I’ll point out that IT’S NOT THAT KIND OF BOOK. I.e. if you’re looking for the sexy-sexy this ain’t it. There are relationships, but they’re mostly the “care for people” type ones. There is a scene in which Skip wakes up (literally and figuratively) from a very inadvisable entanglement but not only doesn’t it show anything beyond his waking up and going to the window to look outside, it’s the only one that even gets close to being uncomfortable in that way. (And it was uncomfortable for me. It stopped me writing the book for almost three months, because I didn’t wanna.)

I’ll be doing a “real” post in a little while. I’m down with something, and I honestly don’t know if it’s a cold, or just my auto-immune reacting to my desire to hide under the sofa at book release.

We’ll figure it out I guess.

Anyway, oh, yeah, the very weird songs…. This is my new favorite one.

Skip Hayden’s No Man’s Land.

63 thoughts on “Look, I’m Contractually Obligated to Do This”

  2. Deep, calming breaths.

    Skritch the kitties. Contemplate the purr.

    All is well.

    ……..

    Meanwhile, this is likely a slow takeoff, long flight launch. Like a planted seed, you kinda have to let it sit for a while.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I expect that there might be people who don’t pick up volume one until volume three is out, just to be sure it really is coming out.

      I was really hoping it would come out on KU.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. That’s a very good point. A decent fraction of readers kind of expect an indy trilogy to make it to book 2.5 and die on a cliffhanger.

        I suspect a decent fraction of them may not even notice the remaining ones in queue of know that they’re already done and just in editing.

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      3. I got my copy, but I’m not going to read it or Volume 2 (which I’ll also get when it’s available) until Volume 3 is out and in-hand. At my age, with the associated memory issues😒, I prefer single-sitting reading; even two weeks is too long.

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          1. Sure, but eARCs aren’t universally available (and some that are, such as Baen’s, are a bit pricey), and I have no problem with waiting a month for the entire book.

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        2. I was going to hold off until #3 was out, but a) the TBR stack is getting a little short, and b) Life is hitting me upside the head, so I might not finish V1.1 until V1.2 is released, (and V1.2 vs V1.3) and c) it looks like fun, dammit. :)

          Had to be up near the dental/medical places today, so I went to the hospital not-cafeteria and read in comfort while eating. After all the fun of making appointments and grocery shopping, I stopped at the sorta-Ice Cream* place and read some more.

          (*) DQ FTW.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. We also have been doing the medical today, but weirdly not for me. My voice is now completely gone so either cold or auto immune. Honestly, I usually only find out for sure it’s virus when Dan catches it. And unfortunately the man has an iron constitution. (Or fortunately. Can you imagine both of us being wilting violets.

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            1. I spent the night with a sore throat. Now it’s fading out but I’m getting very stuffy. Plus generically blah.

              It’s not li,e we’re neighbors or anything….

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              1. Dang. The wife is down with pneumonia for some reason, so I’ll lump this comment in with yours.

                I did preorder book one, so I am part of the club, and will likely begin reading it on my meal breaks at work tomorrow.

                Take heart, not everything in life requires self promotion. (unless you happen to be John Scalzi)

                Liked by 1 person

  3. Congratulations! It’s been a long ride, but worth it.

    (What we write and what we read aren’t and can’t be the same, I don’t think. I go where the good characters are, and different writers test their characters in different ways, producing different kinds of story.)

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      1. As a e-book or dead tree. If it is only going to be available in Kindle I’ll go ahead and get it, much as I prefer epub or something else outside of the Amazon maw.

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  6. I may have missed this information – is there/will there be a dead tree version? I suspect I will read this one often, just based on what I’ve read in SubStack, and I prefer dead tree for rereads.

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      1. Yes thank you so very much for doing the sliced tree version in paperback. I find that version so much nicer to read from, and the book shelves are 3:1 paperback to Hardbound sizing.

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    2. Looks like there are print versions (let’s see if WP will accept this obnoxiously long Amazon link): https://www.amazon.com/No-Mans-Land-Chronicles-Lost/dp/1630110698/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23UN55P2PEGPF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tKR6D-3eZOlum2OWv9WnBcYXcmW9WkpiiEcnGp9Xf_retSdl3GFC42ULY93F1cWl.2NyaFiBhoDOmy5H-aqQal3n0tx3SOULDl6mvyKit51g&dib_tag=se&keywords=Sarah+A.+Hoyt+No+Man%27s+Land&qid=1757441610&sprefix=sarah+a.+hoyt+no+man%27s+land%2Caps%2C398&sr=8-1

      I’ll be setting up an Amazon account and buying the paperback when I get home from work.

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  7. I read all three earcs. The story is very engaging in adventure, world building, and philosophical conundrums. I recommend reading it.

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  8. Book 1 Ordered! Woot! Double Thanks, as when I went to put your book into the ol’e shopping cart it showed the John van Stry book that didn’t show up in my order from last week just sitting there all lonely. So of course had to get them both at the same time, a lonely book is just a sad book.

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  9. I’ll have to contribute to the slow take-off for the book, as I’m heading on a vacation soon and the dead tree version(s) would be delivered while I’m away! However, that means I’ll get to order all three parts when I get back. I’ve already gotten to know and very much enjoy what’s going on with Skip et. al., when the paper copies arrive I’ll get to see how my wife reacts to them too.

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  10. New London has dark streets because it doesn’t have a whole lot of streetlights. Which can be problematic when you suddenly come up on the mini traffic circle just past the grocery store. I swear they’ve had more damn accidents there since they put it in than the entire 100 years before. Ah, btw, I’m talking about New London, NH.

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    1. [Looks to see if there’s a New London, Oregon.] Let’s just say that some cities back east could sue for plagiarism. Dallas, Oregon? Milwaukee? Salem? Not going to mention Springfield; that’s in the public domain no matter what Massachusetts thinks.

      And no, not in Oregon.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Leave off the final sentence, and you’ve written a pretty good introductory paragraph to some sort of modern or stellar noir story. As-is. (One does have to assume or explain away the absence of the presumably soon-to-be self-driving-car affliction, however.)

      “Stellar noir” is what I’m calling the future-urban-offworld setting of one of the Ellie Maclachlan stories, told by her latest sort-of-protege about the day they met. I’m sure it’s pre-existent, yet if it didn’t I’d be inventing it, just to follow the characters around in “Angel With a Sword” — gateway writing is what it is and does what it does. (Then how good, is simply up to the reader.)

      Perhaps next week’s vignette prompt will be noir-ish??

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  11. Be of good cheer, Sarah. This is a very good story and a very good book. You made the strange real, and then familiar.

    And get out from under the sofa!

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  14. Congratulations on the Official Release! Following the tales of your travail with the long-awaited accomplishment has been very engaging, and enlightening about the “back stage” aspect of writing.

    In re: “There is a scene in which Skip wakes up (literally and figuratively) from a very inadvisable entanglement but not only doesn’t it show anything beyond his waking up and going to the window to look outside,”

    In the Zeffirelli film of Romeo and Juliet (so long ago now!) I always appreciated the way he handled the “morning after” scene of the two young lovers. Very discrete (enough so that our high school showed it to the entire student body as part of the English curriculum), and yet very moving.

    Although it was perhaps a little bold to feature that scene in the newspaper ads!

    (See the picture at Wiki, it won’t embed here.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet_(1968_film)

    “The Motion Picture Association of America initially gave the film a G rating in the United States when it was first released, although they re-rated it to a PG rating in its 1973 re-release.”

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  15. Sarah! Your first book, right? I should buy it to help you out; maybe I’ll like your writing style. Your story, backwoods Portuguese girl becomes American sci-fi writer. Sort of like Polish mariner Josef Conrad becomes English language novelist Joseph Conrad.

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    1. This is closer to her hundredth book (in this timeline) than her first. I don’t know the count of books written. This isn’t even her first Indie book. It’s the story which has percolated the longest.

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      1. First book written vs. first book published.

        This sort of thing invalidates a lot of criticism, where literary critics assume all works were written shortly before publishing, and so in the order published.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Mark Lardas’ review had an infelicitous paragraph. It gave the impression I wrote this at 14. I did not. At 14 I couldn’t write in English, nor did I have the patience for something this long.
      In fact, the first version I wrote in English was 40 pages long and my poor new husband had the task of explaining it not only wasn’t a novel, it was a very skimpy outline.
      This is the ninth incarnation of my first SF novel idea, yes. :D

      Liked by 2 people

  16. Yo, Imma gonna let you finish, but Kanye always struck me as a very stable and well socialized individual. (kidding)

    Does anyone recall whether the government of Nepal last month was a bunch of Maoists?

    Anyhow, do you think you could get someone to extensively interview you about Skip’s opinions on social media censorship, and put it up on Rumble or something?

    It comes to mind, it literally cannot be misinformation, if you are talking about what a fictional man would believe.

    OTOH, maybe that is a marketing ploy that belongs later on during the life of this series.

    My budget does not allow me to buy paper copies, and then read them obviously at the office as a way of trolling people, but also my schedule does not allow that.

    I can’t really say when will be the right time for me to buy and read the ebook. Unplugging my computer at times has been giving me even more productivity gains, and I am a little excited by those. I have been thinking that I /might/ be able to push through this one stage of a project that has been hanging around ‘forever’.

    Please take care of yourself, please do not feel you need to apologize to us for necessary marketing tasks like this, and please do not worry about keeping up with us on gossip.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. That cover image at the top of the post should be a link to the ‘zon page.

    Yes, I know there are three over on the right side, but still. Web minion to the white courtesy phone…

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  20. Yeah, no, you’re not getting out of having written a cozy, multi-character Romance with All the Feelz (TM) that’s ALSO anthro-SF.

    Take it up with Sharon & the late, lamented Steve Miller. It’s a genre all right, and you committed it. 😁

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  22. As to hitting #1 in category … maybe, just maybe, if you count all the eARC copies, it does.

    Folks, even if you’ve read the eARC, buy the book!

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  23. I must say, it was well worth keeping the paid subscription to your substack to get the three No Man’s Land E-Arcs. It’s not just an absorbing action tale (though it’s definitely a page-turner), it also (without preaching) makes one think about how and why cultures and their moral judgements differ.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. And so now it’s Officially Official, No Man’s Land (Part 1/3) is truly out.

    Congratulations!

    Complete with jerky merchandise tie-in. No, really; though I did manage not to laugh quite out loud at the grocery store the other night. Obviously I must explain, and given that ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’ (or so says the Sainted Sagan), here’s a self-explanatory and even self-authenticating pointer:

    https://nmlbeefjerky.com/

    “AT NO MAN’S LAND…

    We slow dry our jerky the authentic way. It starts with lean, hand-trimmed cuts of beef that dry low and slow overnight.

    It’s not the fastest or cheapest method, but it’s the right one. Our process keeps the beef pure with no added water or junk.”

    I don’t think it’ll ever approach the magical serendipity of the King Harv’s Coffee tie-in; but there it is. And given the promotional sea chanteys, it doesn’t even win first prize for “strangest.”

    “Truth is stranger than fact.” (Hee Haw.)

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  25. And in weird coincidence, someone put up a video of a flash mob singing, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” in Paris (in English). The young man taking the part of Freddie Mercury instantly made me think of Skip. Light brown hair, not blond, but a definite resemblance. (His wearing a blue and gray track suit didn’t hurt any).

    Aside from the Frenchness of the government just collapsed and Parisians are staging a beautiful rendition of a song that ends with, “Nothing really matters, to me.”

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      2. Love Music and Julien Cohen posted it. It comes up at once on X searching “Bohemian Rhapsody Flashmob.”

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