Despite all appearances, I haven't yet died. Like many older authors, I'm hardly as spry as I once was, yet I'm still getting by, mostly.
Thanks for the sales for my newest version of one of my older works, Clinging to Hope. I'd mentioned hoping to post it, yet that never quite happened, yet. Hopefully, once I'm ready to start posting new stories, I'll also start reposting that new revision too, but... for now, I'm just too out of practice and quite a few things of changes since I last tried posting to the site.
As usual, every time I see a newbie poster, I try to take the under my wing and teach them the ropes, even if I'm not a fan of the content you're posting. One was bitching about the terrible review he was getting, so I carefully explained how what he is posting my get more negative feedback than positive, so he revised how his posting it, clearly specifying which chapters of the story of the most objectionable, so he readers can decide for themselves whether to read those or not.
As a result, the last I heard, he's getting a much fairer rating than he was initially. Again, no one on SOL likes the same things, but as the labeling is fair, we can pick and choose without denigrating or downvoting those newest to the site. In the longterm, as long as everyone is viewed by the quality of their work, and not exclusively the most objectionable subject matter, it'll help encourage other newbie authors too.
As my my own works, I have a couple active stories (WIPs, for 'Works in Progress') in the works. One I started, make significant headway, yet never posted/published it because it was ALL tell and No show. That was the approach I chose for the time travel story, yet it just never worked as well as I'd hoped. The underlying story and premise are solid, the implementation, not so much, unfortunately. I do have some professional pride after all.
The other two active stories, none yet near the full novel (60+K words) status yet, though they're still ongoing. I may have to post them an extra-long novelettes, but time will tell.
One is a nontraditional story for me, a relational drama, essentially a Reverse Revenge story, where the guy cheated on and his life destroyed, builds a separate private life, and when his young children finally come of age, they reconnect, after being pressed by his ex to testify against him. That one Impressionable Daughters is currently at 9 chapters and 30,000 words (half a novel), and has been there for a while.
My newer story, a complete rewording of an older favorite story trope, is coming along quite well, a standard interstellar Sci-Fi, it focuses, initially, on the individual protagonists, one at a time, for the entire first book, before they ever leave home (i.e. Earth), though nearly everything else is similar enough to my older standard fare.
Though how it does with an entirely new generation, now that most of my older fans are no longer active or at least no longer active on SOL, is another matter entirely. Yet it's a new way of telling an old story, so some will likely love it, and others despise it, as that's the nature of the best when you rewrite older story/tropes and the story they were based on too.
That story Not Nearly Human currently weighing in at seven chapters for 28,000 words, each chapter is slightly longer, yet still in the same ballpark as the other.
By the way, the few I've allowed to review and comment on the more problematic story Nowhere Like Home, loved it, yet it's just to as satisfying to me, as an author. Still, I'm just as likely to revise and reconsider posting and publishing it too. Yet that one IS a complete novel, at 18 chapter for a full 105,000 word novel. If nothing else, it would help set the stage to introduce the newer stories.
Oh, and as always, there were several which were left lying where they fell apart. I could go back and try reviving them, as the stories are solid, yet they're just not printable as they currently stand. In short, I'm spending most of my time fruitlessly spinning my wheels, trying to recapture my for grandeur, which I may just may no longer be up to anymore.
But mostly, I've spent the last several years experimenting it the various techniques I never allowed myself to fully explore while I was still on the traditional 'publish or perish' treadmill. So the writing itself, is much better than it originally, though again, the better written books, in the traditional Literary genre, have never sold well without a LOT of support by traditional publishers, who view it as a better image for the publisher than most of the biggest selling genres, which are MUCH easier to read.
Still, a lot of irons in the fire still, and a lot of options, and hopefully, Clinging to Hope, a revision, updated version of my much older, Clinging to Hope as the World Falters, part of my 2nd Sci-Fi series "The Great Death Series" first released in 2012.
So, I haven't just been spinning my wheels. ;)
Vincent Berg