megwrites

Well, it's been ten weeks from the first posting to this, but all thirty chapters of

cityofthehand are up and available to read. You can now go from beginning to end!

The final ebook file (which I hope to have in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF formats, gods willing and laptop don't fry) should be up and ready for downloading on 1-July. If not, it may be after the 4th before I get it done. But rest assured, if you were waiting for the final ebook file, it's coming.

Seeing as how part of my incentive to reward any who tipped/donated was to give them the full ebook early, I'm now changing that. If you put in for the tip jar, you can either get named thank you on my tumblr, twitter, or DW/LJ sites or you can have me link/signal boost to any site or person or thing you think deserves it.

If you tip in $25 or more, then you can get those things listed above *and* a short story, poem, essay, etc.

I'm actually kind of a little emotional here. I guess these ten weeks have been something I looked forward to. Because every week I had at least one thing I had to get accomplished, and seeing more and more people either friend the various journals where I posted the novel or send me a nice note or two or even put into the tip jar gave me badly needed boosts when I was feeling down.

As I said last week, money is still tight around here and Girlie!Dog had to go and need some medicine this week. Gah, silly dog, not wanting to get contagious diseases or heartworms or ticks. Such a princess this one. Geez. *sarcastic eye roll*.

I'm a bit shy about asking, but if anyone had any thoughts about putting into the tip jar - even if it's just a dollar or two - now would be a REALLY GREAT TIME to do that and I could sure use it.

And if you can't or don't feel like it (fair enough!), dropping a note to say how you liked the book or recommending it to a friend you think might enjoy it is also something that would really be awesome. Feedback - criticisms, critiques, praise, or just "hey, cool book" - is always welcome with me.

Better yet, I know better than to argue with reviews, so feel free to review it as honestly as possible!

You thought I forgot didn't you?

Nope!

The next three chapters of The City of the Hand are live! They're up and ready to read either here at Dreamwidth (

cityofthehand) or over at the LJ mirror of the novel (

cityofthehand)!

We're getting very, very close to the end now. This is the second to last update. Next week (probably on Friday) will be the final three chapters and then on July 1st I'll have the entire ebook file (in PDF, MOBI and EPUB formats, god willing) ready for people to download if they like.

Also, if anyone was thinking or considering about putting into the tip jar, please do. Money's gotten a little tight with a few medical bills and also Ye Old Car becoming very ye and very old and at the end of it's lifespan a few extra dollars would be really welcome right about now. Again, it's not as urgent as some folks who need money, but if you had any hankering to put any little bit into the tip jar, now would be a real great time to do that.

It comes with benefits! If you want to get the complete ebook file (in format of your choice) before July, any amount of money will do.

If you donate $25 or more, you get a short story, essay, poem, or other creative work from me. So if you like certain characters, want to revisit certain places, or just want to know some stuff that isn't in the story, put your cash in the tip jar and request away. How many times do you get to tell the author what you want to have written? I'll even try to draw the characters if you like. I make no promises about the quality of the resulting art, however.

Even if you don't have or just don't feel like putting money in (understandable), if you liked the novel even a little, tell a friend! Share a link! Write a review! I'd love to see anyone's honest, over all opinion. And I always welcome criticism, critique, and comments.

So I hope you've enjoyed taking this little journey in free fiction with me, and I hope most of all that you're enjoying this story. If nothing else, let it inspire you to know that if someone like me can write a whole damn book, you certainly can.

The new chapters of The City of the Hand are up and ready to read here on DW (

cityofthehand) or over at the LJ mirror (

cityofthehand).

We're half way through the book now. And if you haven't kept up or gotten a chance to read, no worries. You can start from the beginning any time you like! That's the great thing about books. They wait for you.

The next three chapters of City of the Hand are up and available for your reading pleasure at both DW and the LJ mirror. So, have at:

cityofthehand / cityofthehand.

Question for anyone still reading (bless your souls): Would having a wordpress or tumblr mirror be at all helpful or is everyone pretty much able to access LJ and DW satisfactorily enough? If so, I can set something up. If not, I'll keep cross posting between these two sites.

And as always: linking, recommending if you liked it is appreciated and comes with my love and gratitude. So, feel free to tell anyone and everyone about it. Donations in the tip jar get you the entire ebook file free ahead of time and anything over $25 gets you your own poem, short story, or non-fiction essay on topic of your choice!

The City of the Hand now has a fully functional LiveJournal mirror for those who are not on DW and may not want to be. I hope this will make things more accessible for folks!

cityofthehand

Same content, different site. Let me know if anything is wonky or buggy or not working over there!

Would having a livejournal mirror for

cityofthehand be helpful and make it more accessible/readable to people or is everyone finding it easy enough to get to it on dreamwidth?

The next three chapters of City of the Hand are up and ready for your reading pleasure. Just hop on over to

cityofthehand!

As always, feedback, comments, criticisms, and critiques are welcome. As are links and recommendations to friends if you like the story. And, of course, tip jar contributions are very appreciated. Donate in any amount and get the entire novel in ebook format (have it before all your friends do!). Tip over $25 and you get a short poem, story, or essay of your choice written. Tip over $30 and, well, pick your poison. Tipper's choice!

OH MY GOD. Somebody put money in the tip jar for

cityofthehand. OH MY GOD. I'm freaking out and having like hyperventilations of joy.

Whoever you are that put a tenner in the tip jar, I LOVE YOU FOREVER. I never thought anyone would, really. I only checked paypal on a lark. I was just glad to have the story out there and have a few people following it. Seriously. I just cannot even express how awesome this is.

I wrote a story and somebody liked it enough to give me money. This has never happened before.

This is seriously a big high point for me.

Also, my husband suggested that I offer those who put money in the tip jar the opportunity to get the entire novel as an ebook file (pdf or something) so they don't have to wait for the entire thing. Anyone think this is a good idea or not?

I kind of like the idea of having something to say, "Thank you person who put your hard earned money in my tip jar."

Thoughts?

1. Half the letters requested are sent out and in the hands of the U.S. postal system. The other half should be in the mail by next Tuesday at the latest.

2. In case you missed yesterday's announcement, the first three chapters of my novel The City of the Hand are up at

cityofthehand. Links, signal boosting, feedback, criticism, critiques, and dollars in the tip jar are all appreciated! Let me know if anything about the layout makes things hard to read or if another format would be more helpful for readers. I'm here to serve.

3. Thank you to everyone for the wonderful and kind birthday wishes. I love y'all so much. I really do. It really means a lot to me when people take the time to wish me a happy birthday. Wish you could be here to share in the booze and cake with me. Or, well, the food and drink of your choice!

Tomorrow is my birthday and as a slightly early birthday present to myself, I am proud to announce:

cityofthehand

I am now putting my fantasy novel, The City of the Hand online in it's entirety. It's somewhere shy of 100,000 words. This novel is the story of Maira who's just going about her business as a courier when she stops a murder (but not in time) and gets burdened with delivering something very dangerous on behalf of a dead man. Except that it seems, suddenly, some of the most powerful people in the city aren't so must interested in that as they are her.

So in addition to the world's longest and worst delivery job - there's a snarky, dashing, handsome sorcerer, two agents of the secret police who are way too awesome for their jobs, all kinds of people with all kinds of wings, a Tract Lord who once made it rain bodies from the sky, dramatic chases and diabolical priestesses, mysterious messages, the most delicious food that nobody ever ate, never ending carnivals, and a deadly, all-consuming, evil forest where the trees eat people.

The first three chapters are posted there along with acknowledgments and a table of contents. The novel is 30 chapters long, so I'll be posting three chapters a week -- god willing and the creek don't rise. At the end of posting, I'll have the entire thing in one neat ebook format so that people can put it on their e-readers if they like!

I've been debating doing this for a long time, and decided to do it after seeing a few other folks doing the same and because honestly, what I want for this novel is for people to read it and (hopefully) love the story.

Yes, there is a donation button because I really could use a few extra bucks for food, medical costs and various things. But don't think of this as a charity project. This is all about putting something out there because I want it out there. And if you want to throw a buck or two in the tip jar because you liked it, that's awesome.

I also welcome comments, critiques, and people linking and signal boosting. Oh, and let me know if anything is buggy with the layout of the site.

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an interesting monster

Entries tagged with projects

The last and final update for the novel

Special Saturday Update

New chapters!

Update time!

Hot off the presses!

Question for the masses

Read on, Garth!

OH MY GOD

Letters and things!

I can barely contain my squee! It's finally done!

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