Whew.

Don’t worry, I took a break of a few hours between finishing Codex and gearing up on the next project. A few short, horrible hours. I’ve dropped hints about the new novel in interviews and drunken tweets, but I’m happy to announce not only the subject matter but also the posting schedule.

The novel concerns the waning Belle Époque and the thunderous clash of World War I, back in those heady days at the dawn of the Atomic Age.

Did I mention that the novel is alternate history?

But, by god, there’s a lot of regular history to be read first so that my history is alternate and not just garbage. I’ve spent several years researching the era, and I’m continuing to scour the historical record for the rest of this year while I finish the outline. What does that mean for you, dear reader?

First, that you can expect the beginning of the new novel on a Monday in January. That feels like a long way off, but it’ll come sooner than I think.

Second, the chapters will come less regularly than Codex, on a monthly schedule, but what they lack in frequency they’ll make up for in girth.

Third, the publishing schedule of the Guide to Moral Living in Examples remains unchanged: piping hot updates will still scald your brain on Wednesdays and Fridays.

One of the more interesting excuses, however, is that I’m approaching the end of the draft of Codex Nekromantia that I’m submitting to my publisher. Note that it’ll have to be broken, taped, eyeballed and finally welded back together before we reach the final draft, but the characters have been birthed, killed and revived as abominations at least once by now. Progress has been made!

I’m intending to continue providing updates to Codex with the current draft, as I’ve done so far. The finished, published copy will be more polished but will be largely the same narrative as the edition on the site. This is not only because I want to abuse your wallet, but also because I firmly believe that seeing the rougher version helps lift the veil of profound mystique around the process of novel creation. Also I like abusing your wallet so that I can get my Big Author Bucks.

Please look forward to a Moral Guide entry following this post, featuring the finest things in life!

I hear you ask: but Greg, what are the finest things in life?

My answer, the same as always: some vampires, a barn, a rainy night and a goddamned castle.

As the site’s grown, it’s been running into the walls of its cage, and so I’ll be starting to roll out enhancements at a blistering pace of “when I get a free evening and an open beer.”

Here’s what I have in mind:

1. Enable comments with Disqus. I resisted it because I like to roll my own and I’m the sort of guy who uses NoScript and encourages others to do the same, but as I’ve gotten involved in the web fiction community I’ve had to manage all sorts of logins myself and it’s making my ass tired. This is the first post that should have them enabled. Please give it a spin and tell me how I fucked up the implementation!
2. Fix CSS bugs around the site. I’m embarrassed about these so please forgive me if I don’t paste my list of CSS glitches here.
3. Organize and expose the stories more better-er. Some are everywhere, some are buried, and the only constant is that the hierarchy is rather unintuitive to everybody but me. Don’t worry: those of you reading via RSS won’t have anything change. I will always always always keep what I can available via RSS.
4. And finally, the issue that I’ve wrestled with the longest: money, donations and merch. The Guide to Moral Living in Examples (and by extension, all of my writing) does not pay for itself. The cash has come out of pocket and it’s been difficult to balance the expenses against the needs of my wife’s grad school, pet expenses and my addiction to barbecue sauce. Don’t get me wrong: I tell stories because I have to – when I don’t, I am grouchy and crappy and horrible to be around. You would be, too, if you had tiny gargoyles banging with hammers on the inside of your head trying to get out. And I am lucky enough to have an excellent day job that enables me to have this mighty fine site. But I have to get over my pride of asking for help.

Change is terrifying but we can handle it together because, remember, this site usually holds court with SPOOKY VAMPIRES AND HAUNTED ALIEN MUMMIES, so a little change don’t mean shit.

Especially Brent, because he supplied me with a great moral.

Don’t betray people who are doing you a favor, kids, or else one day they might summon a skeleton to sit outside of your bedroom window with a double-neck bass and lay down a super sweet bass line. All night. And then wail out a soulful solo sometime around 3am when you’re already staring at the shadows, praying for the Grim Reaper to come save you from the acoustic torment, but he’s down on the lawn with his skeleton buddy playing the xylophone accompaniment.

Seriously, Brent, I said that I was sorry. Your moral will go up on Monday and Wednesday.

On Friday, I moved my sister in law to the Blasted North Side of Chicago. It really cemented my apathy towards the city since I had a sixteen foot moving truck on some of the busiest and narrowest roads. We also hit traffic going to a Cubs game.

Then on Saturday we packed up my shit, Sunday I got a cold and started driving. We made Buffalo before we stopped. Then we drove somemore. The highlight of the road was the popup trailer with a busted tire that was driven for thirty miles at highway speeds to an offramp. I don’t know why the axle wasn’t sparking, but then, I also don’t know why other drivers forgot how to go into the left lane.

We arrived on Monday night. And now it is Saturday morning and I’m full of vigor. Vigor, coffee, and fresh Rhode Island air. And the strains of a double-neck bass and the faint clicks of osseous fingers hitting the strings.

The good news is that all next week is going to be Guest Week for the Guide to Moral Living in Examples! I have an array of talented writers to supply you with examples on how to live morally, in case I’ve missed any big ones.