Herr Doktor Treppenvitz's Oddments and Curiosities

Hey everybody.

So, first of all, the usual Tuesday announcement: Part 22 is up, and Book Two has come to its somewhat troubled conclusion.

Now, the second part: Not Providence is going on another break.

Before anyone panics, this one isn't because I have to move again, or anything scary or stressful like that. It's simpler than that, so much so that I can summarize it in three words: I'm burnt out. Wait, scratch that: I'm burnt out, and I need to focus on my career.

Not Providence is great fun; it's an unusual format for me, and a style I really enjoy writing in, if not the one I tend to default to. It's fun world-building within the confines of my creation and trying to wend my way from where Randall is currently to where I plan to put him at the end of Book Four (which will be the concluding chapter).

Unfortunately, Not Providence is a challenge in more ways than just structurally: it's also a challenge to my schedule. For the past not-quite-year, I've been sacrificing one to two nights of writing every week to getting the following week's update ready to go; this is not including the nights of writing that actually went into the project itself. And near the end of Book Two, I could feel my own satisfaction with the project dropping off as I lost my update buffer and was forced to pour more and more time into it (and getting less and less time to revise plot twists and details).

All told, Not Providence accounts for something like 75% of the writing I did in 2009; and while that's perfectly normal for something of its current (and ever-growing) length, the problem here is that Not Providence is free. That sounds cheap, I know; but honestly, I am just starting out as a writer. I have three publication credits to my name (and counting, we hope). I've just barely gotten agents to start reading my work. I am not yet in a position where 75% of my time can be going to a project I am not and do not plan to be making money or forwarding my career on. Plus, even beyond the money, I have ideas pounding at the back of my brain that have been waiting since last June or so; I need to give them time to come out and dance around and see if they are worthy of my energy and attention.

I in no way plan to stop writing Not Providence; it's planned for four books and four books will happen. And indeed, some energy will still be going into it: a break with two books complete is a great time to start trying to attract new readers, now that the promise of an insurmountable archive panic is not in evidence; and beyond that, as I was riding to work today I had the perfect opening for Book Three. I just need a couple months to work on other projects, try to expand my readership, and get Book Three squared away before I start putting it out on the Webbernets.

For those of you reading now, thank you, and please keep in touch; the site will in no way go dead just because Not Providence is temporarily in stasis, and who knows? I might have some other little tidbits to let you read. Do pimp me ou--er, recommend me when you think it is warranted, and don't hesitate to give me feedback when you want to. Just because it's free doesn't mean I don't care, after all.

In closing, do not fret, and do not chalk this up to yet another one of the half-finished projects littering the Internet. I won't be that guy. Randall will ride again; it'll just take a little time to get him ready for it, and he's got some brothers and sisters who need my attention.

Goodbye for now, my drooling hordes. A real blog post will follow later this week.

Part 21 is alive and kicking. From now on, Randall will be known as "The Negotiator".

Okay, not really.

Enjoy the update, folks; the peacekeepers of Book Two will see you one more time in the New Year.

Time to open your present, Gentle Readers!

...Oh, thanks for trying to save the wrapping paper, I really appreciate it...

...nah, it's okay...

There you go! Aren't you excited?!

It's Part Nineteen!

Because nothing says "Happy Holidays" like traumatized children.

Point the first: Part Nineteen is alive and kicking. Who pieced that together?

Point the second: Things are going to look weird around tyler-hayes.com for the next few days. I'm doing some site overhauls and my schedule is such that they're happening piecemeal. You'll be seeing some weirdness with formatting (though hopefully not actual breaks in said formatting), places where the titles of Not Providence's books mismatch, and other little oddities; I swear they are temporary and will be made as non-intrusive as possible.

Point the third: We are now beginning our serious push to increase our readership (beginning now so that there's momentum behind the push after the holidays end), so if you aren't reading Not Providence or following the blog, please note that Book One, "The Progress Trap", will be going back up on the site some time today; and if you are reading, I'd love it if you'd recommend it to someone who might like to give it a try. Consider it a very low-budget Christmas present.

And now, off to Real Work. Have a great day, everybody.

Part Eighteen is up, and I am too sick to really say anything more about it. I had fun writing it; you have fun reading it; let's all have fun together, or possibly go out to the lobby.

Part Nineteen should be on schedule, barring unforeseen boon or calamity. Thank you for your continued support.

There are approximately five reasons I am willing to miss a Not Providence update (assuming I don't individuate all the different reasons I or a loved one could be having a medical emergency). One of the good ones just happened.

It may take a person involved in the creative life to understand why this is exciting, but, I have rather unabashedly been pitching a novel while I work on Not Providence and my magazine submissions. So far it's been exactly what you'd expect: a whole lot of digital slammed doors, the words "not for me", and the whole time the thought that, you know, maybe a guy could be happy with a career in Account Management...

And then, because God is the biggest of bitches, I got an email back that was a bit rosier.

I of course won't go into details, but the bottom line is that I was asked to submit sample chapters and the rest of the usual novel proposal rigamarole (details to come when it isn't late and the details aren't boring). This does not, I must stress, mean that I have representation; and I am braced with a heart full of wonder for the strong likelihood that I will still get a "No". But this is farther than I have gotten yet, and after the way this year has destroyed me in terms of my artistic aspirations I really can't be grateful enough to know some of the effort mattered.

But, that happened this morning; then today was the 9-5; then tonight was getting the query packet together, and dinner, and getting the query packet together, and telling my parents so they didn't hear it entirely via the Internet. When I got off the one it was 10:01, and I had not even touched tomorrow's update. And tomorrow night I'm busy.

So, that said, it looks like this week's update is to be pushed to Thursday, and today's "writing work" will have consisted of prepping for tomorrow's query submission. This may seem like bad news for you Not Providence lovers, but the truth is that work on the serial was begin to become wearying, and having a week off in which I got to undertake such a major hurdle for my (shall we say) mainstream writing career was probably just what the doctor ordered.

So, no Randall in Mudville tomorrow. But at least now I'm upbeat enough to believe he'll continue to thrive.

Part Seventeen is up, on time and actually readable. Enjoy it; there may never be a Book Two, Part Seventeen quite like it.

Good morning, my fanatics. Part 16 is up, and it looks like somebody's eyes are glued to their navel.

As for me, work has already technically started, I haven't finished breakfast, and I just got slapped across the face with the first paragraph of a new novel (to finish in my copious free time), so you will pardon me if I am not at my wittiest; all my Awesome reserves are flowing down other channels. Enjoy the update; see you here next week!

Part 15 is up. Yes, their Stroganoff really is excellent.

I have again been in a dry spell for blogging lately, but was recently slapped with something I need to reflect on; so you'll be seeing a little more from me later today, as work allows. For now, enjoy the serial!

...is up.

For those who don't remember, Randall and company are in Fort Bragg, California, searching for a peacekeeper who has gone missing. Their efforts on this front have been stymied, however, by run-ins with a network of psychics acting as an impromptu police force, a crippled cult leader and his off-kilter personal help, and a series of demon-fueled crimes all committed within sight of symbolically resonant graffiti. Randall's convinced all the issues are connected, but evidence is slim—except for a calendar, found in another missing psychic's home, that suggests the graffiti are a series of psychic signal flares indicating where the crimes are to be committed. Based on this theory, Randall and company are getting ready to pay a visit to the next would-be crime scene, the night before a meeting with the cult leader in question and a visit to the backroads where the peacekeeper supposedly vanished. Looks like it might be coming to a head...

In closing, thank you all for being so patient. In a way it's kind of heartening that my readership fell a little during the hiatus; at least I know some of you are coming to the site for Not Providence. Now, I have work to do, so I'm going to stop yammering and leave to that link. Enjoy!