UPDATE!

THE SHIELD OF LOCKSLEY

First of all, thank you to all the new subscribers and followers (not that the followers are going to see this, but I just put a Note up in my Substack feed.)

Anyway, this is Swords/Saturday. (That’s what they call it. I didn’t come up with it.) I don’t have anything to offer, because the only thing I have is my “Arthur” story, and that’s behind the paywall.

But I have PART ONE up for FREE. I recently posted all of the chapters together and made a workable link to all of them. I’m calling it my TABLE OF CONTENTS. But it’s only for PART ONE. The rest, as you know, is behind the paywall.

This is where I try to sell you on it.

The reason I’m sending this out to you is because I now have 700 subscribers. Holy Shit! I have 1963 total FOLLOWERS. That just amazes me. But, having that many new subscribers, a lot of you don’t know what I have to offer. I have two things that I put up on my ‘Stack. My FREE page is STORIES, AFTER EIGHT, which go out Sunday mornings here on The Left Coast. I have a “new” look as far as my introductions go. I’ve started to play with iMovies and have gone all “Pink Floyd” with it.

And I have my Serial. THE SHIELD OF LOCKSLEY.

I’m still writing it, even as we speak. It is 195,000 words almost. If I were to make that into a book, it would be about 750 pages. It will be put out every Wednesday until this time NEXT YEAR. There are 52 chapters. I put the story out one chapter at a time. They are sometimes long. I have four five chapters, that are divided into sections. I put those sections out one at a time.

If you go behind the paywall, all you get is one chapter at a time. I don’t have anything else to offer. Should I? When I started this ‘Stack, three of my friends went paid because they wanted to support me. I love them for that. They got me into writing serial novels, because I felt I had to give them something. For the longest time, I had 7 Paid subscribers, and then I went up to 15. So the Paid stuff has always been intimate. I like that about it.

Now I have 33. Not a lot, so still intimate. It’s still my hope that I’ll make enough money here that I can afford to print up a copy of my stories that I put on my FREE page. I want to print them, and mail them (SASP — Self-Addressed Stamped Postcard), and even sign them for you. A limited edition copy of what may one day be a classic story. (One has to think that way about their writing.)

But it all starts here, doesn’t it? I want to publish Locksley, but I might not because I’ve entered into a Gentleman’s Agreement with another writer, a successful. published writer, (I don’t tell the names of people Subscribed to me because I don’t kiss and tell.) He says he doesn’t believe I can become a successful writer on SUBSTACK and not have to publish by traditional means. He’s giving me 20 years to prove him wrong. I gave him a Comp to my ‘Stack, because how else is he going to know if I become something?

I believe that means I can self publish LOCKSLEY and sell it from here, as long as I don’t go the Traditional publishing route. That might all have to change if somebody approaches me and says they want to publish me. Like, say, an agent contacts me? It happened with THE MARTIAN. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

But I’m looking forward to where this might go in the next 20 years. Will I win the bet? Will I live that long, first? Will either of us? We do have to take that into consideration, since he says he’s the same age as myself. (66 in case you’re curious.)

So, there’s that…

Anyway, here’s the link to my serial’s PART ONE:

THE SHIELD OF LOCKSLEY

I want to tell you what happens in the next parts of the book. I keep debating with myself as to whether I should put PART TWO up for FREE after, and talk myself out of it. It’s not fair to those that have up-graded I tell myself. Who knows, it might not pick up this year, or even next year. But what if it does in 5 years? How many subscribers and Followers will I have by then? You have to think about the long game. In 5 years I’ll be in my 70’s…and my brothers will be staring down their 80’s! (Sorry, Bro! I’ll give you the original manuscript to read when I’m finished it. It only seems fair.)

And there you have it!