Not Providence: A Metaphysical Pit Stop

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.

Not Providence: Before 2009 Self-Destructs

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.

Not Providence: The Opposite of Holiday Cheer

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.

Not Providence: Uploadageddon

Alright, my assorted barnyard animals...

It is done.

Since real-life troubles and circuitous legalese have prevented me from having sale-ready, collated copies of Not Providence Book One ready for holiday consumption, I have gone ahead and done it.

As of now, tyler-hayes.com includes the NEW, IMPROVED Prologue, "The Devil Inverted; the entirety of Book One, "The Progress Trap"; and is fully up to date on Book Two, "Magical Thinking". The site updates are not fully complete—the old and much less personally-enjoyable titles are still in evidence here and there—but this will hopefully hold you over. Also, make sure you load my stylesheet; the updates now include some poor man's protection against site-scraping that will make your reading life hellish if it doesn't load, and I promise there is nothing invasive in there.

Read.
Enjoy.
Disseminate.

Merry Christmas.

Not Providence: Pardon Our Nonexistent Dust

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.

Not Providence: 'Sup

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.

Not Providence: Restate My Assumptions

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.

Not Providence Once More

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

Not Providence over Breakfast

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!

Not Providence: Now with More Adjectives

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!

Not Providence is Here, but My Wit Isn't.

Part Fourteen is up and running, in which our hero has dinner.

I apologize for being slightly late—everything was running five minutes behind today, my updates included.

That's all I have for now, folks—enjoy the update and we'll see you next week!

Not Providence...

...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!

It's Happening

The weekend was a weekend of pleasant interruptions, spurred by friends visiting from out of town and a Halloween party to which I wore one of my lamer costumes (I don't care who you are, coming as one of your old LARP characters does not win you any points). However, on Sunday, after my guests left, I was able to get a few things done.

I took a nice leisurely train ride to Menlo Park and spent my birthday gift card at Kepler's (a lovely independent bookstore which all locals should patronize), acquiring via them and Amazon copies of Bryson's The Mother Tongue, Carroll's Outside the Dog Museum, Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, Larssen's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Powers' Earthquake Weather, and Priest's The Boneshaker, as well as the mp3 album of Dirty Three's Horse Stories, which I owned ten years ago and recommend to anyone who loves stringed instruments.

I hiked about with my books and purchased food for this week—Italian sausage, chicken, curry powder, olive oil, a megafuckton of veggies. Time to experiment.

I did some laundry and worked on amateur cartography for my D&D game (a statement which fills me with prurient chuckles for reasons I will not explain).

And I wrote.

Yes, folks, it's true—Book Two, Part Thirteen of Not Providence is written and ready for its editor (read: me). Today during my lunch break, seeing as how the Mongolian Death Cough still has a grip on me, I will be editing the HTML and CSS to receive its literary payload; and tonight, I will prep my words for upload to the Intertron Tuesday morning.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, despite the draining move and the sickness in my chest, I have triumphed. Tomorrow, Randall and the peacekeepers ride again.

No biggie. Just thought you should know.

No, I Haven't Forgotten

If all goes according to plan, this will be the last in this recent glut of skip weeks for Not Providence. The moving is down to unpacking a box here, a box there, with the floor space mostly open and my house mostly together, which means I can focus on the things in life that matter. This includes both Not Providence and the Super-Sekrit Projekt Mark II, which I hope will see the light of day before New Year's.

Thanks for hanging in there and continuing to read—next week, God willing, Randall rides again.

Not Providence: As Promised

Part Twelve is Up, a little early due to madness in today's schedule. Enjoy; we'll be back here in a week or two.

Edit: Oh, and I just shook some gremlins out of the code. Don't know how those got there...

Providence!

I'll leave a quick note here for those of you who don't follow me on Twitter: I did it.

I have packing to do; I have moving to plan; I have things to deal with in real life; but more important than that, more powerful and more tensing than those, was the need to write. So I wrote.

Or edited, anyway. Part Twelve is now edited, and coded, and all set to go; and in the interests of keeping the math on my tardiness nice and even, I'll be putting it up tomorrow morning for your reading pleasure.

Unfortunately, Part Thirteen is not even fully written yet, so it is likely next week will be another skip week; but hey, this is why I said the break would be brief and inconstant. Right now I am focusing on how good it felt to pour some words over my poor febrile brain, and remembering that yes, this stuff is as important as breathing to me...it's just also ten times easier to give up.

Not Providence: Brief and Inconstant

Hello all, my fine readers, my friends.

It is time to risk missing an update.

The short version of events is that I need to move. Not immediately, but at the end of this month. This is not a big deal and I am not as stressed about it as I was when the situation was still wholly in flux, and even if I do not find an apartment that is to my satisfaction I have a valid fallback for the next month or two. But this does mean that today has been exceptionally stressful and draining, as I am a person who just does not cope well with not knowing where Home is, and that I have a lot to get done.

Tomorrow's update is ready from a creative sense, but not in a coding sense, and I may be unable to get it done in time for a 9am upload; so while I expect tomorrow's update to go up tomorrow, it may do so very late, and I would not be surprised if I have a missed week or three in the next two months as I try to get everything in my life sorted out.

Not Providence is in no way dead; the rest of Book Two is plotted out near to completion and Books Three and Four are skeletons hanging at the back of my mind, slowly growing meat. But there will be a brief, inconstant hiatus while the matter of the move is resolved. Once I know where Home is, you will know more.

I am very sorry to do this, but I am simply dealing with too much unavoidable stress to be piling the avoidable stress on top of it.

Randall will be back soon.

Not Providence: Upheaval

First of all, yes, I am late, and second of all, yes, Part Eleven is up, and I think some of last week's concluding nonsense is explained.

Second of all, you may find that Book One is no longer online. No, there's nothing wrong with the links—or rather, yes there is, but that's because I haven't had time to sweep the entire site and take the link down temporarily. I am doing this because I have a Super-Sekrit Project in the works, and I want Book One kept close to the chest while I deal with it. You will be able to get access again, and if you are someone I know personally and want to get caught up on the first book's conclusion, talk to me and we'll work out a delivery system. I will say no more for the moment.

Third of all, I want to know how many of you are actually reading this. My Google Analytics are not wholly informative about direct connections, you see, or about telling me where the unique hits are coming from. If nobody is reading, I won't say I won't be disappointed; but since I may have to take a couple-week break soon due to Real Life I want to know what my readership is like so I know what course of action to take. Thanks in advance.

Not Providence: Revenge of the Witty Title

Late, but still here: Part Ten, in which motors are a sliding signifier.

As to my concerns about delays, it looks like Part 11 will be in the can this week, and Part 12 is coalescing in my head; so we are back down to orange on the Skip Week Level.

Nothing further to report. Annotations available on request. Enjoy!

Not Providence for Breakfast!

Yes, I used that title already. It's been a busy week.

May I introduce Part Nine, or "Holy crap quote marks".

For those of you who have been paying attention, yes, the rewrite for the anthology is almost done; and yes, this is the last new update for Not Providence I had in the can. Since I am sending the rewrite out on Wednesday, I hope to have time to write and edit Part Ten before next Tuesday; if that just isn't going to happen you will receive an update this weekend to that effect. But for now: Enjoy!

Not Providence Time, Again

Here you are, everybody: Part Eight, right on schedule. How about that paranoia, huh?

An update re: buffers: the buffer for this series currently does not exist. I have Part Nine in the can and that's it. Given how things are going with my other projects I suspect I'll get Ten done on schedule and maybe even Eleven, but the chances of me having to take a skip week are becoming greater and greater. All I can promise is that if it happens you'll get a warning before Tuesday morning of that week.

For now, though, enjoy the update!

Not Providence Has Arrived

In which drinking is bad for you.

Also, I am getting my buffer of completed updates a bit larger now that work for the anthology is done, so I am not currently anticipating missing a week. I'm glad it's working out, it was touch and go for a bit there, and I'm sorry if anyone was alarmed.

Excelsior!

Not Providence, Somewhat Like the Post Service

Even with deadlines looming and a slight disturbance to my immune system, I cannot be prevented from providing you with Book 2 Part 6! Revel in the interrogatives!

Not Providence: No Special Title!

It's Tuesday 9 o'clock and therefore Randall gets to carp at you again. Part 5: Graffiti and Strife.

A warning to my blog readers: Thanks to the anthology story I've been writing (no, it hasn't been for-sure accepted yet, but I have been working as hard as I can to make it acceptable), I have buzzsawed through a huge portion of the update buffer for Not Providence. I've still got one more week fully in the can and should have another by end of tonight, but there is the vague possibility that if "Family Ties" is a little rocky during second-round edits I may need to take a week or two off to get things handled.

By saying this I hope to avoid having to do so, but you all deserve more warning than me updating on a Monday, surly about having failed myself.

That said, enjoy the update, and I'll work as hard as I can to get a big buffer together again!

Not Providence, Unflagging

Rumors of me being late with today's update are greatly exaggerated. Instead, we are 15 minutes early. Behold, Part Four!. Why yes, I did used to eat at Denny's a lot. Enjoy!

Not Providence is Here!

Despite my vacation. Despite my slight (but fading) hangover. Despite having fallen asleep without editing the HTML last night. Despite all this, Not Providence is just twenty minutes late! If this were a job I'd get away with a warning.

Here you are: Book Two, Part Three, in which we are warm and fuzzy.

More travel blog posts to come.

Not Providence: Better Really Late than Really Never

I'm nearly an hour late with the update, and I have no excuse but troubled sleep and a sudden surge of work. The good news is, the update has occurred, and Book Two Part Two is ready for your perusal. I call this one "Conspiracy and Cancer Similes". Blame the Burroughs.

Not Providence: Oh For...

So I remembered to update Facebook. I remembered to update Twitter. I remembered to update LiveJournal.

But I did not post about it on Blogger.

Not Providence Book Two started today. Grocery time!

Enjoy! It's been there for 8 hours, plenty of time for it to settle.

Not Providence: In Between Times

Today's update is now ready: When Harry Met Randall. Yes, that's a real bar.

No annotations this week. Maybe that means I'm getting easier to understand. I'd better work on that.

Next week: Book Two!

Not Providence: The World Turns

Part Nineteen is up. Exeunt Book One, with a discussion of nerves.

Next week we'll have a little break for you—still Not Providence but not quite the same sort of thing. Then the following week we'll get on with Book Two. Thanks to everyone who's still reading.

Now, a weird question for you here, more a curiosity than a matter of urgency.

Say that this site were to start offering, for a small fee, a collated PDF file of "The Insider". There would be very little difference in content between the two versions (I'd give it another check for grammar, and get rid of a couple egregious redundancies, but leave the rest of it untouched), but it would be nice and clean and printable for those of you who want hard copy to put on the shelf or read on the couch or shred in a bout of anger. I would also make the rest of the Books available as they are finished (possibly a week or two in advance of the final chapters being published), both in individual volumes and in collected volumes with a slight discount (because that's how America does it, baby).

My question is: How much, to your minds, would be appropriate to charge? That is, how much would you pay for such a product? I have some numbers in mind, but I want to see if they jive with what the Intertubes would be willing to fork out.

That's all for now; enjoy the end of Book One, and the peacekeepers will see you next week!

Not Providence, Finally

Train breakdowns and poorly coordinated shuttle schedules cannot stop Not Providence Part 18! I think the word is "denouement".

No annotations this week. You know what to do.

Also, my head feels full of dead leaves. I still can't figure out what day it is except by the fact I'm updating the serial. I must be a creature of routine.

Not Providence: From My Thumb Drive to Your Eyes

May I present Not Providence 17, in which we put the "who" in "whodunit".

No annotations to report this week, but bring 'em on if you got 'em!

What Is Not Providence?

It occurs to me Not Providence could be sucking in people who do not know me via real life or Blogger (is, in fact, judging by my analytics); and that the original introduction to Not Providence happened about 4 months ago, was made via a blog post that is buried and linked pretty much nowhere, and is full of introductory statements that are not necessarily relevant now. So, in the interest of fostering understanding and having an excuse to link to something on my Twitter feed besides Nicer Film Titles, here I go, stating the obvious.

Not Providence is, as the sidebar link says, serial fiction, updated weekly. Every Tuesday at about 9am, I upload the newest section of the story for your reading pleasure. Over the course of the week I answer reader questions, prepare annotations, and otherwise get ready for the next week's outburst (in addition to working on the writing I get paid for and that proofreading thing that keeps me fed and clothed).

Some have called it a "serial novel", but that's not quite accurate; it is more a series of serial novellas, with a contiguous universe and a clear continuity between them—Book One feeds into Book Two and so on, but with each book clearly telling one story in and of itself as well as the greater story of Randall, the peacekeepers, and the angle men. That said, reading them like a novel probably won't hurt, at least as far as avoiding spoilers.

Now, what's it about? Well, I believe in the narrative revealing a lot of the story for itself; but the closest genre term I have heard for it is China Mieville's "weirdboiled". It's a little bit Raymond Chandler, a little bit H.P. Lovecraft, a little bit Jack Kerouac and a whole lot me. It's a story about a 2009 that is, like so many 2009s, not quite our own; about a world still recovering from a moral panic and a massive disappointment; and about the little sparks of something special and wicked left in that world. It's also got vodka gimlets and some jokes at the expense of English majors.

Not Providence (God, HTML makes that a bitch to type) runs under very few rules outside the rules of English; but what rules it does have can be found here. Mostly, it's a promise that I will end it on an actual ending; that I will respond to your emails about it; and that all I require from you is enjoyment.

There. That's all I have to say on the subject. Now go. Read. And thank you.

Not Providence for Breakfast!

Part 16 exists. They're on a road to nowhere.

We also have an annotation request from Kate, for Part 13: who wants a Tarot lesson?

In other news, I have not been posting as much as usual lately—life's been busy. But I assure you it is only because I am hard at work composing new stories for you. In a way, the more boring my blog is the more exciting news I might have for you down the road; it is like a barometer for my writer's block.

[Edit: The broken link has been fixed.]

You, My Loyal Editors

Not Providence and You
So, for those of you who noticed it and were smirking silently, I fixed the situation wherein some far inferior writer (who was most certainly not me) snuck onto my website and inserted (entirely without my knowledge) a grievous continuity error into one of the recent updates. The issue has been fixed and I will be on the lookout for this monstrous literary predator.

On this note: I've been getting questions about this, and I thought I'd answer here. If you notice a grammar or spelling error, or another terrible violation of my immaculate narrative form, please don't hesitate to drop a line (you can use the same contact info as I use for annotation requests). I try to copyedit as thoroughly as I can, but I am but one man who is not currently being paid to do this full-time, and so things slip through. There is no pressure to copyedit it seriously, but if you notice something that needs correcting, I, your fellow readers, and the English language would thank you.

Not Providence Time, Again

Part Fifteen is go. I like to believe that somewhere, there is a group of Not Providence fanboys who just had a pet theory defused. Really, I just like to believe that somewhere, there is a group of Not Providence fanboys.

No annotations again this week—I desire your inputs!

It's Not Providence Time!

Chapter 14 is up. Yes, he really said that. Enjoy!

(No annotations this week; lack of responses led to this situation. If you want to see it rectified, I suggest you respond.)

Not Providence: Two Minutes Late, but with Annotation to Spare.

Good morning loyal readers; and if you're here because of BayCon, welcome! Not Providence Part Thirteen is up, and now includes 100% more depressing strippers.

We also have, as promised, a few annotations for you all—three this week, to be exact.

• David (initially miscredited, my apologies) requested something that required me going all the way back to annotate Part One: the recipe for the elusive gimlet.


• Kate dipped directly into Part One, wondering just what Randall is reading.


• And last but not least, Glen asked me to explain why Randall has a Frank Zappa ringtone.

That's all we've got for this week. Enjoy the update, and keep the requests coming; I'm off to dance for my paycheck.

Mistakes and Mishaps and Falling Down Stairs

I must apologize for the dearth of annotation work yesterday; as some of you, my loyal readers, are aware, I am attending the Sunday and Monday bouts of BayCon, and frankly the con adventure in all its dimensions has occupied my full attention. One never realizes how many people one knows until nearly all of them show up in the same place.

So, tonight, after closing ceremonies, I will be dealing with all things Not Providence. Rest assured: tomorrow's update will occur on schedule even if I have to power myself on adrenalin shots.

Not Providence: It Must Be Tuesday.

Update is go. Today's theme is "job security".

Belated Annotation

My apologies for not posting this week's annotated version on Sunday; my only excuse is that it was so hot on Sunday all my energy was diverted into not discorporating into mist as a survival tactic. Luckily, we only had one request this week, so only one person will be wanting to stab me in the face: Mr. Glen, with his question about Dario Argento.

Enjoy, and keep the requests a-comin'!

Shortcuts

If you have been wanting to share Not Providence but have found the URL too cumbersome to remember, or if you've just been having that second problem, you will be pleased to know that any and all links to notprovidence.com will now dump you out at the Prologue page. Rejoice, for I have brought unto you easier-to-remember URLs!

My website is still hyphenated, though. I blame the generations of mothers who insisted that Tyler Hayes was a good name for someone other than me. Unfortunately, battles to the death are still not legal in the United States.

It's Providence Time

Not Providence 11 is up. Have a little violence.

It is amazing the ease and the toil that can both go into something I create. Really, what I'm trying to say is, I love doing this. Enjoy.

Annotations of a Sunday

As mentioned, annotations were late this week, due to Mother's Day, but they were not absent. We were a bit light this week, but hey, all projects take time to pick up momentum. Our contributors this week were again Glen and Kate.

• Glen requested an explanation of the wart mentioned in the latest update, and I was all too happy to oblige.


• From Kate, we had an excuse to be evasive: a request for more information about the signs decorating Randall's lawn. I did what I could, but I assure you more data really is forthcoming.

That's all we have for this week. Keep the requests coming and we will be benevolently continue to answer them.

Not Providence Part Ten

It's Tuesday again, and so here it is: Part 10. Please enjoy the imagery.

And now, I chain myself to the Rock of Proofreading, like unto a modern Prometheus.

The Annotation Project, As Promised

Here we are, Sunday the 3rd, and it's time for the first round of annotations for Not Providence. Pickings were predictably slim—people are still getting used to this idea, finding the links, etc.—but it was a better start than I was perhaps expecting. Without further ado:

• From long-time commenter Glen, we have annotation requests for an explanation of the title, addressed in the Prologue (bottom of the page, the image hated me footnoting it); the origin of the term "angle man", addressed in Book 1 Part 3; and the elusive Star Trek joke in Book 1 Part 8. Glen is apparently one of those people who puts a fiver in the busker's guitar case.


• From longer-time commenter Kate, we have a question about the "Order of Eagles" mentioned in Book 1 Part 6.

For now, that's all she wrote. Send in your requests, and I'll get to them next weekend, though Mother's Day is likely to cause a late-day update.

Annotation Requests

This post will be the permanent hub for Blogger-based annotation requests. If you want something in Not Providence clarified (within certain basic boundaries), please leave a comment. Comments are screened, so if they don't appear right away, I am just busy earning the money I need to keep myself in gin and circus peanuts. Comment, and be fulfilled.

Not Providence: Putting the "Inter" in "Intertron".

I'm a trivia sponge. Any weird facts I read, any little snippets about this celebrity or that scientific theorem or those historical events, get logged in my brain for later use in impressing people at parties. If that weren't damning enough, I was also a Literature major in college. When you combine these two things, you are probably not surprised at my deep love for annotated editions. It is one of my life goals to own the Annotated Sherlock Holmes, along with the Annotated Alice; I don't want the Annotated Ulysses only because I am concerned its density could collapse the spatial integrity of my living room.*

Now, the point is, as I was sitting on my computer one day, trying to do some work, a friend mentioned that they would love to see an Annotated Not Providence. This appeal to both a not-so-secret obsession and an even-less-secret vanity was too much for me, and I set about wondering: how would I even make this happen?
And the answer, as so many bloggers and Internet celebrities have learned, is simple: talk to the readers. It's called the Internet; lets put its "inter" to the test.

So, here's the plan, short and simple. If there is some reference in Not Providence, some joke or allusion or piece of slang, that you want explained, tell me so, via the handy-dandy Annotation Request form, a link to which will soon be creeping, cancer-like, onto the Not Providence update pages. Each week (tentatively; depends on the demand, but it will not be more than weekly), I will go over the requested annotations, and create annotated versions of the relevant Not Providence updates for your perusal. These annotated versions will be linked to by, but stand separate from, the original updates, so that those who do not enjoy annotations can avoid looking at them.

Now, like any project of this nature, there are a few ground rules:

No spoilers. I will happily explain asides, slang, references, and other assorted trivia of both my writing style and the Not Providence universe; I will not, however, explain how a statement ties into the greater plot. At least, not before the connection is revealed in the course of the story, and even then, not in public—see the final rule.

Annotations will appear with the earliest relevant update. If you ask me to explain a slang term first used in Book One Part One, you'll find the information there; if enough people ask about something already covered that I think I've mislinked/miscoded the file, I will refer back to said file in a later update.

Annotation requests should be submitted via either email, a blog comment on a Not Providence-related post (preferably the Annotation Project post), or an @reply on Twitter. All three of these options are available on the Annotation Request page.

Annotations will be released on no more frequent than a weekly basis. Ever. Period. I cannot afford to tax my sanity to that degree. Each week, currently aiming for Saturdays, I will update the annotated versions of all pages
I will tell you that your request has been received. If you do not hear back within 3 days of making the request, feel free to re-submit it.

I will always respond to annotation requests. The response may be an email or a comment saying that fulfilling your request would result in spoilers, but I will always respond. Again, if I take 3 days or more to respond, please feel free to see if your request was received.

There. Rules outlined, system more or less prepared. I've already gotten a couple requests from people to whom I rumbled about this idea, so I'll go ahead and consider those added to the pile for this week.

*Translation: I totally want the Annotated Ulysses, and damn the consequences to my sanity and/or geometry.

Not Providence is up.

Happy Tuesday! It's Update Week here at Notes from the Underworld, I guess.

Today's special is Not Providence 9: Randall Stocks Up on Hand Sanitizer.

Not Providence: Hey, at least we're not talking about the swine flu!

Not Providence: You know the drill.

Part 8 is up and running. Tommy bothers me.

In other news, HTML is a lot harder than it should be; but you should be seeing Twitter and Facebook links on the right-hand side, under "More from the Intertron". Click in good health.

It's that time again.

Tuesday?

About 9 a.m. Pacific?

Must be time for me to put up the new Not Providence. Today's episode: Randall Eats Bagels.

A query for you folks, perhaps to become a poll if I can truncheon Blogger into explaining how that's done: is the 9 a.m. update good timing for you? Would earlier in the day be better? Later? This happens to be convenient for me—I can upload it before I start my work day, and have a couple minutes before the other Pacific time zone commuters get to their workstations—but I want to accommodate others as best I can. I don't publish this for my own ego. Not purely, anyway.

Edit: Link fixed. How come update day never goes smooth?

A cup of coffee, an inbox full of rushes, and an update.

Not Providence 1.6 is up. Meet Arabella. Isn't she great?

For those of you following me via all four areas of the Webbernets I use to announce updates, I apologize for the redundancies; please feel free to consider yourself a victim of marketing.

From my drive to God's ears

Not Providence is up. Meet Randall again.

I am coming to adore having this time on Tuesday to share my work with all of you. Thanks for making it worth doing.

Converse

There is a type of logical fallacy which is referred to as the converse accident, a.k.a. "reverse accident" (or the simpler "hasty generalization", though that's specifically an inductive thing, not deductive). It is the logical fallacy I think I see the most often in my day-to-day dealings with humans; but nowhere have I seen it more in evidence than I see it in discussions about speculative fiction.

To spare you having to read the Wikipedia article, the converse accident fallacy is when one interprets a fact gleaned from a very small sample set (the aforementioned "exception") as being universal to that sample set's paradigm: "That swan is white, therefore all swans are white". I don't need to belabor how this works--I think we have all experienced this kind of reasoning, if from nowhere else than from small children who are still learning how the world works, and I have certainly misapplied, say, the laws of convection (I still maintain I can cook a casserole with the oven door open...)--but I do think we need an example of its prevalence in how people approach speculative fiction.

In college, I took a course called Intro to Horror Film (yes, really). Naturally, one of the first films we watched was F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, which is a fantastic piece; and naturally, at our next session, we began to discuss it. Most of the discussion was about the metaphors for disease, metaphors for sexuality, etc. And then, one student raised their hand, and announced they felt it was a bad movie.

Our professor, shocked, asked him why he felt this, and he told us that the ending was unrealistic, "Because if he was a real vampire he would have known it would be daytime soon".

The worst part of it is, in broad technicality he's not wrong.

Nosferatu did not carry this with it as a conceit; however, if I recall correctly, there have been several vampire mythologies which have included the capacity to know when daybreak is coming as part of the vampire package, which I suppose makes sense. But then you get into mythologies where sunlight doesn't kill vampires (Dracula and its precedents), where sunlight does kill but very slowly and it can be stopped with a blanket or tin foil (Buffy, Near Dark), where sunlight makes them sparkle like some kind of living disco ball (a noxiously boring book series), etc., etc., etc. And all of these various vampire myths could be interpreted as "correct". And all of them could be interpreted as "wrong".

Now, nowadays, this is not going to happen often in spec-fic discussions; genre-savvy readers know that any given story involving vampires will have new rules set out for them and use some old ones. But what about stories involving werewolves? Silicon-based lifeforms? Fairies? Janni/Djinn/Genies (all of which are, generally speaking, slightly different!)? You will get someone who will tell you that you are doing it wrong (or better yet, that you've ruined it). And God forbid you write something a little off-beat about the Great Old Ones...

Speculative fiction invites this sort of false reasoning, because the reader quite often has even less of a leg to stand on as far as understanding what is going on. It is easy to assume, in the absence of evidence, that these vampires will be vulnerable to sunlight, that this genie will grant wishes, that the psychic over there will be able to hold telepathic conversations; and even easier for the sudden, un-telegraphed breaking with those traditions to feel like the writer cheating.

Avoiding this is what leads to some of my least favorite tricks of the trade, like paragraph-long expository "dialog" or the main character taking a moment while there's a gun at his head to consider the precise physics of how his superpowers work. Unfortunately, the (just plain better) alternative is risky: it requires taking a certain amount of "sink or swim" attitude toward one's readers, and while treating the reader like they're intelligent is certainly desirable, it is easy to slide from "the reader is intelligent" to "the reader knows everything I know", and to wind up frustrating or even alienating the readership. It probably doesn't help that a great many works of fiction that are generally considered deep are known for producing a deep feeling of confusion in the audience.

My point in all this is not just mental masturbation. My point in all this is, I am coming to recognize this as one of my own pitfalls; and even if my page hits for Not Providence never soar to their previous levels, I will consider it a valuable experience for teaching me to watch out for that.

And to cleanse your palate, a relevant update from Dinosaur Comics.

This Week's Writing Rubrics

I am right smack in the middle of another week where I have no latitude about my days off from writing, for all the right and fun reasons, which means of course that I am wishing I had that flexibility. However, inspiration seems to be relatively forthcoming so far, so I am hoping that I can maintain this with a little luck and some better sleep (a quality of life issue I have been noting has not been well-addressed in my existence of late). Anyway, without further ado:

Day 1: Complete. Second round edits on Part Four of Not Providence, plus some work on "Recess".
Day 2: Complete. Finished the next chapter of Not Providence.
Day 3: 1,000 words in "Recess".
Day 4: 1,000 words in "Recess" (or to completion if the narrative's ready to close).
Day 5: Edit Part Five of Not Providence.

I am finding the publication of a serial massively enlightening, if scary and occasionally frustrating; and even if this proves to not be as good for PR as I might like I think it will prove to have been a useful exercise for me personally, and that's reason enough to spend my time on it. My only problem is that I need to focus on Done with Mirrors--I am hoping to devote a night or two next week to that, but I may juggle Day 4's assignments to instead be to finish getting a query package together for the novel and get it sent off to an agent.

And now, I am off to drink some water, for I had wine with dinner and believe in not working hungover; and then to take a walk and perhaps purchase the next night or two's dinners. If only I didn't have to cook to feel healthy...

Tuesday? Guess it's time for an update!

Not Providence is up. Maybe this will be just an inch or two clearer now. Also, doctors are evil.

Thanks to everyone who has been patiently helping me improve on this process and this story; I didn't expect this to be a tool of my development as well as your enjoyment, but I damn well should have.

I really want to work in a KMFDM reference here...

Whatever bug I caught in Nashville is now at its breaking point. The sore throat is gone, the sneezing is mostly gone, and the cough has settled in but is sporadic; what I am left with is a sense that something is wrong with me, a sort of rubbery feeling in my head and a sense of everything happening a little faster than I can handle. I am hoping exercise helps me focus and does not just kill me; thank God today's meals are rich in vegetables.

This feeling began last night, which is why Day 1 of this week's writing projects was not as productive as I would like. I finished edits on Part 4 of Not Providence, but that was all I could do before my capacity to concentrate was severely hampered by a combination of the wobbling-brain side of the illness, the side effects of Alka Seltzer Plus, and new books.

To comfort myself and to increase productivity a little, I decided to bite the bullet last night and submit "A Million Stories". That's my February and March magazine submissions done, and my New Year's resolution maintained.

Also, I fixed the error with the link in yesterday's update post, and appear to have fixed the desynchronized fonts; however, I have been hearing rumors of a "main page" for Not Providence that has links to the as-yet nonexistent Book 2 on it, and that's a problem. Can anyone confirm this or give me a screenshot?

I'm sure I had something more eloquent to say, but the tar pits living in my mind have eaten it.

Updated!

Part 3 is now up. Meet "the crip".

Also, the site is getting a little makeover to improve readability; unfortunately, this means things may look a little odd here, as I have to focus on the bill-paying work as well as this stuff over here, so a tag or an element may not get attended to right away. Right now, I know that these posts are showing up in Times New Roman, and the rest of the site is in Sans-Serif; and that the footer fonts are ridiculously undersized. If you see anything else, let me know, please, so I can try to attend to it.

Enjoy the reading!

Not Providence: Commitment Unflagging

Chapter 2 is up, in which a teenager bludgeons you with cheap symbolism.

To respond to the one criticism I did get from last week, I apologize for the rather uneventful Part One after the more tightly-focused prologue; Part One stayed as it did back when I had some idea that I was going to be regularly posting 1500-2000 words every week, before the stress-worms laid eggs in my spinal column and I realized I couldn't possibly do that and continue work on other projects. In the future, I will do my best to make double posts on weeks when a more navel-gazing chapter would otherwise make up the bulk of the content. Thanks for sticking with me through the rough start.

Time for the Unveiling

Alright. I kept babbling about a Super Sekrit Projekt. Today is when I draw back the curtain.

I am pleased to announce that today marks the first update of Not Providence, my new weekly serial, running weekly on Tuesdays until the saga ends or the universe enters heat death.

It will run absolutely free, no charges, no requests for donations (though if you suddenly feel like giving me your filthy American dollars, I will gladly accept). Love it, hate it, read it all at once or a little at a time. Whatever; if I brought a smile to your brain, I'll consider my mission accomplished.

Because today is the first day, and the updates are liable to be short, you are receiving a bonus: the prologue, as well as Book 1, Part 1, which can be found, as of this post, at the most recent update page.

For some ideas of the parameters of this project, you can read my ground rules.

Right. Let's do this.