February 6, 2021

The Ports of Surset Book 2, Port City is Now Available! In Today’s Post you will find the true story of how I almost lost an entire year of progress; WIP and posting plans; and what fans are asking about how I manage to write a whole book.

How I Almost Lost A Year Of Progress

I mentioned last time: Over the holidays, my accounts in various places were breached due to a security problem that has since been resolved. I relentlessly tracked those breaches down and sealed them up. It was nerve wracking and gave me some first-hand experience with what will happen if I anger Amazon, through whom I usually release new books. I have a website that is mine alone and other resources for publishing new books; however, the last month or so has highlighted a couple of things. 1–Amazon makes self-publishing so easy, it almost feels like someone was trying to take my crutches away when I thought I might have to shift my publishing platform. I didn’t enjoy that. It caused me to reevaluate my publishing plan for the future. 2–I need to lock down my author profile and make it more thoroughly separate from my personal Amazon (or otherwise online) access. I don’t log into my day job stuff with the same profile that I use as an author, why would I link a profile for my author job to my personal profile? It seems obvious now in hindsight where things were too closely related. Live and learn! Right?

Since then: The challenge has remained. In fact, as of this moment, the Amazon (Prime) issues are still occurring. However, I was able to unlink my KDP author central account from my Prime account to stop the possibility of any future threats to my books from a commercial site issue. Even if Prime manages to make me pay for theft of which I was a victim, my books are safe. If you don’t already have your KDP and Prime accounts separate, I highly recommend that you separate them.

WIP News

The Ports of Surset Book 2, Port City is Now Available! Book 3, The Second Order, is about 1/4 finished drafting. I am actually surprised it is going so well and so quickly given how much of my time and brain power has been siphoned off to deal with the Amazon Prime breach. My Chonky Outline has evolved and morphed to more closely represent the fullness of the conclusion the story deserves. I had, at first, considered putting out another free prequel establishing the pre-positioning of characters for the major push of the action of book 3. I don’t think I am going to do that after all. I think, instead, book 3 is shaping up to be a three-part finale. I will put it all out as a single volume but it will be written in the form of three acts. I think. I completely reserve the right to change my plan entirely as the writing progresses.

Ports of Surset Wiki

In an effort to maintain my continuity and spend less time double checking a character or world fact and more time writing, I have developed a Surset Wiki. If there is a question or line of thought that is hinted at in the text of the books but not expounded on as much as it might be, by all means, ask for it to be in the wiki!

What Fans Ask

I get asked all the time: How do you write enough coherent thoughts in a linear order to fill a book? I don’t think that is really as uncommon as people think it is…

The question that makes me roll my eyes more than almost any other is, “How do you find the time and words to write a whole book?” I would almost find it offensive if it weren’t so funny. I don’t think writing enough coherent thoughts in a linear order to fill a book is as uncommon as people think it is. I challenge you to go to your text messaging, FaceBook messenger, Hangouts, What’s App, etc. and pick one friend or family member. Copy it all into a word processing program and take a look at the word count. The average person (which I am not, just not that many people in my contact list) will have a good giggle at the 7 to 10 figure number of words.

Now, imagine that you weren’t exchanging messages but were, in fact, writing about your favorite fiction or non-fiction topic to yourself. Viola! You have a book. Really, it’s more complicated than that to write a book, but as far as time and effort to just write the words, it’s about your priorities. Some folks prioritize their friendships. As humans, whom I am told are social creatures, this is laudable and good for them. Others have responsibilities that demand their time and attention and words, like children or romantic partners. Also, good for them. But, if you can reserve just a few thousand words a day for yourself and record them in a logical progression on one topic, you eventually have a book. If you want a good book, you will just have to read your words and revise them a few times, then let other people read them and give you advice to revise them again. In the end, it’s really just a matter of choosing who to talk to, what to talk about, and how much to say when.

In The News

As of this morning, Covid 19 news has recorded more than 26.6M cases in the US. With over 450,000 Covid 19-related deaths reported, the official mortality rate is reported nationally now at 3%, steady from last month. With several vaccination options in distribution and several variant strains of Covid spurring questions of efficacy, nothing really feels resolved. Added to that, the one year mark since most of the country began entering social distancing isolations is fast approaching. This atmosphere is beginning to feel actually normal and right to many of us. We have settled into this ew way of doing things and the idea that we are about to be pushed back into “normal” operations is giving some of us added stress that we do not need. On the other hand, customer service for some big businesses has suffered drastically with the move of so many of their representatives to home offices. Personally, I am more than willing to change my shopping habits to accommodate bad service if I can stay safely tucked into my home office.

Social, Media and Otherwise

You can find me on Twitter , Reddit/r/ubrielbrynebooks, Facebook and Instagram (ubrielbryne20).

Currently, there isn’t much going on in the SocMed world (for me). I just completed a series of Surset Wiki posts on Twitter to support the release of Ports of Surset Book 2, Port City. I am trying to find new and interesting other things to post about, I don’t want to just be a commercial with every post. There is more to me than that. Honest. >.> Anyway… For more information about my books and my dogs and my reasons for rebelling against artificial social expectations, sign-up for the mailing list!

Take Care! –Amy (aka Ubriel Bryne and Jami Montgomery)