Richard Parks's Blog: Den of Ego and Inquity Annex #2

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A short piece on the real nature of sin…and especially punishment. At least in my opinion. Annnd…because it is the season, one more.

As some of you may or may not know, in addition to getting the final volume of the Laws of Power to press, I’ve been attending a local writer’s group specializing in flash fiction. Never being content to leave well enough alone, I’ve been experimenting with using those stories as scripts for short YouTube videos. Some probably work better than others, but it’s all been fun. I’ll put a few links below in case you want to check them out:

The first one can’t be embedded here, so you’ll have to go to YT to watch it. The other two, no problem.

What Happens When You Make a Banshee Laugh? A Pooka’s Story

The Eagle and the Titan

A Science Fiction Fable: We Were Promised the Future

Today the book goes live on Azon. As promised, here are the links to the digital version. If your link isn’t here or you want the pb, a quick search should point you right. Also, please ignore the embarrassing missing word in the description. I did fix it, but it’ll take a little while for the changes to propagate.

USA: The Seventh Law of Power

UK: The Seventh Law of Power

AU: The Seventh Law of Power

CA: The Seventh Law of Power

DE: The Seventh Law of Power

All by way of saying that my original estimate of the time required to finish production and get The Seventh Law of Power ready was wildly off. Barring any last minute complications, both paperback and Kindle version of the book will go live on July 15th. I’ll put links up when I have them.

Hey, I was surprised too.

First mockup of the cover. It’s in the ballpark of what I’m going for, but likely not the final. As for the text itself, I’ve had less correcting/expanding to do than I’d thought. A subplot I believed needed resolution was already addressed in the rough draft. Sometimes my subconscious is smarter than I am.

Who am I kidding? It always is. On the final stretch now.

Addendum: I’ve finished the rewrite and turned the mss over to First Reader. We shall see.

I had to add an entire new section to account for a plot bomb I’d placed and forgot to detonate. Otherwise, mostly continuity glitches and the usual minor stuff. That’s done, and now only a few more chapters to go in the revision. I was afraid the end Chapter would need a complete rewrite, but after a quick review I think I did a better job than I’d realized.

Anyway, progress. In case anyone’s curious, that’s a portrait of Dessera. She’s important.

Quick update. I’m almost a third of the way through the rewrite on The Seventh Law of Power, managing about a chapter a day. It had to sit for a while so I could come back to it with a clear head. Stumbled upon a subplot I’d actually forgotten, but easily fixed. Which is why it’s called a rewrite.

Actually, Marta came first in a short story called “Treedle.” But the Long Look was the first in the Laws of Power series. I just didn’t know it was at the time. But, unless I have some sort of divine revelation, I’ve just wrapped up both their stories. The Final Chapter and Epilogue of The Seventh Law of Power are done. In rough first draft. I still have to do the rewrite. But I usually rewrite as I go, so I don’t expect it to take that long.

I’ll post when I have a publication date. I have no excuse for taking so long to get the darn thing done.

That was the first one. I can’t say yet what the last one is going to look like. Maybe before long. Anyway, I’m here to say I was wrong. What I thought was the final chapter is looking like the next to last. I finished Chapter 28 when I realized there was too much left to get it all done without a chapter bloated to a silly degree. Went on to Chapter 29. I’m close, but still not there.

If that’s frustrating for some of you, imagine how I feel. Regardless, what everything has been building to in the Laws of Power series comes to crisis in Chapter 29. After that it’s all over except the cleaning and tying up any loose ends. Of which there should not be many, mostly one big one named Tymon the Black, but I have plans for him.

I’m going to miss these characters, but the irony is I can’t wait to start.

I’m about to start what I believe is the final chapter of The Seventh Law of Power. There are three threads to tie up and I believe I can do them all there, with a short epilogue. Mostly because I like epilogues, and it’s my book so I can do one if I want. If I’m wrong about the threads, that’s only one extra chapter at most. Everything that came before has led to this point in the story. I know, took me long enough, but I’m getting there.

Almost as if I knew what I was doing. Almost, that is.

On a related subject, trying something a little different on YooToob. I took one of my favorite stories, “The Trickster’s Wife,” created illustrations for it, did the narration and put it up on my channel. If anyone wants to hear me reading one of my own, it’s there. That’s not my face at the end, though. That’s a character I call “The Presenter.” My alter ego.