Chapter 70 status update

been reading all the comments and agree with most of them,Telfer is such a natural writing talent and story teller which is also importent,i just love reading his stories,would love to see him write full time,such talent should be shared,the enjoyment of the many people reading and pledging money ,thank you Telfer.

A word of caution on tiers. I have seen others comment and I am in a similar boat: my small contribution is all I can afford and it represents 100% of my justifiable disposable income that I actually spend on myself (hard to believe, I know). Due to personal situations, I have nothing more to give. Not sure it is appropriate to compare my giving to another's whose personal disposable income is significantly higher. That being said, this is now a business for Tefler and he has to encourage patronage which I completely support. If things change economically for me, my giving will reflect it. And I do think that those who give a great deal might deserve an honorable mention in the book that is to come. I personally would 'find' the funds to purchase it as an investment...fully expecting it to be worth quite a bit a few decades down the road like a first printing of The Hobbit series or Star Wars.

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

I have to agree

PLRus--Founding member of the TSM F5 club.

Good for them, If people don't offer writers, artists musicians financial support sooner or later we won't get any new content. Tefler stop making it so hard for us to support you! You are becoming a fine writer but but you've donated every spare moment of the last year of your life to this project plus more than a few you couldn't spare too. I can't imagine how you've justified this to your wife before you started getting some financial return. For the life of me I don't understand why you keep posting a few long chapters instead of multiple short chapters. I would recommend posting 3SM in 10,000 word chapters every week and get more income instead of posting one 50,000 Word chapter every three or four for 1/5th the financial return. You would keep your most rabid fans happy by constantly giving them regular new content and increase your return on investment for your time as well. I admire you for your commitment to the story but don't short change the value we put to your work. Do a survey and ask how many here would prefer multiple shorter chapters, cliffhangers and all, versus a long wait for long mega chapters.

Dave2282

There was an artist I saw getting $35,000 a quarter.

I agree with you Morningfrost. Besides he's earning + $700/chapter on Patreon now, that means if it's another 30 plus chapters he will already already have made more money off 3SM then most authors ever see off a work. I expect he's already one of top earners on Patreon. Publishing phenomena like Harry Potter or 50 Shades that earn their creators 10s of millions are as rare as winning a powerball lottery.

Dave2282

My sentiments too, the first chapters, perhaps up to when John finds out he is a progenitor could've restructured as an into novel call it something like, Last flight of The Fools Gold. He could strengthen the opening and beef up the ending a bit for better closure and it would make a nice lead off to the series

Dave2282

I seriously doubt Tefler could cut down the story that much. The story was already at 1.4 million words, and I believe that was as of chapter 68, and the story is still not complete (considering active storylines, I'm guessing it's about 2/3 complete at best). I DO think Tefler could change the story around a little bit and sell it on Amazon as a series. The changes would just be to create better distinctions and a clear ending between each book. ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

I've been really enjoying this series, I would suggest trying to get it published but suspect you would have great difficulty finding interest due to its length. Hopefully you'll put the final story up on Amazon when it's done. I would also suggest tightening the story up to get it down to under 250,000 words and ideally 200,000 words or less or alternatively restructure it into a series of books 100,000 words or less, and then shopping around for a literary agent. The 50 shades series I think came in at about 500,000

Dave2282

Patience: we have none

Dennis Aston

It's up. :-)

Tefler

said he would be done in one hour,that was 3 hours ago,just saying,,,,,,

Definitely not me...shut up...don't judge me... ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

I wonder how many people are refreshing the site every 5-10 minutes :p

It is encouraging to see your pier chapter support going up faster than your the amount of supporters!

Tony Bates

Like all, i am looking forward to the release. New definition of tough love...

Benj

The hour is up.. Nope I'm not impatient... just really curious :-)

VT

The only problem I have with the website is that I have to reload after I comment on something.

You, sir, are a tease :p ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

It seems the website does time stamp posts. ... Waits impatiently. ;)

Grimlakin

This app needs time stamps of posts damnit!!

Grimlakin

Just sitting down to edit the final bit of Part 1 now. I'll be done in about an hour I suspect.

Tefler

Cheers Kim! That's very generous, thanks. :-)

Tefler

I delivered by increasing pledge to $5😊 Now impatiently waiting for chapter 70.

Kim Biel-Nielsen

Thanks for increasing your pledge, much appreciated!

Tefler

So only a few more hours to wait..... oh the excitement!

That will land right on my lunch hour! It may be a long lunch today....

Tony Bates

That's very generous Stanislaw, thanks very much! :-)

Tefler

Well me being 8 hrs behind the UK I slept through 4 hrs of that 8 hr wait.

thank you everybody for your input,went to 5 times more because Telfer is really great and i enjoy reading his stories,,,,,,,,

Top left button -> Your pledges -> Edit pledges

Telfer,i would like triple my pledge but don't know how,can you tell me how to do it?,,,,,,,

Where

Jedi Khan

I'm feeling like Dana did, waiting to lay her eyes on the schematics for the singularity drivers. I know it's the 7th for you, Tef, because the 7th started 5 hours ago for me. Come on! Post it already! I'm getting jittery over here!

Jedi Khan

Thanks Jim, and you're very welcome! It's great to hear you've been enjoying the story.

Tefler

I appreciate it Morningfrost, and all your thought provoking comments on here! :-)

Tefler

That's awesome, thanks Jesse!

Tefler

You're a legend, and I really appreciate your support, thank you! :-)

Tefler

If she isn't, she's probably familiar with who is. Either that or she's just another person trying to lay low and stay out of trouble, and staying far away from the big boss is probably the best way to do that. There is also the chance that when they find Tashana, she already has white hair. Won't that be a heart breaker for Irillith?

Jedi Khan

Just curious; how many people think our little blue exile is the defacto ruler of this pirate infested refinery?

Cody Strong

i have been at $5 form the stat

just went and upped my pledge to$5 per chapter

Argh, the peer pressure lol. Upped my pledge to $5 per chapter. We're gonna get you to write full-time Tefler, so start getting used to the idea :p ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

Great your working so hard putting out such big chapters you managed to make me feel bad about how tight my pledge was so I too have tripled it keep up the outstanding work tefler and thank you.

Jim lynch

OK so it is now 0115 in the UK Feb 7th so Tefler if you are still up we should see part 1 of chapter 70 any minute now :)

The idea of using the energy absorption to power the big guns was basically a desperation play, and not something that John and company would intend to do on a regular basis. The reason for this is that they take a lot of damage in the time it takes to use that energy to charge the guns. Furthermore, the ability to absorb the energy is basically just a feature added in order to reduce the damage from laser weaponry over and above what the Invictus' armor was capable of deflecting or shrugging off. As the armor gets stronger and deflects more laser damage, the need to be able to absorb energy is reduced. Another thing to keep in mind is that once the Invictus docks in Maliri space, they intend to upgrade the power core yet again. Hypothetically, that is likely to be enough to power all the guns currently on the ship, including the big guns. Power consumption is also likely to change if Dana swaps out some of their laser weaponry for ballistics (as laser weaponry likely draws much more power than comparable ballistics). ~Morningfrost

Morningfrost

Fantastic! Thanks a lot for your support, Chris!

Tefler

Love the story and want to see it continue so I increased my pledge to see where it all leads.

That is the main reason I typically don't read incomplete stories. But the size of this was significant and took me about two weeks to get caught up initially. Glad I did...

On free sites, each time an author takes a break you wonder if it's not the last chapter of an "Incomplete or inactive story". Great authors like Intrepid Fate on literotica have stopped posting suddenly. At least the readers know a chapter is coming for certain. And some stories on free sites only get a (short for Tefler) chapter every month, so they can't really complain about having 2 to 3 big and quality chapters a month for free, even if it's delayed. It's the main reason I have become a patron, too much unfinished stories that could have been great because the author had no means and little gratitude for posting a free story. At least Tefler, you remain true to your start and still "liberate" each chapter after a while.

"I'm sure it'll generate howls of outrage from the free sites, but they know what to do if they want to read it early!" They will get over it, the other authors on those sites that I really enjoy don't put out material NEARLY as regularly as you do. Thank you for your regularity and hard work! T

Tony Bates

Ok I have a problem. The trick John used thanks to the energy channeling of the armor of their ship is only going to become less and less effective with each shaping, eventually to be immune to laser or heat damage. Great.. But that. Means no longer being able to charge the big guns using that input. It seems the bbg (big bad guy) has the ability to absorb all incoming energy/heat. Hence being invisible to everything other than the naked eye, and thanks to space even nearly that. No light bounces off. It's all absorbed. Got it. So Johns ship in theory would be more durable to protracted combat due to the properties of an endothermic to exothermic comparison. Basically all John has to do to resist all incoming non kinetic energy is nothing. The bbg has to absorb and store/redirect. John would be better served to have reflective focusing surfaces on his ship. He could concentrate and feed back any power exerted at him on the fly. And that feedback loop would probably eventually pop the bbg. Just a thought.

Grimlakin

Hah! I hope that's not because my foreshadowing sucks! :-)

Tefler

Thanks a lot Peter! :-)

Tefler

The good ideas make a huge difference! Some of the stuff people have come up with has been inspired, so I'm just glad no one minds me swiping them for the story!

Tefler

Thanks Carl! Much appreciated. :-)

Tefler

Just tripled my pledge.

Awesome. Can't wait. I have read a lot of SciFi and this story is one of my favourites. Detailed, complex, great characters and full of surprises. I try to guess where the story will go after every chapter and have been surprised almost every time. Thank you.

For us? Alright... Makes me happy... I tripled my pledge.

Tefler you have the uncanny ability to take all the wild ideas ground them and make them grand with just a stroke of the pen

Just a million words... I'm sad. Lol

Grimlakin

It's not a cynical marketing ploy, I promise! There's a few things I don't want to rush, like Calara's investigation into what happened to Jessica Blake...

Tefler

I wrote one for the stories online entry:

Tefler

Every email *Bing* I think is the post...

Tefler, have you given any thought of a synopsis for this story, basically a brief one paragraph tease that introduces the story like those found on the inside flap or back of some books? "The year is 2779. Forty year old John Blake, former soldier turned interstellar trader, has set course for the fringes of human space in search of the trade of a lifetime. Little does he know of the fortunes that he will find on the journey which will change his life."

Jedi Khan

You should be able to adjust your pledge under your Account Settings > Pledges.

Jedi Khan

If we take the average novel word count at 50K then Tefler has written the equivalent of 24 novels at 1.2 million words so far. Good Job. I was up at 0700 PST checking to see if part 1 was posted. No cigar

Tefler.i would like to double my pledge,but don't know how?

Probably tomorrow 7th Feb, depending on feedback from my editors.

Tefler

Since I started Patreon, I've been aiming to deliver 25k-30k chapters. The last few have all topped 30k, but I won't go below 25k. :-)

Tefler

so when can we expect part 1?

It's only fair, just don't be breaking chapters into 3k words or I'll cap my monthly donation lol. For 50k words, I would insist on paying twice.

Hinterlands Man

Yeah, pretty much! I wrote out a list of all the scenes I wanted to cover for each day, but some became more involved than I'd originally thought. :-) Keeping it all together will make the payoff better at the end.

Tefler

I thought you swore off doing 50k+ word mega-chapters Tef after the last one. What, did you finally let the story carry you away?

Jedi Khan

chapters broken into parts. I am so hooked now.... give me more :)

Tefler, if cliffhangers weren't enough, now you tease us with

Pretty funny Tef! I'm wondering why this all feels kinda scripted myself... Looking forward to Pt. 1 !

50,000 words isn't just a mega-chapter; that's about half a short novel! Or, going by the Hugo Award categories, it's enough to qualify as a novel all by itself. I'm very much looking forward to Part 1, and my sleep schedule certainly thanks you for breaking it up into two pieces, because otherwise I'd be up very very late reading it.

Brooks Moses

Looking forward to part 1. Thank you

What's life without a little suspense...... Keep up the awesome piece of art....and still just a keen as everyone else....

This is worse than Christmas eve, when you know what to expect! Keep up the amazing work Tef!

This sounds great. I understand the trouble of getting too much at once and needing to break it apart for the continuity as well as keeping your sanity in dealing with so many different concepts. I appreciate all the amazing hard work you place in your story and character development and cannot wait for your next part! Great job Tef! =D

Part 1 will be fully edited and "finished". If I do make any tweaks when I combine the two together in a couple of weeks time, it'll be very minor changes at most.

Tefler

So will Part 1 be finalized when you post it here? Or should I hold off until Part 2 is done to get the final, polished drafts of both pieces?

lol The first upset customer. :-) I spent a couple of hours this afternoon editing the first 17k words, so the editors only have about 9k to look over. Hopfully I'll be able to post it in the next day or so once I've been through their edits.

Tefler

Where's Part 1? What a tease. I hate you Tef. >:|

Someone will pissed but as someone who has been reading the story since the first chapter came out I look forward to any piece, part or chapter I can get. Thanks for making such a great story. :D

Andrew Fowler

Lol, no matter what you do you will upset someone :)

Looking forward to it.

Grimlakin