April Status

Status 1 Minute

I see it’s been a while since I did a status post, so I suppose I’d better give an update.

I’m just finishing up chapter 14 of Thrall, the next Daniel Black novel. My current outline has the book being 23 chapters long, so the end is in sight on this one.

The next Alice Long story is a novella that’s currently at 4 chapters, out of an expected 12 or so. The way things are going it will probably be done around the same time as Thrall.

I’ve been doing some outlining and background work on the sueprhero story that I’ve mentioned before, but that’s defintiely on the back burner for now. I’ve also been considering a military SF concept set in the same universe as Alice Long’s story, but that’s a lower priority project at the moment.

So it looks like I should end up having two releases this year, but they’ll probably both be in the Fall.

Published by E. William Brown

Published

68 thoughts on “April Status”

    1. Id like to see us get to 5000 comments in the current one. More stuff has been said about what Daniel might conceivably, possibly, maybe think about doint than the good Mr Brown could write in fifty of his great books.

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  12. Woooo! I almost didn’t check for an update this month. Thanks for checking in with your fans. 🙂 Helps make the wait less painful.

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      1. I’ve lost faith in authors like George RR Martin. So much so that I won’t be buying WoW. At a certain point, an author has an obligation to his fans to publish. Instead GRRM has just sat around starting all these new projects and taking in money from the HBO series, a series that wouldn’t have happened without the devoted fan base that he is now neglecting. Same thing with Patrick Rothfuss and DoS, except Rothfuss is a better writer. I think Mr. Brown is a good author and I’m willing to wait three years between books, but not much more than that before I give up.

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      2. @Pat I wouldn’t read the depressionfest that is Game of thrones, and I regret reading the Rothfuss series. I was personally disgusted by Rothfuss’s books after reading the main series of Name of the wind. Inconsistencies in worldbuilding, stupidest plot reasons, not a single likeable character. Man was Kvothe the right cuck…

        The wheel of time was better… and that’s saying something as that series had 5 or so books almost sleep inducing with nothing happening, and the plot development was slower than tectonic movement.

        IMO Sanderson is much better than Rothfuss. But then again, I’d rate Rothfuss lower than most other fantasy writers as he pissed me off with Name of the wind series like almost nobody.

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    3. @Vikk well posts like these are what kills the mood of the author to continue said series, maybe even only for a day, but it just isn’t constructive in any way. So what? He likes his other worlds probably just as much or more than Daniel Black world (he said so about the scifi one I think,).

      I personally would also like to have a Daniel Black book out every other week, but that simply won’t happen.

      For example the sci-fi world is too much “sci-fi” for me. As was said a million times: “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. So the world of Perilous Waif felt just like a worse fantasy setting when I was reading it.

      Give him time he needs to take to make the story for us, let’s just be happy the Daniel Black series exists, and that he isn’t writing any Tian-xia Cultivation light novels… xD

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      1. Sometimes I wonder if some of the authors die with nobody knowing so they’re serious simply sits uncompleted.

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  14. I agree with Vikk. The older I get the less I’m willing to wait years between books. I like Mr Brown’s books but this is getting to be too far between.

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    1. This is what I think. If he’s loosing interest in Daniel Black because of the other books.) And don’t get me wrong. I think Alice Long is quite possibly the most unique SF book I have read in MANY years. And it was supremely well done and amazing) Then he should just “end” the series. Focus on it, and end it. It can be a 4 book series. No problem, just finish it up. Then he can focus on the others. Several times now I have had an excellent series just drop off after 2-3 books because the writer just decided to write other stuff.

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      2. Yeah seen that happen a lot with both si fi and fantasy series. Really (P) m off. I could name a few but I won’t it’s just so frustrating when you spend the time and money only to be left high and dry with no way of seeing the end of series. Here hoping we get an ending to this series.

        While looking at the series you could say it could have may be one or two books left to complete this storyline leaving it open to many other stories once this part of the series is completed. Allowing Mr Brown to carry on with DB on a new storyline or leave that universe all together giving the fans closer on the DB saga. It’s not an easy thing to do but we can hope for something along those lines.

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  17. Greetings,
    I enjoy your work and appreciate the effort you put into your work. In my opinion Having read all three Daniel Blacks and Perilous Waif a couple few times in my opinion Perilous Waif is by far your offering of an outstanding crop. Look forward to your future work.
    V/R
    EW

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  19. Dude!! Some righteous Military SF set in the Alice Long Universe sounds fecking awesome!!

    Maybe Mercs and stuff.. Seeing as you have the planet thing going on in the Alice Long Universe maybe something similar to Rick Shelley’s Dirigent Mercenary Corps could work..
    — Wish he’d managed to stay with us, rest in PEACE Rick.

    Anyway.. As I said I figure you’re ALU Mil SF idea sounds great.

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  21. Listening to Perilous Waif again and as usual I am having a hard time with the story after the point that the Square Deal reaches the Masukai/Yakuza planet..
    The shift in behavior of Alice just never makes any sense to me.. She just seems to me to have turned into an idiot, as in loosing more then 30 points of her IQ and all her deduction capacity for the storyline to work out.
    Its as if William is suggesting that Alice’s subconscious is hindering her from doing basic things like researching pertinent subjects like oh the Mirai and anything to do with her own background!!
    Oh and Alice putting of doing/researching/informing herself about things by at several points in the story stating that “she hasn’t got the time rite then” and putting it of for later..
    This excuse literally makes no sense since she is part AI and can multi task like.. So basically setting up a info search on anything should and is actually stated to be easy for her, even consuming all such info after the fact is also said to not take her much effort either.. Somehow tho over several sleep cycles after leaving the Yakuza planet she seems to not have done any such thing..

    Well I’m going to make an attempt at getting past the more (to me) egregious parts where the above issue is overly prevalent without exclaiming out loud. Hopefully the single rather loud OFGS that ripped from me earlier and that initiated this rant wasn’t noticed by my next door neighbours

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    1. LMAO noticed that eh? And this coming from a author who says ” Dislikes: Clueless idiot heroes who survive on pure luck and the bad guy’s mistakes. ”

      No idea what is taking him so long to publish…But i have given up. Once the series is finished i might pick it up again.

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    2. There’s a possible explanation for the contradiction between Alice’s interest in her background and seemingly lack of desire to act on it.

      Throughout the book, Alice exhibits certain instinctual behavior that–in hindsight–is clearly prompted by some artificial mechanism. Some of the most obvious examples include her difficulty bowing to the Masukai, her deep-seated need to protect those who are part of her clan/group/pack/tribe despite significant personal risk, and an instinctual “kill them all” response to those who threaten her and her group (which is also closely related to the second point), and reflecting on her sense of satisfaction at being in command–leading and protecting “her” people–while being carried to the medbay by Lina. Elsewhere, Alice remarks on the “insticts…[mom] gave [her].” She clearly recognizes that they aren’t necessarily products of her own development. Those are all highly developed instincts, well beyond what you’d expect to see at her age. Kids are perceptive and learn from their experiences, but Alice takes it much further.

      Later in the book, Hope states that Alice’s development manager was purposely hiding her origins and the extent and capability of her mods. That includes not swapping out her organic tissue with more durable–albeit detectable–synthetic replacements. Even after Alice felt safe on the New Deal (which happened rather quickly), her development manager didn’t build and activate all of her mods at once. It took things slowly, and only activated her field emitters and power cell when she was in an active combat situation where they’d make a difference to her survival.

      Alice was basically born at the end of the war. By that point, the Mirai would have recognized–and accepted–that they were being hunted down and slaughtered. Alice’s development manager was paranoid, and it’s a safe assumption that her instincts would have recognized the existential threat. As capable as Alice might be, she’s still a young teenager and accidentally betrayed some of her capabilities and unexpected knowledge throughout the story (on Felicity, the New Deal, etc.).

      It’s perfectly reasonable to expect that her development manager and programmed instincts would keep her from pursuing too much knowledge about her background. One slip, and she’s dead as is everyone she’s ever interacted with. The Inner Stars would glass planets to kill her. Until she’s in a position to safely consider her origins, it’d make sense to impede such efforts.

      Even after she’s met Hope, it seems like she’s actively avoiding thinking about the Mirai too much. If she wanted, she could find out the truth about the war and the Mirai’s goals. Reading between the lines, they come across as quasi-isolationists; if you poke them, you’ll definitely regret it, but they aren’t actively seeking out wars. But their tech advances painted a target on them, and everyone else came together to take them out before the Mirai were simply too advanced. Alice could find out for sure, and remove the one emotional sticking point that’s clearly bugging her.

      Her instincts *have* to be involved in this odd behavior. But for as often as Brown points out her instinctive behavior elsewhere in the book, this is left almost entirely to the reader to ponder. It doesn’t detract from the book, but it does leave the reader with a peculiar sense of unresolved tension.

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      1. Tom S. the unresolved tension is a time honored method to ensnare the reader so they’ll come back for the next book. It worked with me.

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    3. Actually, Ola, there’s a VERY good reason why Alice wouldn’t do any of that research ESPECIALLY while on a Yakuza controlled planet. Information security. Alice is smart, smart enough to know that the Yakuza would most certainly notice any attempt by her to research those topics, which would be Very Bad. Even on the Square Deal she dosn’t truly trust anyone yet, including their info-morph security specialist. Unless and until she gets somewhere she can be totally anonymous and she has a alpha class security and obfuscation program to protect her, she’d be criminally stupid to go waving any flags that she might be a Mirai, let alone an unknown princess!

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      1. Sorry, not looking up information on the Mirai when you are going to a Mirai wreck filled with warbots is paranoid? I think she set off more alarms by not looking, especially with the security chief that taught her information is power.

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  22. you know.. i LOVE the story. Both of them. It is a shame the length of time has been so long..That i have lost interest.

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  23. Leave the man alone will you. You try writing a, GOOD book and see how far you get, snd he has written 4 terrific ones so far.

    It’s not easy for him, and your ohh so upset becsuse he hasn’t put a book out as quickly as you would like, sheesh.

    Take as long as you need Mr Brown, I at least will continue buying your books no matter how long it takes you.

    No pressure.

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    1. Absolutely. As to nonononono1234567, with all that time on your hands waiting for the next book, why don’t YOU try to write, you know, to show us how it is done…

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  24. How long will we have to wait for audiobooks for Thrall and Alice 1.5? I love reading, but I don’t have time, so it’s generally audio or nothing for me. I mean, if Alice 1.5 is short, I might be able to fit it in, but once I start reading it’s soooo hard to stop and then I end up reading instead of sleeping, and I REALLY can’t afford to do that too often, so I exercise my self control as much as possible and try to stick to auidobooks because they don’t get me in nearly as much trouble!

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    1. He said to expect it fall. He is still working on it, only 14 chapters are completed. July would be a good time for updates (he might announce that he is publishing it then instead).

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  26. First off I really have enjoyed the Daniel Black series. I’ve read them 3 times now this year. I wonder if the author will keep Daniel’s first promise to his girls and return to cottage where he started and retrieve Avilla’s belongings that she had to leave behind. Hopefully he will. I can’t wait to read it

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  29. I do so strongly Approve!!!!
    You are one of a very few great writers 🙂 Looking very much forward to this..
    but just you know you can always create a patreon acc, and charge homies 10$ per mo for a chtr or a few pages..
    and some of the few mo old ones give away a free fo charity for the more saving homies..
    homies would approve, homies would support.. say 5k usd a mo.. 10$/mo X 500 homies
    Trust in yo homie 🙂

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    1. It should have sold well. It was one the best depictions of the future we are heading towards that I have so far seen or read. Of course there’s a lot to be said for advertisement I found it by accident. That’s what led me towards the Daniel Black series.

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  31. Hello. I was curious about some of Daniel’s decisions and certain themes that pop up in a lot of Fantasy books.
    So I created a survey to see if those tendencies are reflective of the reader.
    The survey should only take 1 minute. If I get enough responses, I will be posting the results.
    https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R7WMG87

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  32. I would like a update on Alice Long. Sorry I know you are busy. I hope there is no problem with asking. I am just amped up about the new book

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  33. I like the Daniel Black series, but love, love, love Perilous Waif. If it matters, I vote for more Alice Long books 🙂

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    1. You’ve obviously never read E. William Brown before… it takes him 3 years to write a book. We’re lucky if he even remembers he has fans to update now that he has a Patreon paying him to do nothing but pretend to write.

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  35. My only commit is that my Optometrist says I can not use back lit devices to read if I want to keep my vision. Will you be publishing in print as on amazon all they had were kindle.

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    2. Watch out bro u only need two more and you’ll have a full set. Heheheh lol. Like what DaShoota says audiobooks are great.

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    3. Does this include a kindle paper white? I know they’re supposed to be better for your eyes. Maybe ask your doctor.

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      1. Also, you can turn off the back light on all the Kindle readers. Do that and a larger font and you should be good.

        I need reading glasses to read regular sized book fonts and it is great to male the print double sized.

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