So, Knowingly Familiar is getting beta-read, and I hope to release it later this month.
I’m working on print-series covers and formatting, so the first print-edition of the Familiars books (e-books one and two) will be out after New Years. Each print volume will contain two e-books. The price will be a little higher per book, but the economics should be better for buyers over the run of the series.
L-Familiar is coming into shape, and I’m at 23,500 words on it.
White Gold and Empire is also starting to shape up, and I hope to focus on it more this month. I had to do some extra research on resource-use disputes in the Middle Ages, and salt purification, before I could really move the plot forward. Sigh. Author-world problems, yes. (Don’t write historically accurate blue-collar fantasy novels. Just don’t. Too much work.)
I’m doing better than I was two weeks ago. I realized what was causing me so much emotional and physical stress – besides the double-whammy of a sinus infection and flu-shot reaction – and have taken steps to deal with the problem. I’m still stressed and tired, but it’s now back to a manageable level.
The ending of M-Familiar wrote itself. Now I just have to find out how to get there . . .
I’ve started research on the Puritan stories as well. The 1560 Geneva Bible is not easy reading, although if you are familiar with the original King James translation there are some similarities. Neither are Puritan theologians, but if I’m going to get close to the mental world, I need to do a little digging.
Cat Rotator's Quarterly 
Puritan theologians can be weird reading. One’s tempted to compare them to the ancient Orthodox debates on the nature of the Holy Spirit, or the Western imbroglio over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin – except that a Puritan theologian would opine that it was a Catholic pin, and therefore entirely devoid of angels!
When you add in the extreme mysticism of some Puritan writers as well . . . My first encounter with a Calvinist mystic’s writings was a bit of a surprise, to put it mildly.
Puritan stories?
Sounds interesting.
Will they be “pure” historical stories?
No, there is a fantasy element. Think of the Solomon Kane stories, but in a different style and set in New England. They are a reaction to all the “Puritans evil, modern feminist good” fantasy novels that popped up recently.
Solomon Kane was an interesting character.
Oh, IMO the Puritans weren’t perfect but they weren’t that much worse than other religious groups of their times.
Of course, I didn’t expect you to buy into the “Puritans evil, modern feminists good” garbage. 😀
My people were Pilgrims, and therefore even weirder than Puritans. Ha!
Don’t forget the Puritan poets. Puritan female poets, at that. And yeah, people like Anne Hutchinson and Roger WIlliams also had freaky weird theology and praxis… which affected their lives fairly strongly.
There’s a tendency for people to just pass this stuff over in American history classes, whereas it is actually very meaty. And the Great Awakening, the upstate New York weirdness, etc. still tend to get passed over also. Whereas if you take your state’s history, or your city’s history, suddenly all those belief systems and settlement patterns can be clearly seen as the really big deals that they are.
Perhaps pre-mature and DECIDEDLY speculative… but I am starting to wonder what the titling will be for beyond (assuming there is such) ‘Zee/Zed’ Familiar.
She’ll likely circle back to “A” Familiar. 😉
There are other alphabets.
Okay, typesetting stories into the Shavian alphabet is probably for people crazier than I am, but even someone less crazy than I might be willing to write stories titled in that order. Greek, Hebrew, Aramic, or Cryllic titling orders might possibly be acted upon by people who are neither extremely able nor extremely crazy.
There could also be “Tails” told from the Familiars’ perspective. Please, though, NOT the sub-series where they rehash the Filioque Clause or Knox and predestination. Not unless we have a correspondence option for M. Th. 🙂
I take enough time absorbing St. John Chrysostom and St. John of the Cross, to want to readily add a Puritan. I’ll wait; the in-person meetings may come sooner.
The series idea is intriguing.
Some of Cotton Mather and Johnathan Edwards reads like St. John of the Cross. It’s more than a little odd, until you remember that one of the basic assumptions of the Puritans was that G-d is mysterious, unknowable, deeper and wilder than any mortal can possibly imagine, and that’s perfectly fine. If He draws the soul as a lover draws the beloved, then that’s just a wonderful part of the divine mystery (so long as it is understood with proper reverence and awe.)
IIRC Johnathan Edwards is most remembered for his “Wrath Of An Angry God” sermon but most people don’t understand the context of that sermon.
One of the “sins” of the later Puritans was the idea that their wealth meant that “God approved of them” and thus were IIRC taking God for granted.
Edwards apparently believed that the congregation in question (as well as other Puritan congregations) needed “shock treatment” which is what his sermon was intended to be.
Oh yes, research IS the bane of our existence, and chews up a LOT more time than people realize. But it’s good to hear things are coming together!