Some Updates, and Some Apologies

Howdy, everyone! I have some news today about my novel, and a few other things. It’s been a bumpy three months for me, personally, though I will hardly bore you with the details—other than to say that the phrase “tortured artist” fits this particular artist quite well. The obvious consequence of this has been a three-month gap on my blog. Now that I have made my triumphant return, posting will continue, around 1-2 uploads per week.

Regarding Pathfinders: I have chosen to postpone publication. The new release date is February 3¹, 2026. Why the extra few months? It’s not because I’m behind on the book itself—the manuscript is in great shape. One of my most trusted beta readers found just four typographical errors across more than 200 pages. Assuming he missed half of them, that leaves fewer than ten for an entire novel. Whatever my other flaws as a writer, I can compose (relatively) clean prose. Just one more round of edits and I’m confident Pathfinders will be suitable to publish.

The issue is… elsewhere. When you self-publish, as I am doing, you are responsible for every aspect of putting your book into the world and making sure it gets noticed. That means a professional cover; that means proper formatting; that means a whole lot of marketing. A non-exhaustive list of my obligations between now and D-Day:

• Scour the entire manuscript for errors.
• Scour it again.
• Format it for Amazon Kindle.
• Format it for the print edition.
• Commission a graphic designer to add text to the art I already have.
• Offer advance review copies.
• Carry out a marketing blitz.
• Put the book up for preorder.
• Contract with a print-on-demand publisher.
• Register an ISBN.
• Register copyright.
• Form an LLC for the business end of my writing.
• Share the first chapter on my website.
• Do still more marketing (and I haven’t even published it yet!).

I could do all of that by November 23. I don’t think I could do it well. I’m just not the type to haphazardly throw² something on the internet, without preparation, and hope for the best. You see, I’m a little fussy when it comes to quality. I need to have all my ducks in a row before an undertaking of this magnitude. Therefore, February. I am sorry if I’ve let you down! I’ll make it up to you with a polished, professional book.

I must also apologize for an unfortunate issue with this website. Several months ago, around the start of 2025, I installed a security plugin that was supposed to weed out spam comments. In that pursuit it proved a little too… enthusiastic. If any of you have tried to post comments between then and now, I haven’t seen them. It blocked everything. I think I’ve fixed the issue by disabling the plugin, but if you can read this, let me know…

(Please! Somebody!)

Finally, I’d like to discuss the future direction of Let’s Get Off This Rock Already. It will continue its eclectic triangulation between space nonfiction, sci-fi reviews, and original short fiction by the author; however, fiction will be a much larger piece of the pie. Some stories will stand alone, while others will be serialized (like “Last Flight from Tazab Station”). I even plan to upload two novellas, a dystopian sci-fi work and its sequel, which I’ll publish free of charge right here on my website. Exciting things lie ahead!

Anyway. It’s good to be back. I appreciate your continued readership—seriously, you guys rock—and I will see you next week with another post 😁

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Note: The cover image for this post is AI-generated. The text was 100% written by a human.

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1. As it happens (it was deliberate), this will be four years to the day after I started the book. ↩︎
2. Admittedly, some of my blog posts are off-the-cuff. But that’s different. ↩︎