In 2013, I wrote a rather twisted piece of holiday fanfiction called “Crimson Frost,” based primarily on the Rankin Bass Christmas specials. Earlier this week, someone on Facebook posted that they were spending a day watching Christmas movies, and then doing a fireside reading of the story. Which is both awesome and a little twisted, considering how messed up this story is. But mostly awesome!

So here it is again for your reading pleasure, a messed-up tale that originated with a random remark about “Rudolph vs. Frosty.”

Happy holidays, all! Enjoy 🙂

Click to download: Frosty.pdf | Frosty.epub | Frosty.mobi

In 2014, I wrote a short story called “Chupacabra’s Song” for the Kaleidoscope anthology. (An excellent anthology of diverse YA science fiction and fantasy, by the way.)

The story is about Nicola Pallas when she was a teenager and just discovering her power.

If I were to self-publish this and put it out there as a 99-cent ebook, would you:

• Buy it and be happy
• Buy it but feel like you were getting ripped off
• Not buy it, because 99 cents is too much for a short story
• Not buy it, because of other reasons

ETA – Cover art would possibly look something like this (only, you know, without the iStock watermark):

I’m also thinking about doing some original stories, probably between 15K and 25K words, that would connect to my existing universes. I’d probably start with libriomancer stuff, but could branch out into goblins and princesses, depending on time and inspiration and such. What do you think is a reasonable price for stories in that range?

• 99 cents
• $1.99
• $2.99
• Other

I’m not making any promises here. A lot will also depend on contracted deadlines and how much else I’m able to get done without breaking my brain. But it’s something I’d like to try…

Thanks!

We saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens over the weekend. I won’t put spoilers in this blog post, but will be talking about and spoiling things in the comments at http://www.jimchines.com/2015/12/the-force-awakens-spoilers/

Nonspoilery thoughts? We enjoyed it. Definitely better than the prequels. Finn & Rey are great — both the characters and the actors. My son loved it and immediately wanted to watch it again when it was over

If you’ve seen the film, or if you don’t care about spoilers, feel free to jump into the discussion. I’ve got much more to say…

One of the annoying things I’ve found about the full-time writer gig is a much stronger feeling of not getting enough done in any given day.

Working for the state, I knew I had an hour to write during lunch, and maybe a little time later that evening, depending on what was going on. So if I got 1000 words done, I was doing great.

Now, I get up and do my two hours of telecommuting, and then at 10:30 the rest of the day is all mine. Since I have more hours to write, I should be doing 5000+ words a day, right? Because that’s what the math says.

Of course, the math doesn’t care about calls from the school, grocery shopping, holiday preparation, vacuuming the house, picking my son up from school because he’s not feeling well, and all the rest. Nor does it recognize that sometimes I need to get up and stretch, or walk away from the story so I can think a bit and figure out where to go from here.

My math doesn’t care about any of that.

At the same time, I’ve been thinking about more projects I want to do, things I’m really excited about. There’s the middle grade book, the trilogy I pitched to DAW, and a list of other things that not only would my fans (hopefully) really like, but that would also help me continue to grow my career, and as a writer.

Basically, I want to WRITE ALL THE THINGS! And I somehow expect myself to do it all RIGHT NOW!

Realistically, the past few months have been incredibly productive. I did three and a half short stories in October. I wrote the first draft of a book in November. It’s halfway through December, and I’m halfway through the rewrite of that same book. I also did page proofs for Revisionary somewhere in there.

And it doesn’t feel like enough. I knew being the stay-at-home parent would eat up a fair amount of time and energy, but it’s hard to find that balance. There’s always been the voice whispering, “Shouldn’t you be writing?”, but now that voice expects it to be all writing, all the time.

That’s not healthy.

I’m thinking I need to do more long-term planning. List out these various projects, come up with a realistic estimate of how long each of them will take, plug in the ones that have deadlines, and see how it all looks. NaNoWriMo was helpful because not only did I have a concrete goal, I also had a daily goal, and if I reached that, it was easier to give myself permission to stop.

This has been your periodic glimpse of writerbrain.

Earlier this week, it came out that Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn and many other works, was suing his long-time business partner Connor Cochran for elder abuse, defamation, and fraud, among other charges. The papers were filed in Alameda, California, and are available online.

Yesterday, Conlan Press released a statement signed by Cochran, as well as Beagle’s children, describing the lawsuit as frivolous. The statement claims Beagle’s medical condition was deteriorating, and he was being taken advantage of and manipulated. The statement also asked that people respect the family’s privacy.

In the meantime, Connor Cochran, president of Conlan Press, has been very active on Reddit Fantasy, defending himself and his history with Beagle, and claiming that others simply don’t have all the facts.

He’s right in that respect. Very few people can claim to have all the facts about this particular case and the allegations in question. In that regard, there’s not much we can do but wait.

So what are the facts we do know?

1. Peter S. Beagle is beloved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone say a bad word about this guy. The Last Unicorn is a classic. The idea of anyone taking advantage of Beagle has some fans and authors in literal tears. This is a man who deserves financial stability and security.
2. This isn’t the first time Beagle has had to fight for his due. There was an ongoing conflict with Granada Media over royalties and payments for the Last Unicorn movie. A settlement was reached in 2011, apparently through the work of Connor Cochran.
3. This is not the first time Cochran has been sued in the publishing world.
   • February 2010: Baker and Taylor sued Cochran for approximately $6300 for breach of contract. Cochran’s response to this lawsuit is here, and claims he was offered other terms. However, there’s no written documentation of those alternate terms, aside from an email that, to my non-lawyer mind, is in no way a written contract.
   • August 2011: Sydney Clemens sued Cochran for for the return of $25,000 she invested in Cochran’s company as part of a signed 2009 agreement promising her work would be published within 12 months. Cochran did not publish Clemens’ work within that time frame.
   • January 2012: Penguin Group sued Cochran for approximately $3400 plus legal fees for unspecified goods and/or services from 2009 that were never paid for.
4. Conlan Press has received money for products that were never delivered, going back at least ten years. (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) You can also read about the seven Better Business Bureau complaints filed against Conlan Press.
5. Connor Cochran claims to have saved Peter Beagle’s career. “When I met him in 2001 he was a quarter million dollars in debt, his house was in foreclosure and about to be auctioned off, and his annual royalties from everything he had ever written all put together came to less than $10,000. Ten years later, because of the business I did for him, his annual earnings were in the 96th percentile of all US incomes.”
   • I can’t say whether or not this claim is true. It might be. However…
   • It’s possible for this claim to be true, and for the allegations of fraud and abuse against Cochran to also be true.
6. In all likelihood, the situation is more complicated than is publicly known. I’m hesitant to include this as a fact … why don’t we call it a truism that snuck in to hang out with facts. But given that this involves family, long-term business relationships, Hollywood, and a great deal of money, I can pretty much guarantee it’s complicated and ugly.
7. This sucks. I’ve only met and spoken with Mr. Beagle once, but he came across as a wonderful human being who’d run into some major business problems over the course of his career. Whatever the truth, whatever the facts about the current lawsuit, Peter Beagle deserves better.

Based on these facts? I worry. I worry about a wonderful and beloved author who doesn’t deserve this kind of stress and conflict in his life. I worry when I look at the history of Cochran and his business. I worry that on one side of this mess or the other — or possibly both — are people trying to manipulate and take advantage of Peter Beagle.

I cordially invite those people to go to hell.

One of the most difficult things about watching this unfold is not being able to do anything to help an author so many of us care about. Right now, I’m not aware of anything that can be done, except to wait. That may change as things move forward.

For now, the only thing I can do is tell Mr. Beagle that of all the fans and authors I’ve spoken to about this, of all the blog posts and commentary I’ve read, one thing is very clear: your friends, fans, and colleagues love and support you, and we wish you all the best.

ETA: Another relevant link.

• A note that the Peter S. Beagle Facebook page is controlled by Connor Cochran, and is therefore not a reliable way to communicate with Mr. Beagle.