The Four Baristas: Double Shot

A (Very Short) Author's Note - The Return

So. Still no jetpacks, huh? Typical.

On other matters, however, I have some news. No, not about jetpacks (try to keep up). I have news about The Four Baristas. "Good news or bad news?" (I'm going to assume) you ask.

To which I reply, "Indeed."

Bear with me.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but whenever I get the old would-you-like-the-good-news-or-the-bad-news-first thing my initial thought is generally, "Oh would you please just tell me the freakin' news in whatever order you think appropriate, as given you are the possessor of said news, surely you're in the best position to judge that kind of thing and furthermore you're presumably going to tell me both kinds so it doesn't make any bloody difference anyway," but as saying that may well take longer than being told both the good news and the bad news I just generally go with the time-honoured and traditional policy of bad news first.

So, let's do that.

The bad news is there won't be a new chapter of Double Shot this week. Or next week. Or, quite possibly, even the week after that. There will be other chapters. A whole bunch of 'em. A veritable plethora of chapters. Possibly even a hyper-abundance of chapters (although probably not). But there will be more—just not for a little while.

And we're not talking a mega-break here, not like the ones induced by the writing of The F-Files or Fearless. No, nothing like that. All going well, this should only be a break of a few weeks and then it will be all baristas blazing. Or something like that.

Which brings us to the reason for the break. Which, funnily enough, also happens to be the good news. The good news is the original The Four Baristas of the Apocalypse book is going to be published. Yes, properly published. With a publisher and everything.

Now, it's a very tiny indie publisher and as such, a very long way from the big-time. But a real publisher, nonetheless. And, if nothing else, I'll get the opportunity to hold a physical copy of the book in my hand. Which will be awesome. And also, given how long the book is, probably heavy. Perhaps I will use two hands.

The reason this means a  break from writing Double Shot is that I need to spend some time tidying up the original and doing some other bits and pieces in preparation. 4BA was the first book I ever wrote, and despite the whole winning a Watty and being put in Paid Stories things, it's quite frankly, not to put too fine a point on it, a bit rough around the edges. It is, to all intents and purposes, still a first draft. And, given that sucker is a little over 100K words, turning it into a second draft is going to take some time.

Anyways, the 'very' in the title of this note is starting to look a little shaky, so I'll wrap things up. To the handful of hardcore barista-philes who have stuck with this much-interrupted tome, apologies for yet one more pothole on the road to the mythical, fabled land of completion, and thanks for your perseverance and patience—you're all awesome.