I HAVE THE PERMISSION IN HAND! PUBLICATION IS PENDING!

       I won't rehearse all the ins and outs of how I got it, but suffice it to say that I had a contact who helped me out.  Yesterday morning I got an email from the publisher implying it could be as much as twelve more weeks, upon which I exploded.  I don't know what my contact did, but when I checked my email after supper yesterday evening, here was the permission!  I just wrote the check (the fee was not exorbitant, by the way) and mailed it back to them within this last hour.  So now I can make the final preparations and within a couple of days submit the first volume of "The Termite Queen" for publication.  Finally! 

       Then I'll have to wait for CreateSpace to mail me the proof copy.  After I approve that, then it will be published.  It always takes a few days to appear on Amazon, so I would say, maybe two weeks before you can actually buy the book.  I have no idea yet what the price will be, but I promise to keep it as close to the minimum as possible.

       As for ebooks, I have to wait for yet one more permission, since the e-rights for Robert Graves' poetry is held by a different outfit from the print rights.  I just submitted that request on Sunday and they got right back to me on Monday morning saying processing the request would take two to three weeks.  That's perfectly reasonable and I don't think I'll have any trouble getting the permission.  It may be rather expensive.  For sure I'm not going to make any money any time soon off my publications!  But that's all right!  I mostly want people to read them, although I'm not very inclined to give them away.

       On that subject, I may actually make "Monster Is in the Eye of the Beholder" free for a week when "TQ" is published, to celebrate.  I know I can do that on Smashwords, but I've got to check out what Amazon allows.

       I can definitely publish "TQ" on Kindle.  If you're curious about how I worked out the symbols problems, go to my conlang blog, http://termitespeaker.blogspot.com, where the latest post deals with that.

       In the meantime, I will continue to post chapters.  The next one appears tomorrow.  I've gotten good responses and lots of page views.  I hope even more of you will give the book a try and that everyone continues to enjoy it!