Fiction

An Updated Version of Quantum Blues is ready

A significant revision with lots more FREE short stories. Plus, a bunch of new promos at the end of this newsletter.

Charles Bastille

Feb 4, 2024 — 6 min read

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A few quick maintenance notes

Greetings and salutations!

Ruminato is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I’m glad you are still with me during my switch to Substack! Feel free to say hi in an email or tell me how to make this newsletter better for you. I always reply.

I’m still in the process of migrating from Mailchimp to Substack. I call this Substack letter Ruminato, which is a made-up word about ruminations. There may be occasional glitches. I hope you’ll bear with me, but if you have no patience for such things, the “Unsubscribe” link always lives at the bottom of the email. If you unsubscribe and you still receive an email from me, let me know and I’ll manually remove your email from the list. Like I said, glitches.

Your emails will not be shared with anyone. If someone claims they received your email through Ruminato, please let me know.

If you want to receive “politics” emails, you will need to opt in for the Ruminato Politics newsletters. You can do that here:

Ruminato Politics Notifications

Most of you are here for my fiction. I don’t want to burden you with my politics unless you want me to. That’s where the opt-in button comes in.

I encourage you to explore the Ruminato site. You’ll find lots of free goodies and fun reads.

Why combine politics with fiction, you might be wondering?

The reason I began writing on the Medium platform was to rant on politics, partly as a support mechanism for my novel, Restive Souls. Three years later, Restive Souls is finally looking for a home in the publishing world, and America still finds itself in a national emergency created by people who are the antithesis of what Restive Souls is about.

At the end of the day, Restive Souls is a very political novel and takes a firm stand toward diversity. More on that later in the newsletter.

The short story collection new subscribers receive when signing up, Quantum Blues, has been significantly revised to include several new short stories. This revision includes those new stories. This collection of short stories is only available to my subscribers. I may make it available on Amazon in the future, but it will always be free here, and revisions will always appear here first.

In case you missed the download button for that:

Download Quantum Blues

Paid subscribers will see works in progress on Ruminato — specifically the upcoming sequel to MagicLand, which is tentatively titled Journey to Gath, and Restive Souls, which seems to always be in what I call the final edits stage.

Journey to Gath will appear as excerpts at first to paid subscribers. As the novel matures, the excerpts will be made available to everyone, and paid subscribers will be the first to see full Beta reads.

I’m flattered that MagicLand has received good reviews. I wish it had 50 or, better yet, 1,000 reviews, but the industry reviews help make up for that. MagicLand was also a 2023 Finalist for the Feathered Quill Awards in the 13-18 year old category.

I didn’t originally aim for the YA market. But, as usual with my writing, the characters took over, and that’s what formed.

The characters in my newest novel, Psalm of Vampires, (written under my real name instead of my pen name), perhaps in protest of the YA nature of MagicLand, took things in a completely different direction and curse like sailors (MagicLand is a profanity-free zone).

I just don’t understand people sometimes!

Restive Souls and its teaser novella, The Trial of Summary James, are also both profanity-free.

Restive Souls excerpts are currently available on the Medium platform. Those will be ported to Substack. The first chapter from Part Two has been posted here:

Restive Souls

The Tale of Shyllandrus Zulu: Chapter One

Charles Bastille • Feb 3, 2024

As told to eminent historian Emmet Bolo by the high priestess Zulu West. This excerpt takes place after the events of Part 1 in the novel, Restive Souls. The British have won the Revolutionary War, which they refer to as the Colonial War. In response to the war, …

Read full story →

The rest will follow soon, but I won’t be sending a newsletter out for each posting because there are thirteen chapters and it will feel like spam to you.

Restive Souls has been a three+ year project. It’s dear to my heart, which is why I’m being so particular with the editing process. Excerpts you find here may look different when the book finally sees the full light of day.

The novel is finished, but will continue to experience edits until a bold publisher finally yanks it out of my cold dead hands. I say bold because, after all, the novel is about American slaves emancipated after the Colonials lose the Revolutionary War. The resulting plotline will annoy some people. This is why I call some of my writing subversive.

The world Restive Souls immerses you in is quite unlike ours, but the accomplishments of its protagonists will look familiar. It is a celebration of a world that is slowly showing signs of dusting itself off from colonialism. Hopefully, readers will say to themselves, “This all could have happened so much sooner.”

Restive Souls asks important questions given the current state of things where, in America, at least, and much of the rest of the world, many people would like to separate and divide based on race and ethnicity. They don’t appreciate or want cultural diversity.

As a writer, I don’t understand being opposed to diversity. The rich stories that emerge from cultures unlike mine are fascinating. When those stories exist within the lives of my neighbors, it’s even more exciting.

My writing will always cheer diversity of all kinds. In truth, I can’t help it. My characters often take over my writing and tell me what’s what. They’re as alive as any of my real friends and family members.

In the case of the vampires in Psalm of Vampires, there may be one near you, watching you as you read this.

Time for some promos!