Treats, no Tricks.

So, I finally got around to it and the book is out there for people to buy.  I did the cover myself, though it wasn't exactly how I originally wanted it.  Thanks to Jen Curry for helping me edit.  It costs less than a dollar (ok, it's 99 cents) if you're interested in giving it a try.  The first story in the collection you can read in its entirety with the preview available at most sites.

As of today the book is available on these platforms:

[UPDATE:  The book is currently only available on Amazon.  It is however, free if you have Kindle Unlimited.]

Kindle https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01M4P43HS

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/676425

Scribd https://www.scribd.com/book/329259915/Dark-Stories-For-A-Restless-Night
iBook https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dark-stories-for-restless/id1170635502?mt=11
Kobo https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/dark-stories-for-a-restless-night
Inktera https://www.inktera.com/store/title/6c675c72-a459-44a6-8168-3397ce30c830

It will ultimately be available also at these locations:

Barnes and Noble (for Nook)
Baker & Taylor Blio
Baker-Taylor Axis360
Odilo
Overdrive
Tolino
txtr
Yuzu

And you can review it at any of these sites, and at Goodreads, too:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32802451-dark-stories-for-a-restless-night

Thanks again for reading my blog (and hopefully my book, too)!

Editing and getting back in the groove for the next go 'round

I've given a copy of the book to a friend for them to do some objective editing on it before I publish it.  I also have to make the cover picture, which should be fairly easy.  I have a feather quill set that I'm going to use to write the book name on parchment, and then add a few extra elements to the design.

I'm also hoping to get back into a writing groove soon, so that I can get to work on another book, so the couple of people who buy the first one and like it might not have to wait for several years to read more.

Lucky 13

I was looking through my completed stories and saw that I have 12 that are ready for editing.  For a short story book with dark stories, it seems more appropriate to have 13 in the book, so I need to get cracking and write another story (and get them edited) so I can get it published.

In other news, Candice has been suffering from a mystery illness for over a month now.  The doctor now thinks it is her gall bladder and/or an ulcer.  She goes in tomorrow morning for an ultrasound for the gall bladder, and sometime later this week or next for a throat scope to find out about the ulcer (and esophageal cancer possibilities).  Either way, we probably can't start and "hard" treatments until we return from vacation mid-June time-frame.  Of course, we are both fighting off a head cold right now, too.

I just started the sprinklers and cut the grass for the first time this year, so spring/summer has officially begun now.

Also, I need to take out the "missile" (luggage container that we mount on the roof of the Santa Fe for vacations) and rinse it out since it got a lot of mud, etc. in it in the rain storms last year before we were able to get it inside out of the elements.  We also need to start working on a "To Do" for getting ready for our vacation. (I'm pretty sure Candice just rolled her eyes as she read that.)

Anyway, that's all I have for right now, thanks for reading!

Fonts Can Be A Hassle

Since Forbidden Knowledge has Macedonian, Chinese, and Arabic Text in it, I searched for a way to get them to all show up without having to mess with a whole lot of fonts that might not be in some handheld readers.  I found that Arial Unicode MS was available on most.  But after reading some more, I'm finding that many of them don't support displaying the extra characters needed to show those languages.  Which of course means that I will have to change the story some if I plan to publish it in At The Turn Of Midnight (the tentative title of book number two).  I'm torn between rewriting the parts to just mention the various languages used on the book cover, or making a picture that I include that shows them similarly to how I show them in the text of the story.  Feedback would be appreciated.  Would the pictures (there would be two, slightly different) distract from the story or enhance it? One would look similar to the one I've included on a few other blog posts and also include here below:

The muse story has grown some more, and parts of the beginning have been re-written to fit the way the story seems to be headed.  

Also, in my self-editing phase, I've written about 300 more words to Cat's Eye View, which is about how a cat sees the world it lives in.  I've also made some changes to The Journey, which is a sort of surreal story of a man's journey through the cosmos.  Tomorrow I hope to either write some more towards one of my ongoing short stories I'm working on, or to do some more editing on the stories from Dark Stories For A Restless Night.

That's all for this blog.  Thanks for reading, and come back soon.  I plan to write a blog on how you can best help support your favorite independent author (hint:  it's a lot more than just buying their books)

Pricing For Dark Stories For A Restless Night

I was reading The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success from Smashwords today since the words weren't flowing when I had a chance to write, and it looks like my pricing might be wrong.  In it, it discusses sales at various price ranges.  $.01-$.99 had a sales ratio of 5.9x, $1-$1.99 was 3.2x, $2-$2.99 was 6.22x, $6-$6.99 was 2.2x, and $10+ was 1x.  For some reason, in two different years of doing the analysis, having a sale price between a dollar and $1.99 was kind of a black hole for sales.  With that in mind, I plan to now price it at $0.99.  That should get it out to quite a bit more readers.

On another writing note, I did write more for the muse story the other night, though I think the second section that I wrote belongs at the beginning.  It's also shaping up to be a frightening story for artist types.  We'll see if my muse strikes some more later this week.

That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading!

Writing Update 19 Feb 14

First, some exciting news on the writing front:  I'm up to ten pages in Forbidden Knowledge (not including the title page) now, with a total of almost two thousand words, and the story seems like it still has a lot more to tell me.  I'm excited to find out how it'll end.  Since I finally started listening to Forbidden Knowledge and writing down the story as it relates itself to me, I haven't put much thought (if any) into the other stories.

I think the name for the second short story collection will be At The Turn Of Midnight, and Forbidden Knowledge will be the first story I plan to put into it.  Once I finish writing it (the short story, not the collection), though, I really need to focus my energy on editing and cover design for Dark Stories For A Restless Night.  If I don't, I'll probably never actually publish it, so I'll need to crack the whip on myself.

In other news, Donna burned her hand pretty badly a week ago.  When I first got home and found out about it, the blister was about a half inch by a quarter inch, so I found some second skin and put it on it.  But about 4 hours later, the blister had grown in size to where it was now larger than the patch I'd put on it.  So, we took her to the doctor the next morning and had her treated.  Yesterday, it finally popped, so we took her back.  It's healing up pretty nicely, but I doubt she'll want to mess with the oven anytime soon as a result of the burn.

I'm now bandage free after my altercation with the knife I was using to cut apart ribs last week.  It still hurts occasionally and is still pretty sensitive to direct pressure, but it is healing up nicely.

Gabe had a weird bout with something Friday at school where he was laying on the playground and his eyes were twitching.  When he got up, he walked a few steps and then dropped to his knees momentarily.  They called home to tell Candice that they were going to keep a closer eye on him.  Later, he was (seemingly) unable to track what he was looking at on the computer, so they called home again and we went to pick him up.  He was quite upset that he missed the Valentine's Day party, but we'd rather be safe than sorry.  We took him to the doctor, and she concluded that it was probably one of three things, either a mild virus, a seizure, or heart problems.  We're going to make an appointment for an EKG here soon to eliminate the last option.  The other two aren't nearly as worrisome for now.  If it was a virus, it's likely out of his system.  If it was a seizure, it's likely just a one time thing, as he's never had them before and hasn't shown any other signs of having more.

Also recently, Megi and Candice have both hurt themselves, so, if we can stop having unexpected medical expenses, that'd be great.

I got a decent amount of painting done on the door nameplates over the past few days.  Hopefully, I'll get them done soon and get them fully assembled so I can hang them up and actually have another woodworking project I set out to do completed.

Yesterday, Megi managed to somehow knock her door off of two of it's hinges, stripping out the screws and all.  Mind you, she's only two and a half years old.  We're not sure how she managed it, but in the process of repairing it, I discovered that it had happened before.  It was holding up halfway decently, so I'm still not sure how she managed to do it.  BUT, in looking at the previous handiwork (along with lots of other repair work the previous owners did to the house), I'm surprised the previous owners made money at being in the contracting business, because he SUCKED at basic home repair stuff.  In this case, he used a drywall screw anchor to "fix" the door screws.  In other instances, he also used screws that were a quarter of an inch wide (not deep - wide) for hanging pictures on the wall.  There's lots more, but I really don't know how the man made money.  Then again, maybe he did stuff just good enough that no one realized he was crappy, and he moved because it was getting about time that things might start to fail, so he needed to leave before his reputation would affect his business.

Anyway, that's all I have for this blog.  Thanks for reading.

Writing Update 24 Jan 2014

I have two stories vying for attention at the moment to be in the next book, which I tentatively plan to call At The Turn Of Midnight.

The Forbidden Knowledge story keeps popping into my head for some reason.  Maybe I should take that as a sign.  The latest way it popped into my head was via the main character’s name:  Nathaniel Scribner, which seems to fit a librarian character from the mid-1800s in my mind for some reason.  Maybe this weekend I’ll see if this story is serious about wanting to be written, or if it’s just taunting me with trying to stay in my mind for some reason.

Of course, at the same time, the untitled zombie story keeps popping into my mind, though not as intrusively as Forbidden Knowledge.  It doesn’t want to be forgotten either (as I wrote at the end of Vivarium), but definitely has spoken to me about changing its format from simply a “first person zombie story” to something more.

I also plan to sit and edit some.  My method for self-editing takes two forms.  First, I read each sentence one at a time in reverse order (since I’m already familiar with the story, this is the best way to see if each sentence works alone).  Then, I’ll just read through and make sure that no story/plot/character flaws stand out to me.

I need to set a deadline for editing and cover art for Dark Stories For A Restless Night so that I’m at least forced into trying to meet it.  I’ll have to ponder just when that might need to be.  I imagine it’ll take at least a good month or two to get both done.  And maybe a month after that to get everything set to pull the trigger on publishing.  Which means I should probably pick a date about three months before I plan to publish.  Whenever that is.  Maybe right at the start of summer for the available online dates?  Feedback would be appreciated.

I’m toying with the idea of using an actual photo for the cover art, or a “sketch” of the photo.  I’ve found some decent photo to sketch sites.  This one does just grayscale:  http://www.dumpr.net/sketch.php, while this one does color sketches:  http://www134.lunapic.com/editor/?action=color-sketch.  I think our concept is going to be a table set up for a garage sale or antique  store with items related to each story on it.  This stems from the story Mary’s Painting in the book where she buys a painting from an antique store that leads to the story line.  I’m not sure what item would be there from each story yet, but I like the idea.  I just don’t know which might prove to be better - a sketch of “live” photo.   

There are eight stories in Dark Stories For A Restless Night.  Some stories lend themselves easily to what the item or items on the table could be, while others aren’t so easily.  Here’s a listing of the stories included in the book:

Mary's Painting - A woman buys more than she expects when she purchases a painting on a whim

Sins of the Father - A priest defends the mission he presides over

The Fall - A young boy awakens after a bad accident while playing

Darkness - A group sets out on a rescue mission in the Mexican jungles and finds themselves at peril

Cat's Eye View - Find out why cats behave the way they do

The Viewing - Witness the last days of life on a distant planet

The Journey - A man travels exestentially through the cosmos

Un-Separation - A man's unhappy and unexpected reunion with his wife

That’s all the news directly related to my writing projects.  There has been some that affects my ability to write.  This past week saw me lose my laptop.  It also saw me figure out a way to salvage a laptop from two unusable laptops.  I took the hard drive from my most recent laptop that won’t even power up any more and put it in the older laptop that wouldn’t boot up completely and system restore couldn’t fix.  I was able to get system restore to reset the newer hard drive’s software to work in the new laptop, but also had to reinstall any software that I use regularly like Microsoft Office.  Fortunately, I still had one more install available for my last Office purchase.

That is all of the writing related news.  For those of you that are interested in other stuff, feel free to read on.

In the past few weeks, everyone in the house has gotten sick in some way or another.  Gabe and Candice have both gotten strep.  Grandma has some mystery illness but hasn’t gone to the doctor about it yet.  Donna and Megi got a stomach bug that saw them both throwing up.  Poor Megi was throwing up for the first time and was terrified.  And I had an intestinal bug the other night.  I’m hoping that the girls and I don’t catch the strep that is making its way through our family.

That’s all I have for this entry.  Thanks for reading!

Vivarium

Well, yesterday, my laptop overheated.  I let it cool down and started it up again so I could shut it down properly.  After that, it wouldn't even entertain the though of turning on again.  This is very frustrating, because the budget doesn't have any room to get a new laptop or have a major repair of this one.  I have a friend who is going to look at it and let me know just how bad it is.  Hopefully, he can get it where it'll at least start again and all I'll have to pay for is a fan and give him some Guinness beer for his time and effort (assuming it's not a major job).  In the mean time, however, I have to share Candice's computer with her and find other things to do with my time.  Maybe this is a sign I should actually get to my "second job" of being an author.

Also, last night, we finally set up the vivarium we've had for nearly a year now that was just collecting dust.  Today, we went and got frogs for it.  Since they're nocturnal creatures, we decided to name them after night related gods.  We've named them Morpheus, Nyx, and Apollo.  Morpheus is the god of dreams.  Nyx is the goddess of night.  And Apollo rides across the sky in a chariot when morning arises.  They are all green tree frogs for us to get the hang of it.  At $5 each, it's not so bad if we fail with them as it would be if they were the red eye tree frogs that run about $50 each.

Eventually, we'll have the other kind (or something cooler).  We'll probably not stop there, either, but we will probably slow down on new pet acquisitions for a while, if for no other reason than the budget won't allow for it.

Candice hasn't been motivated to create lately, so hopefully the new creatures might inspire her a bit.

That, or they'll keep us up all night barking and we'll both lose all creative drive from sleep deprivation.

Here's some pictures of the froggies:

Nyx (The small one)

Morpheus (Adventurous)

Apollo (Shy)

 And the vivarium (the first two are from just before we finished setting it up):

To be honest, we haven't done a single thing towards editing or cover design in over a week and a half.  Don't worry, though, we will still have the book out this year one way or another, and it should be available in the store you get your e-books from.  I have a page or so written on the zombie story, and it is starting to morph into being told multiple different ways within the story itself.  I think there will be excerpts from several different writing sources (scientific documents, personal correspondence, news stories, etc) that when combined in the right order, will tell the basic story.  Don't worry, part of it is still indeed first person point of view from at least one of the zombies.  I'm not sure how it will all play out yet, though.  And to be sure, that's the way I prefer it.  If I know where the story will lead before I get there, I will lose interest in it and not actually write it.


Anyway, that's all I have for this blog post at this time.  Have a nice day and thanks for reading!

Coincidence, A sign, or Just Annoying?

The story I'm currently working on is a first person zombie tale.  It begins with the first death scene from Darkness, though there is no need to read Darkness before it.  It will stand alone.  the connection is just a nice tie-in between stories, where the villain from one story is also the cause of the situation in the other story.  There are a few clues in Darkness, but not reading one or the other wouldn't leave you feeling like you missed something.  (Darkness will be in my upcoming book Dark Stories For A Restless Night.)

The story doesn't have a title yet, not even a working one.  It's still in early writing phase.  For most of my stories, I have at most a vague idea of what is going to happen, if that, and I let the words for the story as they flow off my pencil.

That being said, though, I jotted down an idea back in October when Candice and I were listening to The Shining in anticipation of the new Doctor Sleep book by Stephen King.  It simply read "Not all books should be opened.  Not all knowledge should be gained."  It was inspired by a quick blurb when Jack found the scrapbook in the basement of the Overlook and something told him not to open the book because not all books should be opened.

After that, I proceeded to write a few paragraphs from that, and even got a general idea of where it might go.  I never typed it up, and came across the idea a month later, but not the start of the story that I'd written, so I started it again.  Suffice it to say, none of those ever got typed up even as a place marker to start writing the story.  In the past week, I've come across the idea again, as well as each of the handwritten pages that start the story.  It's very odd that they would keep popping in front of me at different times.

It makes me wonder if it's a sign that I should be working on that story, if it's just coincidence, or if it's just annoying.  Anyway, I've typed them up and at least saved them so that I can work on them later.  Here's the first few paragraphs, let me know what you think of the opening:


Preface

Not all books should be opened.  Not all knowledge should be gained.  I know this now, but I’d have considered those words blasphemous for a librarian to utter even a year ago.

Back then, I ravenously fed on all knowledge and reading.  I cherished any ancient text that my hungry brain could come across.  To me, there was no concept even of forbidden knowledge.

But now I know better.  Now I know that some knowledge should be forbidden.


That's the preface and likely the tag lines for the story.  I'm not sure if I'll switch over to writing more on it now, or if I'll wait, or if I'll split time between the two.

If I keep coming across "signs" to write more on the "Forbidden Knowledge" project, I might have to finally take notice that I'm meant to work on it before my first person zombie story (even though it is finally starting to come to the surface).

As for the zombie story, the preface (as I mentioned earlier) appears in a slightly different form in Darkness.  Then, when I start telling the story, it's in the form of a letter from the main character.  I'm thinking about including pictures of the scrawl along with the typed text to show just how unreadable it is, since it is being written by someone with very little control over their muscles.  What I don't know is if that is just a quick blurb of a story that'll be followed by a separate, bigger zombie story, or if it'll lead to a bigger story within the one I'm already writing.

Other projects waiting in the writing wing include my vampire story where Josef Mengele is the vampire and retells history from that aspect.  Since Josef is the main character in it, I have to find a way to make him more sympathetic, while at the same time still a horrendously horrible person from history.  I also have a werewolf story brewing in my head too, so that it appears like a big portion of the second book might be my takes on some classic horror genres.

Either way, it all seems to be coming together as long as I can keep motivated.

On a different front, here are some season and half-season premier dates we're looking forward to in the near future:

Face Off - 14 Jan 2014
Walking Dead - 9 Feb 2014
Whose Line Is It Anyway? - 21 Mar 2014

Game of Thrones - 6 Apr 2014

That's all I have for this entry.  Thanks for reading.

Close To Completion

Today, I finished handwriting the last of the latest short story I was working on for the book coming out this year some time. It was five pages and my thumb joint jot a cramp near the end, but it was worth it. I still have to type it up and polish it up some, but it ended itself pretty well. I haven't decided yet whether to attempt to write the companion story for this story before putting out this book or have it be the first story I write for the next book. It'll probably depend on how well the writing attempt goes before I make the decision.

For now, my biggest decision will be what to title the first book of short stories. I originally had one thing in mind, then another. Now, I'm leaning towards Dark Stories For A Restless Night. I might think of something more awe-inspiring later.

For now, the book consists of the following stories (And a quick blurb about each):

Mary's Painting - A woman buys more than she expects when she purchases a painting on a whim
Sins of the Father - A priest defends the mission he presides over
The Fall - A young boy awakens after a bad accident while playing
Darkness - A group sets out on a rescue mission in the Mexican jungles and finds themselves at peril
Cat's Eye View - Find out why cats behave the way they do
The Viewing - Witness the last days of life on a distant planet
The Journey - A man travels exestentially through the cosmos
Un-Separation - A man's unhappy and unexpected reunion with his wife

That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading.

Connections

Today I created my author page on Facebook (It already has 74 likes in around 5 hours! Thanks), so I have most of the social media outlets covered in case anyone actually reads my book and decides to "follow" me.  Here's the list of ways to follow or connect with me so far.  Let me know if there's any other ones I've missed that are mainstream enough to be considered (i.e. not MySpace):

Connect with Me

Follow me on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/TAllanBishop

Follow me on Twitter:  @TAllanBishop

Follow my blog:  http://anblicksanamorphosis.blogspot.com/

I’m also on Tumblr:  http://tallanbishop.tumblr.com/

Favorite me at Smashwords (This will be the publisher for all the sites other than Kindle):  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TAllanBishop

Find me on Google +:  http://plus.google.com/+TimBishopTAllanBishop

Putting more squiggly lines on the paper

Well, I worked Mid Shifts (overnights, 3rd shifts, etc. for those of you not familiar with the term) for two nights at the end of this week, and hoped that it would result in writing some of my story.  Instead what I found was that Mid Shifts are not at all conducive to writing.  They are not conducive to any creative thought, unless it's the ones that keep you awake when you're TRYING to go to sleep instead of trying to stay awake.  Well, aside from that, I did get a few hundred more words written towards Darkness.

I hope to write some more towards it later today or tonight.  Either way, I did at least make progress towards finishing it.

On the non-writing front, we got the curtain rod and curtains for Megi's room today when we went out for a flag pole.  I'll likely hang them this week some time, which will leave paint touch-up, painting doors (both closet and main bedroom door, carpet cleanup, and moving in the dressers which we will likely sand and re-stain after the weather turns warmer (April time frame).  I'm not sure what the next actual project is for getting the house the way we want it, but I suspect it'll become the master bedroom.

Anyway, that's all I have for this blog, thanks for reading.

Christmas Day So Far In The Bishop Household 12/25/2013

The day started at three o'clock in the morning.  Gabe actually woke up around twelve thirty, but we managed to hold him off for another two and a half hours.  The morning proceeded for about a half hour for Donna and Gabe to see what Santa brought them (and for Mom and Dad, too).  We then convinced them to take some of their stuff upstairs to their room to play with while we tried to get just a tad bit more sleep.  We then got up at seven for Megi to see what she got and for the immediate family to open presents from each other (and from family that would not be in attendance later today).  She handled it much better than I expected.  I expected her to be so overwhelmed that she'd shut down, but instead, she, though overwhelmed, took it mostly in stride and really got into the unwrapping part.  She was not at all pleased with the "quality" job that toy manufacturers do at securing the toys in the packaging.  Neither am I.

Then mom made French toast for everyone for breakfast, which was quite good.  We finished watching A Christmas Carol that we tried to watch last night (until dinnertime interrupted the movie temporarily and then Grandma commandeered the television to watch ID).  Then the kids played for a while as Candice and I cleaned and made preparations for the meal later today when the extended family arrives.  And now Grandma is making more finger foods and nick-knack foods that no one wants just because.

Candice was totally in the Christmas mood this year (for the first time in a while) right up until Grandma started adding to the menu last minute and taking over the space in the kitchen we needed to prep for the meal (along with monopolizing her time that we needed, too, because her "it won't interfere" line was total crap.  It turned into "do all this for me.")  Now Candice is completely out of the mood and dreading the rest of the day.  Grandma is completely oblivious to this fact.  And now, instead of having too many leftovers for the fridge, we're almost certainly going to have too many leftovers for the fridge, plus a bunch of other stuff that no one wants to eat, and it'll sit around until we throw it away in a week and a half.

I was dumb yesterday.  I wrote over a thousand words towards my story Darkness, and then forgot to email a copy home.  It was mostly just rewriting myself back to the point where I was a few months ago, though it feels much better to me now.  There are two less characters and I have a better feel for how the story will progress.  The first death in the second party has occurred and they're trying to figure out the best approach for the immediate future.  Logically, they should turn back and take the body to town, but they're farther away from the town than they are to their destination, and with an unknown predator that they can't be sure where it is, they are essentially stuck until they can decide.  They find that the backpack with the satellite phone is also missing, so calling for help is out of the question.  They're going to decide that there is probably another satellite phone at the campsite they're heading towards, which will push them forward and into the climax of the story.

In a few minutes, I'm going to put the sweet potatoes in the oven, since we're planning on having everyone eat dinner around three in the afternoon.  After that, I guess we need to start boiling the mashed potatoes (I've already peeled and diced them) and make the stuffing.  Then it's get dressed for the big event and enjoy the afternoon.

Today's Writing Update 12/19

Yesterday, I re-started writing Darkness by throwing out 9/10 of it and starting over.  I think the new beginning is much better and flows smoother.  I saved some from the 'middle' just to see if it'll still fit.  It probably will, but will also probably be re-written, too.  Darkness is also the starting point for my zombie story too.  A few paragraphs in the second section will be the opening part of the zombie story.  I think it's a neat idea that the same scene starts two different horror genre stories.  Now, I just have to write them,  If I finish Darkness before I publish my still untitled compilation book, I think it'll be included and will also be the title of the compilation (though I still want something to do with Mary's Painting to be the book cover picture (darkness lays a role in it and most of the other stories as they're all related to dark topics).  If the book gets above 20,000 words, the book will be $2.99.  If it's less but still more than 15,000 I'll price it at $1.99, any less will be $0.99.  Those seem to be the accepted guidelines from what I can tell for self-publishing electronically.  I also think I need to edit Cat's Eye View and Un-Separation to refine them before publishing them in it.  They're still rough around the edges, and I'd hate to put out something I felt was not finished.  My goal is to get it published some time next calendar year.

Yesterday, I also discovered that I was grandfathered in to 750words.com with a free membership.  I had stopped using it because I joined less than a week after what was supposed to be the cutoff without knowing there was going to be a cutoff.  Before my 30 day trial was to be over, I stopped using it because I didn't think I could afford it (though it doesn't cost much of anything).  On a whim after Candice asked if the words I was typing for Darkness last night were for my "500 words", I went back to the website and found out that they'd moved the date to a week or so after I had joined.  So, I'll try using the site again to keep my writing momentum going.

I added a Goodreads widget to the side of my blog, but from what I can tell, I have to update the code myself to get the books in it to change.  I marked a couple more books as finished today and it still showed the old list until I copied and pasted the new code in.  If anyone knows how to modify it to be dynamically updated, let me know!

We're all ready for Christmas (though we still haven't mailed out stuff to my family back east - we'll do that tomorrow most likely).  The only shopping we still have left to do is to buy a few more groceries for the Christmas meal, and some boxes for the aforementioned stuff that needs shipped.

That's about all for this blog entry.  Thanks for reading.

Getting on the Publishing Trail

When I originally started writing, I never intended to have it published.  I was writing for me, to release emotions, since I didn't (and if I'm honest with myself I still don't) know how to deal with most emotions.  Then, I felt brave enough to let a few friends read a couple of my stories.  That was a pretty big breakthrough for me.  But still, I never really had any desire to sell any of my stuff.

Then I married an artist.  And she started selling some of her stuff (Granted, she produces much more than she lists and the sales aren't burning any barns.  Yet.), and this crazy notion got into my head that maybe I should sell some of my art, too.  Then came the "now what" phase.  I didn't have enough for a full book, and wasn't producing anything except a multitude of ideas (many of which I forget by the time I can write them down - or I lose the slip of paper I write them on), so I kept pushing it off.

Then I found that I can publish on my own through Amazon for the Kindle for free, so I started thinking of the basic concept I'd publish with.  Since the vast majority of my stories and story ideas are all short or ultra short, I should focus on short story compilation books.  I don't concentrate on any single genre, so maybe I should split the stories into categories and concentrate on a compilation story for each genre.  Horror, Science Fiction, Mystery, Drama (basic fiction that doesn't fit into the other three genres).  I then set about doling out stories to each book and had a pretty good idea of what goes where.

But still, I didn't do any work on anything new.

Then I found out about Smashwords, which will publish to just about every other electronic book medium except Amazon and also for free.  So, I could have my books for sale for the Kindle, and also for Nook, Apple Itunes, and a couple dozen other places.  Then I started reading in forums about pricing books and approximate number of words for each pricing scheme and I realized that I could put six of my stories that are already completed in the same short compilation novel and price it at about $0.99 or $1.99.  If I get good results, I'm pretty sure that will get me motivated to start putting my pencil to paper again (yes, I do all my first drafts the old fashioned way).

So, I'm putting the following stories in a short compilation book for less than a dollar:  Mary's Painting, Sins of the Father, The Fall, Cat's Eye View, The Viewing, and The Journey.  The only thing they have in common is that they're all darker stories.  I still need a title for the compilation, but as soon as I get that and artwork to design the cover with, I plan to publish straight away.  Who knows, if I get another story finished before then, I might include it also.

Lalochezia

Lalochezia is the use of vulgar or foul language to relieve stress or pain.  What do you utter when you stub your toe or smash a finger?  For me it's S.O.B.  (not just the letters, but the whole phrase).

There's your bit of knowledge for the day.

My vampire story is fleshing itself out in my head.  The protagonist will be Josef Mengele.  The challenge for me will be to make him sympathetic while still making him a deplorable human being.  I think I know how I plan to do it, but I've been playing out the different ideas in my head along with the basics of the plot before I write any more on the issue.  This is also the same story where I break most of the rules of vampire lore, but with a logical explanation as to why/how.

I'm also kicking around a zombie story where the protagonist is a zombie.  Still working through the concept of how that can happen in my mind.  I do know that it will start from the same beginning as the story Darkness that I'm writing where Itzpopalotl attacks a group of cmapers in the jungles of Mexico.  My zombie epidemic will stem from the dead of the attack that opens the other story.  Their bodies aren't found in the other story, and this gives the explanation as to why.  My zombie outbreak will not be a global one quite yet, at least I don't think so.

Anyway, I promised an update to my blog on what is happening in my writing world when I posted the link to my last blog post on Facebook, so here it is.  Thanks for reading.

Put Pencil to Paper, Make Squiggly Lines, Repeat Until Finished

We’ll get to the exciting news soon enough, but first I must bore you with the more mundane parts of my life you’ve become accustomed to reading.

We haven’t made any more progress on “Operation Anti-Cardboard” despite having the intentions of doing some almost every day since we started.  Hopefully, we’ll get the second coat painted on the closet doors this week, so we can set them out of the way and get to work on the rest of the room in earnest.

Candice colored Gabe and Donna’s hair the other weekend at Donna’s request and Gabe’s “I have to do everything everyone else is doing.”  Donna’s hair is purple and pink, and is still colored.  Gabe chose cherry red, and it didn’t stick with his hair.

Gabe is done with school for the summer.  I feel bad for Candice, though I foresee Gabe getting a decent tan from being sent outside quite a bit. 

Ghost knocked the bird cage off its resting spot and it freed the birds.  The back door was open at the time and one of them made its way outside before Candice could get it closed.  We’ve since done a makeshift fix to the birdcage to keep it from being knocked off again.  Next year, we’ll probably get a much nicer birdcage for them that can’t be knocked over (and if it is won’t separate from the base).

This weekend was busy.  Friday after work, I took Candice’s car in to have the iSimple installed so we no longer have to find a “free” radio station to broadcast the iPod with in order to listen to it through the car radio.  The sound is much more amazing this way and we can control the iPod through the car stereo even.  The cross-country drives are going to be much better not having to find a new station every 10-50 miles!  And the bonus is, I got it on Amazon.com and paid for installation at Best Buy and saved $50 over just buying it at Best Buy and not having it installed!

While there, the people we were getting the kittens from called Candice to tell her that they were ready to be picked up, so I went and got them that evening.  Phantom (the blackish calico – apparently called a “brindle”) and Chimera (the golden one) came home and are now playing like they’ve always lived here.

Ghost went to get fixed Sunday.  Despite having just gotten out of surgery for being spayed, she was alert when we picked her up.  And once we got her home, she was basically acting as if nothing at all had happened.  In fact, she seems even more rambunctious now just two days removed from surgery than she did prior to going!

We also went and got a couple of new birds to keep the other one company.  We’ve kind of decided that for most pets, we’re going to do them in threes (one for each kid basically) except if we get any large breed dog.

Candice started P90X the other week, and after nearly being killed by the first day’s routine, she promptly stopped.  Now she’s going to give it another try.  She did the first day’s routine again last night and plans to do the second day’s routine today or tomorrow.  She really wants to lose weight and get more fit, so I hope she sticks to it or at least finds a routine she can stick to that will help her accomplish her goals.  There’s also likely to be a hiatus from exercising coming up, but we won’t know more until after a doctor’s appointment Friday.

Oh, and the exciting news:  Both Candice AND myself are again plunging back into our creative endeavors of choice.  Candice has started working at her art desk again, creating stuff with her hands, and just last night, I started writing a story again for the first time in about 5 years.

It’s about a haunted painting that can change appearances and interact with the world outside the painting, and whoever is the true owner can not be rid of it until they die.  The story doesn’t come out and say that in as many words, but the implications and clues are all there for the reader to piece it together.  I had lots of ideas to include, but as I was writing, I encountered the perfect ending for the story before getting to some of the stuff I planned to include.  Now I’m in the dilemma of figuring out if I should leave it be, extend the story to include the extra and have a less spectacular ending unless I stumble upon something better, or more likely, add the extra stuff in prior to my perfect ending.  As you can see, I am leaning towards the latter choice because I really like the ending but also think the story needs the extra terror added to it.

As I was writing, I needed a description for a painting and chose my favorite painting of all time which I first saw in the Louvre:  Aelbert Cuyp - Boats on the Estuary of the Hollands Diep River Near Dordrecht.   Here’s a picture of it:

It starts out with only two of the three people in the rowboat and then starts making subtle changes in the early stages of the story.

Anyway, I’m totally excited about the story, because it happened without the aid of a deep depression or alcohol, so there might still be a future for T. Allan Bishop as an author in post-retirement…