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)

Muses?

Yesterday I got an image in my head of a painting.  It involved a muse and a painter, though the muse is not the classic simple inspiration type from literature references..  It persisted, and I wrote a small scene describing it last night.  It doesn't fit into any of my current story ideas, but it might end up being a story idea of its own.

I haven't had any story speak to me since finishing Forbidden Knowledge, so hopefully this is a sign that the stories will start to flow again soon.

I finally got the license plate sticker put on yesterday, also.  I had to scrape off ten years' worth of previous stickers first, but it's done now.

I also cut the baseboard for Candice's witch cottage dollhouse.  I think we're getting to a point where I'm supposed to help put it together and/or start wiring it soon, but I'm not sure.  Candice also got inspired to do some clay work last night making miniature wedding cakes with "sugar skulls" on them.  Since sugar skulls are normally 1:12 scale, she's making them in 1:144 scale, which is apparently pretty frustrating.

I think today might be a lazy day with maybe a little bit of inspiration thrown in if I'm lucky.  That's all for this blog, thanks for reading.

Forbidden Knowledge Finished!

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 few days 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 not be obtained.

That is the teaser for my short story Forbidden Knowledge that I just finished the draft of last night.  The story is 4400 words and will probably be in the second book which I plan to name At The Turn Of Midnight.  I'm still not sure which if any of my other story ideas will reveal their words to me next, so we'll wait to see on that.  But I do know that if I don't get the editing and cover design done soon, I'll lose my motivation to publish it, so I'm probably going to make that my focus.

I need to figure out an item that relates to each story in the first book.  My cover design concept is that of a yard sale table, and many of the items on the table are in some way related to the stories in the book.  I'll gather the items, place them on a table out in the driveway and take some pictures.  If any of them look right, I'll design the cover using it.  I probably need to write the back cover "teaser" for the book, too.

So, that's my great news for today.  Thanks for reading!

Recent Progress and Other Random Bits of Information

I did, in fact, manage to write some this past Sunday (640 words it seems after typing it up) on Forbidden Knowledge.  It's up to over 3200 words so far.  I don't know how close to the end it is though, it hasn't told me how it'll end yet.  I haven't written any since then towards it, but that's because a) it hasn't called to me to write on it, and b) I really haven't had the opportunity to write since Sunday.

I'm hoping it'll tell me the rest of the story soon, and then let one of the other stories start revealing themselves.  Maybe the zombie story, maybe the vampire one, maybe the werewolf one, maybe Red at Night (the companion story to Mary's Painting), maybe the time travel one, maybe the murder mystery, or maybe one of the other fifty or so stories that I've jotted down at least a kernel about...

That's it for the writing front, on to some of the "life" topics:

Donna's hand has mostly healed from her burn.  The skin is still a darker red than the surrounding skin, but other than that, it looks great and is pain free (unless she's trying for sympathy, then she can't use it for anything).  She started back to Day Care/Preschool today (she goes two days a week).  This fall, she'll be starting all day Kindergarten and Megi will be taking her slot (we assume/hope) at the daycare/preschool.  We really need to ask to make sure that plan will work out, but the lady in charge is never there when I remember (she's practically never there in the afternoons it seems).

Last night, Gabe had the annual class concert.  He did awesome.  Usually, he loses focus and stops singing along about 2/3 of the way through, and he never does any of the hand motions/signing that might go along with them.  but last night, he sang along for the entire show, and he did most of the motions, too.  You could tell that he really enjoyed the Star Spangled Banner performance where they beat some colored plates together and made several different sounds with them.  I'm not sure if Candice saw how much his face seemed to light up when they were doing this performance, she thought using the plates was hilarious and was trying to control her laughter the entire time.  :-)  I was especially impressed with Gabe performing the entire show because they did a lot of "rounds" and "complementary songs" which made it more difficult for him to concentrate.  We took him out for ice cream afterwards.

On my To Do list in the coming weeks/this weekend is:

1)  Finally put the new year sticker on my license plate.  I've had them for nearly a month now, I really need to put them on.  It's just been mostly too cold lately.

2)  Make some time to write.  I need to figure out a way to write at home where I don't feel like I'm ignoring my family.  Perhaps at the kids' nap time and Candice can work on her dollhouses at the same time so she won't feel the same about me.  We'll both be accomplishing something we want to do, and we shouldn't feel bad about doing it, because otherwise we'd likely just be doing nothing really.

3)  Try to get Gabe's name changed with the Social Security Administration.  It's been changed nearly four years now, we might as well let the Feds know about it...  This will probably be more likely a task for within the next couple of months, but it's officially on my actual To Do list, and not just my "I should do this" list.

4)  Help Candice wiring her dollhouses when she's ready for that and has bought the wiring kits she needs (assuming she wants me to help her).

5)  Clean the garage.  

6)  Carry trash and recycling out of our bedroom (I really should have done that before this morning since today was trash/recycling day).

I'm sure there's more for the To Do List, and I'll add to it as I remember it.

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

Quick Writing Update 22 February 2014

Last night I wasn't tired when we went to bed, so I sat up while Candice slept and wrote some more on Forbidden Knowledge.  After tying it up this morning (which is very difficult to do with a two and a half year old in your lap, by the way), it appears I wrote about another 750 words, which puts the text just spilling onto the fourteenth page including the title page, and it now stands at a little over 2600 words.

So, yay me.  I have to work crew tomorrow.  Hopefully things will go slowly so I'll have the opportunity to write more on it.  That of course assumes the story will speak to me tomorrow, too.  We'll see.

On a non-writing related note, I've made a lot of progress painting the kids' door nameplates, and hope to finish that stage of the process soon.  Next after that will be gluing the pieces on them and screwing the clips to them.  After that, I'll just need to tie the twine in place on each of them and put the hooks in the doors (and of course take pictures to post here).

That's all for this update.  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.

Today's Agenda 15 Feb 14

I have some plans for this weekend, and if my past is any indication, I'll either do none of them, or get really motivated and do all of them.  I don't seem to have a "go at a leisurely speed" setting.

So, what do I have on my list?

(In no particular order)

1)  Paint the kids' door nameplate pieces.  (I'll probably need to go to the bad place or a craft store to get a few more colors for this project.  Last night I bought some clips to screw onto them, so that they can also be used for leaving messages and surprises for the kids, too.  I only needed three, and they came two to a pack, but they were on sale for three packs for the price of two, so I have six clips now.

2)  Write some more for Forbidden Knowledge.

3)  Play some games with Gabe and try to teach him some sportsmanship, and that losing isn't the end of the world.

4)  Keep the kids away from Candice so she can get back on her schedule for building the dollhouse she is excited to put together.

5)  Finish assembling the nameplates and hang them (See #1 on this list)

6)  Go deposit money in the bank towards our furniture fund.  After this deposit, we'll be at 44% (including tax) of what we need for the new bed and mattress set we've prioritized as first on our list.  With the amount I'm setting aside each paycheck, we'll be getting it a year from now if we don't put any additional deposits in.  If we do, we get it sooner.  Our goal is to get it for each other for Christmas (and then we'll even be easy to shop for this Christmas as we'll need new sheets, etc. for the new size bed).

7)  Remember the other four or five things I had listed out in my head when I sat down to start writing this blog and do them, too...

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

More Forbidden Knowledge

So, I cut my finger open yesterday.  I was cutting ribs apart to freeze and glanced away for a second while talking and that was all it took.  The knife was extremely sharp, and it didn't start bleeding for a while despite being pretty deep.  The cleanness of the cut (by that I mean how narrow a cut, not actual cleanliness - I was cutting raw pork ribs after all) allowed me to not need stitches, but rather a benzine glue type substance and steri-strips.  Then they put this annoying tube gauze over my finger that I was to leave on for 24 hours (I'm taking it off after I finish typing this since it has been on for around 29 hours how (though, it'd probably be easier to type without it on since it only hurts when I completely straighten out the finger or bump the sore part which is right around the last knuckle on my non-dominant hand's index finger - putting pressure anywhere else is fine).

When I got to Urgent Care, they informed me it'd be two to three hours, so I sent Candice home while I waited so the kids could be put down for their nap, etc.  While waiting for so long, I came up with the brilliant idea to <gasp> write.  So, I walked down the way to the (literally) corner drug store and bought a new pad and some new mechanical pencils, went back and started writing.

I wrote the first sentence of what is to be Forbidden Knowledge, and it promptly yelled at me that I had written something completely wrong.  So I turned the page and started over.  by the way, the wrong sentence read "Nathaniel woke from the repeated rapping at his door."  It now reads "Nathaniel Scribner opened the doors of the library to the complete disarray inside."

That's all you get for now, but suffice it to say that I now see why the story told me I'd screwed up because it's a much better story the way it is heading now.  Did I mention that I now have 5 typed pages?  Woo Hoo for me (and the story).

Well, momentum is going for it, but hopefully it doesn't get derailed.  I have a tendency not to write when I'm around people I want to be around, which usually means I don't write at home unless they are all busy doing other things and then I might take the time to write.

I have no idea how much more the story has to revel to me and my pencil, but it's fairly exciting to see the words as I write them.

On a related note, my "new" laptop that I salvaged a few weeks back started dying.  It was taking me about two hours of getting it to boot/repair startup/etc for every 15 minutes of use.  So, I broke down and got a new one.  I managed to get a decent one for about $400, but it's a Windows 8 machine.  I figured out how to get it to (mostly) behave like a Windows 7 machine, so I can bear to use it.  Now I just need to get a new copy of Office (and not that 365 crap - I need to be able to use it when I don't have internet access, too - plus I don't want to have to keep paying for it every month).

Anyway, that's all I have for this post, thanks for reading!

Forbidden Knowledge

I almost wrote last night.  In fact, I wanted to write last night.  But the kids (or more specifically Megi) insisted I play with them, so I spent quality time with the kids, which is way more important than progressing on my quest to be a writer.

Yet again, the story pulling me towards it is Forbidden Knowledge, so I think I’ll have to give it some attention soon to keep it from sulking off to a corner of my mind and dying a lonely death.  The zombie story hasn’t been pulling that strongly lately (or if it has, its screams have been getting drowned out by the much louder ones from Forbidden Knowledge.  The cover of the book in the story looks a lot like this in my mind (though the writing shouldn't be nearly as neat):

What I’m curious about, is how the book is dangerous, exactly.  Because the story hasn’t given my conscious mind a clue yet about how it will be dangerous, which is perhaps why I’m hearing it call me more than other stories lately.

A friend at work recently gave me a PS2 for our kids (along with a bunch of games) and a desktop computer.  We hooked the PS2 up this past weekend and got it kind of working (the controllers seem to have a mind of their own).  We ordered some new games (Katamari Damacy, and a bunch of 80’s classics so that the kids can start with them and move into the better graphics of slightly more modern games) and a couple of new controllers.  We’ll dole out the games as they behave, and also will have a new method to try and mold proper behaviors.  I’ll probably hook the desktop up this weekend, and get it connected to the network.  We’ll use it for the kids to do schoolwork until we can’t use it anymore.

Also with the PS2 bundle was a bunch of “duplicate” games.  Not exact duplicates, but previous year editions of sports games such as Madden Football, etc.  We’ll try to sell the older versions, keep the newest one of each type, and use the money from that to buy new, different games.

That’s all I have for this entry, 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!