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)!

Great News in Bundles!

Let's start with the good news!  I have a brand new niece, Loretta Melinda Bishop, born yesterday!

Also, reports are coming in that Hallie Marie White has been found alive.  Hopefully, she is also safe and unharmed.  I've updated my previous blog post about her (at the top of it, of course) to show she was found.

I removed the Goodreads code from the blog page because of two reasons, first, every time I posted a blog entry to my Facebook page, it insisted on using one of the book covers as the image for the post, and secondly because it didn't update dynamically when I finished a new book.  I didn't want to have to re-post the code every time I finished a book.  So, if you want to follow what I've been reading, friend me on Goodreads.

I've also started adding "labels" to my blog posts, and as a side project, I've been going back and adding them to past blog posts.  I don't know if they help, but I'm adding them anyway.

I've started the zombie story.  It's looking like it will shape up to a decent story, but might take a while to write.  Also, it looks like Dark Stories For A Restless Night will probably be priced at $1.99 when we finish editing and designing the cover.

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.