Reminiscing With People I've Never Met

It's been four months since I posted an entry to my blog.

Shame on me.

Since then, I've been on two vacations (including one without kids), the kids have started back to school, the youngest is mostly potty-trained, and I haven't made one iota of progress towards the book being published.

Yes, you read that right.  Not one iota.  To be honest, it has probably only crossed my mind about four times.  That fills me with shame and regret.  I need to get busy.  If I don't get it done soon, I'll probably just give up on it, which isn't really what anyone wants.

So, what do I need to do to make it happen?

Well, first off, I need to finish writing it.  I want there to be 13 stories in it.  I have 12.  I've looked through some of my past stuff to see if there's anything I could "polish off" and fill out the list, but none of them seem to fit correctly.  Which means I need to write another story.  To do that, I need three things:  an idea, inspiration, and motivation.

I have plenty of ideas, but none are currently inspiring my muse, which seems to also have gone on holiday for a while.  Hopefully s/he will return soon.  The last part of the equation usually sparks up when the inspiration strikes, so...

What happens after I finish writing it?  I need to have it edited.  Self-editing can only take you so far, because you know what you intended to say, and often will read it that way when reviewing it.  So, I need to find someone to edit it for me.  My wife and editor has dozens of projects on her books for her art career, and I don't want her to get sidetracked from them.  I also don't want to pay someone to edit them when I'll probably not recover the fees in sales.  (I'm realistic about how many I'll actually sell.)   We have ideas here, but don't need to worry about them until I'm ready to explore them.

Say I get it edited, then what?

Then I have to get a cover designed.  Even though it will only be an e-book, I still need a cover for it.  Covers are usually the first impression a potential reader has when deciding to try the book or not.  Also, several sites will not put them on their featured pages without cover art.  I'm not much of an artist.  My wife, who is an amazing artist, also has her own projects (as I mentioned before).  Assuming a time constraint in getting the cover designed, my best bet would be to develop a "temporary" cover art until a much better one could be put in it's place (the nice thing about e-publishing is that the product can be updated to change out plain cover art with better stuff, "also by this artist" pages with updated ones, etc.).  that would allow me to publish it shortly after finishing the writing/editing phase without having to "push" or "rush" my wife to do a better cover on my timeline.  I know she hates deadline type work and would then grow to hate the project if I did it that way versus allowing her to do it on her own timeline.

So, that being said, I will start carrying around an idea book and pencil more often (it'll also be easier since we're closing in on the time of year when I have my jacket with me when I'm out) in hopes of getting those key materials needed to getting the thirteenth story written for this collection.  Maybe I'll even force myself to write even when I don't feel inspired.  It's usually the advice famous artists/writers give to aspiring artists/writers.  Even if I throw most of it away, I might find one gem in the bunch.

What about future stories/books, you ask?

Well, those will almost certainly happen if I can get this one story written.  I have several ideas (that don't fit with this collection I think) percolating in the back of my mind.  Several involve splitting up larger story ideas I've had into smaller stories that build on each other for one larger tale when put together as a whole, but each of which could be a small story in itself.  Plus there's the "new takes on classic horror stories" of vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. that I'd like to include in the same book, but none of which are beyond the early idea stages yet.

Now, on to the fun stuff:

The Sharks only have one game in Colorado this upcoming regular season, so I bought better-than-normal tickets and got second row seats across from the Avs bench for the game this year with Candice.  Then right after I buy them, the school announces that the fourth grade concert (which is usually MUCH later in the school year) will be that very same night.  Gabe loathes going to those events DURING and AFTER they've happened, but generally HAS to go to them because everyone else is.  Since we know how he's felt about all of them in the past, we plan to divert his attention that night.  We're going to give him the Blu-Ray of Captain America:  Winter Soldier and let him watch it for the first time that night.  Should make everyone happy.

Also, this year, Candice will be playing Fantasy Hockey with me.  I'm excited that she'll be participating in a hobby I find fun.  Right now I have 5 teams in the league, all of whom I know, and most of whom are mostly new to fantasy hockey.  We need an even number, so I need at least one more, and preferably three more.  It should be interesting seeing her root even more for some players as the season unfolds!

Megi is mostly over her feat of the potty, and is essentially potty trained.  She also started preschool two days a week.  Donna started kindergarten this year.  My goodness where has the time gone?

We spent the money we had saved up for a new bed on getting the house painted to satisfy the HOA.  It needed it anyway, but I was hoping for another year or two before we were forced to do it.  Now, we're saving up for it again.

Halloween is just around the corner, and this year we have a crying angel statue to add to the cemetery.  Here in a couple of weeks, we'll take the kids to get their costumes and put up the cemetery fencing, then the week of Halloween, I'll set up the rest of the stuff.  Hopefully, we get a good deal on November 1st for something good to add to next year's exhibit.

Megi has figured out pedaling the tri-cycle, but still has a few issues with it, but at least we don't have to push her for the most part any more.  Donna, is getting really good at riding her bike, but needs a larger one.  We'll probably get that and then start on the no training wheels thing.  Gabe, as always has already outgrown his bike, but until he starts learning to use his hand-brakes, we're holding off as long as possible before getting him his first adult sized bike.

I also learned about the Elio around the 4th of July weekend and made a deposit on one.  I got my number in line the other day, and I should get the 5,751st Elio to roll off the assembly line next year this time.

I know I'm leaving out a bunch of stuff since I missed so many months, but thanks for reading anyway!

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!

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!