Sleep is Overrated

I couldn’t sleep last night, not a wink.  I did manage a short nap this afternoon though.  I was just telling my wife the advantages of being awake for twenty-two hours:  I got a lot of stuff done.

Of course, the flip-side is I’m so groggy I would have probably got the same amount of things done in half the time if I was well rested.  But luckily I’m too groggy to think about the flip-side.

So, yea me for getting stuff done, lol!  (My wife and I just had a discussion about whether I should spell yea like I did or instead use "yay".  I mean “Woot” etc. but I’m wondering if yea is how old folks say that and yay is what younger folks say.  In World of Warcraft I mostly see my younger guildies use yay.  I’m just wondering.)

Nonetheless, my newly edited versions of Davina’s Magical Radio have gone live at Amazon and Smashwords.  CreateSpace approved the revisions and I’ve ordered the newest proofs.  Keep your fingers crossed that this time I uploaded the correct file.

I’m off to watch Big Bang Theory (we dvr’d it) with my wife.  She told me tonight’s episode is about hackers on WOW.  Believe it or not, my oldest son’s account got hacked and all of his stuff was stolen not long ago, so I know the plot exactly.  My son eventually got his stuff back, but the whole process soured us on WOW.  Now both my boys play Rift.  I don’t because my computer is too old to meet the needed specs.

But that just gives me more time to write!

Catching Up

The last couple of days have been pretty rough on me from an “Indie” publisher’s perspective.  I’ve mentioned that the Davina’s Magical Radio proofs arrived the other day, and that seeing the material in a book allowed me/us (my wife and son) to spot some things that I needed to correct.  And I did that, albeit kicking and screaming a little bit.

It’s not that I’m okay with errors, because I most certainly am not.  It’s just that each correction includes additional formatting, which is a bear.  So, we spotted one consistent error where I had “to much” instead of “too much”.  I have no problem with the error, I often see whole scenes in my head while I’m writing, and so most of the time I’m typing as fast as I can just to get something/anything down that will help me fill in the blanks in the future.  So, writing-wise, using the wrong word is no biggie, but editing-wise, sigh, well that is unacceptable.  And the book's been edited several times now, by a number of talented people, but even with all the eyes, some little things got through.

But when you add up all the little things, it resulted in two days of pretty much non-stop teeth-grinding and frustration.  I’m also hampered because my disease doesn’t tolerate repetitive movements very well, and so my fingers and hands swell to the point I can’t physically type any longer.  The swelling only goes down with long periods of rest.  But I’m also stubborn and didn’t want to stop until I had the whole thing corrected, so when my hands got too swollen I  resorted to typing with one finger, and when that got too swollen I moved to awkwardly holding a pencil and pressing keys with the eraser.

Then, after the corrections were made, and I reformatted the whole document, I had to convert it into a PDF for CreateSpace.  I’m using an older computer, like old enough to be breaking longevity records.  And with the old computer I’m using old software, mostly because the computer is so old I can’t upgrade to the new stuff.  Hopefully, if enough books sell, I can upgrade the computer and solve a lot of my problems.  But in the meantime, converting from Word to PDF is a bit tricky for me.

However, after I got the document converted to PDF, and painstakingly went over every page to make sure it was still formatted correctly, I couldn’t upload the new file.  Each time I tried to upload the file I would get a message from CreateSpace telling me I needed a faster internet connection.  Well of all the things I have, my silly internet is the ONLY thing that’s fast, so phooey on you CreateSpace.

After fussing with it a couple of hours, including reformatting and a new PDF conversion, I finally filled out a request for customer assistance, and then fumed the 14 hours it took them to reply.  Now 14 hours isn’t too shabby in some ways, but it is when the only suggestion they had was to clear my internet cookies and try again.  Are you kidding me?  And to top it off, they said I should fill out another request for customer service if that didn’t work.  Did someone honestly think clearing my cookies would fix the problem?  Really?

What I did do was update my Firefox browser.  I’d been meaning to do it, but had been busy with the proofs, etc.  But, after I updated Firefox the document went through without a hitch.  I’m not going to dwell on it, I’m just glad it went through.  Now I wait until they approve the upload, then I reorder proofs, then in about 3 weeks I can take a look at the new proofs and see how I did. 

I wish I wasn’t so impatient.  My oldest son points out that I’ve talked about writing for 20 years, but didn’t do it because I was finding other ways to pay the bills.  He says that since now I am finally writing, I should be more patient.  I’m pretty sure comments like those will put him on Santa’s naughty list.

Now you know what I’ve been wrestling with the last couple of days.  I hope all of you had better luck than I did.  At least now I can start catching up on the other stuff.

Check It Out

A week or so ago I came across a book reviewer named Shaynie who analyzes YA and middle-school material.  She looks for books that are good reads but free of gratuitous sex and violence.  I was impressed with the site.  I suggest you check her out because she's put in a lot of work to find books suitable for Christian families.

We've emailed back and forth for a few days and she's in the process of reviewing Davina's Magical Radio.  She expects the review to be up on her site about the middle of next week.  I'll let you know when the review is up.  But whether she likes Davina's Magical Radio or not (how could she not?), I still suggest you check out the site at: www.bookreviewsbymyself.blogspot.com

Where Did Monday Go?

How did it get to be Tuesday morning?  Albeit early morning, but Tuesday nonetheless.

The proofs of Davina's Magical Radio came on Saturday, I posted about that, then Sunday was a bit of a rough day for me but I still poured over DMR and found some things I wanted to change.  Sigh!  I was hoping all would be well with them, but looks like now I will have to modify and then upload again and go through the whole review process again.

Bigger Sigh!

Then I remember sinking my teeth into editing Gray Area, my urban fantasy action thriller.  I seem to remember trying to sleep about 5 a.m. but then waking up at 7 a.m. because one of our cats, Pip, kept scratching at my door and meowing.  When I opened the door to yell at him, I discovered he had left his favorite chew-toy in front of my door.  I still yelled, because he knows better, but it was still sweet of him to leave me a present.  However, I couldn't go back to sleep, so I jumped back into Gray Area.

Then it was 5 p.m. and I fixed dinner (shrimp scampi and brown rice).  Then I did a few things around the house, and then got back to Gray Area.

And now here it is, Tuesday morning.  And I still have a ton of editing on Gray Area.  Sander Kolman, my main character, fascinates me at times, which is a weird thing to say since I invented him.  But sometimes I get lost in what that guy is going to do next.  But the book is 127,000 words, so that is a bit of territory to cover, editing wise.

Sorry I missed posting on Monday.  There's actually a ton of things going on that I haven't even mentioned.  I'll see if I can post about some of them before I head to bed.

The Proofs are Here

Friday night was again a rough night for me.  I had a lot of pain and hardly slept, so Saturday I kind of dozed off-and-on during the day (I promise I’ll write about my medical condition soon).  Our mail comes late in the day, and so, groggy as I was, I was still happy to see a nice brown box in the mail.  And yes, the title gives it away.  My Davina’s Magical Radio proofs were in the box.

I can not begin to tell you what it was like to hold in my hands a book that I wrote.  Although, mostly it was surreal.  However, I did smile a bit as well.

I was pretty surprised they came that fast.  So far I’ve been impressed with CreateSpace, the print-on-demand publisher I’m using.  Before I started the process I read a lot about the company.  Repeatedly I read that the process to get the book ready to print was a tough one, and to be prepared for numerous revisions.

I read that even if you try to follow all of the suggested guidelines before you upload your book, you still will most likely get it rejected and have to make modifications.  I’ll admit putting my document into their format was grueling (I plan to blog about the process soon), but I didn’t find it unreasonable given what they need for the final output.  However, I was delighted when my first upload was accepted within 48 hours without any changes to the text or cover.  And now here they deliver the proofs over a week earlier than I expected.  I’m hoping they keep up the good work.

At the moment I’m pouring over the book to make sure everything looks right before we go to final print.  And so far it’s looking great.  There were several tricky formatting sections where I was introducing cryptograms and solutions, and I was worried about those, but they all turned out looking cool.

So, I’m guessing sometime in April the books will be available from Amazon in print form.

Woot me!  I’m an author.  Wow that sounds and looks weird.  It felt way safer just being a writer.  

My Mind Scares Me

I wrote this almost a year ago on April 14, 2010 at 2:57 am; I think I was awake finalizing our taxes – it’s the only excuse I can think of:

Have you ever noticed that there are upbeat letters and downtrodden letters in the alphabet?

Like the letter C gets to start words like caring and cheerful, or compassionate and concerned, and it’s always calm while still remaining curious.  Whereas the letter D is simply defeated, dejected and depressed, not to mention disappointed, discouraged, and disgusted, probably because it is disliked, dismayed, distressed, disturbed, and down.  Simply put the D’s are just dreadful.  Now some might point out that the D’s will always be able to fall back on Desire, which is a pretty nice D-word, but let’s face it, how many times have you heard of too much desire leading straight to an early death?

Need more examples?  Well, the P’s are passionate, patient, proud, and quite often pleased, but the M’s are mad, mean, miserable, and moody; which leaves me feeling mortified.

Doctor Visits are NO Fun

Okay, it’s a little after midnight, and I’m just waking up from my nap.  Yeah, I’m aware of how funny that sounds. 

You see, yesterday, Thursday, was my doctors appointment with my Rheumatologist.  When those come around I pretty much write off the whole day.  First, he’s about an hour-and-a-half away, and the car ride up there and back is murder.  Bouncing around in a car is extremely painful for me, and it tends to stir up (my words) my disease, which then makes the next few days really tough as well (like I can’t get out of bed tough; anything involving moving is murder tough; even thinking hurts tough; down to why must I breath so frequently tough).

Then, on top of the car ride, the doctor’s exam itself is excruciatingly painful.  I have an amazing doctor, and he doesn’t mean to hurt me, but he is thorough, and when you poke and prod a diseased body, looking specifically for areas where that disease is lurking, well, it kind of sucks.

So, I had a pretty rough night on Wednesday and didn’t sleep much, then beat myself with a baseball bat (that’s the car ride up to the doctor), then prodded my disease until it woke up screaming and looking for vengeance (the exam), then used the baseball bat some more (the ride home; I’m guessing by now you’ve got the picture), well, by the time I came home I crawled (and I do mean that literally) into bed.  And I’m just now waking up.

Sometime tomorrow I get the joy (heavy sarcasm) of doing labs again (once a month I have to have blood drawn and I really hate it).  Then I get to figure out how to pay for the new prescriptions my Rheumatologist wrote; while I curse the latest increases to our insurance premiums and co-pays.

Sorry, in kind of a bummer mood.  I love my Rheumatologist (platonically speaking), but doctor-visit days are not much fun for me.

On the upside:

My oldest son always drives me to my Rheumatologist (I rarely drive any more).  He's done it from day one.  And the time we get to spend together on the trip is priceless to me.  Often I think that having him there is the only way I survive the whole ordeal.  And on this trip it was even better than normal.  We talked a lot about my books and publishing plans (he's got a keen eye for making a story flow and spotting when it doesn't, and suggesting how to handle certain angles in my writing {like cutting down on "cuteness"}{is that even possible for me?}).

Plus, yesterday was one of the worst storms Central California has seen in a while, and we drove right through it, twice.  But with him there I was calm as could be (which means that even though he's an exceptional driver I still held on as tight as possible because the weather was so bad).  Thanks to him we both made it safe and sound.

Plus, plus, I learned a new thing for my blog.  A little bit of research took me to Laura who taught me how to add a new page to my oh-so-new blog and I added Davina’s Magical Radio.  Thank you Laura!  This blog stuff is kind of fun.

What I'm Working On At The Moment

What I’m working on at the moment:

Starting a blog.  If you’re reading this, then it appears I was successful. 

I’ve actually been blogging for a few months, just not posting them online.  Is that still considered blogging?  Or have I just been practicing another form of talking to myself?

Nonetheless, I’ve accrued a few tidbits that I hope to post in the near future.  I’m afraid it will make my new blog look a little haphazard, but since my life is that way, I guess we both will have to make-do.

I also just finished the latest edits to Fighter’s Bane, my fantasy adventure about five teenagers who become their fantasy-game characters.  I printed out the latest copy and gave it out to a few more readers to double-check.

I’m crossing my fingers that Fighter’s Bane will be available in late April as an Ebook on Amazon and Smashwords.

I’ve also started an edit/rewrite of Gray Area, my urban fantasy thriller about Sander Kolman, an extraordinary man who rescues kidnapped and exploited children.  When I first wrote the story two years ago, I was trying for a gritty writing style, at least that’s how I thought of it.  Fast paced, deeply dark, and full of non-stop murder and mayhem.  To illustrate that point, I considered the titles Psychotic Knight and Forty-Caliber Justice.  Now I’m having a little trouble with the edits since the book is so dark and different than anything else I’ve written.  I keep asking myself, “What would my mother think if she read that line?”

Why I've Been Afraid to Blog

Who am I?

For a while now I’ve been afraid to blog.  Lately I’ve been trying to understand that fear, especially since blogging seems like a great way for my ebook readers to get to know more about me.  So I think I’ve come up with a couple of possibilities.

One, I know my medical condition (I plan to post more about this in the future) and the medication I take have changed me drastically.  I had a really bad stretch back in 2006 that landed me in the hospital, and also seemed to wipe out a good deal of my memories.  One of the things I always took for granted was my exceptional memory.  My entire life people commented on my ability to recall past events with amazing clarity, down to the smallest details.  And many of those people probably hated me for being right so often too.  But after my nice flare-up early in 2006, I not only forgot a lot of things, but I started having an almost impossible time in remembering new things.  And I’m not talking about forgetting little things or just being fuzzy on details.  I’m talking about people completely gone, no recognition or recollection of them at all.  Major, super important events, things I loved, gone.  I caught flack for a while after the flare-up because people thought I was just being a snot when I said I couldn’t remember.  Brother how I wish an attitude adjustment was all I needed to fix it.

So, back on point, one of my fears in blogging is that folks I’ve known my whole life will see how much this disease has taken from me, and I still don’t think I’m ready to face that.

Second, and loosely tied to the memory thing, I’m not sure who I am any more, because half the time I can’t remember who I’ve been.  So I’m afraid today I’ll blog about something that tomorrow I’ll completely disagree with.  And then people will begin to realize just how crazy I really am.  (Not lock-him-up-immediately crazy, just way-out-there crazy.)

Ironically, in trying to connect with those who read my stories, I may run some folks off with less than “author-like” behavior.  For instance, I’ve always sucked at spelling, seeing sentences instead of letters, but these days I misspell even simple things.  It’s embarrassing.  I know a ton of words, although they often flee my brain when I go looking for them, but on those days when I do actually track one down, I may know what it is and how it should be used, but I’ll have little to no-idea how to spell it.  Punctuation is kind of the same.  Now I’m no expert, but in the past my punctuation hasn’t been too shabby, however, lately it’s mostly bad and frequently inconsistent.  Just recently I was editing one of my books and came across a section where I had consistently used the wrong punctuation mark in a quotation.  Now I instantly spotted it as wrong that day, but what amazed me is how much of the book I had written using the wrong punctuation.

So, I’m afraid in writing about my writing my writing will lead you to write me off.  (I meant to say that, I really did.)

Since you’re reading this though, it’s safe to assume I’ve taken the plunge, or at least dipped my toe in the blogging waters.  By the way, I wrote this several months before I posted it, but here it is, for better or worse.  I hope for better, and that you will enjoy the ride.

Welcome to My Blog!

I have no idea how you got here, but thanks for stopping by.  I plan to post this as my first blog, once I create the site (I’m kind of way way behind on the blognomenon, but I’m working on it now).

My name is Steve and I have no idea where to start.  I guess the reason for the blog in the first place is as good a spot as any.  Pretty much my main purpose is to connect with my readers.  Saying something like that still seems weird to me.  I think I’m pretty interesting, and I have a whole lot of stories I could share, but I’ve always been so EXTREMELY private that opening myself up through a blog seems antithetical.

However, I recognize a strange phenomenon related to books, readers, and authors.  In my experience, when I find a good book, I feel a connection to the characters, and also to the author.  I admit, after I read a book I enjoy, I look up information about the author.  I read the back cover, Google or Bing them, and ask my friends about them.  I’ve never been fanatic about it, but I’ve done it nonetheless.  So, I’m hoping that when you read my books, you feel the same connection, to them and to me.  And in trying to satisfy your curiosity I’ve started this blog.

So, welcome to my circumlocution.  I’m glad you’re here!  I hope to at least give you a chuckle with my posts, but mostly I want to strengthen that bond you feel and satisfy your curiosity.

 I care about my characters; to me they’ve come alive.  I sometimes wonder what they’re up to while I’m on a different project.  Weird?  Maybe.  But I’m hoping my writing doesn’t get in the way of you meeting and caring for the characters too.  I hope they come alive for you as well.

As part of the connection and curiosity satisfying, I hope you take the time to leave a comment, because I’m curious about YOU too.