Greetings everyone and welcome back! I hope the week is treating you well so far. I am slowly getting some of that sleep back, so hopefully I will be more awake than I have been. Admittedly yesterday was better than Monday, which means today should, in theory, be better than both! That's the scientific theory though, let's see what happens next.
Yesterday I got through one of the editing phases for 'Through the Broken Mirror' now if you remember correctly I said once you do that you should take a break and do something else for a little bit. So, technically I'm doing something else in that I'm going to work on getting 'Feathers of the Dead' out of that stupid notebook, but I know that I meant do something not writing related in order to give your brain a break. The reason I'm breaking my own advice is because next week I am on vacation and will have some 8 days or so to do just that, so I can take 3 days to get some work done if it means over a week of doing nothing afterward. I justified it you can't be mad!
When it comes to moving a story from a written format to a digital one, I don't know if there is a fast way to do it. At least I haven't found one, and if there is one that exists, PLEASE SHARE IT BECAUSE IT IS CRAZY. My hope is that it doesn't take forever and a year to get this done, mostly because I would like to get things finished before it takes another 2 years to release a book. If you are about to do what I'm doing, or are in the middle of it, please take to heart that you aren't crazy (well not completely, you're still taking something you hand-wrote that's potentially hundreds of pages long and deciding you want to type it now) and that it does take forever. I don't even remember when I started typing out 'Daughter of the Shackled King' but I remember it felt like it took far longer than it should have. Also don't panic because it's shorter than you were when it was written, that's going to happen too, this is all normal, it's just weird.
Part of me wishes there was a magical thing that would scan the pages for me and put everything onto a page instantly, but the only thing I can think of is how many mistakes I'd need to correct, and whether or not that would really save time in the end. I think overall it would, but time fixing things would probably make me want to kill something. Unless your handwriting is perfect anything that scans isn't going to recognize every word you wrote for what you intended (if those ATM's that scan checks have taught me anything) and yeah...I think I'd rather just type it.
I am really looking forward to 'Feathers of the Dead' though, even if it's the shorter (so far) between it and 'Daughter of the Shackled King' I got to have a lot of fun pulling from some of my favorite mythologies and playing with some more obscure references. I also got to play with my favorite ritual from Egyptian myth that the God I named my cat after, and his soon to be buddy, were both involved in, so there's that. So even if it drives me nuts, I am looking forward to it, and if you're doing the same thing you should too. You get to relive what is hopefully a really fun story for you, and get reintroduced to your world. If you don't enjoy that then maybe you need more than a few days off.
For now I will leave you with that. I will see you all when I get back from my much-needed break. If you all could do me a huge favor that would be appreciated; my Channel Manager at Smashwords is saying 'Rending the Seal' is available at all my different locations, however at least at Kobo it's not there. If you find the link elsewhere can you please send it to others or at least me so I can make sure it's available? That would be great! I just want to make sure there aren't any problems. Have a great rest of your week!
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
05/12/2014 Magnificent Monday!
Hello everyone and happy Monday. I hope the weekend was nice to you. Mine was super busy, but it was worth it. Mother's Day was fun; got to spend time with my mom and also see a neat concert by the Seattle Rock Orchestra where they did the entire White Album. Right now though, I am very tired, since I don't feel like I had an actual weekend, but I just need to push through this week and I'll have a bunch of time off. Just need to make it there.
I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I have decided to make any posts of Friday a not-guaranteed thing. I will look for stuff when I have time, but with how infrequent they have been as of late, and with the last of time I generally have on those days, lately I feel like I have been shooting down everyone's expectations. I don't want to promise something that I can't deliver. At some point in the future I may switch it up so that the review post is on a different day of the week, but for now I am setting things up so that if it happens, which seems to be about once a month or so, it happens and it is awesome, but if there isn't a post then the world isn't shattered and I don't feel awful about disappointing people.
Part of it is that there is a lot going on for me and while I think I'm handling it, my brain is not letting me focus enough to actually comprehend reading in the morning as well. At least not to the locating something to read, read it, review it, then put the posts up everywhere. By the middle of the day on Friday typically I am a lot better, because it's the middle of the day, but I'm at work and well, no access to internet. Once things figure themselves out and/or whatever phase I'm going through is over we may go back to normal, but for now I think this is for the best.
Currently I am looking forward to next week. There will be no posts at all or that following Monday as I realized that is a holiday, due to my vacation. I have been needing this for so long and I just want some time to feel like I have very few obligations. Sure I will have a new kitty that I will flood the internet with pictures of, but other than that I don't want to have to worry about really anything else. I will also being going to the Lindsey Stirling concert on the 21st and I am just too excited for words.
For now I appreciate your understanding, and of course if you find a story you want me to review don't hesitate to send it to me and I'll look it over. It's just more that I'm not going to get up on Friday mornings and rush around the internet if I feel too tired to see clearly. I think that'll be best for now. Have a great start to your week though, I'll see you all back here on Wednesday!
I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I have decided to make any posts of Friday a not-guaranteed thing. I will look for stuff when I have time, but with how infrequent they have been as of late, and with the last of time I generally have on those days, lately I feel like I have been shooting down everyone's expectations. I don't want to promise something that I can't deliver. At some point in the future I may switch it up so that the review post is on a different day of the week, but for now I am setting things up so that if it happens, which seems to be about once a month or so, it happens and it is awesome, but if there isn't a post then the world isn't shattered and I don't feel awful about disappointing people.
Part of it is that there is a lot going on for me and while I think I'm handling it, my brain is not letting me focus enough to actually comprehend reading in the morning as well. At least not to the locating something to read, read it, review it, then put the posts up everywhere. By the middle of the day on Friday typically I am a lot better, because it's the middle of the day, but I'm at work and well, no access to internet. Once things figure themselves out and/or whatever phase I'm going through is over we may go back to normal, but for now I think this is for the best.
Currently I am looking forward to next week. There will be no posts at all or that following Monday as I realized that is a holiday, due to my vacation. I have been needing this for so long and I just want some time to feel like I have very few obligations. Sure I will have a new kitty that I will flood the internet with pictures of, but other than that I don't want to have to worry about really anything else. I will also being going to the Lindsey Stirling concert on the 21st and I am just too excited for words.
For now I appreciate your understanding, and of course if you find a story you want me to review don't hesitate to send it to me and I'll look it over. It's just more that I'm not going to get up on Friday mornings and rush around the internet if I feel too tired to see clearly. I think that'll be best for now. Have a great start to your week though, I'll see you all back here on Wednesday!
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
05/07/2014 Writing Wednesday!
Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope this week is being nice to you so far. I am pushing through my long week, thankful that I have tomorrow off, but not so much with all the work I have to do during that time. It'll all be worth it though, I just need to make sure it all gets done. My laptop seems to be working normally again too, which is great, a little frustrating because I spent that money, but still great. I have gotten back to work, so I am all ready to go.
Even if it was only for about a week, coming back to everything after that small break was like coming back with a really fresh and clear mind. I mentioned last week how surprisingly useful that video game time was, now it's time to see the benefits of it. Well, I get to see the benefits of it, since I'm editing, you all just get to hear about it I suppose. It would be weird to start posting pieces from my editing progress here, so I won't do that.
My brain didn't feel tired anymore, that was the biggest thing I noticed. I mean I'm still looking forward to my big bout of time off in a couple weeks, and during that time I plan on doing very little that's considered productive, but this was still nice. When I sat down and pulled everything I needed out it didn't feel like some unending chore to edit, it just felt like a piece of the process that needed to get done. That is a big step because editing drives me nuts sometimes.
I am seriously attributing this way of thinking to those few days of nothing. I know it seems silly, but like I mentioned before I had been editing pretty much constantly for over a year if not significantly longer and I just lost track of time, to be able to sit down and do something that had no baring on anything important let me brain finally relax. By the time I was fairly certain my laptop would charge when I came home from work I was ready to get back to editing and it didn't feel like some damning second job that I don't get paid for. I wanted to do it. That is the important piece of all of this; I wanted to edit the project.
For me I would rather write everything and have it all magically come out perfect the first time. As I'm sure every writer ever would. I find actually crafting the story and typing it out to be infinitely more enjoyable than the editing portion, which is why the fact the physical writing part is actually the smallest sliver of time in the whole 'writing project' pie chart makes me sad. That hasn't changed, because I still find writing super lots of fun, however at this moment editing doesn't make me tired, and I think it's because I needed that break more than I thought I did. Sure it was only for a few days, and a smart person with some kind of degree would insist I take a longer one, but that was what I needed at that time. So while I may not have talked about anything specific about writing today, take away from this the benefit of having a few days off; you come back refreshed like when you wake up from a nap and then have ice cream.
Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I will do my best to be back on Friday. As I mentioned in a couple weeks I will be on vacation. I'm not going anywhere, but I'm also not doing anything, so the blog will be on break too. That will be on the 19th through the rest of that week. For now I hope the rest of the week is super nice to you! Have all of the fun!
Even if it was only for about a week, coming back to everything after that small break was like coming back with a really fresh and clear mind. I mentioned last week how surprisingly useful that video game time was, now it's time to see the benefits of it. Well, I get to see the benefits of it, since I'm editing, you all just get to hear about it I suppose. It would be weird to start posting pieces from my editing progress here, so I won't do that.
My brain didn't feel tired anymore, that was the biggest thing I noticed. I mean I'm still looking forward to my big bout of time off in a couple weeks, and during that time I plan on doing very little that's considered productive, but this was still nice. When I sat down and pulled everything I needed out it didn't feel like some unending chore to edit, it just felt like a piece of the process that needed to get done. That is a big step because editing drives me nuts sometimes.
I am seriously attributing this way of thinking to those few days of nothing. I know it seems silly, but like I mentioned before I had been editing pretty much constantly for over a year if not significantly longer and I just lost track of time, to be able to sit down and do something that had no baring on anything important let me brain finally relax. By the time I was fairly certain my laptop would charge when I came home from work I was ready to get back to editing and it didn't feel like some damning second job that I don't get paid for. I wanted to do it. That is the important piece of all of this; I wanted to edit the project.
For me I would rather write everything and have it all magically come out perfect the first time. As I'm sure every writer ever would. I find actually crafting the story and typing it out to be infinitely more enjoyable than the editing portion, which is why the fact the physical writing part is actually the smallest sliver of time in the whole 'writing project' pie chart makes me sad. That hasn't changed, because I still find writing super lots of fun, however at this moment editing doesn't make me tired, and I think it's because I needed that break more than I thought I did. Sure it was only for a few days, and a smart person with some kind of degree would insist I take a longer one, but that was what I needed at that time. So while I may not have talked about anything specific about writing today, take away from this the benefit of having a few days off; you come back refreshed like when you wake up from a nap and then have ice cream.
Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I will do my best to be back on Friday. As I mentioned in a couple weeks I will be on vacation. I'm not going anywhere, but I'm also not doing anything, so the blog will be on break too. That will be on the 19th through the rest of that week. For now I hope the rest of the week is super nice to you! Have all of the fun!
Monday, May 5, 2014
05/5/2014 Magnificent Monday!
Hello everyone and welcome to Cinco de Mayo. I'm going to do everything I can to make this a coherent post. The rain was impressive last night and I'm pretty sure it woke me up every two hours so needless to say words are running together a bit. This is supposed to be a 'No Pop' day for me, but we'll see if it still looks like it's going to be that way when I get to my break time.
May is looking like it is going to be an absolutely ridiculous month. I just finished pet sitting for my parents while they were in Phoenix, which was nice because my cat over there is 16 and recently diagnosed with cancer, so I liked being able to see her. That little tabby has quite the set of lungs on her demanding self that is for certain. With mother's day this weekend as well I am looking forward to a Seattle Rock Orchestra tribute to the Beatles where they will be doing the entire White Album. After that it'll be trying to get through one more week then it's kitten time plus vacation, and my Lindsey Stirling concert. I'm excited, but right now I'm just trying to find time to sleep. I'm so tired.
My laptop, in all it's crazy glory, can't decide if it wants to be able to charge or not. However since I now have a back-up battery and external charger, it'll be back to work for me today. Having that break to just play a video game was amazing though, I really recommend everyone do that at some point. Just when you are about to get to another phase of your work, do something different that is completely unrelated for about a week. It is a great rest for your brain and I seriously didn't realize how badly I needed it. Today though it means it's back to work and I will be going into another editing phase for 'Through the Broken Mirror'. I want to think it's going quickly for this today, but I keep telling myself it's actually because it's somewhat shorter than the others. I'm sure once I actually get to a beta-reading portion and have to do major edits that it'll take just as long.
For now, I am going to be off. My goal for today is going to be to stay awake for as long as humanly possible. I really hope that works considering this is my long shift week. Don't forget, 'Rending the Seal' is available at 75% off with coupon VQ68M, and 'The Light Rises' is FREE with coupon ZE43N. These are good until May 25th, so check them out and tell everyone!
May is looking like it is going to be an absolutely ridiculous month. I just finished pet sitting for my parents while they were in Phoenix, which was nice because my cat over there is 16 and recently diagnosed with cancer, so I liked being able to see her. That little tabby has quite the set of lungs on her demanding self that is for certain. With mother's day this weekend as well I am looking forward to a Seattle Rock Orchestra tribute to the Beatles where they will be doing the entire White Album. After that it'll be trying to get through one more week then it's kitten time plus vacation, and my Lindsey Stirling concert. I'm excited, but right now I'm just trying to find time to sleep. I'm so tired.
My laptop, in all it's crazy glory, can't decide if it wants to be able to charge or not. However since I now have a back-up battery and external charger, it'll be back to work for me today. Having that break to just play a video game was amazing though, I really recommend everyone do that at some point. Just when you are about to get to another phase of your work, do something different that is completely unrelated for about a week. It is a great rest for your brain and I seriously didn't realize how badly I needed it. Today though it means it's back to work and I will be going into another editing phase for 'Through the Broken Mirror'. I want to think it's going quickly for this today, but I keep telling myself it's actually because it's somewhat shorter than the others. I'm sure once I actually get to a beta-reading portion and have to do major edits that it'll take just as long.
For now, I am going to be off. My goal for today is going to be to stay awake for as long as humanly possible. I really hope that works considering this is my long shift week. Don't forget, 'Rending the Seal' is available at 75% off with coupon VQ68M, and 'The Light Rises' is FREE with coupon ZE43N. These are good until May 25th, so check them out and tell everyone!
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