Major-ish site updates

Okay, so apparently I’ve been slacking on updating this site. I plead the fact I’ve been working on the editing for Tales of the Supers 1 and writing on Endless Loop: Color of Life. I’m within maybe 10,000 words of being done on Color of Life, and if my computers will cooperate, I’ll be done with the editing of TotS1 before much longer as well. 

The sad fact is that I’m currently unemployed, which would think would mean I would have more time for writing and editing. Sadly, that is not the case. We’re currently living off my roommate’s $400 a week job, which doesn’t stretch too far, so I’m madly applying to jobs everywhere I can. In fact, I counted them up and I’ve put in 130 applications in one month. Three-fourths of those are for full-time positions; I’ve only started applying for part-time jobs in the last two weeks.

Not knowing if you’ll be able to make your rent or pay your bills has a way of causing some stress, which in turn has a way of depleting creativity. So, sadly, until I know I can pay my bills, I’m not progressing on all of this as quickly as I would like.

Hopefully, though, that will change.

Either way, though… I am beyond pride.



Site updates

I’ve made some more updates to the site. So far, it’s just been changing the layout (I think it’s pretty much obvious that I prefer the darker layouts) and I’ve add an RSS feed and an email icon. Both of these are located on the sidebar.

The first book in Endless Loop, entitled Color of Life, is almost done with writing. I’m still going through the first Tales of the Supers book in editing, because all the changes I made were somehow lost.  I did get that book back from the second editor, and she was as brutal as I had asked for. There are a lot of changes to be made. I had made many of them, but again, the changes were somehow lost. Don’t ask me how.

I am finished moving, but I am in no way finished unpacking. I moved in at the beginning of August, but I don’t think a box has been opened since the middle of September.

NaNoWriMo will be beginning in a few weeks, and I’m hoping to have Color of Life completed, so that I can work on the second book in Endless Loop for this November’s book of the month. It will be entitled Blood and Sacrifice. Here’s hoping that I’m able to do this.

Long quiet

I really do need to work on getting better at remembering this thing exists. Clearly, I’m not too great at that.

Tales of the Supers is back from both editors and is being cleaned up for release. It won’t be by my anticipated release date, but before the end of summer, knock wood.

Also there isn’t as much writing and editing going on as I would like right now, as I am in the midst of a long distance move. While it isn’t as long as distance as I would like (say, overseas), it’s still a pretty long distance: about five and a half hours. So, while I’m packing and generally prepping for the move and during the move itself, I will continue to be a bit quiet on here. My apologies. Apparently there are only so many hours in the day.

Small site updates

I’m still making site tweaks. I’ve left the comments off on the rest of the site, but comments are now available on the blog. This was something that I had been meaning to do ever since I switched the site over to WordPress. However, I was having some difficulties finding how to go about cutting off comments on pages but not on posts. For anyone else hunting for a solution to this same issue, the answer can be found on the second post here.

Otherwise, it’s more of the same. I have been scrounging up some time to write at least 750 words a day on the second Tales of the Supers book. It’s harder than it sounds, when I’m already doing three jobs, but I’m giving it my all. And if I’m writing when I’m at lunch or during lulls at one of the other jobs, so be it. I have a story, and I think it’s time to tell it, and I’m enjoying telling it. This is a winning combination, I think.

I do need to start gathering stock images so I can work on making a cover. I think that has to be done ahead of time with CreateSpace, or I can pay them to have it done. Again, this is just my understanding.

EDIT: CreateSpace has a free cover creator service or you can pay to have one made. You can also upload your own premade image. This is good. It’s good to have option. I feel like I have more than I did with LuLu with that other name or with the publisher I used under that other name.

And on a more personal note, with everything else that’s going on, I’m also in the midst of trying to lose about 40 to 50 pounds, mostly by just eating healthier, and I’ll be moving in a few months or sooner, depending on if I can get another “real” job before I start back to school in January. I swear, I’ve never been this busy before in my life. When it rains, it pours, right?

Another little update

67351_10100358139143133_1402287_n2I still haven’t done author photos, because clearly I suck at time management. Or it could be the three jobs plus writing. It could go either way on this one. So I’m thinking that this should be the photo I use on the back of the books. It’s my little lady Boo being a silly goose.

Okay, I’m joking. I’m not going to use Boo’s photo for my author photo. I am not yet that desperate. I just need to find some time to do the author photos and get one that I’m happy with using. Of course, I’m still waiting to hear back from the second editor to know how many more changes need to be made on top of the ones the first editor gave me. I asked her to be brutal, so I guess that must be what she’s doing.

There is still another month and a few days until the second Camp NaNoWriMo/JulNoWriMo starts up. I would love to have the first book ready before I get too far into the second one, but then I’m a piece of the way through the first story in that book as it is. I just wish I could scrounge more hours out of the day so that I can get more writing done. But let’s see: there’s the day job, the editing job, and the blogging job(s) that I’m doing, while I prepare for a big out-of-state move. I think that I’m finding time to sleep might be an accomplishment at this point.

Things to do

See? What did I tell you? More posts.

The book is still with my second editor, but I have at least finished the edits from the first editor. Apparently, my Microsoft Word got stuck on a British English dictionary at some point, because she caught all kinds of things where I was spelling things incorrectly for an American audience. This is why it is a good idea to have editors, especially someone willing to do line edits, before you self-publish.

There are still so many things I need to do before I can get this one out in the world. I still need to do author photos (before you guys just end up with a picture of one of my cats), and once all the edits are done, I need to have it copyrighted with the Library of Congress. Those are the big two, really. The latter will take a few weeks to get to me once it’s done, if I remember correctly from the last time I sent something in (again, under that other name). It’s been a bit, though, so I’m not 100% on the amount of time it takes. I just know I’m not paying the nearly $80 for expedited. That’s just too rich for my blood.

In the meantime, I’m working on the second book in the Tales of the Supers series… in between the day job, the contract editing job, and the blogging contract job. It’s a full day, let me tell you. But there will be more Tales of the Supers, and you can count on that.

A quick update in the middle of May

It’s the middle of May. I’ve gotten the corrections back from one of my editors. However, it is still with the other one, and I don’t have an ETA from the other one.

With that, I’m setting a very tentative release date of mid- to late-July for the first Tales of the Supers novel. Again, that’s very tentative, because the editors have had it since 04 May, and I’ve gotten it back from one. Maybe I should say early August instead? That might be the safer option.

And in the meantime, anyone who is reading this can count on more frequent updates. I can always stand to babble a bit more at people.

Post-April 2013 Camp NaNoWriMo

Somehow… Somehow… I managed to finish Camp NaNoWriMo with over 58,000 words—and a completed novella. The first Tales of the Supers is done, and it’s currently at the pre-readers/editors for now.

Hopefully, they should be done with it before too long. At that point, I’ll go ahead with the copyright, sending it to Library of Congress, then it will be time to finally give CreateSpace a try. I’m not even going to try sending it companies this time around; it’s probably a bit too… something for any of them to be willing to pick it up. I got burned with the books I wrote (under a different name), and I think it will be a while before I consider trying another publisher, aside from self-publishing. I might give another go, but it will be a while yet.

But, please, be expecting actual content on this site before very much longer.

See you all then!

Welcome Aboard

After quite a bit of delay, I’m finally working on getting content available on the site. It’s still a bit lean, but I am working on it! Slowly but surely, I promise you there will be content.

Writing has, sadly, been a slow moving process. Part of that has been for health issues, but a lot of it has been a horrid case of writer’s block. I suppose I could blame that on the health issues as well, but it seems like a bit of a cop-out.

The first book in Endless Loop is about 75% completed. The first in the series of superhero stories is about 30% completed. The Knickers fic is, at least for now, dropped in favor of stories that I think I can finish in a decent amount of time. As for the others I’m working on, I really not in a place where I can say too much on their progress. I like what’s written on them, but I’m not sure how well they would do out there in the world.

So hopefully, there will be more to this site soon. Hopefully, changing the site over from static HTML to a CMS-controlled one will help as well. One less thing to handle, right?