Updates on “Tales of the Supers”

I promise I have not yet abandoned this site! I have been working on several projects, not all of which are currently listed here… mainly because I don’t actually have titles for the series these stories would fall into. They’re getting a lot of interest from at least one of my pre-readers, though, and that’s encouraging to me.

You may also notice that the site layout has changed. I’ve been trying to find a WordPress theme that is (1) free and (2) appropriate for an author and (3) appropriate for the sort of things this author writes. For now, I like this one, but I have a few others I’m fond of and may eventually  play with.

But I have promised an update on Tales of the Supers. Somewhere back in October, I mentioned that I had been working on edits. The external hard drive that had my most recent copy of the edits crashed and burned, taking with it all the changes I had made to the document. Naturally, this was a bit depressive, and so instead I start focusing on writing Endless Loop.

While going through several of my backup discs yesterday, though, I found a copy of the edits. It wasn’t the most recent copy, but it was better than starting from scratch. In point of reference, there are five chapters and an epilogue to Tales of the Supers. The version I lost had edits done all the way to Chapter Four; the version I located had edits through the end of Chapter Two. So I lost half my work… but that’s better than losing all of it.

That in mind, I’ve been editing like a fiend these last few nights, and I’m hoping to have it ready to have one more check done by the end of the weekend. I would like to have it available on CreateSpace by my birthday at the end of February, if not sooner.

This will, however, push the release date for Color of Life: Endless Loop Book 1 back a bit, but hopefully it won’t be by too much.

Finally, please continue to bear with me. As I mentioned in the middle of October, I am unemployed. I’m still unemployed, now in February. In only a few weeks, my unemployment will run out. I have over 240 applications out, but I’ve had less than 10 interviews. I will put the PayPal link back up, because I’m beyond having any pride left.

Twitter fiend?

Apparently I’ve been updating Twitter madly, which is new for me. I’m usually a bit too long winded for 140 characters. I’m trying my best to keep it brief, though. So far it’s working.

As far as NaNoWriMo goes, I’m about 5000 words behind where I need to be for the day. I’m going to try to marathon today and see if I can’t get caught back up. There is the big family thing next Thursday through Saturday, so I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to do massive amounts of writing then. I’ll just have to do my best until I leave Wednesday.

And to keep myself honest, I’m posting my word count widget through the NaNoWriMo site here.

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.



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.