Writing

This blogging thing is a bit of a burden.  I try to find interesting stuff to put on it and it just doesn't happen.

I tried for 50,000 words on November NANOWRIMO and competed them. Pretty good western if I do say so myself. 

Then I tried 20,000 for CAMPNANOWRIMO last month and missed my goal by 2,700 words, but they were good words in the middle of a long book I am working on. The research is killing me.  Anybody know how many helicopters the Mexican military has and what type? Or even how large their standing army is?  Google has too many hits that say nothing near answering my quests.

Oh well, another month another goal.

Keep writing, I am.

Sometimes you gotta

There comes a time when you have no choice but to stop writing and get to doing the mundane side of this profession: edit, cover, edit, back cover, edit, upload, edit, upload, edit, ISBN, etc. That's what I have been doing for two weeks now with three novels and still none of them are at Smashwords.

And then there is the Honey do list. I have been laying laminate flooring in my spare time. My train room/office/writing hideaway/man cave has the flooring laid down, but no trim (It was my practice room). The hallway is in the same condition. If I could find my miter box I could finish them (In town tomorrow, I'll get another one). Next comes the great room of living room, kitchen, and dining rooms all in one 24 by 19 feet of floor.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

SELF PUBLISHING

It has been a pleasure to search and communicate with various agents and publishing houses who, after reading a three page synopsis, have decided that my writing isn't worth their time. Having read many of these letters in the course of my research into writer-agent/publisher communications, there is no way a great book can be found. They all sound like the last story of that genre. SO, I have looked into self-publishing and now understand why it is taking off like crazy with authors and readers alike.

1. Books are much cheaper to produce.
2. Books are much cheaper to purchase.
3. Authors make more money.
4. Readers save more money.
5. With companies like Smashwords, I can do all the work and set up the book on line thru their service, have it go to a bazzilion outlets thru their distribution list, all for $0. If I purchase an ISBN from them for a nominal fee, my book also goes to two or three more monster sales points.
6. What have I got to lose? A few hours reformatting (Which they give me complete instructions to do) and a few Kilobytes of upload.
7. I can even do my own cover. (see previous post)

PS: a friend of mine is doing the same thing thru another outfit and spending $7,000.  The only difference is she will be able to get paper copies when she is willing to pay for them. Pub on demand added in other words.

Being extremely cheap, $0 is much better than $7000 spent to find out if my books have a market. If they do   pub on demand is still an option. How about researching truly self publishing and binding, as in do-it-at-home.

Time to go write.

New Gizmo

This blog post comes to you courtesy of the Verizon store and their new wifi cell internet access. Actually I am paying thru the nose for this so they just were the outlet I bought it from. 5 gig for $50. Wow! Ten bucks a gigabyte. Now the question is how much of this kind of stuff can I do with $10 bucks?

What's this mean to you, my readers? I just might get a post off more often and be able to even prepare and write some good stuff for this space. No promises and don't hold your breath.

I currently have two books ready for Smashwords. Now I can get my account all set up and up load. All I need are covers.

Anybody do cover art. I need with a rip roaring cowboy shooting at something in the distance from behind a bush/tree/rock. Then I need one that has a jig saw puzzle showing a cross and an empty tomb (faint) with many pieces of the puzzle not in place, could be missing or lying on the puzzle board.

Interested?  $50 for the each of the two I use. Must be in color.

Working on a story now which will need a teen boy, teen girl, a cougar, in a boulder field. A shotgun and rifle could be included. Double barreled shotgun definitely a must.

Til next time, keep writing.

Invasion

What would happen to the Governor below if Mexico invaded Arizona after the President refused help of any kind stating flatly, "You don't want our money, we don't give assistance without strings."

What happens next?

Go write.

Arizona

Imagine a Governor tuff enuff to stand up the the Federal Government and say, "We don't want any more Fed $$$$$." Well, that's what she did, the Governor of Arizona with the full backing of her legislature, told the Fed to keep it.

What will happen?

What do you think?

Now write.

BORING

When I was a 6th grade teacher I would hear, "I'm bored," all the time. It usually meant I don't have anything to do THAT I WANT TO DO. It never had anything to do with having nothing to do. Although, at times the to do part of the brain shut down and was able to read the list of to do's on the green board.

Well, I am bored. I have nothing to do that I want to do and what I want to do is impossible to do where I am. Where I am has a bit to do with what I want to do, but doesn't help in the category of getting it done, or should I say, "Doed," at this juncture. So, instead I will get something else done which I had no intention of doing this day.

Okay, so it  makes no sense. I agree. I really want to write, but editing is what needs to happen. I need to finish my website and get the store on line. Then there is the NaNoWriMo books to edit and finish. I want to get my first three books on SmashWords, but I have trouble making sense of the directions for formatting and do not understand the reason why. Besides all that, I left the directions at home and don't have a printer in this motel room. Someone needs to invent, its probably out there, a small printer that will fit in my backpack office closet for a guy like me to use on the road. I remember back about 25 years someone made an Apple compatible printer that attached to the back of the Apple 2e console and was hand fed one sheet at a time to print out anywhere you wanted haul that big clunky thing (by today's standards).

You have read my rambling long enough, get writing.