The balloons have gone, the indictments have been submitted and The Hague is meeting in secret – my birthday was a success! I was taken out to Red Robin and had their burger (I recommend the Bacon Cheeseburger with Cheddar) along with some sweet potato fries – tasted really good actually. I was somewhat surprised at the taste. For presents:

The Cinnamon Sugar Kettlecorn is amazing! It’s like Cinnamon Toast and Kettlecorn had drunken sex and decided to keep the baby anyway. The book Gun: A Visual History is going to be used a great dear for research into some of my other novels. The Forbidden Kingdom is one of my favorite films – Jackie Chan and Jet Li are both outstanding actors in this movie and it was a visual treat to watch work. Yeah – I love HK films (one of my favorite ones is The Bride with White Hair).

Anyway – enough of that – I am on Vacation until the 8^th of November when I return here (I took that short movie to show people something. If you look, we start at GEM and go through Research, Banks, Merchant Services, Quality Control / Retention and end up at Tech Support, then reverse that route. Notice that everyone else has some cutesy little Hallowe’en ornaments and we don’t? You know why? We have a job to do and no time to hang tchotchkes). During this time, I am going to try to get something going, something finished and something limping – with all luck, I won’t be the limping.
I am going to run down and get the ravioli for tomorrow and – oh, I need to tell you this: I found something called a chocolate stout. I am not a huge fan of beer, but I am definitely going to try this out Monday after the work out. I have also ordered a bottle of Gold 68 and I should get it soon – hopefully before I have to go back to work. I have a good idea for a novella in my head and I want to have the time to really get it out on paper and get it neatened up and posted on Kindle before summer. I have confidence in my abilities. The quiet will help, too.

On the TV front, I finally finished up Doctor Who and got in the premiere of Sons of Anarchy. This is going to be a good season for our friends at SAMCRO – with both the King and Crown Prince deciding to leave after they make enough money to step down. The staff and actors do a really good job of paining them as a close knit band of brothers that we root for, but I am trying to remember where I’ve seen the actor who plays the DoJ lawyer – oh, wait! He’s the pastor from Deadwood! This is going to be a great season, then!

Well, dinner is almost burned and I still have to watch another episode of SoA before I break down and get to work on the novella with the current title of “I/O Error”.

Until later, Good Reader

Seething With Apathy

That’s right one and all – I am going to be on vacation starting at 4:00 PM this Friday and not come back to jib myths about the toy pins on unsuspecting towns that are sly to a cinematographic folly. I am looking forward to it for a lot of reasons:

1. No more getting up a half-hour before God to get ready for work. It’s bad when I consider waking up at 8:00 sleeping in.
   
2. Getting a project done for a change (anyone out there who’s actually subscribing to this blog – any suggestions?)
   
3. Perhaps getting caught up on some of my overdue series (Doctor Who anyone?)
   
4. Hey – it’s a vacation on my Birthday! I also get paid this week – might see if I can get some glorious add-ons for my X-Box.
   

I haven’t looked at Amazon or Barnes and Noble (I am going to link them however), but I am going to make this statement: I can see where an agent would come in handy. Getting these little stories out there is going to cost me more money… money which I am not going to spend on this anthology until I have volumes 2-4 done and bound together in one story. I think the advertising money would be better spent on a novel. A novel which I should try to at least either finish (with one) or get at least half way through (with the other) – and I might even get a steadier schedule for this blog. I’m not going to turn this blog into a commercial for anything I do – it’s more of a combined therapy and resume.

Speaking of volumes 2-4, I do have three short stories to get written up. I just have to keep on hammering it out in my head.

Oh – note to advertisers: a rain montage in a commercial about a colon cancer center? That’s just wrong.

The Walking Dead and Dexter are going along in some nice directions. I like seeing Dexter having to grapple with matters of faith and its unspoken implications for what Dexter does as a hobby. I also like his slide box falling and becoming jumbled (with one slide being broken!) as a metaphor for what’s happening to him this season so far – I just wonder if the broken slide is an indication of his faith in science being broken, or his notion of him being a monster destroyed by Brother Sam. Who knows? We’ll have to watch.

The Walking Dead is showing some signs of breaking away from the comic, but there is a scene (baby seat) that really throws the whole ‘zombie apocalypse’ thing back in our face. As someone who doesn’t shock or scare easily… I find that one scene – not even over a minute – is the most disturbing scene of the series so far, and serves as a reminder that this is indeed a horror story: not everyone is going to get their happy ending.

Well, there is little other news right now – I did find a place (previously mentioned here) that sells pasta by the sheet, so I am going to make some ravioli to get ready for the Thanksgiving experiment. I am also going to buy a bottle of Gold 68 when I get paid again and drink it down during vacation. I love Gold 68 because you can mix it with any citrus drink (I prefer lemonade) and there is no taste. Better still, you don’t need to add sugar to it (unless you have a sweet tooth like me).

I am going off to bed, so I wish everyone a good night. 7 days and counting.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

OK – I just finished the premiere if “The Walking Dead”. If this is one of Darabont’s episodes, I can see why he was let go. If not, they why did you let him go? This is kinda going a little further away from the comic book series, but not ‘It’s the CDC! We’re saved!’ far away. While I understand that they want to have some distance from the series, but… come on, man. I’ll have to re-read the series, but I don’t think that happens. I’m also trying not to say anything out right in case someone reading this blog hasn’t seen the series. Here, let me put the main part of my argument in white text and hope none of it goes awry:

Stealth text to follow – spoilers for both the series and the comics:

Carl getting shot through a deer? Is this some sort of way of trying to establish that we’re neither Darabont’s nor Kirkland’s ‘Walking Dead’? In the series, I know that Carl gets a bullet to the head in the latest volume, but are we going to have him shot this early? Does this mean that they’re not going to have the Governor? That’s the only thing I want to see. Not the Prison, certainly not the Town until much later on (it gets its horror from the idea that in the middle of this madness, there is an island of normality… and our intrepid group – which has survived much worse – won’t stay happy long here.) in the series. Like I said earlier, I would have to read the series again – I remember Carl getting shot only once.

Stealth text done.

Well – the book is still chirping along. Thanks to my writer’s group, I was able to get at least one more sale. Someone however gave a bit of advice that she had gleaned from some other side: if I want to have my book sell better – make it free. Now, given that this book really is nothing more than a way to get my name out there and to see what all entails. I am understand about visibility – the higher something is rated, the more visible it is – and if it’s only a $1.50 and it is ranked way above 150,000 – it might generate more hits. Really, I have no notions that this is going to be a huge hit – that’s for the novels, but this will at least get my name out there, which is what I am looking for. So – with that in mind, I’m going to let it ride until after my break. It goes free and then I work hard to get a novel finished. I guess the need for visibility should take a higher priority. With any luck, one can feed the other. It’s still on the Nook, so maybe I can keep it paying there and use the visibility of the Kindle to get more sales. But not until after November 8^th – I really want to get some cash off of the book club. Hey, I love the business, but it’s still the business.

Well, sweet dreams to you Gentle Reader.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

Well – it finally got on line. You can find it here. So far, I’ve had at least 5 sales (totaling $2.12 cents) and ePub is still dithering about. Something about my social security number not matching the IRS records. If worse comes to worse, I’ll just try to get a tax ID number and try that. I’m trying not to stress out over it, but it would be nice to another stream of income. With the anthology behind me, I can now focus on my big novel project… if I can find some uninterrupted time. What’s killing me is that by the time dinner is done, dishes are cleaned, I have maybe 30 minutes at best to write something, and I have some interference — a bedridden honey handing me a thorn and wilt salad almost as soon as I walk through the door at times. By the time that everything is done, I am too tired to really get something done – hopefully having the book out there will help me get some money and get out of where I am working now.

On to other things: Nook finally got their act together: it’s here. Only took two phone calls, three re-typings of my name and a solemn oath that I am an American citizen. A good friend of mine forwarded the link I supplied to his friends; I am hoping that it’s going to translate into some sales later on. The novelty of all this has as of yet to really wear off. Of course, now that I have one thing out there, I must follow it up… with what, I have no idea. I’ve got a few good ideas in my common book that I am going to flesh out. Oh – I also got Changeling: The Lost. I like the themes in this particular game – way, way, way better than the earlier incarnation. I’m going to get Promethean next… and I am considering getting Geist and seeing if I can fold it into the current idea or have it branch off into something else. Who knows? I can only hope that this will get me something – a freelance gig or something. I’ll even take a half-eaten cheese sandwich – just something to show for my efforts.

Nothing much else here of note – just trying to find a fourth short story so I can get started on the second volume of “4 Bits and a Dollar” and have that done in 6 months (looking at a March deadline for publication, with an eye for 4 volumes to be put into dead tree version for wider selling). I also joined a Kindle message group in hopes of getting some more sales. Yes – I hate sales people, but hey – if I want to get out of where I am now, I need to put forth all efforts – “Who Dares, Wins”.

I am off to bed – sleep well one and all.

With all sincerity to you, Good Reader,

Seething Apathy

Well, believe it or not – I might let a little private information get out unaltered. I will have a book published by Kindle this time tomorrow called “Four Bits and a Dollar”. On my next blog entry, I’ll put up the link. I am looking more forward to changing some of my statuses to “Published Author”. This excites me more than anything. Even when I got the weird idea that I could be published waaaaay back in 1997 with joining the company of the grilled and abashed vets on the Internet. I should give a thank-you note to “Salon” for their article on fan fiction, which got me started in all of this. I am very interested in see what happens – this isn’t a way of making money immediately (I mean, come on – 35% of $1.50 is .53 cents – that ain’t walkin-round money), but it shows me what I will need to do when the Big Book comes out.

OK – for those of you who are considering this, here are the pros and cons of the two big services:

Kindle:

Pros:

• Up and running in about 24 hours
  
• Amazon has high visibility
  
• Two words: Amazon Flame
  
• Two more words: iPad Killer
  
• Two Tiered Royalty structure – either 35% or 70%
  
• Don’t have a Kindle? Kindle readers can be loading into almost everything.
  

Cons:

• Formatting: for Pete’s sake – who cares how I made the paragraphs?
  
• That two tiered structure? Dependent on how much I am charging in the first place.
  
• While e-books are definitely on the upswing, there is still nothing better than having that book in your hand.
  
• Kindle’s format is exclusive, so you have to have their reader to have their stuff.
  
• Takes forever to get it looking just right. Took me hours to get it close to right.
  

Nook

Pros:

• The format is fairly open – means if you don’t like the Nook, there are other places to go to.
  
• Fairly easy to use and set up. WYSISYG.
  
• As easily available as the Kindle’s program.
  

Cons:

• 48 to 72 hours… only after you’ve been vetted – which I still have to go through in between the hours of 9:00 – 5:30. Very
  convenient for those of us who have [censored] day jobs.
  
• When someone says e-reader – quick, what’s your first thought. I can guarantee it ain’t Nook.
  

Well, I will definitely keep everyone here up to date about what goes on with the Kindle and the Nook. With any luck, I can get both readers with the anthology, and hopefully be able to break even one day: ($215.00 is the break-even point).

On to other things: just watched the premiere of the Season 6 of Dexter – and I like the two Big Bads this season: Bill Adama and Tom Hank’s kid. I also like the burgeoning theme of religion in the series. I doubt that Dexter is going to find Jesus and repent by the end of the series, but I like the idea that each season has him evolving as a human in one way or the other… and the nudity is always nice, too. Speaking of movies, I went to go see Moneyball. The trailers say ‘wacky comedy’, but the movie is a rather stark drama. It’s a good movie, but I have to admit that I like to see Brad Pitt in lighter things, like Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Fight Club.

Well, this will be all for now. I’ve only had 4 hours of sleep total over the last 48 hours (thanks, Kindle!). I hope that tomorrow I will have better news and a link to the anthology.

I commend you, Dear Reader.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

I know that I am late (ever so slightly) with this particular entry, but there is a very good reason – at least as far as where I am concerned… and this is also bending the rules a little bit, because I am going to go into a bit of local news (rule number three of anonymous blogging – no locations, no news, deny, deny, deny) about this instance.

There is a bridge that I take in the mornings to go to work… I’m going to call it the Helmsley-Chocolate Coin Bridge (I assure you, that’s not the real name, but if you squint and look sideways, you can figure out what it is). When this bridge was open and running freely, it was about a thirty minute drive from where I live to where I work upfront dealing with nonlivings that a stony carapace for a skull and vomit for brains and try to tell them that they need a checkup: that’s a long but accurate gist of the disaster porn that’s my job. It wasn’t bad getting to work – about thirty minutes, so I could enjoy my favorite radio show in the morning (They Rock) and my favorite music on the way home. The intervening eight hours? Not so much, but that’s neither here nor there.

Then they started construction – still, not too bad, had to get up fifteen minutes earlier, not bad. That was until two weeks ago. Then they closed the whole bridge down. Little in the way of warnings and now I have to get up 3 hours
earlier (note to the local politicians:
I am not happy) to get to work on time. Why? Because the only other bridge that I can get to takes me thirty minutes out of my way. Adding my normal time to get up and get ready to work: 1 hour and just the travel time from here to there is another thirty minutes. That’s not including the stop and go traffic just getting to the bridge which tacks on another twenty minutes. If I add in the side stops to get caffeine, then it comes out to a little under two hours. The only reason why I give myself such a large cushion is because the traffic here is unpredictable at best. All of this means that when I get home, I have enough time to eat dinner and wash dishes… and go to bed so I can get up on time. Which means I have no time to write anything – you may ask why don’t I write at work? Simple – I’ll get interrupted every five minutes if I’m lucky. This is another good reason why I am trying to get out of this job and get something published – more on that when it happens.

Enough of the doom and gloom – on to the Shout-Outs! Today, I am giving a Shout-Out to two writers. Both of them are friends of mine, one I have known for several years and the other I have known for a couple, but she is also an editor who worked on my anthology. Lisa Townsend-Crow has some works out there, and I recommend buying them now. She’s currently working on a creative writing degree and she is a very talented writer. Better than I am by far and also a wonderful friend to have known outside of writing. Go check her out.

Amy Valenti is not only another published author, but she also runs an editing service which I have used with nothing but complete satisfaction. She is quick, very accurate and will let you know what’s going on with the work. She works in England, so be prepared to pay in Pounds Sterling – but it’s worth it. When my novel is finished, she is on the short list to edit it. Very inexpensive (if you’re a student, she does take a lot of mercy on you) to hire, but worth every one of the few pennies you are going to spend (currency exchange rates may apply).

Well – there’s little else to report here. I am growing sleep deprived and slightly mad. However, next Sunday, I might go to the movies and check out something. I will supply a movie review which more than likely dissolve in a rant about why Hollywood is running out of original ideas.

Until then, Good Reader – Good Night to You All.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

I’ve finally hit the 17K mark in my novel, still mired in Chapter Two, but I am optimistic that I’ll get back into the investigation soon enough… or I’ll just switch to another project. Who knows? I’m more worried that my small spit of an anthology isn’t going to see the light again. The short stories that I have put into it are from an earlier anthology that winks at a punk who succeeds in pulling the rug over my eyes firmly. Not that I am bitter about that particular experience – it did teach me that I can’t rely on a fleabag who won’t dive to the hilt – which is a good lesson for all. If you want to do something right, do it yourself. Too bad the people I talk to at work don’t seem to appreciate that message. So, PayPal pretends to not have the cash, which means I still can’t pay the editor – who is going to get a shout-out in the next blog entry.

Anyhow, I have made a decision about this particular blog – not only is going to be a rather therapeutic diary for me (since no one reads it anyway, I can say what’s really on my fractured little mind at times), I am going to use it to get the word out to some of the gaming companies out there, or to at least their fans that they need to hire me as a writer and soon before my prices skyrocket. Right now, I am a cheap date at $11.50/hr. – far less than I make at work. If everything goes well and my modest Sally Field moment is true, I am going to take my case out here on the blog. I am going to write something for a prospective client – a novella featuring their properties, with all the required legalize to say that I am not trying to get any sort of copyright infringement action started up. I have one idea for a company that I can’t wait to get down on a word processor, but I need to get the background materials first and make sure that everything can work out according to the rules set forward in their books. I will keep you up to date on this as events unfold and books are shipped to me.

Other than that – there is nothing terribly new to report. Managed to stumble into work an hour early… and you’d think that since I volunteered to do this, they would have re-done my breaks and lunch to reflect the new time. Nope. I still had to take my breaks at the usual time: late. At least tomorrow I can go back to a regular late schedule and come home later… and be off on Wednesday. I’m hoping to get a lot more done tomorrow evening as far as getting more work done on the novel. If I manage to do 2K more words tomorrow night, I might treat myself to a movie I have stored on my DVR. I should watch “Victim” since I’ve had it for a year now. Maybe I can knock out two films – “Victim” and “Renaissance” should go. “Renaissance” looks wonderful – black and white rotoscoping. I hope the story can hold up to the effects.

Well, I should wrap up here and call it a night. Tomorrow – the Shout-Outs!

Good night to you, Dear Reader

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy.

I went to the Writer’s Meeting (only three minutes ahead of schedule because some woman decided to pay for her gas in coins…coins…, I should have been there at least 25 minutes early, between that and my GPS getting wonky on me, what should have been an easy 20-25 minutes to enjoy a late breakfast and a little time alone ended up being a quick ‘throw down the drinks and save the Twinkies for later) yesterday – and they liked me! They like the first chapter of the novel I had written (or at least the first part of it – its 9K words) and they did have some minor things to be done to the manuscript (all good things, and I will definitely use them). They meet on the third Saturday of the month, so I have a good amount of time to get another section drawn together. Don’t know if I am going to continue with the novel or bring something shorter.

The money is still in transit, but I also sent out the anthology – if all goes well, I can still get everything out by the expected deadline and hopefully get another anthology scrapped together – perhaps find another four decent short stories and introduce a second volume. After all – agents and publishers are using self-publishing places like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble like the NFL uses college football programs (a free AAA minor league). There’s one writer out there who is making $200,000 a year off of Amazon and she just got a $2 million contract now that she had a fan base in place. I’m not complaining – I’m doing the same thing, but I just need to work a lot faster. I need to focus on something and get it finished soon. If I can crank out 4 volumes of the short story anthology for this year (9/11-9/12), I should be able to generate enough cash to pay for editing of the novel project.

This is going to be an odd week for me – I work an hour early tomorrow, get off early as well, regular shift Tuesday and I am off on Wednesday, then regular shift Thursday and Friday… then a black, black Saturday: 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM, then come back at 5:30 and work until 11:30. I need the overtime this week, just so that I can start saving up for the editing of a novel. So, last Saturday (and I only had three hours of sleep that day!) was my last good hurrah for a while. On the upper side – I have a three day weekend coming (Labor Day!), so I intend to completely relax on that day. It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. We did have a period of summer like weather but that was only a couple of months and now we’re coming back down to more reasonable temperatures. It’s still summer, mind you and I am not going to be happy until we’re back down to 70’s or even the 60’s.

Well, I should be getting to bed so I can get a decent nap before I go into work for the longest week. Maybe with some of the overtime, I’ll get Promethium and Changeling and star my “Here’s Why I Should Be Writing for White Wolf” blog.

Good Night Gentle Readers, I hope your work week is better than mine.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

Tomorrow, I am to meet with a local writers’ group and yes, I am indeed nervous. Not about meeting people – I can get through that as long as there is a minimum of hand shaking, eye contact and naked steel. What I am worried about is the multiple copies of the first chapter of my novel that I am distributing for all to read. Honestly – I know I can take the criticism, but I just don’t know what sort of criticism am I going to get? Gentle advice, cold edicts or harsh phrases of derision – which one will I get? This is why I like the Internet: there is that distance that somehow makes everything a little bit better. I can take online criticism (and boy, have I…) but that whole face-to-face thing makes me a little leery. I’m just not that much of a social creature. When I was acting, it wasn’t me on the stage, it was the character. I could do and say some outrageous things (and I did) because I was back in my dorm room as far as I or anyone else was concerned. Here? Now? Not so much – which is one reason why I like writing so much as a profession – even if your agent wants to shove you out for the entire world to see, it can be kept at a private distance. Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, Twitter – all of these things, while now crucial to getting and maintaining a fan base, are still somewhat private (even Google – sure, you can show everyone a satellite photo of my house and give everyone every bit of information on what I’ve ordered online for the last 5 years [hint: think books], but if no one has put a picture of me out there [and no, they haven’t], you couldn’t pick me out of a line-up). Even this blog, which is private in that only two other people other than myself know of its existence, and only one of the those people know what I look like (pity her for that…). If an agent tells me to have a Facebook fan page set up, I will do so, and be rather active on it, but with only one condition: no pics of me at all whatsoever. I’m not vain (OK – not very…), but I still want to maintain a modicum of privacy.

Is that so wrong in this day and age? Of course, given that I have this blog, the Facebook page and soon to be a website for writing, perhaps this is a case of the horse not only out of the barn, but in the city choosing an apartment and handing out resumes. I can trust my friends not to blab too much – they might not know why initially, but that will be another subject for another time. I know that this blog is somewhat shorter than what I usually do, but I want to make sure I have everything ready for the group – meaning more death of trees.

Wish me luck.

Best Wishes to you, Good Reader.

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy

A bit of a writerly update: got paid (sorry local cable company, I’ll let you hold my money next go round) and I got the money for the editor to be deposited into the Paypal account… and I have to wait 3-4 business days to have the money magically flit from the bank to Paypal. Huh? I thought this whole Internet Banking fad kinda hung on the idea of being somewhat instantaneous (Yes, I know – I work in a transoceanic cube where I can sing only ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ – I can hear the conversation I would be having with myself over this very thing). Now before I hear about pots calling kettles black and that sort of thing – here is my point. Every day that I have to wait to get the money to my patient editor is another day I am stuck where I am at now with no hope of anything better coming along. I want to be able to change my linked item to something a little less linty. The time it takes for the editor to work things out is a month away and the anthology is going to hit both Kindle and Nook a few days later. I’m just frustrated that this is another delay that I can do nothing about but seethe… just not with apathy.

As far as other things go – we got hit with rain and my next week schedule gets turned a little topsy-turvy. On the upside, I get Wednesday off to play around and maybe write something. On the down side – I’m working 14 hours that Saturday – some of it to be overtime, which I need in order to get funding started up for editing the novel that I should have finished by December. I figure that this little venture is going to set me back several thousand dollars, even if I get a lot of breaks my way. I’ve looked at Kickstarter. If that works out, I will let you know how that pans out. I’m figuring $3,000 should cover one project. If I can get enough out there, I want to be able to have other novels fund themselves. Right now, it’s still all ground level for me.

Oh! Just remembered, I am going to meet with a writer’s group Saturday! For those of you who know me well, you know that meeting people in the flesh presents a bit of a problem for me – as in I am not a huge fan of it. However, I feel that if I am going to prosper as a writer, I will need to expose my work to others for critique and analysis. It worked for me in the long river clubs, so I am hoping to put lightning back into the bottle again. At the very least, I will be putting my name out there for networking abilities and trying to develop a local fan base. Wish me luck.

Well, it’s growing late and I should be off to bed at some point. I wish you all well and I hope to bring better news in the morning.

Read and Rest Well, Gentle Reader,

Sincerely,

Seething With Apathy.