zoe_w

I got the story up to a third draft tonight. Hubby is reading it, and if he gives it a green light, I'll be putting out the first calls for beta readers.

Tomorrow, I'll be working to finish IS2 3: Teh Horror. I'll also try to finish up some other shorter projects in preparation of submissions opening up April 1st in a couple places.

I'm now on Twitter, under the handle Zoe_E_W. This is a random weirdness feed, and not intended as anything but a time waster. I just like figuring out how to write updates and make them 139 or 140 characters. I don't know it's it's got any use for promotions or not, but it is fun to play with.

S'okay, it's almost 7 am, and I'm tired. Off to couch with me.

Later...

Yeah, so I lost track of updating this journal, but mainly because I don't think that many people are reading this. Also, most of my progress reports sound very similar. I'm always working on something new, or submitting somewhere. Or I'm obsessing because someplace I've sent to hasn't sent a response recently.

And all of that is true this week. After I finished up the last posts of Blood Relations, I went back into short story mode. Yesterday, I wrote part of a story, and today I finished it and wrote another non-fiction article for AC. It's not official just yet, but I'm on the cusp of a clout level of four with AC. So, this means that sometime this month, I will earn $1.50. It's not much to get excited about yet, but so far, the few comments I've had are positive.

I've gotten word of a great review for Redemption Lost, which will be forthcoming in the April issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly. It's a positive review for the book, and overall it's a ringing endorsement for the trilogy. I'm hopeful that I can continue to build on this success with more positive reviews, but it's a very slow waiting game for now.

I have a short two part story about Vicky and Amber done for the site, but I'm also going to be making up some other short stories for the web site, and I mean really short, like one or two posts, at the most.

And finally, I have the submissions. I'm getting ready to turn in a couple of submissions for themed anthologies. The stories are done, and I'm just waiting for the opening date. Both would be at semi-pro levels, I think, though one of them might be pro. It's no secret that I'm harsh about my short stories, but I feel like this year, I've started to make some improvements, and I'm now able to write short stories that don't give away the endings too soon. So now its time to start submitting them to see if the editors agree that I'm making improvements.

And finally, I'm still waiting for the publisher to send word on my first novel. Yes, I'm sweating bullets over it, but after almost two months, I'm running out of ammo. (baaaad Zoe.) I'm still worried, and I'm not sure who else to go to if this fails. A 200K story is a tough sell anywhere these days, but even more so when it's a weird cross genre book from a complete unknown writer.

I'm trying to set myself up to accept another rejection, because after two months, I think that they probably either haven't read it yet, or they didn't, and now they hate it so bad that they can't reply. Just...angst and woe...you know?

So yeah, more of the usual. And with that, I'm heading back to bed.

Later...

I've posted chapter 21 of Blood Relations another background chapter, but one that quickly sums up a long pattern of wandering behavior for Vicky after the McCulloughs forced her to flee from William. Those of you who've been reading the story should now understand than it wasn't Amber's fault that Vicky is sterile, because that happened much earlier in her life at the hands of the McCullough clan.

I'm almost finished on the rough draft of Changeling, which was originally slated to become a free story. I've decided that this story will instead go out to make the rounds with some of the UF publishers, just to see if it will fly. I'm sorry for pulling the story from the online queue, but I think it might work as a pro or semi-pro sell for me. I prefer to post the shorter novellas and novelettes on the web site anyway, to make sure I'm always offering you something different every few months.

If I start to sell work with the publishers, I'll have to slow down the rate that I release stories to the web site. I do it now because I'm not yet confident that I'm at a professional level of writing yet. But once I feel like I've reached that skill level, a story would have to be experimental to make it onto the web site. For now, there are still plenty of stories slated for the web site. Just, not Changeling. Sorry about that, and I hope you can understand.

First, here's the links for chapter 19 and chapter 20 of Blood Relations. Both are very short, and any knowledgable idiot would call the next chapter Epilogue and be done with it.

I, am something of a lower idiot, and so there are actually quite a few chapters left before we hit the epilogue. I know, it defies all convention, and frankly, anything after this point will be anticlimatic. It's not avant garde; it's not knowing when to shut up. But hey, that's why it's a free story, because I don't think this would work for most editors. Maybe I'm wrong, and years from now, some editor will walk up and smack me for writing this. (Boy, I sure hope they explain why after they hit me. 0.o ) But in any case, this ending clears the path for the next story, which will involve a lot more action and hot and sticky death.

So, if it comforts you to do so, consider the last part of 20 to be the close of book one. You can think of the rest as a novelette called Blood Relations: Aftermath, covering the days and weeks afterward. This will allow me to finish up Vicky's past as she slowly migrates to Arizona from Scotland, bringing us full circle to the present day. There's also some other juicy details left over, but I won't spoil them. I love you people too much to do that. <3

I'll be taking a short break from posting to start work on the revision of Dead End, and I hope to have the whole trilogy updated with free E-books by May. I'm torn on what to post next, but I think it will end up being a semi-bizarro science fiction story, Adopting a Sex Doll. After that, I'll be hitting you with another long story, Berserker. In that novel-sized story, we'll be getting back to Jobe McKenzie, Gavin Lebowitz and the werebear that just appeared from out of nowhere in front of their car in the epilogue of Erick's Journey. I'm sure it drove you nuts that we had to take this deviation in course to follow Amber first, but I needed time to let Berserker cool on the mental back burner before I could get back into it to handle doing the second and third drafts.

I'm already working on anther video, and that should be done soonish. I'm debating whether to let it go as is or add one more short skit to it. I'll have to compile the pieces that I have and see how close I am to the ten minute mark. The first episode required extensive editing to get it down to 9:59:29, and I felt rather proud of myself when I finally got it small enough to fit on YouTube as a single episode. I'll try to aim for that with each episode, and even when I'm trying to be informative, as in this case, I'll still also try to toss in some gratuitous and tasteless humor. The old motto of our show was, "If we haven't offended you yet, just wait. We're reloading." I intend to carry on that proud and noble tradition. ^_^

You have been warned.

Later...

I goofed off for most of the day, aside from lurking on forums or listening to music, I didn't do any focused reading, editing, or writing. That is, until half an hour before midnight, when I was staring at my background. I didn't feel like getting into either of the two books I'm reading. (Even though both have had good writing so far. Just wasn't in the mood) It occurred to me that I already knew the way out of my middle of the story woes with Changeling, and so I figured that I'd tried to get a few more pages down.

I finished up one chapter, and then I wrote another. The story will be getting back on track to the actual scam soon, but now with this side trip to meet Tommy's cousins and his great-great- great-aunt, (I think that's something like fifteen times removed, by I'll spare you) I understand how VERY complicated the storyline will eventually become for the shapeshifters.

For one thing, they all have two fully functional personalities, so that means writing two people who may, or may not be similar to each other. Tommy/Lana is pretty consistent through both personalities, but Jenny/Marcus is a character with a lot of contrasts. By day, Marcus has been a reclusive gaming nerd and a half-assed mage. Jenny has been a goth-clubbing social butterfly who adores the opportunity to know lots of people. During transformation, both personalities, "pass each other" in a mental corridor, an internally imagined safe place where the two sides read each other. So, what one personality knows, so does the other as soon as they change places.

Of these two sides, one of the personalities is known as the biological personality, and it's the one that the shapeshifter was born as. The other personality is considered the lesser half, and yet, it also has a soul of its own. This can make for a complicated situation in shapeshifter mating habits, because when a shapeshifter takes a companion, part of the mating act is the metaphysical merging of their souls. After that point, there is no way for a couple to separate, and no amount of distance can keep them from out of their companion's thoughts. in most shapeshifter couples, it is possible temporarily sever the connection by having one partner swap genders.

In theory, what is supposed to happen is that a couple clicks, and they mate through their dominant personas before shifting genders to merge the souls of their lesser halves. However, there is the possibility for a shapeshifter to become involved in a permanent love triangle, which sets this initial plot up as an erotic UF, easy.

So, here at chapter 12, the triangle is set now, with (don't hate me for making this ridiculously complicated) Marcus/Jenny, Tommy/Lana, and Kevin/Laura. So, all I have to do is figure out how to get through the scam without being too slow or dull, even if the real story is the constant visits of Jenny's suitors. Yeah, that's the joke. Both the guys want Jenny. But Tommy is soul bound to Jenny, while Kevin is soul bound to Marcus. (Told you it was complicated)

Why is this important? Okay, while Marcus has taken over control of the body, he can't hear the thoughts of Tommy. If Tommy wants to keep himself hidden from Jenny, he has to change into Lana. Now add in Kevin and Laura, and what I have is a complex trio of bodies who carry six linked personalities between them. They ought to be able to carry at least two books on their own before I merge them back into the main story line as bit characters again.

This is the part of my experiment that sometimes worries me. I worry that people might get into one set of stories, and not like the others. Or, in a worst-case scanario, they read something in one genre and don't like it, and they avoid all my other stuff, assuming it's all the same. And really, how do I help try to distinguish "No, this is Urban Fantasy, with erotica elements, while the main series is dark fanstasy with strong horror and mild UF elements." Oh sure, that's as clear as mud.

But, I am having fun writing this stuff, because it's a great way to keep everything from getting too forumlaic. Just as folks are getting used to a pattern in a trilogy, I'm going to "flip the script" and try something new.

This is of course assuming that I ever get more than twenty readers. =^P

Okay, I'm babbling, and I need to get to sleep.

Later...

I'm now down to the last chapter in the second revision of A Perfectly Empty Vessel, and there's been a lot added on this draft. Everyone in the story has had their subplots fleshed out, and the events leading up to the big gunfight at the end are now more detailed. Most of the research I did has been incorporated into the story, and I think it may require adding in a few more scenes in the third draft to help seal the deal, so to speak.

I have one chapter and the epilogue to finish, and then I'll probably set it aside for a while again. Then, after this, I think I'll try to get back to writing Changeling. I think I might have a way to carry out this story to a conclusion, at which point, I have to get started on something new.

And here, I'm stuck. Do I pick up one of the stories already in progress, or do I back up to update more on what the bit characters are up to? Or, do I set the whole series off to the side and write a standalone story to cleanse my palate? All are valid options that I can easily get excited about, and that's the problem, with all three being good choices, I'm unable to make a choice. And because I can't, neither can the muse. Eh, we'll see what happens when I get closer to the point of clearing out my current workload.

Later...

Sometimes, when I find a place in the rough draft that I don't like, I've taken to saying, "Rough draft is rough." I'm amazed at the stupidity of my stress reduction techniques, but if it works, I won't complain...much. ^_^

I had to stop where I'm at in chapter nine, since my brain is mush. This time, it's that ebil cat's fault. I had to put up with a lot of "heat" meowing this morning, so I was functioning on less sleep than I would have preferred. But I got one and a half chapters revised, and I shuffled around the order of the scenes. I'm calling that a victory, and as such, a good day. Fuck the cat. =^P

I MIGHT have an editing job coming up this week. This is likely to be a mid-sized job, something to pay around 250 Euros. That's not enough to get my editor back on the clock yet, but it is a good start, and I already have a bill in for a much smaller job that should be paid around the same time next month. And those two together should be enough to pay her.

I'm not writing anything new for Changeling yet. I have a solid opening, but the muse is still trying to insist on shooting too big with this first effort. I try to focus the plan back on the main scam, and the muse keeps trying to go with a big twist. Someone (me, probably) forgot to give her the memo that big twists went out of fashion a few years ago. -.-

I'm sure I'll get there. It's too good of an introduction not to keep it going. But it will have to come later, when I'm thinking clearly. Right now. I'm thinking...fuzzy. Z_Z

Later...

I'm recovered from brain drain, and I had a somewhat productive day working on the second draft revisions for A Perfectly Empty Vessel. It's occurred to me that I need to add an extra day of time near the end of the story. This is to allow for several events to shape up with more detail, and there's some things that I want to do before the big fight, which will require at least that one full day.

For one thing, I'd feel more comfortable with the final gunfight if Wendy had spent at least a few hours at a range practicing with her new weapon. As I am big on reality, the one point that still stands out for me in the rough draft is how Wendy is comfortable with the shotgun she's using in spite of the fact that she hasn't had any practice.

In a lot of cases, Wendy has gotten around this before by being a "special case." She was trained to fire handguns and revolvers, and she HAD a near photgraphic memory. But her memory is shit, for reasons that I can't explain, and the new shotgun is a weapon that she has no background or proficiency with. So I'd like to see her take a belt of homemade shells out to a range to blast some paper targets before she gets to live targets.

I also need the extra day because Davis had dropped off a set of inorganic samples with a lab technician, and in the rough draft, there is no concluding scene to explain what the samples were. I supposed I could wait until the next book to uncover this, but I think it makes more sense to handle it earlier. Besides, this also gives me more of a chance to develop the budding friendship between Davis and lab technician Kira Nakamura.

There's some other character development issues to sort out, and there's an accuracy problem involving one of the daemon scenes near the end. But anywho, it is a rough draft, and after I'm done with the second draft, it can go back on the burner to cool while I look for test readers.

What I'll be looking for is whether or not this story stands on its own, and whether new readers just coming in feel lost or bored. Both of these are bad, m'kay?

And that's my main focus right now. I'm going to take tomorrow off from writing this to edit another chapter of Blood Relations, and to devote a bit more time to the beta reading project I've agreed to do. So far, I've not regretted offering to help, so you know it has to be a good story. ^_^

And with that update out of the way, I'm off to bed.

Later...

Last night, I was cranking out stuff just fine. I finished up the edits on part two of Touched, and I finished edits on part 7 of Erick's Journey. I ate dinner and sat down to work on Changeling...and nothing.

My attempts to coax the writing process were awful, and out of desperation, I randomly tossed a vampire into a mall scene, just because I couldn't think of anything else to do. But I know that's awful, so I erased everything up to the point where the block began. I'll come back to it in a day or two, but I think I'll take today off and do some reading of other people's stuff.

It's not like I haven't done a lot recently. In addition to writing and editing my stories, I've been working on non-fiction and doing some research for my articles. YES! Actual research that involves finding stuff out instead of making it up.

I just wanted to post an update to explain what I'm up to. Hopefully, I'll get around this writers block fast. I truly hate it when the muse wanders away in the middle of a story. It always makes me worry that she won't come back to it. -_-

But anywho, I'm off to read.

Later...

I did make dinner tonight, a really interesting gourmet Tex-Mex version of pizza.

I also worked on revising some scenes, but I'm working through this slowly. I had to spend a lot of today researching the living arrangements of a bit character. No, really. I now know that he lives in Ravenna, Ohio. I even "drove" past his aprtment complex thanks to Google. (And seriously, is there anything about Google that isn't a writer's best friend when it comes to reserach? If google doesn't have it, you can bet Wiki probably does.)

Anywho, this new guy is a bit character like Gavin, in that later on his importance in the story becomes greater. Still, in the first scenes that John had in the stories, he was a very blank character, and he just felt like "filler" if I didn't give him more details.

This was also the case with Davis Briggs. I knew that he had a larger role in the series, but in the rough drafts, he was never described. He was just supposed to be "cop-like," I guess. Like I said in my last post, the rough drafts aren't always pretty.

But now like Davis and Gavin, John has a back story and a basic physical description, and chapter one of the rough draft is now completely revised. Yay! And tomorrow, I will finish working on his history in the other book. Then I'll attempt to tackle the first half of chapter two in the rough draft.

And on a final side note, John's age was chosen arbitrarily. I worried that I'd guessed wrong, and I stated going over his history to check his age. And it turns out, I was right on, he is supposed to by 52. There's no other way that he could have been a lt. colonel in 1978. (when he was 33) And since the story takes place in 1996, I'm all good and squared away, mathematically speaking. ^_^

Okay, rambling...must go to bed. 0.o

Later...

I'm looking over chapter one of a rough draft. I knew the story would need to be fixed up, but some of the problems in this story are really worthy of major cringing. I am so glad that no one gets to see my stuff until much later in the production process. Because sometimes, my rough drafts blow and suck at the same time.

I know that eventually, I'll get the errors worked out, but there's some problems with this story that an editor might not know to fix. As an example, a whole page of dialogue that reads well is all very wrong, because the character asking the question to start the conversation is psychic. She should already know the answer, even if the reader doesn't.

The introduction of the bit character's back story had to be completely reworded to become an internal musing of the psychic character instead of a long conversation. I shaved off a half a page in the process, but I would describe most of the dialogue in the book as being in serious need of similar repairs. It's not just that the dialogue runs long. Many times, the dialogue simply starts out wrong for a simple reason like the above example.

I had similar problems with my other stories, so I know it not supposed to be a big deal. Still, I feel annoyed, because in my rough drafts, it doesn't look like I've learned anything at all. I'm still making a lot of the same structural mistakes repeatedly, and my main flaws are always there, no matter how hard I try to write differently. Of course in the revisions, I know about these mistakes,, so I know what to look for and change. But you'd think after this many stories, I might just NOT make those mistakes in the rough drafts anymore. And instead, I'm still writing the same way.

So yeah, I reiterate. I'm so glad that no one reads my rough drafts. -.-

Later...

Tonight, I've finished the epilogue on Berserker, and I cannot stop blabbering about this one to hubby. Every single character has got me excited, both the old returning favorites, and the new faces that come from moving to a new city. (Boerne, Texas, FTW) It's not just that this story is exciting, but that the next stories based off of this are going to be...my gosh, you really just have no idea how wonderfully complex these people are.

I think one of the main reasons why I love the story is that the antagonist is such a great guy. He's a slacker, but he earns money, and he doesn't take from other people. He's a hunter, but he believes in eating what he kills. In fact, until the curse begins affecting his judgment, he's a pretty decent redneck who most people would like. And this guy is a stark contrast to the antagonist in the other book I completed last month, A Perfectly Empty Vessel. Where Phillip Cassidy is an evil sadist who feeds off of pain, Dave Carson is a nice guy who you really wish didn't get cursed to turn into a monster.

And oh, what a monster! Everyone of the protagonists goes solo against this guy at some point in the story, and they ALL get their cans handed to them. It isn't just that he's big and tough. He's smart and self-sufficient. He's resourceful, and yes, he's the bad guy.

And in this book there's a whole new slew of problems for the protagonists besides Dave. Jobe and Gavin have to learn how to work together in spite of their problems. But Jobe is also being entrusted to watch over other cursed people, and in the process, he's getting caught up in their personal problems. There's Rosa Delgado, a victim of urban violence who had her eyes and most of her humanity taken from her long before she became a werekin. Jobe suspects that Rosa may also be a berserker like him, and a budding friendship begins to develop. Meanwhile, weredog George Brahn is discovering that his ex-wife isn't quite ready to give up on him yet, now that he's become something other than human. But what is Lucy Martinez supposed to be? Is she a vampire? A kitsune? Or is she some other blood-drinking race that has kept itself hidden among the humans?

There's a few other characters, and that includes the return of Damien, who's also going through some changes because of his imprint from Stephen Collins. There also Erick the black elf, and Url the orc/werebear.

Just....gasp! It's really exciting stuff, and while it isn't a horror book, it is without a doubt a very creepy dark fantasy that I can't wait to put out on the web site.

YES! It's going to the web. This being a book about the bit characters in their own right, I felt like it was a great way to tell the story without resorting to a huge series of novels that nobody has the money to afford. I'll still have the cor stories published properly, running them through my editor first. But these tangential stories can hopefully help to build a name for me. (Especially if I release them as free e-books)

Okay, so, what's next? Well, after I take a break, I'm going to finish up the last little bit of Erick's Journey, a short story that connects Blood Relations, Berserker, and Shadow Walker into the same general time line. Then it's time to write a couple of shorter stories about the third level bit characters, the people who cannot carry a full novel or a novella on their own. So this is where Marcus/Jenny will get their own standalone story to explain more about who they are, and who their people are. And finally, I have to write a story about one group of halflings who got out of Austin at the conclusion of the Collins family trilogy.

So, here's the basic idea. By the end of 2009, I hope to have given people enough stories for free and as paid work, that they know me, and they can have confidence that I will not be making every book about sex or ultimate evils. So then, I can release the Collins family Trilogy without worrying about the first book sinking my career before it ever takes off.

I'll be honest. I still worry about this, because it's a slow book, and its a creepy story. But after the first book, a lot of the creepy sex stuff goes away, and the story moves on as the characters evolve.

Little Monsters was the first book I'd ever written, but I knew for a long time that it wasn't "first book" material. I didn't have anything else to show people to prove that where the story starts is not where it will end up. So, I pulled a "George Lucas," and I skipped ahead to episode 4. After I get Blood Relations out, I need to seriously consider stopping and going back to episode one. Because before we can move ahead, readers should be given the chance to get to know Cora and her family.

Well anyway, that's the plan. And like I said, I'm going to be resting for at least one day before I get back to hitting the keyboard again.

On a final note for tonight, my progress for this year is four novels, three novellas, and two short stories written. If I can keep up this pace to the end of the year, I may be able to match my output from last year. And that's not too shabby, for a sickie.

Hokay, I R tired. Gab at you more tomorrow.

Later...

1) I am working on Berserker, which I think is around 50% finished right now. The bad guy just showed up and got scratched, and there's two weeks to the next lunar cycle before he makes his transformation. Of course, some of that time, he's going to dedicate to hunting and some slightly related plotting. As bad guys go, I think he's one of the more likable villains I've ever made.

This story should give me a chance to set down some ground rules for my werekin, and it also allows me to put together the first werekin pack on Earth. And it has an orc and a black elf too, so it's...it's different. Obviously, I'm liking it so far.

2) I have not had a cigarette in three days. I'm having bad withdraw symptoms, and I have thoughts every few minutes of rolling a smoke. After a few times, I have to look down to make sure I'm not really rolling anything. So far, I'm not.

Okay, I'm ready to drop on the couch for a nap.

Later...

I've been cross-posting a lot today, because Books on Board has got all of my e-books up on their site now. The link to Redemption Lost is still a pre-order, but this new release of the first books gave me the chance to start my official Campaign trilogy promotions. First, here's the books.

And now here's the deal: I want to generate 300 new e-book sales by January. If I can make this big goal (big for me, anyway), I will release a free e-book version of my next story, A Perfectly Empty Vessel. (The print version can't be free, obviously, but it will be priced just above production cost.) This is book one in the new Sin City trilogy, and it takes place right after the events in the Campaign trilogy. And, without giving anything away, the new killer makes the bad guys in the previous three books seem benign by comparison. So, if you finish the first series and find yourself hungry for more, puh-lease help me out by talking up your friends, relatives, and possibly even your worst enemies. =^P

Now that the first trilogy is done and out in public, I'm really looking forward to starting the next story arcs. In addition to A Perfectly Empty Vessel, I'm also getting ready to released a free novel to the web site. Yes, you read right. I'll be posting the story in chapters, so that's a whopping 22 posts worth of story.

I'm holding off on saying this anywhere else just yet, (mainly to have something else to post about later on in the week for other places) but the free story is Blood Relations, and it is the next part of the story for Amber McKenzie and Vicky the vampire. It will introduce a new coven of vampires into the story, as well as introducing readers to Dimitri, yet another of the "major heavies" in the coming mystical wars. This story also makes for a shocking change in Amber, and in the nature of Amber's relationship with Vicky. The conclusion also ties into another free story already on the web site...and no, I don't mean Touched. (Ooooh, the mystery! @.@ )

And Marcus? Well, you'll just have to read the story to see what happens. ^_^

And so, that's about it for now. Since I've just finished up most of the work on the rough draft of A Perfectly Empty Vessel, my head is now also somewhat empty. So if I've rambled too much, forgive me. Now I must try to finish up a few other work projects before bed.

Later...

Wow, I guess it has been a little while since I did an entry. I've just been extremely busy trying to get a lot of different projects finished. But now, the books are all revised, and the new versions are being geared up for production. The web site has been updated with the newer book information, and I even posted up a free preview for the new book.

So, I'm supposed to be taking time off, but I'm still writing something new anyway. Actually, I want to get back to that, so I guess I'll cut this short and get back to work.

Later...

Okay, so we got our Kirby vacuum cleaner in yesterday, and today, Rosa came over to clean up the apartment. We looked like kids fighting over a new toy. ^_^ Both of us took turns cleaning up around the place, and while I feel very proud of my manual labor, I am now REALLY sore.

Today, I continued in my efforts to revise Trail of Madness. I'm updating the formatting to match the style in Redemption Lost, and I've been fleshing out details in both the scenes and the character descriptions. I started all the way at the beginning, and I made it back into part two, where I was working before. Once I finish part two, I'll move over to part three from The Lesser of Two Evils.

The basic plan is, once I finish these revisions, I'm going to have Sam read all three books in chronological order. And if this works out, I'll begin working on making the updated files for the first two books.

I know I have to pay for one more round of revisions on the Lulu books. This is unavoidable, as the books will still be the only print versions available for the next six to seven months. I can't close production on them without killing sales on Redemption Lost, and I might also kill sales by not providing a cleaner edit on both books.

The e-books matter is now solved. The Lulu books will be using their same ISBN number, and I'll use two separate ISBN numbers to make the e-book versions of the first two parts. Once I publish the fully edited versions, I can retire the Lulu editions and the e-books, instead using a unified release under new numbers. This means losing two numbers from my initial block, but if I don't do it this way, there won't be a method of selling the first two e-books in the major distribution channels. And again, only having out book three in a trilogy is likely to make for poor sales.

I'm going to bed early tonight, because I have to head to Cormano tomorrow to discuss a potential job as a web-editor of sorts. If this pays as much as hubby says, I might have a way to pay for the editing on both of my books this month. Which would rock, because then I could start saving up money, and ATP can make a call for submissions. So, I have my fingers crossed.

Later...

Today, the proof copy for Redemption Lost arrived from Lightning Source, and I'm happy with the cover and the binding, which looks much nicer than the Lulu "perfect binding." The Lulu books hold up to wear and tear well, but they have a lot of extra glue which make some fugly bumps in the cover sometimes. It happened on two out of the three proof copies we got, but the LS version looks clean.

I got a live reading done tonight, but by the end, I felt like I was chugging sandpaper instead of bottled water. 0.o Voice started merging into each other, and it got ugly near the end. Still, I might try for a podcast after I recover.

I now must get back to work... it just never ends these days -_-

I canceled another live reading today. My voice is just not working for a reading at this point. I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to record a new podcast soon, but if I can't get the voices right, I may just fake it to put out another episode.

In the meantime, I went through Shadow Walker and updated it with a new revision. I put it into a justified format with indents for the HTML version, and I've made e-book versions of the file as well. You can go to www.zoewhitten.com/content/stories.html to pick up the file in your preferred format, (Shadow Walker is near the bottom of the list) or you can check out the story on the web site with the improved formatting.

After that, I imported a copy of Redemption Lost over to the Palm eReader format (PDB) and uploaded that to Lightning Source. I still need help from them on unlocking the book to proof their version, but the unlocked version on my computer looks good.

The funny thing is, the program for the Palm conversion is set to simulate a 160X160 resolution screen. Hard page breaks can be formatted in, and the rest of the lines are "soft breaks" which don't really show up in the file. So, for instance, the chapters can be forced to go to new pages. The file is resolution independent, so on the PC reader, the pages are great. They literally look just like the print version. There's even a table of contents with links to the parts. I'm drifting...the point is, on the editor, the book is OVER 2500 PAGES. 0.o Each page contains roughly one sentence. So, if you're going to read this on your iPhone, it might take a while. ^_^

So...once I finish this project up, that will make FOUR file formats that the new book can be found in. I may also start making up PDB versions of the free stories. I figure, the more formats I have, the more chances I have of snagging new readers.

The next projects on tap, besides the attempts at podcasting, is to run through the first two books of the Campaign trilogy, alternating in each book between chapters.

I should mention a new ally in my editing efforts, Sam...that's Microsoft's default reader voice. Sam consistently reads like shit. He mispronounces many words badly. Like crotch comes out "crows nest." No, seriously. If I write, "No." then Sam says, "Number." Sam is a bastard retard, BUT Sam reads all of the words, and he catches all of my errors. Something is repetitive? I notice it when Sam talks. Got a misspelled or misused word? Sam will find it. And his flat, slow pace makes sorting out where natural pauses should go easier.

The plan is, I'll whip through a chapter, and then have Sam read it. Then I'll make changes until it sounds decent. These will be the files that I send to my editor for the new and improved ISBN releases, but I'll also take this version and make up some new e-books. I think I mentioned this before, so I'll move on to my next item, a mini-rant.

So, Harriet asks me for the links to my books on Amazon. I go searching for my books, and as I'm copying the link, I notice that The Lesser of Two Evils is now $12...NOW it's $12. Holy shit, I changed the price something like 8 months ago, and only now is the price change going into effect. Now, when this particular incarnation of the book has all of four to six months left in its life cycle...sigh, of course it would. When else should it happen, if it doesn't happen late? @.@

All right, that's just about all of the news. I do want to mention that I've seen issue 4 of Necrotic Tissue...and Alpha Male is the FIRST story in the magazine! It's a special double-issue for Halloween, and I'm the first in the book... for HALLOWEEN! You really can't beat that. ^_^ I've been over the story, and it's laid out well. But, perhaps even cooler is the illustration. Someone drew a man stabbing a werewolf in the eye with a dagger, and that actually happens in the story. Granted, the picture isn't entirely accurate. I don't recall when my protagonist lost his shirt in his flight from the house, and I don't know how he retained his gun harness despite losing his shirt. Still, it is an AWESOME illustration. I can see the man in the drawing being Paul Blake, given the description I'd made, and I was really impressed with the way it fits into the story at just the right point. So, if you want to check out this free PDF magazine, you should head over to www.necrotictissue.com and subscribe.

Okay, I'll get off the ballyhoo wagon and go to bed now. ^_^

Later...

All the files have been to the printer as of this morning, and the final proof copy is on its way. With that project now in a waiting phase, I attempted to record a podcast today. Just...ugh. I could not make any voice or any accent right. All of my male characters ended up sounding dopey, and I couldn't get my voice to make the right pitch, nor the right accents either. Just a bad day.

I decided to switch over to reformatting a story from the web site, as well as doing some edits to doctor it up a bit. Tomorrow, I'll proof it again, and if it looks okay, I'll be uploading it and three new e-books to my web site. So then "Shadow Walker" will be up to "the new code" for the site. I plan on going through the stories pretty much in the order I wrote them, so next, I'll be fixing and formatting "Touched."

Along with these projects, I'm also going to be making new e-book copies of "The Lesser of Two Evils" and "Trail of Madness." These will be proofed over the next month and a half, and so they won't be "perfect," but they will be an improvement over the current Lulu editions. I'm still planning to send the books to the editor before issuing reprints with all new ISBN numbers. But this way, when the book comes out on Mobipocket in November, there will be a relatively clean version of both books for folks to pick up for their e-readers.

And that's it. I'm off to bed.

Later...

I'm going through the third proof now. After I finish this round, I'll be going though the finished files one last time. And then, the uploading begins. I believe that I will be able to do this so that the release date of the book will be November 18. Plenty of time for Christmas shopping, in theory.

But, this release date is not just for a print edition. Because of my rather diligent efforts, "Redemption Lost" will be available as an e-book in PDF, PDB, PRC, and LIT. And you really cannot get much better than that for a release from a micro-publisher. Four e-book formats, and a print edition.

I learned from my dad today that one of his coworkers Googled me. She has also read my first book. She passed it to another coworker, who is a retired librarian. The second coworker liked it so much, she read the second book. My dad asked the first coworker if she wanted to read the second book yet. She said that she is going to wait for the third book to come out and buy the full set. So, YAAAAAAY! ^_^ Sure, it's only a few minor victories, but picking up new readers has been a serious challenge for me, and I suspect it will remain one of those things I struggle with for some time.

Okay, bed time...

Later...