Rolling out the new year.

Happy Holidays! I hope all yours have been…happy? I guess I already said it, demanded it. But I didn’t ask it, how rude of me.

21st came and gone...role call. Everyone still there? Good, good. Will try again next year.

I needed to mail something for the first time in … forever. Meaning I had no stamps. Meaning a trip to the post office! Walking through the door, I found they’d removed the stamp vending machine (I blame budget cuts) making me wait in line with the other three people needing to mail things out of Milton. I was standing there admiring the different box sizes when the lady before me said “I need a roll of stamps.”

Immediately my mind went “WOW” the very idea, a ROLL of STAMPS, was the coolest thing since the invention of shock therapy (something else I may need). I marched right up to the counter and asked for my very own roll of stamps. Forty-five dollars later I was sitting in my car hugging my stamps and saying, “Now what?”

Only I could find a way to make an impulse buy at the post office.

A roll consists of a hundred tightly rolled (obviously) stamps for your mailing pleasure.

Isn't it beautiful?
Don't worry they leave you in the end.

I’ve used one, and at my current rate of use. My son will inherit this roll.

I’ve started to come up with some ideas of how I could better put this roll to use.

One idea is “Strippers” I just love the idea of twenty dollar stamps that you can just sick to a strippers…umm…butt. Maybe I could mail girls about the room to my friends, just by “attaching” a stamp.

Mail me other ideas, better yet. Give me ideas and I’ll mail them to myself.

I don’t think I’ll get another blog out before 2013 so here is my list of things I’ve done:

• Finished and published my follow up book: Corporate Policy
• Put out both my books in one paperback volume: Dinatech Series Vol:1
• Read more this year than ever before.
• I’ve put down 100 books against my goodreads.com list
• Drove across the US
• Went to three writing conventions
• Wrote more blog post than last year! – I did slack off through the end, but all for good reason. Something had to give and I needed my book out.

I’ve got a few goals for next year, and unlike last year; I don’t have complete control of them, the master goal is find an agent. Everything beyond this will be gravy. :D

What I’m reading:

Song of Ice and Fire will be on the list for like the next half year, so I’m going to just assume you know this.

250 Thing You Should Know About Writing by Chuck Wendig – I follow his twitter, I follow his blog, I can blame on a friend of mine. Buying his books I can only blame on Chuck, because they’re funny as hell and filled with quick, sweet wisdom about writing. If you are thinking about writing anything I encourage you to give it a read. Get used to hearing the word “motherfucker” he likes it, and uses it like most people use salt.

What I’m listening to:
North by Matchbox Twenty – More specifically “Put Your Hands Up” They got a little digital on this CD, and while it shocked me at first. I enjoyed it. But I find that one song seems to get stuck on infinite repeat…

 

It's time for a change!

Today, any typos I make I’m going to blame on the Microsoft Surface

I thought I would give it a try and see how well it could work as my mobile authoring tool. If I find that I’m liking it, I might replace out the Mac Air as my mobile tool of choice. There are still some major issues that would need to be figure out. Like right now I can’t use Scrivener on the RT. I’d have to upgrade to the pro when it comes out early next year. I’m also not sold on the windows version of Scrivener, I’d have to take a better look. But it might be fine to when I’m on the road and I can use the Mac version when I’m at home and ready to do final work on a story.

The week has been amazing, I’ve gone from looking at my first proof copy of my paperback book to seeing it for sale on Amazon. I hope to do some promoting of the book as I go, but I’m going to be happy getting back to doing the pen monkey work more.

The irons in the fire right now are; a Young Adult book, a comedy, a magical fantasy, and I’m working on a Vampire romance book per my wife’s requests. Already decided, I’m going to be finishing the YA book first, I’m already 90k into it. Once I have that done, I’m going to sit back and see what’s next. I want to submit some work to for feedback for Westercon, which needs to be done by May. I also hope to run or be part of a panel this year. It’s another one of my goals.

But all of this is just steps to my goal of getting published. This is the next real hurdle. The money be damned, if I can get a book on the shelf with a publishers’ logo on it. My goal will be made. I’m not going to be delusional that I could make King like money or something, just I’d like to say for sure that I’m a published author. I’d like to go to a party and say “Yes, I’m published.” And I don’t have to say “self-published”.

In other news I’m trying to relax a little more, I even spent a few hours over the weekend playing video games and I cooked dinner. I haven’t done much of that as of late.

I’ve also been thinking about dropping coffee as a drink again, I don’t like my dependency on it. But to do so would mean breaking contact with some people I have come to think of as friends. It’s a tough decision to make.

 

What I have I been reading:

A Clash of Kings (Book two of a Song of Ice and Fire) by George RR Martin – This is a big enough book that I’m going to be reading it for a few weeks.  I hear how heart breaking this series is, I’m firm believer in loss for gain. I wonder what I’ll be saying at the end of book 5. If you can put up with the ups and downs I recommend giving it a read.

What I’m listening to:

Lana Del Ray – I found her through some cheap MP3 deals and I’ve been really happy with what I found. I went back and picked up her first album. I will warn you, I don’t think her music is for everyone. But it is for me.  Her voice is quite lovely.

 

I'm back from the grindstone!

Has it been a while? 

Yes it has!  

I've been working very hard for you! 

The last time we talked I was deep in editing hell! My time with the Fairwood writer type authors was very eye opening, but it left me with the ragged tatters that was once my (almost ready) manuscript. It was no longer almost ready and it was in need of some serous updates. I'm sure I've talked about this before. The further I got behind in my release date the more I felt I should cut back on other activities. So I cut the blogging, the reading, the writing. Everything went into getting the book to my copy editor!   

But it's done! Now released on Kindle, Nook, and within a week you can buy both the first and second book together in a 5x8 paperback that you can really hold and stain up with coffee rings. It's about 375 pages, that's thick enough you might be able to read the title on the spine and it will do some damage when tossed at a misbehaving loved one. My physical book will have many handy uses, and if all else fails, you could … I don't know … read it?  

My proofs are in the mail and I thought; What should I be doing now!?  I checked my blog and blanched at the fact I'd not talked to you since September, early September.  

It's December now, exactly 2 months after I left you. I hope you've gotten all your shopping done and are fretting about how in the hell you're going to get these damn boxes wrapped! Even that really weird one with the round sides!  

Late October I flew to the east coast and I got to meet some friends that I'd only ever talked with on the internet. It was her wedding and while she didn't make me the Made of Honor I was honored to have been invited.  While I was there I bought a new car :D Most people can't say they own there dream car. I do!  

She was named Asuka, after much debate in the family. She's a 400+ WHP RS to STi conversion. I named her Asuka, because of the color, and if you don't play nice with her she'll kick the shit out of you! I've made a website for my Subarus, you can follow the  blog at: http://www.subaru25b.com 

In my trip of driving across the United States, I got to see a lot of neat things, also I didn't get to see as much of it as I'd like. I'm going to have to do the drive again sometime in the future. I'll have buy my next car on the east coast and plan to take a little more time off to do tourist like things. 

I found a new channel "The Smithsonian Channel" All I ever watch in Military Channel and History Channel. This one is on the same lines but it's in HD and covers some other areas of the past that I also enjoy. They had this one feature on the Concord and I couldn't stop watching. If you like this like of programing, I strongly recommend it!  

Moving forward I hope to get back to a more active presence on my blog, I'm going to go back under the hood and start looking at getting a manuscript ready for traditional publishing. I've done enough of the work myself! I want someone to do all the work for me! 

What have I been reading:  

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - Ok at this point I have to admit, I'll take a read at anything! I was sure I was never going to read this series, now here I am! I just finished this book and turned directly to the second book. It's an impressive read and I think there are lessons to be learned for anyone that wants to learn to write.  

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong - This book is the end of the Woman of the Underworld series, I've been reading her work for near a decade now. I've always liked her books, but this thirteenth should have never been written. It feels so mailed in, it hurts my feelings that she doesn’t seem to care. If she wanted to be done with the series than she should have just stopped till she was ready to come back and do it right. it's been said in the community she was looking to focus on her YA carrier. I'm fine with that, but don't effect your integrity to move on. I'll be very interested to see how her next book looks.  

What have I been listening to:  

M83 - It's a band my brother has been talking at me about for a few months. I at last got a chance to see them live at Deck the Hall Ball at Key Arena. While the sound in that place sucks ass, M83 sounded really good! They looked to be a lot of fun. I'm going to have to get tickets to their next concert for sure.  Also Grouplove on a side note.