I'm Back.

I know I've been remiss in doing my weekly blog but I had to take care of a few things and to be quite honest, I just didn't feel I could be fair to my readership.  Here's a little of what has happened in the interim...

1) NaNoWriMo.  Yes, I attempted and succeeded once again with this program.  This year I couldn't decide if I wanted to slap-write my 2nd Amish novel or do the writing book that was buzzing around in my head.  A friend suggested both.  That's what I did.  I accomplished over 52k words by the end of the month, completing my writing book and actually accomplishing quite a bit on my Amish novel.  So, hang in there, I've got some books coming out soon.  More later...

2) Health.  Remember my New Year's resolutions to lose some weight - okay, at least 25 pounds?  I actually accomplished that back in June, losing almost 30.  I got so sick, I couldn't eat and basically was on a liquid diet.  Yeah, I lost weight.  But to be honest, it just lingered around the corner and when I wasn't looking, most of it jumped back on board.  Not good.  I went to my doctor back in November and well, he tried to sugar-coat the results of my latest blood test.  "Get your diabetes under control or die."  WOW!  He said he couldn't sugar coat it because I'm a diabetic, which is true for the last 15 years.  Seems my A1C went from a not-so-great 7.3 to a Holy Crap! 10.4.  For those not in the know, an A1C in the range of 4.5 to 5.9 is consider good.  My diabetes was totally out of control with high blood results averaging 243 for the past 6 months.  I have since taken active steps to correct the situation.  He had changed my meds - I had him put me back on the old meds which were working.  Since then, my sugar has dropped drastically into more acceptable numbers.  I'm watching my food intake and exercising more.  My doctor said if I can get my sugar under 130 on a regular basis, he will be happy (and surprised!)  Last night, before supper, my sugar was 126.  I'm eating my healthier right now and from what I could tell - I went to the Medical Center with my wife and stopped at my doctor to get weighed in - my weight is down 6 pounds in one week.  I will allow a little variance since it wasn't the same scale, but still, those scales are checked often throughout the year - so there shouldn't be too much change.  But, we'll keep tabs on it.

3) I mentioned publishing a book back in item #1.  That's right, hopefully, sometime this coming week, I will release "CRACKED! The Writing Mystique" which is a book to help a new writer understand some of the secrets of good writing and aide those seasoned writers with their writing.  I figure the e-book will be released at $.99 - at least for a few days.  There will be the paperback but I'm unsure exactly how much it will be since I need to have CreateSpace calculate all the expenses. My New Year's resolution goal was to publish 3 books - I got two books out with this one.  Hmm?  Last year I wanted to publish 4 books and only got out 3, so this year I decided on 3 and only got out 2 books.  Maybe next year I should consider 11 books and publish 10.  Whoo-hoo!!

4) On the home front, I was able to get a lot of landscaping done before the winter chills came in. We had this home built in 2006 and now, finally, after almost 10 years, I have a sidewalk to be somewhat proud of.  Prior, it was some mud, grass, a couple of rubber mats and a short length of carpet remnant.  Now it is an attractive angled walk of bricks with an edging of mulch.  In fact, there is matching mulch in front of the low brick wall and a large expanse of ground (heavy clay) that wouldn't even grow weeds. Oh, and the angled ground which had irises and day lilies, it is now a lovely stretch of mulch.  I will be guarding it against weeds with a self-made concoction of weed-killer including dish soap and vinegar plus some other stuff.  It's not as harsh as RoundUp and therefore will take quite a few hits to finally exhaust the plant's growth and kill it.  Still, if it gets on my good plants, it won't kill them and I can spray with water to rinse it off.  Not so with RoundUp.

5) Hoarding. We've all seen those shows were people hoard and hoard. My wife and I have started to hoard, too.  Slightly different.  The local grocery had 8 weeks of specials where you could get certain items at a very low price in limited quantities.  We also had a couple of friends who got those mailers and didn't want the items.  Guess who got them?  Then they decided to also have a 10 for $10 sale and other amounts.  Imagine - 10 1 pound packages of Butterball turkey bacon for $10.  Around here, that stuff usually sells for the cheap side at $3.99/pkg.  Need I say we bulked up?  They had 80/20 hamburger for $1.99/lb.  Yup!  We bought in 3+ lb packages and re-packaged into 1 lb bags and put it in the freezer.  They had all sorts of stuff on sale and we bought and bought to stock up.  Our big freezer is packed and the smaller one is also full.  We did a lot of canning and freezing of our garden goodies, too.  I kid you not, we can eat very well for the next 2 or 3 months and not leave the house except for milk which we don't drink that much of, anyway.  Oh, I forgot to mention, my grandson hunts and has gotten 2 deer so far this year.  He can only get one more.  The 2nd deer is still being processed and I have NO idea where we will put it.  What's nice, I can take a little venison and some of that 80/20 hamburger and get a very lean mixture which is even better for me.

6) Weather-wise - I'm not going to complain one bit.  I'm basically still running around outside in shorts and t-shirts in NW Ohio.  Okay, when I go into town, I put on bluejeans and sometimes a light jacket.  There has been only a couple of days that I've actually had to put on my leather jacket because it was so cold.  My wife, on the other hand, thinks it is chilly - but then again, I'm the guy who runs around in shorts all winter in the house, putting on a shirt when company comes. LOL.  I can handle extremes of heat and cold.  I'll be honest, I prefer 70 for a temperature year round but we keep our house a little warmer if we use air-conditioning - meaning it is too hot outside with no breeze and the windows can't be open.  In the winter, we keep it a little cooler, about 68.  Just had a thought!  Maybe that's why we don't get a lot of company. LOL.  Just kidding, this house should have a revolving door for the way people come and go here with 4 sons and 10 grandchildren, 4 of which are on their own, some with families.  It's a mob when the family gathers here.

Hopefully things will get better in my life.  I intend to get my blog out in a timely manner each week and, once again, I apologize for my absence.

Until next I ramble on...
















2.

Pre-Year End Evaluation

Today is the last day of November. Tomorrow is December 1st.  In a mere 31 days, not only will December be gone, but also the year 2011.  Where did it go?

Rather than focus on the "where" of the year, let's focus on the "what" of the year. 

WHAT did you accomplish?

There are 365 days in a year and in my working days (retired now) I would say that each new day was a whole new chance to screw up.  Sort of a lame excuse to face a new day, wouldn't you say?

I'm retired and each day I now realize that I'm moving closer to my final reward but until that day, I want to make the days actually mean something.  So again, there are 365 days and how did I use them?

In November I used 30 days to write a whole new novel.  Yes, I participated in National Novel Writing Month and wrote 50 thousand words in 30 days.  Well, actually I wrote over 53k words and have at my fingertips a great story with absolutely crappy writing.  I will let it rest until after the New Year and then decide to address the poor grammar, spelling, plot, etc. and edit the project.

Only 335 days more to cover.  I can't be accurate since I didn't timecard myself during the year but I know I spent time editing a book to publish and got "Three Steps: The Journeys of Ayrold" done in both paperback and ebook format.  Between edits and learning curve on Amazon's Kindle and CreateSpace, I figure I spent at least 4 to 5 months on that.  I also did some editing on another novel which I hope to release after the first of the year -- "The Legend of Pangea" which took another 2 months.

There!  That is definitely a half year squandered.  Only another 155 days left to go.

All work and no play makes for a boring life.  I mowed the yard, worked a garden, weeded flower beds, traveled to Texas for Mardi Gras, went camping a couple of weeks, did some days of gambling at the casinos and visited with family.

And during that time, three anthologies that I'd submitted to got published -- "Shadow Street," "Guide to Writing Paranormal Novels," and "Mother Goose Is Dead."  

Oh, wow, I forgot I also e-published a short story in book format entitled "Coleen" which is a little ditty about how Ayrold and Queen Arienne met and introduces some of the main characters from my novel "Three Steps: The Journeys of Ayrold."  That endeavor took about a month.

I also wrote stories for other anthologies which weren't released this year (yet) and might be coming out right after the first of the year -- a zombie anthology, a forsaken anthology, and a how-to-write horror book.

There, the year wasn't wasted and I think it had a pretty good return. So, overall, I'd say it was a pretty good year and seems to have the beginnings of a new year already being processed.

In case you didn't realize it yet - I love writing.

Until next I blog...

I Am A Writer But Also...

Years ago when I was delirious and thought I'd become a full-time writer ... I was soon awakened to reality that only the cream de la cream get to be full-timers while the rest of us struggle with a real job and hopes of claiming the elusive ring on the merry-go-round of life.

I wanted one of the Big Five publishing companies to notice my work and sky-rocket me to fame where I could hob-nob on talk shows like Oprah, Jay Leno, Ellen Degeneres, Rachel, David Letterman and the rest.  Realtiy: You have to have an agent.  Grim reality: No takers.

Then along came Vanity Press rearing its ugly head to take your money and allow you to think you were a published author.  The person writing the local club newsletter was doing a better job of getting in print than those who bought into Vanity.  At least the newsletters usually have subscribers and people who wanted to read it.  Vanity Press?  Beyond Mom and your three best friends, you now have only a mere 996 more books to sell.  I have a friend who still has several boxes of his first book sitting in his garage.  Yes, he languishes in the shadows of the unknown authors.

Soon, Small Publishers came into existence.  They were a God-send; they allowed us to dream the possible dream... but alas, unless you had a super fantastic marketing strategy or know-how, going beyond the ever-present book-signing at the local bookstores, you languished in the shadows with your fellow Vanity authors.

The sun arose on a new day. Amazon came to be and ebooks were given life as well as CreateSpace to publish in book form.  [insert chorus of "Oh Happy Day"]  The author had a new chance and even marketing potential through a huge company.  Now the fledgling author could safely play the five-fingered nose flute at the Big Five publishing companies who rejected unknown submissions or screamed you needed an agent to make you viable. 

But wait.  Not all is happy in Amazon-land.  The author has written a book, even had it edited by a teacher and read by three or four good friends... and of course, Mom, too.  What could possibly go wrong?

You didn't write your book in Microsoft Word.  You don't have Adobe Creator.  You haven't ever used a graphic program and have no idea what RGB vs CMYK.  You didn't even know there were that many different shades of black!

You, the author, are about to embark on a journey of huge proportions and mind-expanding learning experiences.  The truly easy part was writing the composition.  Now you need to format it for publishing which means deciding on a variety of page sizes, page layouts, fonts, paper types ... and the list goes on and on. Plus you have to decide on what graphic you will use on the front cover... your own, a purchased image or one from their stockpile.

Amazon has streamlined the process somewhat ... IF you think of it sort of like reading a which-way book.  You read the page and at the bottom you make a decision.  That decision takes you to another reading and selection.  Finally, through this process, you will create your book.

I guess now would be a good time to mention that there is a difference in publishing an ebook vs a paper book.  Also, with Amazon, the ebook version will be solely in 'mobi' ala Kindle format.  If you go to Smashwords.com to create your ebook, you have the option of several formats that pretty much cover the gamut of mobile device possibilities.

You are no longer just a Writer... but you are also a Graphics Artist, Editor, Publisher, Marketing Guru and Sales Agent setting the price(s) for the book.

So now you want to write your next book... good luck finding time.

Until next I decide to ramble...

What's Your Opinion? Suggestions?

Very short blog this week.  As I said, I hope to do this on a weekly type basis and been trying to figure out which day.  I decided on Tuesday since it is right after Monday and everyone is harried on a Monday because it is the first day back to work, etc.  And well, Wednesday most people are already starting to consider the half way mark and on Thursday they've decided the weekend is coming and they need to plan what to do next.  And forget Friday ... I mean, who does any real work on a Friday?  Plus Saturday and Sunday are a loss for people to spend time on the Internet.  So, Tuesday it is.

Now what I need your opinion on.  I have decided, amongst my ramblings I will interview various authors and publishers to get their viewpoints for the readership to glean any possible knowledge from.  In other words, maybe get a chance to learn about a trick or two to make your writing angst a little easier.  Do you think that is a good idea?  Let me know, yea or nay.

So, what do I want?  I need some suggestions for possible authors and publishers.  If you will give me names and contacts (their email addy) and your real name so I can reference back to you, I'm going to be gutsy enough to contact them.  What's the worst they can do?  Say no?  If I don't interview them, the result is the same. LOL.  But don't go putting a lot of email addresses on this blog ... let's be a little discreet about this ... send to me using my email addy of   bob AT bobnailor DOT com.  I'm quite sure you know to replace the AT with a @ and to replace the DOT with a period but I decided I better state that for the newbies on the Internet.  Be sure to put "Interview Applicant" in the subject so I don't just delete your email as spam.

As to what I've been up to the last few days ... I was asked to submit a short story to an anthology with no guarantee of acceptance; but, hey, that is pretty cool.  AND I worked on getting a book format for my latest release "Three Steps: The Journeys of Ayrold" out via CreateSpace.  I'm just waiting for a response back from Amazon saying the format was acceptable.  A lot of work getting that all done.  I thought it would be easier but they expect you to write the story THEN become a savvy publisher and graphic artist.  I'm glad I knew a little bit of what they were talking about.  More later as it comes up.

Enough rambling.  Give me your opinions and your suggestions.  I look forward to them.