Focused and finished...

Okay, the red pen edit is done on NWFO. I'll start inputting everything Saturday. Give myself a breather from it. There are enough structural changes for it to definitely be draft #9, and I may do another read-through once it's input to make sure it's all in order before sending it out for proofing and commentary.

I'm getting to be a bit leery about a moment I have in the story. Brendan is kidnapped and taken to an isolated area where he is brutally beaten, over dating a Cajun girl. Years later, when he learns his mother has cancer, he's too restless to settle down for the night so retraces that night's journey. And winds up finding the place he was attacked.

The part I'm unsure about is, he'd lost the key to his Montesa bike when the beating took place...and he finds it, when he comes back. That worries me as being just too easy. Too simple and obvious. I've set it up like the fates are leading him back there specifically for that purpose...but it's still a bit much. I may cut him finding that...or rework it. I dunno.

It's just, that little Montesa Impala is like another character in the story. It takes Brendan all over the city. Gives him a quiet sort of cool, overall, and sticks by him. It even leads him to a place where he can find a car that needs lots of work and brings him back to an even keel after all hell breaks loose in his head. So it sort of makes sense. I guess.

Overall, the book is coming together. And it's quietly setting up things that will happen in book 3, Home Not Home. Ah, something to look forward to.

Time wasted...

A potential job came through in Philadelphia, overseeing the collection and palletizing a group of storage file boxes for a client. I spent two hours on it...and submitted my part of the estimate. And I can pretty much tell it's not going to happen. Just me, alone, is going to cost nearly $2000, thanks to explosive air fares and hotel rates. Even driving down would be pricy...and take a full day. It's over 400 miles.

I also had to set up a trip to San Francisco and Newport, RI. Which took a couple more hours. Then I made a cottage pie for dinner, with a green bean casserole, and did some grocery shopping...and crashed into a low-blood-sugar phase. When that happens, it takes a while to claw back out and I'm wrecked. I wind up having to take a nap. And I usually come out of it very depressed.

So no work done on NWFO, today. I'm in a bad place, emotionally, and would not do right by the story. I'll work on it, tomorrow.

But damn, that cottage pie turned out good. It's what I ate to get me out of my physical situation. I might have done better with a candy bar or regular DP, but it's what was available...short of eating a spoonful of sugar.

75%

Closing in on the newest draft. Number 9. Brendan is about to vanish from his aunt's house to let himself mend from a catastrophic situation. It seems every time he thinks his world is back on track, something happens to derail him...and this time it was brutal.

I was getting worried that the chapters leading up to this were bland and simplistic, but now see them as the calm before the storm. I guess I'll find out if that's the way of it or not. As a writer, I can never really evaluate my work. Sometimes I read it and I'm so fucking proud of me, I'm like a lion in the middle of his pride. Other times, I wonder if I'm just a superficial slug smearing himself across a semi-wet pavement and thinking it means something.

When I do the inputting of my corrections, this time, I'm going to do it on the PC. Word winds up looking completely different on that as opposed to what appears on my Mac. Same for Excel and emails and everything. Same programs, just not the same. Make it make sense.

When I get done with this draft, I'm taking my Mac in to the Apple Store to have the caps lock key reset. I hope. I'd hate to have to send it back to Mac for repair and not have access to it for a period of time. I've got Ps on here and my images to use for the cover of NWFO. It's under warrantee, so shouldn't cost me anything; it's the time I'm worried about. What's funny is, I rarely used the caps lock. Maybe I need to, more.

Still, I really do like this laptop a lot more than the previous one. It's got its quirks, but they all do.

Workus interruptus...

Looks like the beginning of May is going to be busy. Two jobs popped up for overseeing pickups and packing boxes into containers for transport, one on each coast. Took some hours working up estimates for each and melding them into one I already had going. They look pretty solid, so I better get my ass in gear and finish up editing on NWFO.

What's awkward is, working on these caused me some tension. I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, with them, but I wound up with a nasty back ache and stiffness in my shoulders and neck. Old age? Not seated right? Fighting to keep the costs down? I dunno. I tried Icy Hot and wrapping myself to keep the warmth in, but nothing worked till I popped a double-dose of Advil.

The good thing is, Curt -- AKA: How to Rape a Straight Guy -- is now available for sale in paperback through Amazon and B&N. I've ordered a copy to see how it prints out when going through the retailers. Hoping it's as pretty as it looked in the proof.

I dealt a bit more with the mess over Hunter, at Amazon, and one of my FB friends sent me Jeff Bezos' email address, so sent him a query. I doubt anything will come from it, and reality is the book is still available through B&N and BAM so I can point people towards them. But Amazon's the biggest in the world and not being one with them is like being a ghost.

That probably added to the tension in my neck. As did checking out air fares from here to Hong Kong for the new Firsts-China book fair, the beginning of December. Last time I went, through Toronto, it was $1700, r/t. Now it's more than $2500. Damn.

And my Texas nephew is getting married in October, so I have to go down for that. Yeah...a bit of tension.

I did get through a couple more chapters of NWFO. I'm now under the gun to get this edited, input and sent off for proofing within the next two weeks...but I'm having questions in my head about things and not sure I've answered them sufficiently, yet.

Oh, perfect. The caps lock key on my Mac just came undone.

Amazonicus-inrterruptus...

I'm halfway through this red pen edit of New World For Old. Jeremy's back from Israel, having fought in the Yom Kippur War, and Brendan is the only one who notices he's changed. Mainly because Brendan's seen the same thing in friends of his back in Derry.

Jeremy also senses that Brendan has seen death, like he has, and would understand his emotional distress. They become good tight friends over the Fourth of July holiday, thanks to both having nervous reactions to all the fireworks and gunfire.

I'd be further along but an issue with Amazon came up. My book, Hunter, is no longer being sold by them. It's been shunted onto third party suppliers who are charging 10-25% more than I do. It's still available at the correct price through B&N and BAM, but at Amazon it looks like it's out of print.

I tried to find out what's going on and spent 3 solid hours getting shunted about from one unhelpful twerp to another. Online messaging. Phone call. Texting. Posting queries on my author page. Then finally I got a link that took me to a page where I could do nothing because the book does not have an ASIN; it's got an ISBN.

Well, when you hit a brick wall...all you can do is step back and stop hitting it. And from now on direct people to BAM or B&N. And if they insist on buying through Amazon, let them pay the extra money. I'll still get my part because the suppliers will need to order it through Ingram.

I checked my other books and all of them are fine. Maybe I'll look into becoming a seller of my own books through Amazon, at the correct price, and see if I can make a better cut, that way. It's stupid, but that's Amazon. It's not like they haven't been stupid with me, before.

I'm now back to thinking about NWFO and probably should label this draft 9, since I've done a fair bit of restructuring. We'll see what happens when I input the corrections I'm making.

Slashing...

I cut an entire scene where Brendan and Jeremy go to one of Uncle Owen's bars, even though Brendan's underage. It felt wrong. First I tried to shift the place into being a restaurant and bar, like Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica. That place has dining on one side and the bar through a door to the other side.

But that was requiring some serious word dancing and seemed too much like busy-work and repetitious, since he does the same thing with Scott, later...albeit into a gay bar. So that's a good 3 pages gone.

BUT...I added in a bit at the gay bar where Brendan almost runs into Carla, a nurse at the doctor's office he was taken to, a few times. She's someone he automatically takes a dislike to, but doesn't remember anything about the visits except for slashing visuals that lead him to believe she molested him while he was mentally incapacitated. It's never going to be specifically discussed, but it adds to his sense of confusion and wariness.

Now I'm at a point where I need to know when Sam Houston Book Shop transferred operations into the Galleria. I know they were there in 1980, but the store had been around for nearly 35 years prior to that. But this is Christmas 1973 and I'm not sure they were there. I don't want to make a mistake and have him reference them years before their arrival.

But all I can find online is lots of discussion about the high-end stores and when they arrived, along with a few of the smaller shops and restaurants. The expansions. Lots of photos of the exterior through the years. But no word about Sam Houston.

I worked there from 1985-1992 before moving to LA. I remember a lot of the place, but that's starting ten years after the point where Brendan is in town. He doesn't like going to the Galleria because the prices are too high for him, but he does like ice skating around the rink on the ground floor of the main part of the mall.

It's the one thing he now has that does not connect him to his past in Derry.

Red pen

Started my red pen edit of New World For Old and in the first hundred pages found one repetition and one inconsistency. A couple of typos and some moments where I could trim back a bit too much wordiness as well as a couple of spots where a bit of clarification helped.

If I can get it done and input by next Friday, I can send it off and ask for feedback to be returned no later than the end of June. That gives me a month to update it, format it into 6x9 size and send it to Ingram to prep. With it being so close, I'm starting to get antsy and wanting it done.

Once it's gone, I'll start in on the dust jacket. See what I can do about that. I'm still thinking making it a passport as the main art, open and folding around to the back of the book. We shall see.

I approved Curt in paperback and found it's already listed on Amazon, for pre-order. Not on B&N or Books a Million, yet. I've ordered a copy for myself, wanting to see how it prints up.

APoS-Derry is going to be on exhibit at the LA Times Festival of Books, which will be held at the University of Southern California in LA on April 20-21, 2024. If you're planning to come to the festival, here's what you need to know:

Booth Name: The Reading Glass Books
Booth Number: 959
Zone: Black
Contact Persons:
Lyn Goot, Kathy Pinero: (203) 871-8975
Time: 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Post eclipse depression?

Yesterday was not good. I went into the office to help with setting up shipments for dealers returning from the NY Book Fair...and I kept making mistake after mistake after mistake. Usually stupid things, like inputting 144kgs instead of 114kgs or not verifying all of the boxes were ticked on a master airway bill. I think I made more work for everyone instead of lightening any burdens.

That started me spiraling down into the blues, and it got so bad that when I tried to do some grocery shopping I couldn't face it so just blew it off. Figured I'd treat myself to a BLT at 5 Guys and come home to mope. That only made things worse.

That BLT was not good. The bacon and cheese were cold, the lettuce messy and the tomato so thick it kept sliding out of the bun. What's more, it cost me nearly $20 for that, a small order of fries and a regular soda. Which got me to thinking about how the last few times I've gone out to eat, where it's cost me about the same amount but only been adequate to actually bad. 

And it's not just fast-food places. The last two times I ate at Chili's I was really underwhelmed. And the lamb curry I got at Taj Grill was okay but the samosas were way overdone. And those fucking meals cost me $30 each. The only thing I've enjoyed, lately, was a make-your-own personal pizza at Pie-o'-Mine, and that's only because I made sure I got extra sauce on it.

So I crashed into one of my woe-is-me phases and did nothing, last night, except watch some Poirot on Britbox. And even bitched about how those programs were done. By the time I was ready for bed, I hated the world.

I was a bit better, today. Only a couple mistakes and the unwillingness of a program we use to set up shipments to work with me, in full. That, I cannot blame on me. But I've done all they wanted, so at least no more fuck-ups there.

I got a burrito at a Mighty Taco, en route home, which was bland and borderline tasteless until I spiced it up with some tabasco. Then I moped a bit, took a nap that made me more tired as well as achy, got angry about it, and made myself my own BLT. I had some bacon, cucumbers (in place of lettuce), cherry tomatoes, cheese, mayo and mustard. Did it on toast...

And it was fantastic! Just what I needed. I have enough left for another, if I want it. Maybe lunch, tomorrow. After I go out to do the grocery shopping I should have done, yesterday. So the hell with eating out.

Oh, the proof just came in for Curt. And it looks good. I'm ordering a copy. If that's good, too, it should soon be available through Amazon...but we shall see.

Change of direction

I've decided to change the title of one of my books -- How to Rape a Straight Guy -- to Curt so I can offer it in print, again, instead of just ebook. I've come to the conclusion I'm being obtuse about the title. It's always been problematic but it worked well for the story, and I thought people were just being puritanical. Which they were.

After all, the book has been banned several times over since I published it in 2007. Now the only way anyone can read it is in an ebook. But there are a lot of readers who just won't deal with that. I, myself, prefer not to. I like the feel of a real book.

So...I'm digging through Shutterstock looking for more images to use for NWFO when I get led to a photographer's page that includes some amazing photos of men and women...and up pops one that all but screams Curt to me. He's the main character of HTRASG, and tells the story in first person...and it fits him so well, I dowloaded it and worked up this potential cover.

Of course, first I had to determine what size I'd do the book in. Then locate the file from the last update...the one that Ingram rejected. Then reformat it and get the cover template...and it turned out I had 2 ISBNs left from the ones I'd bought for APoS...and this is what I came up with. All today.

It just fell together, as if it's meant to. So I've uploaded it to Ingram and am waiting to see if they accept or reject it. If they say yes, I've got my first novel back out in paperback circulation. If they say no, I'll check a few other options to see how it goes.

But at least I'm still trying to honor my work, even my in your face queer erotica.

Ring bindered...

Busy day. Had an ophthalmology appointment to check on my right eye. Got dilated and told I can't watch the eclipse because it might cause permanent damage, so to be mean I called in clouds. If I can't see the sun, nobody can.

This photo is the height of it, at 3:20pm. By 3:24 it was daylight, again. Here's a brief video I took, as well. Clouds were gone by 6pm.

I've put APoS-NWFO into ring binders and tomorrow I will dig into them. 31 chapters, half in 1 and half in the other. I had to empty one binder of an earlier draft of the story...that was only 315 pages long, double-spaced Courier 12point font. It's changed a bit.

What's nice is reading notes I'd made of things to add to the story to make it better and forgotten about. Most were cheesy, but some were good and I will consider adding. But it's about time to start packing this volume's papers into a bankers box ready for storage, all the information I've got. I think the story is pretty tight...so those notes had better be really impressive to be fitted in.

I finished reading The Detective Up Late and it was okay. McKinty's style is taut and lean almost to the point of emaciated, but the story moved fairly fast and had an upbeat ending. I didn't buy a couple aspects of the subplots, but they were unimportant. What was fun is, since the story was set in 1990 I knew the references made, here and there, and his comments on groups like The Official IRA were fun.