I've decided the only reason I could possibly be having the issues I'm having with my laptop and technology, lately, is because the devil has inhabited my MacBook Pro and is having his fun with me. I set A65 up on Smashwords, but I got an error email saying it failed the epub check because of an undefined error. I tried a dozen different tests and checks to make sure the file I was sending was clean and good...and it's still sending me an error message.
Apparently, the only way I can get around that is called a nuclear option -- meaning remove ALL formatting and start from scratch with the basic text. The story has italics in spots all the way through it, and those will be gone. Same for spacing and indentations and hyperlinks between the table of contents and chapter titles. If I don't do this, it won't be made available to B&N or Apple iBooks.
What's crazy is, I downloaded a copy of the epub version of the story into my iBooks library, and I can read it fine. So I've sent them an email stating this to see if it can make any difference and included the message it keeps sending...and we'll see how it goes. If that's a no-go, I'm faced with hours of reconstructing the formatting on the book.
This interrupted me getting back into Place of Safety. I was digging through the files I had, transferring old files onto my laptop to use, and found I've got the beginnings of a step outline for books 2 and 3...from 2011. Damn, I've been too long away from this book. At least I know who the characters are, again -- like Everett, a gay man who works in the advertising department of a grocery chain in Houston and is in the closet, but who turns out to be a solid friend to Brendan. He's the one who's going to lead me into some very dark spaces.
Then there's Jeremy Landau, a Jewish kid who's making his name in the oil biz by focusing on China and the not-so-secret negotiations between Beijing and London over the fate of Hong Kong when the lease is up in 1997. His father's a doctor and he helps Brendan at an important point when he needs medical care but can't get it because he's illegal.
There's still a lot to do on this book...but I'm past the 50% point in what I've laid out. All I need to do is buckle down and get the rest of it filled in. The Houston part is still the iffiest, right now, but that will change. I know what it needs; just need to work out how to write it.
That's the hardest and most fun and irritating part...
Apparently, the only way I can get around that is called a nuclear option -- meaning remove ALL formatting and start from scratch with the basic text. The story has italics in spots all the way through it, and those will be gone. Same for spacing and indentations and hyperlinks between the table of contents and chapter titles. If I don't do this, it won't be made available to B&N or Apple iBooks.
What's crazy is, I downloaded a copy of the epub version of the story into my iBooks library, and I can read it fine. So I've sent them an email stating this to see if it can make any difference and included the message it keeps sending...and we'll see how it goes. If that's a no-go, I'm faced with hours of reconstructing the formatting on the book.
This interrupted me getting back into Place of Safety. I was digging through the files I had, transferring old files onto my laptop to use, and found I've got the beginnings of a step outline for books 2 and 3...from 2011. Damn, I've been too long away from this book. At least I know who the characters are, again -- like Everett, a gay man who works in the advertising department of a grocery chain in Houston and is in the closet, but who turns out to be a solid friend to Brendan. He's the one who's going to lead me into some very dark spaces.
Then there's Jeremy Landau, a Jewish kid who's making his name in the oil biz by focusing on China and the not-so-secret negotiations between Beijing and London over the fate of Hong Kong when the lease is up in 1997. His father's a doctor and he helps Brendan at an important point when he needs medical care but can't get it because he's illegal.
There's still a lot to do on this book...but I'm past the 50% point in what I've laid out. All I need to do is buckle down and get the rest of it filled in. The Houston part is still the iffiest, right now, but that will change. I know what it needs; just need to work out how to write it.
That's the hardest and most fun and irritating part...
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