The Fourth of July...

     Okay, so it's October 21st. But to me it's the Fourth of July. Just submitted the re-edited and templated manuscript/cover/etc. of The Falls: Fourth of July to CreateSpace. I should be able to order a proof tomorrow sometime. That will make the sixth The Falls book in print...paperback print not digital print. Not bad...

     It's been a hectic few days. We just got back from a trip to VT (sister) and CN (son) and were preparing to leave on a Disney 4 night cruise (from Port Canaveral, FL to Nassau, Castaway Cay and back) this last Sunday. But we received news that Carolyn's mom, Felicia, who has been in a wonderful medical/wellness facility in CA had passed away Saturday night. We cancelled the trip and Carolyn and I (mostly Carolyn) have spent the last few days on the phone with our kids, her sister and arraigning things to bring her mom from CA to VT where she will be buried next to her husband, Frank, Carolyn's dad. She'll be headed there for a few days. Her mom and dad were great people...they will always be loved and will be missed by the whole family.

     I have to stay home. I have several doctors' visits in the next few days for tests and prep appointments that can't be rescheduled or missed. I will have a little procedure to straighten my sinus and remove a bone spur that's been bothering me for some time now the second week in November. That will be good so I'm actually looking forward to it. (Don't remind me I said that the day after the surgery!)

     Back to writing. I'm busy writing the eighteenth in The Falls small town mystery series. No title yet...waiting for inspiration. I seem to have more and more fun with each book. I wondered if I would get tired of writing one series but it seems that I have fallen in love with the little town in Vermont and the lovable, colorful and sometimes unpredictable inhabitants. I can honestly say that I have never had 'writers' block'. I walk up to the sit down/stand up desk and simply start writing. I write a chapter a day, edit it right afterwards and then in the afternoon, I work on transposing the digital Kindle versions into CreateSpace worthy paperbacks. Carolyn reads the chapter from the day before and gives me feedback on our daily walks. It works for me. Everyone has their own process.

     So for now, may the dragons watch over you and don't forget to get the candy for all the spooks and goblins for Halloween!

From Vermont to Connecticut and Back Again...

     Hey there! We've been gone for awhile...traveling up to Connecticut to see our wonderful son Craig and his lovely wife Debbie and then on to Vermont visiting with my sister, Ann McFarren and her husband Don. Ann is the most gifted oil painter I now. She also does great watercolors. We helped Ann and Don work Art in the Park up in Rutland ( we were the grunt help!)and got a chance to experience New England in the fall. Cool nights, foliage and breakfast at Sugar and Spice, the famous pancake house up on the mountain road. Had two great dinners with my sweet niece Sheri and her wonderful family and my wonderful cousin Judie.

     I arrived back home to find that the last The Falls small town mystery series book, The Falls: Coldblooded, that I had hurried to publish on Kindle before I left, needed a good edit. One of my writer friends, Kate Shannon, was kind enough to gently let me know. So since Wednesday, I have been busy editing and then republishing Coldblooded. It's now back on Amazon Kindle, absent a few dozen typos and glitches. Thanks Kate.

      At this point, The Falls: Making a List, Checking it Twice, the fifth volume of The Falls small town mystery series, is now in paperback at Barnes & Noble, CreateSpace, Amazon, etc. Just received three author copies in the mail. I always send for 3 author copies after okaying the last proof, just to have them on hand. I brought my sister copies of the first four books when we visited. Seems so nice to have the actual book in my hands. I am constantly amazed at the high quality of paper that CreateSpace utilizes.

     I'll be starting the 18th volume of The Falls series this morning. The plot has already been hinted at in the last book Coldblooded. But there are always several story lines running through the books. It is based on a town after all! Everybody needs to get into the act!

     We finally sold our house on North Padre Island just off Corpus Christi in Texas. Praise be! We had originally bought it as a retirement home because we couldn't afford any houses in Florida where our youngest grandkids live. Then the market in FL crashed and suddenly we could. That's when we bought in Tradition (Port St. Lucie). We have hung onto the house in Texas so we wouldn't be selling for a loss. One thing I do know...the taxes and insurance costs in Texas were astronomical! We won't miss those even though the house itself was beautiful and on a canal that went right into the Gulf. It had a dock and a double lot. I truly hope the new owners enjoy it.

     So, now I'm off to write, at my standup desk of course, and wish you all the best of Saturdays! May the dragons watch over you all...

The Falls: Coldblooded...

JUST RELEASED! The Falls: Coldblooded, the seventeenth and latest in The Falls small town mystery series, is at the Kindle Store! Ruth Graham, rogue ex-FBI agent has returned. Fresh from murdering her former FBI supervisor, Rich Meadows, she travels north to hunt down Sergeant McNealy of the Vermont State Police and Sheriff Cash Green. At the same time, the food truck caravan invades The Falls and a rash of home and business robberies ensues! Alice Farmington Puddlington finds that a charming and handsome Irish writer has found his way into her heart! It's August, so return to The Falls, and follow Cash Green, Ericka Yamato, Horace Scofield, Doc Stone and Meg Monroe as they find out 'who dunit'! Grab a frosty lemonade and put your feet up! Return to The Falls!

http://www.amazon.com/Falls-Coldblooded-small-town-mystery-ebook/dp/B00O6FTWWM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412513870&sr=8-2&keywords=The+Falls%3A+Coldblooded

And so it goes...

     I've been keeping my nose to the grindstone. Just sent for the second proof of The Falls: Making a List, Checking it Twice from CreateSpace. I edited it, lots of things to touch up this time, revised the cover and resubmitted it and ordered the second proof.

     I'm not sure if I ever wrote about the cover process. The covers I do now for the paperbacks are all drawn by me using a medium-fine width drawing pen and professional grade colored pencils. I cut the artwork out and place them, along with the appropriate logo, on a background. The backgrounds are 12" by 12" construction papers that I bought in a pack (about twenty-five colors with 4 sheets of each color in case I need a bigger background). I buy most of my stuff from Michael's by the way. Then I take several pictures of it with my Galaxy 4 phone (both longways and sideways) and upload them to my email. From there I place them on my desktop, rename them and then use them to download to the cover creator in CreateSpace. It's a bit cumbersome, but works for me at the moment.

     I am editing and placing The Falls: Fourth of July, Kindle version, into a template for CreateSpace, and I'm about two-thirds done. At the same time I'm nearly finished with The Falls: Coldblooded for Kindle. Should finish with two or three more chapters, then I'll go through and edit, then place it on Kindle. I haven't come up with a cover for it yet. I'm thinking just a handgun lying on it's side with a bullet next to it. Since the story is about the revenge of rogue FBI agent Ruth Graham, that would seem appropriate. I'm into simple. Less is more. You know the drill.

     The standing desk has not been lowered since I put it up to stand and type. I really like it this way and am getting quite comfortable with the position. And it's better for me. I find myself moving around slightly as I type, burning a calorie her and a calorie there. I've lost about 25 pounds, maybe more and have gone down a couple of pant sizes in the last few months. Carolyn has done really well, but that's her story to tell.

     Here's hoping that everyone is doing well and is ready for fall. I say that with a touch in cheek here in Florida. It's in the high 80's, high humidity and lots of rain to go along with lots of sun. May the dragons watch over you all...

Great Review!

     Many thanks to Kate Eileen Shannon for such a wonderful review of The Falls:Boneyard on her blog Rantin', Ravin' & Reading! It couldn't be more perfect. Kate has come to love the people in The Falls, and that's the main goal of the stories. The small town in the center of the Green Mountains of Vermont is the focus point of the mysteries. The community members are colorful, lovable, controversial and a bit over the top at times. They make the stories a good read. The mysteries that are solved are a way to show off each and every one of The Falls' citizens. Their good sides, their bad sides and mostly, their humanity.

     Thank you a million times over Kate for falling in love with The Falls and the community members as they grow and spread their wings! Here's the link! Read it and enjoy it! Here's hoping that you fall in love with The Falls as well! May the dragons watch over you...

http://kateeileenshannon.com/2014/09/19/falling-in-love-with-the-falls/

Stand-Up/Sit-Down Desk...

     Well, I've been wring with the stand-up/sit-down desk for a few days now and I'm liking it better and better as the time goes by. The first day it felt a bit funny. That's to be expected...I've been sitting and writing for decades. But now, I really enjoy it, and it puts me in a better position to see the screen. I'm looking slightly down at the screen rather than looking slightly up at it. My neck feels much better. It took a little while to get used to the typing angle, but it feels quite normal now. I feel better standing. I haven't sat down once in the last few days while either writing or editing. It has huge casters on it so it's really easy to move and they lock tight so it doesn't move. I'm sold.

     The important thing with a stand-up/sit-down desk I think is finding one that fits you. I like having two different levels...one for the monitor, one for the keyboard. My desk is 60" wide, 24" deep on the first level, 12" deep on the second level. It fits my iMac like a glove. Lots of room to put all the papers I use as I'm writing. Even room for my files of names/places and my daily calendar where I put down the sites I advertise on, any Amazon sales dates, and when I order proofs, author copies, etc. The size is perfect.

     All in all, I'm very pleased. One additional word of advice, if you are thinking of getting one, look around carefully, you can find some deals. Also, either wear a really good pair of shoes or get a pad to cushion your feet.

     I've included a picture. It cranks up easily and quickly, the top moving a good two feet or more up and down. Happy hunting!

     

     Also, finished editing The Falls: Making a List, Checking it Twice. Carolyn is working on it. Working on putting The Falls: Fourth of July on the CreateSpace template and I approved the proof of The Falls: Mud Season and ordered 3 author's copies of it. It will be on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com soon!

     May the dragons watch over you...no matter if you write standing up or sitting down! 

Betwixt and Between...

     Frankly, I never thought I'd use the phrase, betwixt and between, but it fits my condition at the moment. I'm sitting at the dining room table, although in a different seat, and staring over at the stairs. They are almost all done, with the exception of the last step and a few touchups. They are gorgeous. Bamboo as well as the upstairs flooring. Although the wood on the stairs is a smaller width than the flooring on the upstairs' floors. Today is the last day. Our contractor will finish off and we've already paid for it. He even threw in a kit to take care of the flooring, not that it needs much but will keep it looking lustrous. We are very pleased.

     Got the proof for The Falls: Making a List, Checking it Twice. I will probably edit the cover a bit. That's the nice thing about getting a proof from CreateSpace...you can look at it, feel it, and then make changes almost instantly online. Started proofing it yesterday afternoon, and got 75 pages into it. Got to get some sound canceling earphones. The noise from the stairs was hard to work through, even though I was outside in the summer room. (The summer room is a patio that we had a roof put over and enclosed in a screen. It is filled with plants and two white wicker lounge chairs and ottomans. My wife's favorite room.)

     It will be good to have the upstairs done and I can get back to using my sit down/stand up desk. I used it Saturday and Sunday for the first times and loved it. I stood up while I typed and it felt really good, although I did enjoy sitting down again afterwards. Lots of changes.

     So, on to waiting for the contractors to drive and to the next chapter in The Falls: Coldblooded! May your day be wonderful, filled with small pleasures and may the dragons watch over you...

And it Begins...

     Well, our contractors are here and beginning to tear up the carpeting on the stairs and upstairs. They'll be putting down tongue and groove Bamboo flooring from Lumber Liquidators. We've been preparing for this for a while now.

     On the book scene, I have finished proofing the 4th volume of The Falls small town mystery series (The Falls: Mud Season) and waiting for Carolyn to do her editing. I've also just sent for the first proof of the fifth volume in the series, The Falls: Making a List, Checking it Twice. It's funny as I proof the books I had visions of disliking them for some reason or other. But instead, I have really enjoyed rereading and editing them. They're actually pretty good! Chuckles and shakes my head. I think Making a List is one of the best Christmas stories I've ever read. 

     So now, here I am, down at the dining room table, surrounded by "stuff" from upstairs, writing this blog. The next few days should be interesting. When the floor is done and the new sit/stand desk is in, I'll take pictures so you can see what we're doing.

     For now, I'm on page 80 of The Falls: Coldblooded, and advertising The Falls: Boneyard almost everyday. I have to...I'm the only publicity I have. Soon as Carolyn's done editing, I'll edit the CreateSpace template for Mud Season and send it off for the second proof. Meanwhile, I'll start setting up the CreateSpace Template for Fourth of July and get started editing and transferring the text from the Kindle version to the template. For now, I'll leave you with the famous last words...Onward and Upward!

     May the dragons watch over you all...

The Proof is Ordered...

     The proof for The Falls: Mud season was ordered yesterday. It would have been ordered two days earlier, but I was changing cover pictures. I went from a drawing of a school bus with a girl standing in the back window to a sign that said School Bus Stop Ahead to one that read School Bus Turnaround Ahead. In Vermont, school buses often drive up winding mountain roads. There are a number of turn-ins that are made specifically for a long school bus to back into and then turn around and go back the way it came. It becomes financially expedient to do that rather than drive the whole road around or over the mountain. Some of those roads go on forever. Thus the sign.

     The cover will be gray (light and dark, just like Vermont clay-mud). I should get it in a few days and then take another few days to proof it. I'm already a quarter of the way through editing the word document for the fifth book in the series, The Falls: Making a List, Checking it Twice and placing it on the template with chapters for CreateSpace. For those of you who haven't used CreateSpace yet, it's all about creating a good template, which my good friend, Kate Shannon, helped me do. After that, it becomes a lot of cut and paste (but not the old paste, the special formatting paste that keeps the formatting and font of the original). I also use a separate editing Word document if there are formatting problems in the original. I transfer the original chapter(s) onto the editing document and use the special paste, which gets rid of the formatting problems, then I transfer to the CreateSpace template. Much better than trying to fix them. I'm not skillful enough to do that. But I figured out a way around it.

     Contractors should be here this week to put down the floors, and I'm still bringing things down from the upstairs to make the job easier for them. They will move my TV stand with Xbox 360, Xbox One, two Kinects, modem, flat screen and DirecTV box to one side along with all the wiring...put down flooring and then move the whole thing back without me having to take everything apart. (I made a diagram and labeled each wire, cable, etc. just in case...chuckles.) Can't wait to get my office space back with the new stand-up, sit-down desk. That should be in a week or two.

     Until then, the dining room table (which is heaped with other stuff from upstairs on top of, under it, on both sides and in back of it) is my office space. Amazingly enough, I can write there just as well. Chuckles. Who knew?

     Until the proof gets here and I go "proofing", may the dragons watch over you all...

Limbo...

     Yes, I'm in limbo. Halfway between realities. Our contractor brought in all the flooring and cut a large piece out of the rug on the second floor loft to store it on the plywood flooring. We have a lot of the things you accumulate over the years from upstairs down in the living room, dining room, bedroom and garage, getting the rooms ready for the contractors to lay the flooring and only having to move large pieces of furniture. That means that my iMac is now sitting down on the dining room table and my writing pattern is a bit ragged. 

     My wife, Carolyn has left to go to CA to visit her sister which leaves me by myself in the shifted house. I just published the third book in The Falls small town mystery series at CreateSpace and am waiting for it to be out on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. I'm well on the way to setting up the fourth novel in the series on CreateSpace, and have just published the 16th in the series, The Falls: Boneyard, on Kindle. I'm writing the 17th in the series, The Falls: Coldblooded, and working on covers for both Kindle and CreateSpace (covers for Kindle I make through myecovermaker.com and CreateSpace has it's own cover creator that I use). Oh, did I mention that I woke up at four this morning, have already been to the gym, exercised using about 10 of the machines at LA Fitness, used the treadmill and the stationary bike? 

     Anyway, at the heart of it all, I'm in limbo. Good thing I have a strong work ethic, and am a pretty patterned guy. Through it all, I get done the things I need to do. Hmmm...I wonder if that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" quote pertains to me? Nah, my name is George William. That's what my mom called me when I was in trouble anyway. I had a few kids use the "Georgie Porgie" thing, but that quickly stopped when I decked a kid much bigger than me when he smiled when he sing-songed it. The dragons reached out and bit the lad.

     So, thus limbo. Have you ever been in limbo? Is there a door or a window...or did you just finally ooze on out of it? Ah, well. Contractors had a job ahead of us and the rain had put them back a few days. They should be working on the floors next week. Once they are done, I should be at the stand-up, sit-down desk and be working my way into a new rhythm. That should be interesting all in itself. I'll let you know. That will establish a new pattern. Like I said, I'm a patterned guy.

     I'm getting better at the CreateSpace thing. I find that one proof, and both my wife and I going carefully through it with high liter and pencil, plus checking the second proof for the basics: format, cover, chapter headings, etc. is enough now. I think that varies from author to author. I edit the text several times before I get to the proof, so it should be relatively simple to finish it off from there.

     So for now, take care...enjoy the summer...and may the dragons watch over you...

The Desk is Gone...

     Well, our contractor went with us to Lumber Liquidators on Wednesday and we bought the flooring for our upstairs and the stairway itself. Bamboo flooring...the middle grade...we couldn't afford the top of the line, cost all-out-doors kind. Chuckles. But still nice flooring. The tongue and groove kind so the floors are what they term floating (also 'click') and more comfortable to walk on. 

     I helped the contractor and his son and helper bring the boxes of flooring up where we placed them on a space where he had cut away the carpet and pad. Felt it the next day...chuckles. Where was that space you might ask? Why where my old twenty-year-old, sturdy and massively heavy L-shaped desk was sitting, off course. So, they took away the desk (at my request since I have the new standup-fit down desk). Not sure what they did with it...they might have given to someone (I hope) or trashed it (don't want to think about that). The floor will be put down in a week or two. The contractor wanted the flooring to sit there for at least a week. (Perhaps it needs a rest after being in the warehouse?)

     In the meantime I have labeled all the cords, cables and HDMI cables coming and going from the modem, TV, DirecTV box, Xbox 360, Xbox One, two Kinects, printer, two computers, and battery backed up surge protector. When they finally need to move the TV stand and all the stuff on it, I have this deathly fear i won't be able to figure out where every cable and cord goes to afterwards...even though I set it up in the first place. I also looked up the name of our modem system (from the internet and then to all the devices) and password to make sure i wouldn't lock myself out and the room would turn blue from frustration at my idiocy and ineptness. By the way, yes, I play video games. Have since they came out. Enjoy playing with my kids, grandkids and just by myself. I like role-playing games (does that surprise you?)

     So, I'm sitting at the iMac situated on the dining room table, which also holds a lot of stuff from upstairs already (dragon statues, swords, Chinese Geishas statues that are my wife's, etc). Yes, I collect swords. Have for decades. And dragons. Oh, and my new paperback books! It's a bit different, writing down here but will do for now. I have a desk journal/calendar that I use to enter things daily, such as the FB sites I advertise on, what we've done for exercise such as walking (6 days/week), swimming (3), and LA Fitness workouts (3) and things that have happened/will happen like doctor's appointment, etc.  I also have a list of characters on several sheets as well as a box of more in-depth information on characters. I also keep a set of 3x5 cards in front of me that I use to add new characters and to keep the page numbers and chapters of books I'm moving from Kindle to paperback template, etc.

     So, the flooring is here, just not installed, my wife is a little more than halfway through editing the proof for The Falls: Fall of the Fallen Apples, I just edited the cover photo for The Falls: Mud Season (volume 4) and have it ready for CreateSpace, since I'm about a third of the way through placing the Kindle version onto the CreateSpace template. Wrote another chapter of The Falls: Coldblooded this morning and I will edit more this afternoon. Still need to edit The Falls: Boneyard and get it on Kindle!

     So, until the next installment of this saga, I hope your Saturday is wonderful, filled with small pleasures and that the dragons watch over you always...

Deep Inside a Raft of Manuscripts...

     That's where I am, truly. I find myself writing a new The Falls novel, editing the last one that hasn't been put on Kindle yet, advertising the next to last volume on FB pages every day, editing the fourth in the series and placing it on a template for CreateSpace and proofing the third in the series from a paperback proof received on Wednesday from CreateSpace. (Not to mention working on the first Dragon World story already on Kindle, placing it on a template for CreateSpace.) Did I forget anything? Probably.

     So, I feel like no matter which way I turn, I am surrounded by Kindle versions, draft versions, and CreateSpace templates. That's not a bad thing. I enjoy and am invigorated by the work. But at times I am overwhelmed. Please tell me that every writer feels the same way at times! Chuckles.

Place on top of that a lingering sinus infection, and waiting ( I feel like we're on hold) for our contractor to come and put in new flooring in the upstairs and stairway (we have already stripped most to the extraneous things out of the rooms) and you get the basic idea.

     But it's Sunday, a day of rest. Smiles...nah. I'll still be working. Writing the next chapter for The Falls: Coldblooded in the morning and finishing editing the proof of The Falls: Fall of the Rotten Apples this afternoon. Then I'll hand off the proof to my long-suffering, patient and caring wife who will add her two cents worth. She reads twice as fast as I do, and is probably smarter than I am. She reads more books in a week than I do in a month. So I depend on her to keep me "honest" in what I write. Thank you, Carolyn.

     I hope your day is a wonderful one. May it be filled with small pleasures and may the dragons watch over you...