I'm alive

I made it through the various family get-togethers unscathed.  :D

I've got some plans for next month.  Stay tuned for announcements over the coming weeks.

Also, I'm going to really try to get book 3 out as soon as I can.  I hate that it's taking so long.

My goal for book 4 is to have it be just a little shorter.  I think the 100k-110k range is ideal.

That's all for now.  Take care, folks.  :)

One down

Watched Die Hard last night.  It's a Christmas tradition.  It's simply not Christmas until Hans falls off the Nakatomi building. 

Now I need to make time for Trading Places.  If I can, I'll try to squeeze Death Race in there, too.

One down, two to go.

Speaking of Trading Places, it was a long time before I truly understood what was happening in the climactic scene on the floor of the commodities exchange.  Once I learned a few basics about finance, though, the pieces sort of fell into place.

Fun fact: a few years ago, the Dodd-Frank Act was passed, and it contained "the Eddie Murphy rule," a regulation of insider trading.  The allusion is to the movie Trading Places.

Four attempts

From what I've read, Georgia has attempted to invade Florida four times.  All attempts failed.

The first one was during the War of Jenkins' Ear.  The Georgians besieged St. Augustine but were forced back.  The Floridians would later return the favor and invade Georgia.  They, too, were turned back at the Battle of Bloody Marsh.  Stalemate.

The other three attempts occurred during the Revolutionary War.  Squabbles relating to military strategy resulted in the duel between McIntosh and Gwinnett.  The war in Georgia was a disorganized mess, though Clarke's victory at Kettle Creek would set the stage for the war's turning point at King's Mountain.

Florida and Georgia would find themselves in opposition again during the War of 1812, but the action there involved federal troops, not Georgia militia, so it wasn't technically Georgia vs. Florida.

Anyway, I find this stuff interesting.

Seasonal blues

My niece came down with the flu just in time for Christmas.

An appliance stopped working.  I don't know why.  Naturally, it's out of warranty.

My exercise habits have fallen off, and I'm in terrible shape.

I was using super glue on something and accidentally got glue where I shouldn't have.  I spent a few minutes trying to remove the excess glue with a toothpick and mineral spirits.  Didn't get all the glue off.

The heel on my boot has started to peel away.

*sigh*

This time of year is tough enough already.  The cold weather and reduced sunlight give me the blues.  Add in all these extra little problems and annoyances, and it just beats me down.

There was a time when I could handle this stuff better, when I could take all the little things in stride and keep going without falter.  Those days seem like a lifetime ago.  They seem like they're from another person's life, not mine.  I look at photos of myself from high school, and I don't even recognize that kid.  He looks so confident and happy.  I envy him.

Four months.  I just need to hang on for four months.  Then spring will be here, and hopefully my soul will be renewed along with everything else.

Closing out the year

I've got the presents for the niece and nephew wrapped.  That's the good news.  Unfortunately, the stuff for my parents might not arrive in time for Christmas.  I think I screwed up the shipping when ordering.  *sigh*

The current work-in-progress is coming along, but it's crawling.  I'm embarrassed by how long this thing is taking.  I'll endeavor to do better for book 4.

On the plus side, book 3 will be the longest book I've published, and the war gets cranked up in earnest, so it's got a lot of action.  It's space opera, but this one has a mil-SF feel.

Just finished a couple of Kobo promotions.  Made a few sales on what is normally a dormant retailer for me.  And I've got another promo with them that just started, so hopefully I'll get some sales there, too.  Thanks for the promotional opportunities, Kobo.  :)

Overall, the holiday season has slowed sales a bit.  They seem to have picked up in recent days, though, so maybe folks are getting all their decorating and shopping finished.

Looking forward to a productive and lucrative 2019.  :D

Sometimes the sniffles are good

There are occasions where I'll write something that leaves me teary-eyed or sniffly.  That's when I know I've hit the mark.  That's when I know I've hit an emotional chord, at least with some non-zero subset of readers.

I just got done with such a scene.  I hope the readers get hit in the feels as much as I was.

Things you don't expect to read

I was reading the New Georgia Encyclopedia's page about the Siege of Savannah, and I came across this gem of a line:

They crossed the open area, swarmed into the ditch, hacked their way through the sharp-pointed abatis, and planted the flags of South Carolina and France on the earthworks.

It's not every day you hear about the flags of South Carolina and France being planted anywhere at the same time.  In fact, you sort of never hear that.

This battle was one in which one side--the British--did everything right, and the other side--the French and Americans--did everything wrong.  Prevost was on his game.  D'Estaing, not so much.  Almost a flawless victory for the British.  In the end, it didn't matter, but it could have if things had gone sour elsewhere.

What was I thinking?

I'm still line-editing, and I had to do some minor surgery on a scene.  Several goofs.  I must have been tired or something when I wrote it.

It's fixed now.  And those goofs will never see the light of day.  Still, though, it's embarrassing.

In other news, I've got a few Kobo promotions coming up.  I expect to make a few sales as usual.  I still don't have "traction" on Kobo yet, but I love the customer service people there.  Wonderful folks.

Even the simple things don't work

I remember a time not so long ago when machines worked reliably.  People expected the things they bought to last.

Today, though, we're in a more "disposable" culture.  It feels like we've forgotten how to do things we shouldn't have forgotten how to do.

My parents recently bought an appliance.  That appliance's digital clock doesn't work.  Oh, it functions.  It just doesn't count time accurately.  It loses a minute or two every day and steadily falls behind the actual time.

This boggles my mind.  How can a digital clock function yet not keep correct time?  I mean, it's digital.  It's electronic, not mechanical.  There aren't any springs or moving parts to wear out.  There's not a friction issue.  It should either work perfectly, or it shouldn't function at all, right?

Digital watches were dirt cheap back in the 1980s, and they kept perfect time.  We're moving backwards.

Thanks, readers!

Patty Jansen's latest promotion is winding down--it's still December 2 in some parts of the world--and the results have been better than I expected.  This time last year, I saw a real lull in sales and downloads, presumably due to Thanksgiving and everyone being busy with Christmas shopping, decorating, and all the other stuff that goes on.  I've been anticipating something similar this year, and I had tempered expectations this time.  But I've been pleased with this weekend's promotion.  Thanks, everyone.  :)

In other news, I opened a new tab in my browser a little while ago.  I was going to google something.  Then I remembered a chore I had to do, so I stepped away from the computer for a few moments.  When I returned, I couldn't for the life of me remember what I was going to google.  There was just a blank white page with a search box mocking my memory lapse.  *sigh*  Ah, well... it'll either come back to me, or it won't, I guess.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading, folks, and thanks for supporting my work.  :)

Book sale: all books 99 cents

Patty Jansen is running her regular promotion this weekend.  My own Caverns of Mercury is one of the featured titles.  Check it out:

Direct link:  https://pattyjansen.com/promo/

All books are 99 cents.  These promotions are a great way to try out new authors without spending a lot of money.  Please browse the site and check out the books.  You might just find your new favorite author.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent authors.

Cold feet, hot head

Yeah, it's winter.  Vents are in the ceiling, which means the warm air stays at the top of the room and never makes it to the floor.

Four more months of this.  At least.  Depends on how early spring gets here.

Cold feet, hot head.  For the rest of the season.  :(

In other news, I've received the usual emails from my retail partners advising me to make any changes to my ebooks before such-and-such a date.  I've got changes to make, but I'll hold off on some of them until the new year.

I think I've decided on Christmas gifts for the niece and nephew.

I hate modern appliances.  More electronics = more things that can break.  I long for simple electromechanical things that just work.

Unseasonably cold

It's currently 40 degrees with 15 mph winds.  Windchill is 29.

And there's still daylight out.  Night is just beginning to fall.

This is February weather, not November weather.

*sigh*

I think I'm going to crawl in a hole somewhere and hibernate.  Y'all wake me up when it's April.

Stabbed my eyeball

It's not bad.  I was putting my contact lens in, and it went in sideways and the edge of the lens poked me in the eye.  The cornea's a little irritated, but no vision damage or anything.  This isn't the first time I've scratched my eye.

The bad news is that I'll need to go without my contacts for a couple of days to let the scratch heal.  That means I'm stuck with glasses, and I can't see as well with my glasses as I can with my contacts.

Anyway, it's yet another little annoyance.  :(

Progress report

Well, I'm still line-editing the current book, and it's looking less and less likely that it'll be out this year.  I hate that I keep pushing it back, but that's the way it goes.  When I try to rush, quality declines, and I'd rather delay publishing a book than publish something I know can be better.

On the positive side, I've sold a few box sets on Kobo lately, so the cover I bought for it has paid for itself.  Still no plans as of yet to publish the box set elsewhere.  For the time being, it's a Kobo/Walmart exclusive.

I ran a few promotions for Clouds of Venus last week, and I'm pleased with the results.  If any new readers are reading this, I hope you enjoy the book.

That's all for now.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  :)

Roy Clark has passed away

One of the most talented musicians in American history has left us.

Country Music Hall of Fame member and versatile entertainer Roy Clark died Thursday at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma,  after complications from pneumonia, his publicist said. He was 85.

Here's Roy with Johnny Cash:

Here he is performing Malaguena, one of his specialties:

Here he is on the fiddle:

On the banjo:

Here he is playing three different instruments in rapid succession:

He played mandolin, too, though I can't seem to find a decent video of him on the mandolin.

Here's a British guitarist reacting to Roy's appearance on The Odd Couple:

Here's a short tribute video from the Rock History Music channel:

R.I.P., Mr. Clark.  :(

I'm getting antsy

I haven't seen the sun since Saturday.  It started raining on Sunday, and it didn't stop raining until this morning.  It's still overcast.

The clouds are supposed to clear tomorrow, and then we'll have several sunny days.  I hope that forecast is correct.  I feel like I'm starting to go crazy.  I love the humidity, but I also need some rays on my skin.

In other news, I'm running promotions for Clouds of Venus this week, so if the book's rank seems unusually high, then that's why.  To any new readers: thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my work.  :)

Also, I finally finished line-editing the first boarding scene in book 3.  Man, that was a tough one.  I ended up adding a scene break because it was just too long.  I think the original scene was something like ten OpenOffice pages, which translates to about twenty ebook pages.  On the one hand, I want the scene to be somewhat exhausting for the reader because that's the mood I'm going for, but on the other hand, I don't want the reader to be so exhausted that he puts the book down.  Balance, trade-off, etc.  So I added an asterisk break.  Hopefully I made the right choice.

The bad news is that I'm still only about a third a way of the way done.  I'm going to have to really cook if I want to publish this thing before year's end.

And I haven't done a lick of Christmas shopping yet.  *sigh*

Man, I'm tempted

Not long ago, a new product was introduced in the air rifle market.  It's the ATI Nova Freedom. 


.177 caliber

.22 caliber


What makes this one interesting is the fact that it's a PCP gun (pre-charged pneumatic) with an integrated pump.  Everything's all in one piece.  No fussing around with scuba tanks or other such headaches.

When I first read about it, I was cautiously optimistic.  It seemed to have all the things I wanted in an affordable PCP rifle.  I wasn't going to drop a non-trivial sum of money on one, though, until I read some reviews by people who have actually used the things.

Well, the reviews are in, and this product seems to be a winner.

PCP rifles tend to be expensive since they offer the best accuracy.  (Including practical accuracy, i.e. not hold-sensitive like springers.)  The Nova Freedom is only four hundred bucks.  That's a deal by PCP standards.

Yeah... I'm tempted.

Cold and rain

Nothing but rain in the forecast until Friday.  Not kidding.  We're under a flood warning.  :(

It won't flood where I live.  I'm too far up the hill for that.  But those who live down near the creeks might have issues after four straight days of rain.

I've already entered the "cold feet" season.  The HVAC vents are in the ceiling, and that means cold feet all winter.  Warm air rises, so when the heat comes on, the warm air has to be pushed down.  Once it reaches the thermostat, though, it shuts off, leaving the bottom four feet or so of the house cold.  Turning the thermostat up only makes my head hot.

Vents belong in the floor or on the wall close to the floor.  Not in the ceiling.  Humans live in the bottom half of the room, not the top half.

In other news, I just finished emailing copies of Hostile Planet to the LibraryThing giveaway winners.  I hope they enjoy it.  This is my first time doing one of these giveaways, so I'm sort of fumbling my way around here.  But hopefully I didn't screw anything up.

Also, Stan Lee has died.  He was 95.  I was never much of a comic reader, but I enjoyed a few of the movies based on his characters.  He definitely left his mark on the world.  R.I.P., Mr. Lee.

Best wishes to those affected by the California wildfires.  I've seen the photos and videos, and it's just terrible.  Stay safe, folks.

The Eleventh Hour

Armistice: 100 years later

The "war to end all wars" was a disaster from which the world has still not recovered.  Today we remember the honored dead.

Another ant bite

At least this one's not on my hand.  I can use the keyboard without difficulty.  I'm having allergy issues, though, so watery eyes and runny nose are happening.  But when I can see, I can type.

The bite's on my foot, and now several square inches of the top of it are inflamed.  I've got an ice bag on it right now.

I really don't understand it.  These aren't fire ants or anything of the kind.  They're just ordinary little brown ants.  But they've got a real attitude problem, because as soon as they get on me, they chomp down.  And the only thing that helps the stinging and itching is ice.

Maybe I'll write a story where ants are the villains.  I mean, I need to get some kind of revenge, right?

Price is fixed

The price for Cities of Mars is now correct on the Amazon product page.  It took a little more than two days for the publishing update to go through, but it finally did.  So all's well that ends well.

I was going to alter the back matter in the Free Space books, but now I'm going to wait a little while.  I've got a promotion coming up, and I don't want to make any changes that might screw things up.  I'll change the back matter at a later date.

In other news, I found a plot hole in my current work, so I've got some alterations to make.  I don't think it'll be that big of a deal, though.  No major surgery required; just a bandage here or there.

Glitches at Amazon

Amazon is experiencing some glitches.  The product page for Cities of Mars, last I checked, advertises the book for $0.99.  This is incorrect.  The price I set for it is $2.99.  For some reason, the real price isn't being displayed on the product page.

Other authors have reported their product pages disappearing altogether.

I have no idea what's going on, but hopefully Amazon will get it all sorted out very soon.

Kobo requires captcha now

I really don't like the captcha thing.  The pictures are grainy, and it's often too hard to make out the details well enough to tell if the object I'm supposed to find is there or not.  Maybe it really does help prevent bots from logging in.  I don't know.  All I know is that it's an annoyance.

In other news, Draft2Digital has announced a new partnership with Baker & Taylor, a library system in the same vein as Bibliotheca.  I've added my books to both library systems.  We'll see if anything comes of it.

I'm going to change up my back matter a little and see if I can improve my sell-through rate.  My current rate isn't bad, but I think I can do better.

I've got some other things in the works, but no details for now.  ;)

I've removed/deactivated/whatever the copy of Mr. Wilson I was using as a magnet at My Book Cave.  It was an interesting experiment, but not one I think I'll repeat any time soon.  Not in the same way, at least.  I need to come up with an actual strategy first.

Still line-editing the work-in-progress.  Stay tuned.

Fixed a goof

Not a plot hole per se.  Just an inconsistency, and a minor one at that.  But this is why we do multiple passes over our work, right?

Manuscript currently stands at about 121k words, 42 chapters, and an epilogue.

A little Halloween music

Let's get in the mood, shall we?

To all you kids out there, this video was absolutely revolutionary when it came out.  Music videos prior to Thriller were basically just videos of the band playing the song.  Michael Jackson turned the music video into an art form all its own, and the rest was history.

Migraine blues and other stuff

Had another migraine last night.  Instead of getting anything useful done, I spent the night lying down, sitting on the toilet, and throwing up.  Par for the course.

No headache today--well, a little lingering bit, but practically none--but I've been kind of weak and tired.  That's also par for the course.

The air has gotten cooler.  Highs have been in the upper 60s the past few days.  Summer's officially over, I guess.  Today was breezy with overcast skies.  There was an enormous flock of blackbirds, too, making an awful racket.  It was like a scene from a Hitchcock movie.  Appropriate, I suppose, with Halloween approaching.

Until recently, every promotion I'd done on Kobo resulted in at least one sale.  The past couple of them, though, came up empty.  I have no idea how to get any momentum going there.  :(

Once I get the current work-in-progress published, I'll probably set up a Streetlib account.  I've basically decided to get on Google Play via Streetlib.

My magnet promotion thing netted 112 downloads during the promotional period.  However, I never took the story off "magnet" status, so it's accumulated a few more downloads since then.  I have no idea how people are finding it.  Maybe some folks liked it enough to tell their friends on Facebook or something.  *shrug*

Bookbub raised their prices.  A permafree SF book is no over $500 to promote.  It doesn't matter so long as I can't get a deal, but still...  :(

That's all for now.  Take care, y'all.

Wikipedia dreams

I've always been intellectually curious.  That can sometimes be a peril, particularly when I'm browsing Wikipedia.  Sometimes I'll start on one page, but then I'll get sucked into the various links, and before you know it, I've got a dozen Wikipedia pages open in various tabs and I'm reading about something I never intended to read about just a few minutes ago.

My conscious mind loves new information.  Like I said, I'm intellectually curious.  My subconscious mind, though, my id, doesn't like having so much new stimuli stored in my head.  And my id gets its revenge when I slip into sleep.  That's when all the stuff I was just reading about gets mashed up into a horror show.  Yes, my id gives me Wikipedia-inspired nightmares out of spite.  Bad id!  Bad!

If I could remember all my nightmares, I'd have enough story material for the rest of my life.  And it would be the craziest, awesomest stuff, too.  But I rarely remember.

Second draft is done

I've finally finished the second draft of book 3 of Wheel of Fire.  It's 120k words and change.  I ended up re-writing the ending a couple of times because something wasn't working, and I can't move forward until I figure out what it is and fix it.  But I think I've got it now.

Next step is the mobi edit.  This is basically just line editing, so it should move along at a steady clip.  That's my hope, anyway.

Onward and upward.  For Homestead!  :D

Updated sidebar

All my books are now available at Walmart.  I've added the links to the sidebar.

It looks like Walmart isn't going to allow free ebooks.  I hope that changes.  For now, though, it means Clouds of Venus will remain a non-free book at Kobo and Walmart.

No problems here

Hurricane Michael blew through quickly and relatively harmlessly.  All is well.

My heart goes out to the families of those who died, though.  Last I heard, there was one fatality in Florida and one on Georgia.  The latter was a little girl who was killed when a tree fell on her home.  Man, I hate that.  Condolences to those folks.

The rain has begun

I guess I won't see the sun again for at least a day, maybe two.

No strong winds yet.

Anyway, I'm still around, hurricane or no hurricane.

Thanks, readers!

Thanks to everyone who purchased my books during the latest promotion.  I hope y'all enjoy them.

Patty Jansen's 99-cent book sale

All books are 99 cents.  My own Cities of Mars is one of the featured titles.  Check it out:

Direct link:  https://pattyjansen.com/promo/7-8-october-2018-99c-promo/

These promotions are a great way to try out new (to you) indie authors.  Please take a moment to browse the selection.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent authors.

It's not the instrument

In high school band, students who have difficulty with some note or fingering often complain about their instruments not working properly.  Band directors like to then joke, "Oh, sure.  Blame the instrument."  The presumption being, of course, that there was nothing wrong with the instrument.  The problem was with the operator.

The directors were usually right.

I think this lesson applies to a lot of things other than music.  We humans tend to make rationalizations for our own shortcomings.  We're always looking to blame anyone but ourselves.  It's only human nature, of course, and it's not going to change.  But I think it's something we should be aware of in a "self-aware" sort of way.  It's something we should try to avoid.  Because you can't solve a problem until you've accurately identified the cause of the problem.

Most of the time, it's not the instrument.  It's the player doing something wrong.

A delicate procedure

I don't like changing prices on Amazon.  The problem lies in the backspace key.  I have to use it in order to change the numbers, but sometimes the cursor disappears from the field right before I hit the key.  When that happens, the browser sends me back to the previous page, and I have to start all over.  When you're changing each territory's price manually, it can be a pain to have to start over.

So one must be very careful.  I had to restart this price change twice, but I got it done.

Endothermic reactor

That's what we need to terraform Venus.  Something that transforms the atmosphere and absorbs a lot of heat in the process.  We do that, and we can eventually make the surface livable.  Theoretically.

I have no plans to write another Venus story, by the way.  Just musing.

A moment of panic

For some reason, I thought I had a Kobo promotion set to start today.  But I hadn't lowered the price on Amazon.  I was afraid of getting the infamous "nastygram" for having a lower price elsewhere.

Luckily, I had the date wrong.  Crisis averted.

But that just goes to show how scatterbrained I've been ever since the kboards dumpster fire.  I know I shouldn't let it affect me like this, but it was a part of my life for over four years.  I tried to help the others there as best I could.  I offered blurb advice and cover advice.  I even made covers for people.  I was utterly dependable in the Make it Free thread.  I was always congratulating and encouraging others.  I really tried to be an asset to the community.  A positive force for good, you know?

And now it's over.

In other news, I just put all my books on the library service Bibliotheca.  I haven't received the confirmation from D2D yet, so I don't even know if they're live on that site yet.  But they'll be available there sooner or later.  My income expectations for the Bib are low, but maybe it'll put a little change in my pocket.  Can't hurt, right?

Summer surrenders its hold

Then the cold dry wind comes, and the swirl of the brittle corpses of leaves, and the skeletal black branches silhouetted against an angry gray sky, and the sex-crazed deer trying their best to suicide-ambush unwary drivers, and the frenzy of gauche commercialism in expectations of holiday sales that often disappoint, and the gloom and melancholy resulting from too little sunlight on the skin, and the discomfort of obnoxious relatives in too-close proximity, and the scratchy irritation of clothes that are meant to be more warm than comfortable, and the ache of feet that never stop being cold, and noses that run, and eyes that water, and knuckles that chap and bleed, and the mocking sun that is paradoxically too bright yet without warmth, and the rich aroma of hot chocolate that soothes for a moment before being quickly subsumed by the oppressive norms of the season, and the calendar--that hale tormenter!--chiding us at every interaction that there's more yet to come.

But seeing loved ones on holidays, reveling in the joyful faces of laughing children and the kindly faces of caring elders, makes it all worth it.

The majesty of Dune

I've been meaning to re-read Frank Herbert's Dune for a while.  I haven't, though, and I know why.  It's because I'm afraid I won't like it as much as I did when I read it all those years ago.  And I don't want to ruin those fond memories.

Having said that, I'm starting to think that my worries are unfounded.  I've been skimming through some quotes from the book, and the language is just as powerful and majestic as ever.

Here are a few quotes from the masterpiece of science fiction:

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

What do you despise? By this are you truly known.

There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.

Try looking into that place where you dare not look! You'll find me there, staring out at you!

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.

Proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you have always known.

The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows - a wall against the wind.

If only I had twelve grand to spare

Then I could get a 20 mm rifle from Anzio.

http://www.anzioironworks.com/MAG-FED-20MM-RIFLE.htm

From the photos, it looks like they do gorgeous work.  And that video with the silencer!  lol  I'll admit that putting a silencer on a 20 mm cannon is not something I would have thought practical.  But American ingenuity always finds new ways to surprise me, it seems.  Major props to Anzio.

The downside to a 20 mm rifle is the paperwork involved.  If I recall correctly, these things are classified as "Destructive Devices," which means extra bureaucracy involved and long wait times.  But if you've got the money to spend on something like this, you can probably afford the patience, too.

Fun fact: Once upon a time, way back in the 1950s, Americans could order 20 mm Solothurns through the mail.  No forms to fill out, no background checks, no nothing.  Just simple mail order like any other product.  You could even pay C.O.D.

That all changed, of course, when the laws changed.  But there was a time when the only limit to your personal arsenal was your wallet.

So how was your week?

These past few days have been a blitz.  There's been a dumpster fire at kboards, in case you haven't heard.  I've been a member there for over four years.  I had over 2500 posts.  And I've spent the past couple of days manually redacting every single comment.  It took many hours and cramped my wrists, but I got it done.

Naturally, I haven't done any writing or revising or anything else I should have been doing instead of trying to manage this crisis.  :(

On the plus side, this situation prompted Timothy Ellis to create a new forum as a replacement, and other than a few technical hiccups, it's going swimmingly.  I'm very optimistic about Writer Sanctum.

I've also joined K'Sennia's forum, the Indieauthorhaven.  Thanks for starting it, K'Sennia!

Now I need to get my head back in the "professional author" game.  I'm still pretty frazzled, so it might take a few days for my brain to settle down, but I'm going to try to plow ahead anyway.

In the meantime, Mr. Wilson is still available for free at My Book Cave, so if you haven't picked up a copy yet, you've got about a week left to do so.

Let's hope this coming week is a lot more boring than the previous one.

Tanyard's Law of Pills

Whenever the instructions on a pill bottle tell you to take two pills per dose, it is inevitable that you will eventually end up with just a single pill left in the bottle.

Magnet promo: one week in

So I'm a week into this My Book Cave magnet promo newsletter builder thing.  I've had 71 downloads of Mr. Wilson so far.  I have no idea if that's good, bad, or average.  This is my first time doing this, and I have no clue what to expect.

No newsletter sign-ups yet.  That's kind of disappointing.  But again, maybe that's typical.  No idea.

Anyway, the story's still available for free at the link for those who want it.  All it requires is an email address.

https://mybookcave.com/g/58bced60/

And you might as well check out the other books, too, while you're there.  All the offerings are free, so there's nothing to lose.

Dipping my toe in the library waters

I just clicked the Overdrive box on three of my books on Kobo.  They'll presumably be available for libraries around the world to purchase in something like 7-10 days.  This is something I've been meaning to do for a while, but I had a hard time figuring out how to price the books, so I've held off.

Some people say to set the ebook's Overdrive price at three times the retail price.  Others say to set it at the print price.  Others suggest going higher than that, citing trad-published ebook titles selling on Overdrive for $59.99 or whatever.  And still others say to set it as low as possible and basically write it off as a marketing avenue instead of a real income stream.  Decisions, decisions...

I finally decided on $14.99 for each of the Free Space trilogy books.  So far, those are the only books I'm making available to Overdrive.  The series is complete, unlike Wheel of Fire, so library readers can get the whole thing if they want.

Every time a library purchases a copy, I'll get 50%, so about $7.50.  I reserve the right to change the Overdrive pricing at any time, because this is totally new to me, and I don't know what to expect.

We'll see what happens.

Florence cometh

Maybe.  These "tracks" are always just guesses.  They rarely turn out to be accurate.

In any event, I'm north of the Fall Line, so I'm not worried.  And it's been a little dry around these parts anyway.  We could use some rain.

Writing makes for strange bedfellows

I logged in to My Book Cave to see how the magnet thing was going, but something else caught my eye first.

Yes, that book in the middle is by Corbin Bernsen, the actor.  I did a double-take because I had no idea he'd written a book.  Yet there it is, right between a pair of romances.  It feels weird that Corbin Bernsen and I are both promoting our work on the same site at the same time.  I mean, I watched this guy in Major League decades ago.

Anyway, if you ever happen to come across this blog post, Mr. Bernsen, congratulations on completing a novel.  It's a remarkable achievement.

Strange recurring dream

I'm driving down a road through the woods.  I come to a turn-off on the right that goes a few feet before stopping at a warehouse entrance.  If I keep going straight, the road ends at a swamp, and there's only a narrow pedestrian bridge over the water.  By "narrow," I mean less than a foot wide.  And there are alligators in the water.  There's a significant maze I have to traverse in order to make it through Gator Country alive.

If I enter the warehouse, I find myself on an upper level--like a maintenance catwalk or something--and there are bad guys on the lower level.  They'll kill me if they see me.  And they always see me, forcing me to run in the dark.

Either way involves risk.  The dream ends before it's resolved.

I've had this dream twice now that I can remember.  I have no idea where it came from.  My dreams are usually just mash-ups of events in my life.  For example, if I've been to the dentist recently, ate a rack of ribs for lunch, and read about a house fire on the internet, then I might dream about a dentist trying to kill me with a rib bone while chasing me through a burning house.  That sort of thing.

But this current dream doesn't make any sense to me.

Out of this World magnet promotion

Free books!  Not kidding.  Click here:

Out of this World

Direct link:  https://mybookcave.com/g/58bced60/

My own Mr. Wilson is there.  All it requires is an email address.  And you have to be willing to be contacted by the author.  You'll see the details at the link.

Anyway, check it out.  Maybe you'll see something that catches your interest.

A little musing about James Dickey

For those who don't know, James Dickey was a 20th century poet and author.  He's best known for writing the novel Deliverance and appearing as the sheriff in the movie adaptation.  Here he is in a scene with Jon Voight and Ned Beatty:

I read his poem "The Leap" recently, and the imagery struck me as instantly familiar.  The dead woman in the poem is described as looking sort of like Evelyn McHale:

Yet when I google "The Leap" and skim through some of the online literary analysis, almost no one mentions the similarity.  It can't be a coincidence--Dickey even gets the one shoe on/one shoe off part as depicted in the photo.  He must have been inspired by the photo.  Yet most literary analysts seem oblivious to it.  *shrug*

You can read The Leap here.  Compare the imagery to the photo above.

A neat short

I mentioned this story on a kboards thread, so I figured I'd mention it here, too.  It's a quick and fun read.  Notable for being all dialogue.

They're made out of meat

The Bandit is gone

Burt Reynolds has passed away.  He was 82.  "He's gonna go to Glory riding eighteen wheels."

The Bandit and the Snowman... together again at last. 

In The Longest Yard, Burt showed us how to drive a Citroen while drinking alcohol, listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, totally rocking a 1970s-era jumpsuit-like outfit and white loafers, and running from the cops.

In Deliverance, Burt Reynolds taught me everything I need to know about "the system," particularly its facade-like nature.  His question to Ed--and the answer that never comes but still must be considered by any man who feels that our slick, modern, convenience-filled world is missing something important and fundamental--is more-or-less the whole existential premise of the movie.  "Why do you come on these trips with me?"  Deliverance isn't about hillbilly rape.  Especially with a director like John Boorman at the helm.  It's basically a dark, tragic bildungsroman.  Not one of my favorite movies, but still brilliant, and perhaps Reynolds's best work.

R.I.P., Bandit.  :(

Still gives me chills

From the 1992 DCI finals.  The finale of SCV's Fiddler on the Roof show:

They finished in seventh place that year.  Think about that for a second.  :o

There used to be a YouTube channel with a bunch of full shows uploaded, but it's gone now.  Probably due to copyright reporting. 

Anyway, that SCV closer is one of favorites.  Maybe my all-time favorite.

Patty Jansen's promotion: all books 99 cents

It's that time again!  :D

Direct link:  https://pattyjansen.com/promo/1-2-september-2018-99c-promo/

All books are 99 cents.  My own Mind Games is one of the featured titles.  Here's your chance to get it and save three bucks.

These promotions are a great way to give new authors a try without spending a lot of money.  Take a second to visit the promotion's web site and browse the selection.  Independent authors don't have the resources of publishing houses to market their books, so these sorts of promotions are vital.  Please consider supporting their work.

Thanks!

Ammo is expensive

Thinking about those 4200 cases of .303-caliber ammunition aboard the Lusitania got me to thinking about how much it would cost to similarly equip myself in this day and age.  Those rounds were made by Remington UMC, so let's find some similar stuff.

At this site, a 20-round box is going for $20.95.  They only have five boxes left, so there's no discount for buying by the 1000-round case.  Usually, though, ammo sellers offer you a discount if you buy a case.  We'll be generous and assume our hypothetical discount would be a whole dollar off, making the price $19.95 per box for a case price of $997.5.  An ammo mountain like the one found on the Lusitania would then run us just over four million dollars.

Yikes.  :o

And that's the best price for Remington .303 I found.

Hmm...

You know, we don't have to go with the Remington brand.  There are cheaper alternatives out there that will work just as well in an Enfield rifle.  Let's shop around.

Ah, here we go.  British surplus, so it'll have corrosive primers, and that means you'll need to pour some boiling water down your rifle's barrel when you're done shooting.  If you leave those corrosive salts in there, they'll rust and pit your barrel.  But this is the cheapest stuff I can find.  If you buy a whole 1000-round crate, then it'll run $250 even.  4200 crates would cost $1,050,000.  And you get this cool and historical wooden box, too:

If you're not familiar with surplus ammunition, it's basically decades-old stuff that governments decide they don't want anymore, so they dump it on the civilian market.  You can get ammunition made in a variety of countries, including the now-defunct Soviet Union.  It's often 1950s, 60s, or 70s vintage, but you can purchase rounds made as early as the 1930s if you look around.  And governments are pretty good at sealing that stuff up against the elements, so it should all still work, though it might be a bit tarnished.  Also, surplus almost always has corrosive primers, and the whole benefit of that is that they last longer in storage.  Non-corrosive ammo has a shorter shelf life.

But let's suppose you don't have time to hose down your rifle after shooting.  You're price-sensitive, so you still can't afford the dollar-a-round brands, but you'd also prefer to stick with non-corrosive ammo.  In that case, steel-cased or bi-metal cartridges are what you want.

Here's the best deal I found.  It comes in lots of 280, but doing the math works out to $389.50 for every thousand rounds.  Multiply that by 4200 and our ammo mountain will cost us $1,635,900.

So there you have it.  No matter how you slice it, the Lusitania was carrying over a million bucks (in 2018 prices) worth of .303.  At this site, there are a couple of photos of a few of the rounds that were recovered from the wreck.

By the way... 4.2 million rounds was a drop in the bucket compared to the number of rounds fired during the war.  I've seen estimates of over a billion rounds of .303 fired by the British.  And that's just one caliber from one country.  The amount of men and resources squandered in that war is simply staggering.  And we're still feeling the effects today.

Anyway... R.I.P., Lusitania victims, and R.I.P. to all you poor brave men of World War I.  :(

Browsing through the Lusitania's manifest

The real one, I mean, not the redacted one.  The one that's got all the juicy, naughty stuff listed.  An optical scan is available online now:

https://archive.org/details/SupplementaryCargoManifestLusitania

Also, here's a link about the munitions that were illegally aboard:

http://www.lusitania.net/deadlycargo.htm

The manifest includes a shipment of copper wire from J. R. Livermore to some place in Lancashire.  I tried looking up J. R. Livermore, but my Google Fu must be weak, because all I found was this photo of an apparent wife:

She's at the "Astor tableaux," which was a fancy party for New York elites.  The women dressed in leopard print costumes and acted out Greek plays.  Strange how this woman was important enough to get invited to exclusive parties attended by the wealthiest elites of New York society, and yet her husband languishes in obscurity.  If anyone knows anything about the J. R. Livermore who had cargo aboard the Lusitania, please let me know.




The Germans claimed the Lusitania was a fair target due to the war materiel she carried.  The British said there were no munitions on board.  The Germans were right, of course.  We have the full manifest, courtesy of the folks at the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library, and it's all right there.  The British were smuggling weapons and other contraband into a war zone in flagrant violation of U.S. and international law.

Anyway, I found the scan of the manifest and thought I'd share.  It's a neat piece of a dark moment in history.

Newsletter builder

I've joined a magnet group for the purpose of adding newsletter subscribers.  I've never done anything like this before, so I'm kind of fumbling my way through it.  Hopefully I won't do anything knuckleheaded to screw it up.

If it works as hoped, then I'll end up with a few more subscribers and, ideally, paying fans.

Anyway, I'll have more details later.

In other news, I've been informed that free books aren't going to appear on Walmart's website as a matter of policy.  So Clouds of Venus won't show up there until I take it off the free list at Kobo.  It's frustrating, but there's not much I can do about it.  I'll probably set it back to paid.  Only at Kobo, though.  I'll leave it free everywhere else.  On the plus side, setting it to paid will mean I can use Kobo's in-house promotions for it, and free downloads of the book have been sparse anyway.  Maybe it'll work out for the best.

Stuck on a scene

Gah!  I hate getting stuck like this.  I'm trying to add a scene into the book, and I keep deleting paragraphs and trying again.  I feel like I've accomplished nothing today.

On the plus side, I had an idea for a side story set in the Wheel of Fire universe.  Took a few notes.  If I ever get around to writing "bonus material" stuff, then I've got a starting point.

I had a long blog post written last night, but I scrapped it.  I don't know why, but it just didn't feel right.  I'm starting to wonder about myself here.  The last thing I need is to get frozen into inaction due to some psychological hangup relating to my self-confidence.


UPDATE:  I got the scene hammered out.  My brain finally found the mood I didn't know I was trying to set, and it's done.  Onward with the revision.

Water-cooled machine guns vs. xenomorphs

Are water-cooled machine guns still useful?  I think so, but only in limited cases.  I wouldn't use them in an offensive capacity.  But as part of defensive fortifications?  Sure, why not?  Think of the robot sentry guns from Aliens. 

That's the sort of situation I'm thinking about where water-cooling might add efficiency.  Throw in an ammo feed system that can deliver many thousands of rounds without reloading belts or changing magazines or something, and your robot guns can hold those corridors all day long.

Colonial Marines, let's make this happen.  :D

The new Gmail

...loads slower than the old one.

😐

In other news, I think I'll try writing some flash fiction in runes.  ᚵᚯᛑ ᛁᛑᛂᛆ, ᚱᛁᛏ?

Added a couple more links

As I thought, my books are gradually populating at Walmart.  I've added links for Hostile Planet and Caverns of Mercury to the sidebar.

If I make any sales at Walmart, there's no way to know, because Kobo's dashboard doesn't break that info down by distribution partner.  Hopefully they'll consider adding that feature to the dashboard in the future.

A blast from the past

So this showed up in my Bookbub email today:

I read those books back in the day shortly after they were first published.  I've still got them in a box somewhere.  Fun stuff.

Updated sidebar

I've added an image for the box set as well as a few Walmart links where applicable.  I'll continue to add Walmart links as the product pages populate, so stay tuned.

Another Walmart update

Okay, it looks like Walmart is rolling this whole thing out incrementally, because I'm noticing some differences on an hourly basis.  Before, I couldn't find any indie authors by searching using Walmart's search engine.  There was the redirect link to Kobo, but that was it; no other amalgamation of the two sites was apparent.  It was a big disappointment.

Now, though, the Walmart search engine is producing results.  Go to their site and type in "Patty Jansen," and Patty's ebooks will pop up.  Well, some of them.  Like I said, this seems to be a gradual rollout, and not all the books are populating at once.

Unfortunately, when you search for "Jeff Tanyard" without quotation marks, it shows results for "Jeff Tankard."  Which is fine if you're looking for a beer stein or something, but otherwise sucks for me.

If you click on the "search instead" link, you get results for Jeff Dunham, Jeff Foxworthy, Jeff Bezos (!), etc.  *sigh*  In order for my ebooks to show up on page 1 of the results, you have to add the quotation marks around the name.  And when you do, you still get the "tankard" results, so you then have to click on the "show instead" link.  And only then do you get to see this:

So far, the search results are displaying three of my titles: the box set, Cities of Mars, and Mind Games.  I expect the rest of my titles to populate in time.

So that's where we're at right now.  I'm thrilled to see that this partnership isn't just going to be a redirect link to the Kobo site.  Look at the URL in that image; that's the Walmart site, not Kobo.  And that's awesome.

I was bummed yesterday, and I was bewildered earlier today, but now my prior optimism is starting to return.  :D

Now go tell all your friends they can get (some of) my stuff at Walmart.  The box set is a Kobo/Walmart exclusive and is on sale for 99 cents for the next month.  That's a deal, folks.  You get all this:

...for a buck.  :o  Seriously... tell your friends.

I'll continue to update as I notice new changes in Walmart's ebook-selling experiment.

Walmart now has a redirect link to Kobo

...so the "launch" has officially happened now.  I'm less disappointed today than I was yesterday.

Start at the Walmart site, and then click on the links for ebooks.  You'll see the Kobo Rakuten banner.  Click a second time (!) and you'll be redirected to the Kobo site.

The bad: it takes a bit of searching and five clicks just to get to the promotion category where my box set is.  Will anyone ever find it?  :(

The good: if anyone does make it that far into the site, and then filters according to new releases, then my box set is the very first thing that appears.  If one filters by price, then it's on page 4, which I can live with.

So my feelings are mixed at the moment.  I expect more changes in the weeks ahead simply because that's the nature of these things.  Growing pains, etc.

Kobo customer service is still awesome, though.

Disappointment

Today was supposed to be the big Walmart/Kobo launch.  I went to the Walmart web site hoping to be able to type "Jeff Tanyard" into the search field and see my ebooks appear in the results.

No such luck.  :(

So now I don't know what's going on with Walmart.  Maybe they'll get their ebook store up in the next few days.  Maybe it won't happen for another month.  Maybe it won't happen at all.

Whatever's going on, though, today was definitely a downer.  At least I've got some KFC in the fridge.  Maybe that'll cheer me up.

I'm off to eat some chicken.

Sharknado, we barely knew ye

The best flying-shark movie series in the history of Planet Earth has concluded.  Our time-traveling heroes did their thing, slaughtering big carnivorous fish with firearms, lasers, and the ever-present chainsaws.

I'd say that we're all better off for having Sharknado in our lives, but that goes without saying.  It's practically an axiom at this point.  Can one even imagine a world without the movie series?  I certainly can't, nor would I want to try.

I was hoping to see more of Dolph Lundgren in the finale, because Dolph is a pretty cool dude, but he disappeared from the script very early and never returned.  Alas, there's no triumph without sacrifice, I suppose.  Happy trails, Dolph.  *sniff*

On the plus side, we got Dee Snider as an Old West sheriff.  That's the sort of small-town LEO that makes me want to rock.

My favorite cameo was either Marina Sirtis or Ben Stein.  I can't decide which.  Hmm... Okay, now that I think about it, it's Ben Stein.  He was funnier.  Gotta love the old "Bueller" routine.

So there we are.  No more Sharknados.  I suppose we'll have to find something with which to fill our now-empty lives, though I can't imagine what it would be.

Hmm...

Perhaps a Gatorcane?

It's the little things that'll get you

I was revising a scene in the current work-in-progress and realized I'd screwed something up.  I had a character step on some entrails and slip.  The problem is that the entrails came from a character who was supposed to be wearing a space combat suit when he got disemboweled.  In that case, the entrails would spill out into his suit, not onto the floor.  I'd forgotten about the suit.  So I had to re-work the scene.

This is just one instance of the little things that will trip you up as an author.  It's frustrating to find those little goofs, and it's tedious to look for them and fix them, but this sort of scrutiny simply has to be done.  I want to put out the best product I can, and that means taking the time to dissect it and make sure everything works.

Decisions, decisions...

I'm trying to decide what to do about something.  I've got two or three options.  I hate the unknown.  Why can't everything be plain as day?  This is why science and engineering are so great.  The universe works according to known physical laws.  All you have to do is establish your boundary conditions and crunch out the arithmetic.  Alas, anything having to do with humans tends to be more muddled and nebulous.

In other news, I've got at least one and maybe as many as four upcoming promotions within the next month or so.  :o

Book 3 of Wheel of Fire currently stands at 111,000 pages and change.  Still working on it.

I took Monday night off, but every other night since Friday I've done my new rowing exercise along with Ben-Hur and the galley slaves.  It's too early to notice a difference, but I swear it feels like I've got just a little extra mass on my upper back.  Just wishful thinking, I'm sure.  But I still expect to turn into the Hulk at some point.  (Not really.  (But you never know.))

I've gone the whole spring/summer without getting stung by a wasp or bitten by an ant.  I almost can't believe it.  And now that I've said that, I'll probably get bitten or stung tomorrow.

I wonder what the record is for "highest body count" in a novel.  I suppose any book that involves nuclear or biological war--particularly the post-apocalyptic stuff--will have a death toll in the tens of millions.

That's all for now, I guess.  Newsletter subscribers, stay tuned.  Announcements coming soon.

Can't afford a rowing machine?

Here's a cheaper alternative.

First, get these or something like it.  It needs to have the door anchor that you put in the door jamb.  Once you get the resistance band set up in your door jamb, you're ready to row.

Next you're going to put on a YouTube video.  You'll only need the audio, so you can set this up in another room so long as the speakers are powerful enough for you to hear it clearly where you'll be doing the rowing.  This is the video you want:

In the movie, the galley slaves row on a four-beat cycle.  We're going to go at twice that rate.  We're going to heave on one beat and ho on the next one.  Keep in time with the hortator's drumbeats.

You should be feeling the strain by the time you get to the "ramming speed" part.  By the time the hortator says "rest," your arms will want to die.

So there you go.  Enjoy your rowing workout.  :D

Got the promotion I wanted

I applied for a promotion at Kobo and was accepted.  I'm pretty stoked.  More details forthcoming.  :D

My kingdom for an acronym

Trying to come up with acronyms is tough, especially when the acronym needs to convey a certain impression but also make sense when all the words are written out.  I've got a few possibilities, but nothing so far that really jumps out at me.  It's driving me nuts.

In other news, I made a few minor alterations to the cover for book 3.  I think it's as good as I can get it.  I've got a working blurb, too, but I'll be revising that later.

Speaking of blurbs, I recently helped another author with her blurb, and she used it almost word-for-word for her book.  It's nice seeing my "work" on another author's product page like that.  Makes me feel helpful and useful and stuff, which is always a good thing.

Another successful promotion

I've participated in a number of Patty Jansen's promotions now.  Every single time, I've made sales above and beyond what I normally do.  This one was no different.  Moved several copies of Hostile Planet this weekend.  Thanks, Patty!  :D

Honor and faith in Excalibur

When most people hear the word "chivalry," they think of men doing favors for women.  When I hear the word, I think of this:

Arthur is trying to get the other knights to accept him as king.  Some of them, such as Uryens, refused to have a bastard for a king and chose instead to make war on Arthur's ally, Leondegrance (played by Patrick Stewart in the movie clip).  Arthur rides to Leondegrance's castle to aid in its defense.  This is his first act of feudal loyalty; he's just one boy with a sword and not much in the way of armor, but he has a moral duty to come to the aid of his besieged supporter, so that's what he does.  He kills some of the enemy, then leaps from the parapet and tackles Uryens in the moat.

Arthur has already drawn Excalibur from the stone, but that's not enough.  There are customs that must be followed, powerful social norms that keep some semblance of order in a time when degenerating into random violence and barbarism would be all too easy.  A knight like Uryens won't swear faith to a squire, and no one blames him for that, not even Arthur.  So Arthur takes a leap of faith.  In spite of the circumstances, he believes Uryens is an honorable guy, and he puts his life in the hands of that honor.  He hands Uryens Excalibur and tells him that by knighting him he'll have carried out his mercy.

Uryens is tempted, of course, to keep the sword and kill Arthur on the spot.  After all, there can be no honor without temptation, because the whole point of behaving honorably is to do the right thing in spite of all the reasons for not doing it.  It's supposed to be a difficult decision.  That's why honor is lauded.  If it was easy, it wouldn't mean much, and no one would care.

But Arthur judged the man's character accurately.  Uryens is indeed an honorable fellow, and he decides Arthur's courage is proof enough of his parentage.  He then chooses to do the right thing, regardless of the personal cost.  He knights Arthur and swears faith to him, the battle is suddenly over, and all the knights unite behind their new king.  They then set out to quell the land.  And they succeed, because they're all of a single purpose now.  Peace and prosperity rule for years.  And it's all because Arthur put his faith in another man's honor--and his life in that man's hands--and that man turned out to be just as honorable as Arthur suspected.

This is part of the power of the King Arthur story, particularly as told in the movie Excalibur.  It's not meant to be historically accurate--yeah, yeah, plate armor, etc.--and that's something the critics never seem to understand.  It's meant to be a romantic ideal.  It's meant to inspire ordinary men into becoming more like Arthur and Uryens.  I've heard it said that Excalibur is the only "good" King Arthur movie, and I'm inclined to agree.  It's the only movie that really understands what the story is supposed to be all about.

Book sale! All books 99 cents

It's that time again!  Patty Jansen is running her monthly book sale, and she was kind enough to include my own Hostile Planet in the promotion.  This your chance to get it at a discount.  All books in the promotion are 99 cents.

Direct link:  http://pattyjansen.com/promo/4-5-august-2018-99c-promo/

These promotions are a great way to try out new authors without spending a lot of money.  Please visit the link and browse the selection.  Independent authors don't have the marketing resources of huge publishing houses, so they rely on each other and on help from you, the readers.  And if you do choose to make a purchase, then thanks for supporting us.


And if you decide to give Hostile Planet a try, then I hope you enjoy it.  Book 3 is in the works.  :D

A box set is born

I'm dipping my toe in the "box set" waters.  :o  Check it out:

 Direct link: http://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-free-space-trilogy

This box set will only be available at Kobo for the time being.  I may eventually upload it to Amazon and D2D also, but that day isn't in the near future.  The reason has to do with marketing, and that's all I'll say at the moment.  So, once again so that there's no misunderstanding, this is a Kobo exclusive product.  Kobo readers can save half a buck by getting this box set instead of buying the books individually. 

I'd like to thank Christine Savoie of Bayou Cover Designs for doing the cover for me.  I emailed her about it last Friday, so she was a champ in getting it done quickly.

The formatting was a challenge, particularly concerning the table of contents and the chapter heading links.  I had to tweak Calibre's settings to get it to do what I wanted.  But I think I got all the bugs out, and as far as I can tell, the epub works the way it's supposed to.

So there you go, Kobo readers.  Enjoy!

Thanks, B&N readers

I've had a few sales on Barnes & Noble over the past week or so.  This is rare for me; I make steady sales at Amazon and Apple, but B&N is sort of a dead zone.  I'd love to get some momentum going there, but I've never been able to figure out how to do it.  So these past few sales are meaningful to me, and I appreciate them.  Thanks, B&N readers.  :)

Adventures in formatting

I made some formatting changes to Buddy and Mr. Wilson.  Nothing major; I removed the indentations from the first paragraph of each scene in Mr. Wilson, and I changed Buddy from block paragraphs to conventional indented ones.  All my published works should now have identical formatting.  I think.

Between all that and the household chores, I didn't get any work done on the current book.  :(  I'm also having second thoughts about a particular scene I was writing but now might abandon.  *sigh*  Such is revision.

On the plus side, Calibre continues to be an awesome program.  I don't even bother using the online epub validator anymore because I have complete faith in the epubs Calibre produces.  They turn out flawless every time.  And the "Edit ToC" button is the bee's knees.  Thanks, Mr. Goyal!  :D

Mars is looking big

I went for a walk after dark tonight and noticed a bright orange spot in the sky.  I assumed it was Mars due to the color, but I was struck by how large it looked.  It's usually smaller, but at the moment, it looks at least as big as Jupiter.  I'm guessing Earth and Mars are currently on the same side of the sun.

Then again, it could be artificially large due to alien activity.  Hmm...  :o

Only a few astronomical objects were visible.  Summer nights around here are usually very humid, and that limits visibility.  Lots of racket, too, from insects and bullfrogs.  Didn't hear any nightjars, though, which is a shame, because I enjoy hearing the Chuck-Will's-Widow.

For those of you who like sky-watching, or think you might like it, I recommend the Stellarium program.  It's free, and it's awesome.  Tells you what you're looking at in real time.

Update

I'm feeling much better now.  The fever broke yesterday, and in dramatic fashion.  I went to the bathroom, and then as soon as I finished and stepped back out the door, I started getting dizzy and seeing stars.  It all came on awfully fast, too.  I made it to a chair just in time to keep from doing a face-plant on the floor.  One of my legs actually gave out completely, and I didn't sit down so much as I had a controlled fall into the chair.  Sweat immediately popped out all over my body, and that's when I knew the fever had broken.  I sat there for a few minutes, covered in sweat, half-conscious, barely able to move, until the spots in my vision faded.  It was kind of a surreal moment.

But all's well that ends well, I guess, and I'm mostly back to my usual self now.  I've got some weird muscle pain/stiffness in the back of my neck, and a slight tickle in my throat that makes me cough occasionally, but that's it.  I haven't done any writing-related work since Thursday, but I'll be getting back on that horse in a few minutes.

The rumor going around is that Walmart will roll out its Kobo-fueled ebook store this September.  I hope it's true, and I personally can't wait.  I love the idea of Walmart shoppers finding my work there.

I'm working on a cover for a Free Space trilogy box set.  I plan on making this box set available only on Kobo to start with.  The only reason I'm doing it at all is so I can take advantage of some of Kobo's promotions that prefer higher price points.  Kobo's interface is easy to use, and the people there are top notch, and I'd love nothing more than to get some traction there.

One more thing about Kobo: I received an email from their payment partner today.  I'll be getting my first deposit from Kobo tomorrow.  This is a milestone for me because Kobo requires a certain threshold before they pay out, and my sales there have been too sporadic to meet that threshold.  May's sales put me over the top, so tomorrow I get paid.  :D

As far as book 3 of Wheel of Fire goes, my illness has obviously delayed everything by a few days.  Now that I'm lucid again, I'll get back to work on it, but no promises about when it'll be finished.

That's all for now.  Time to go splatter some guts in zero-g.

I've got a fever

Unfortunately, I don't think "more cowbell" will help.  I've got that general achy feeling all over.  During the night, my feet were cold and the rest of my body was hot.  I'm trying to drink a lot of fluids.  And I'm trying not to walk around or stand too much, because that's when the static appears in my vision and passing out becomes a risk.  I've got an ice bag on the back of my neck right now.

Hopefully I'll be human again soon.

On a lighter note, thanks to all the readers who picked up a copy of Caverns of Mercury during the sale.  Hope you enjoy it!

Patty Jansen's 99-cent sale

It's that time again: book discount!  All books are 99 cents.  My own Caverns of Mercury is among them.  Check it out:

Direct link:

http://pattyjansen.com/promo/7-8-july-2018-99c-promo/

The first book in the Free Space trilogy is free, and the third book is $2.99, so this sale lets you get the whole trilogy for just four bucks.

Promotions like this are a great way to support the indie author community, so please consider giving a new (to you) author a try.  And if you have any friends who read science fiction and fantasy, pass the link along to them.  They might find their new favorite authors.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting indie authors like me.  :)

Independence Day sale

For the next week (at least) Caverns of Mercury is on sale for 99 cents.  It's also a part of Kobo's Independence Day promotion.  When the book was approved for the promotion, I decided to put on sale at the other retailers, too.

Thanks in advance to everyone who buys it, and I hope you enjoy the book.

Progress report

Still working on book 3 of Wheel of Fire.  I'm currently re-writing the climax.  Something was bugging me about it, so I put some thought into it, and now I think I've mostly got it figured out.  Still got a long way to go, but it's getting there.  I'm also detailing some military vehicles.  Trying to decide on acronyms and whatnot.

June is now officially my best-earning month on Apple of all time.  Thanks for your support, Apple readers!  :D

New cover

I just uploaded the new cover for Mr. Wilson to all my retailers.  It should be up in a matter of hours.  Here it is:

I changed the formatting, too.  The story's no longer in block paragraphs.  It uses plain old indented paragraphs now.  I don't know if this will change the listed page count on the product pages or not, but it doesn't really matter.

Once the links are live, I'll change the sidebar image.  I'll try to change the image on Goodreads, too, if I can.  And LibraryThing, and Kboards, and wherever else it pops up.

Anyway, I think the new skin is a definite improvement over the old one.

UPDATE: The listed page count at Amazon is now 35 pages instead of 40 pages.  I'm not surprised that it changed.  I changed the formatting, and I also uploaded an epub instead of the original .doc.

UPDATE 2: I've changed the cover on the blog sidebar and on Kboards.  I tried to change it on Goodreads, but it turns out only librarians can do that.  I can ask them to do it, but it seems like a hassle, so I'm not going to bother.  Same for LibraryThing; if someone there notices the new cover, then they can change it, but otherwise, I'm not interested in wasting any more time on this matter.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The bad: I'm in the process of trying to make a new cover for Mr. Wilson, and I've run through several iterations.  I've spent way too much time on this.  It's a short story, and shorts don't sell, so it's not like a new cover will spark new sales or anything.  So there's no financial incentive, but I'm still burning away the hours on it.  I'm frustrated with myself for spending so much time on it.  But I think I've got a design I like now, so maybe I can get that monkey off my back.  Still, though, the time I've spent on this is time I haven't spent revising book 3.  Grr...

The ugly: I found a centipede in my bedroom.  I don't like centipedes, and I certainly don't like them in the same room where I sleep.  Naturally, I did what anyone would do.  I fetched my trusty Ka-bar and carved him up like a Thanksgiving turkey.  Then I flushed the still-squirming pieces of him down the toilet, because those things are way too creepy to simply dump in the trash.

The good: Last month was the first month in which I made more money on Apple than on Amazon.  This month looks like more of the same.  I've already sold more this month on Apple than I did last month, and there are still 10 days left.  If the trend continues, this will be my best month ever on Apple.

Also, Caverns of Mercury will be included in Kobo's Independence Day promotion.  I'm pleased about that, not just for the obvious reasons, but also because the theme of the trilogy--the terrestrial planets achieving independence from Earth--is completely suited to the holiday.

More about the promotion to come later.  Stay tuned...

Progress report

It's been slow going, but I finally got a scene fixed in the current work-in-progress.  Sometimes a scene will just nag at me, and then I have to think about it a while in order to figure out what's wrong with it.  And then I have to think some more about how to fix it.

The weather hasn't cooperated.  I turn the computer off when there's lightning around, and there have been a lot of storms lately, so that's slowed my progress.  I think the last completely rainless day was some time in May.  It's felt like a South American jungle or something around here, complete with low-hanging patches of steam.

I've about settled on a new cover design for Mr. Wilson.  If I can't think of a way to improve it over the next few days, then I'll probably upload it.

I've had a headache today, so I haven't gotten much done.  But it's coming along, and I expect to be finished with my first-draft notes very soon.  Then I can move on to the "fleshing out" stage of revision, and that should move a little faster.

If my art...

...is ever as awesome as that of John Williams, then I'll consider my life a wild success.  I'm listening to the Jurassic Park soundtrack right now, and "Journey to the Island" still hits me right in the soul.  It's so freakin' triumphant.

I saw this movie in the theater back in the day, and I purchased the soundtrack soon after.  It was one of my first compact discs.

If you ever have a decent sound system, get this and other symphonic music on compact disc.  Even if you choose to rip and stream, you'll still have the cd as a hard-copy backup or as another listening option.  But never settle for mp3.  Not for stuff like this.

Progress report

I wrote 800 new words for book 3 (second draft).  This scene wasn't part of my original outline, so I had to stop and think multiple times about how I wanted to proceed.

I'm getting close to having all my notes from the first draft incorporated into the second one.  Again, though, some of this stuff means writing scenes I haven't outlined, which means it's slow going because I have to think it all through.

Once those notes are done, I'll re-write the whole thing in a line-editing fashion.  That'll take a few weeks at least.  So I won't have this thing published by midsummer, but maybe I can get it out before Labor Day.  And, of course, one never knows when life will throw a wrench into the machinery of one's plans.  Let's hope that doesn't happen.

But I'm making progress, and the book is slowly taking shape.  Stay tuned.  :)

Thanks, Apple readers!

Sales and downloads on Apple were better in May than they've been in any other month so far this year.  I had more than twice as many free downloads of Clouds of Venus in May than I had in any other single month of 2018.  As far as paid sales go, I didn't quite double up like I did with free downloads, but there was still a stark increase.  Around 50% or so, I'd guess, over the second best month of this year.  Haven't done the math, but that's the ballpark figure.

May is also the first month in which I've made more money on Apple than on Amazon.  :o

My best month of all time on Apple is still last October.  No month of 2018 has matched it yet.  But I'm getting closer.  Perhaps June will set a new record.

So, thanks for your support, Apple readers.  Y'all are awesome.  :D