Got some maintenance done

I spent much of today doing updates for the laptop.

I had noticed that, over the past day or two, the internet was going very slowly.  To the point of uselessness, actually.  My first instinct, when that happens, is to assume the proivder is either having issues or is intentionally throttling the bandwidth.  That wasn't the case this time, though.

I use the laptop at the edge of the router's wireless range, and I've got a range booster between here and there to make up the difference.  The problem with a range booster is that it lowers the top speed of your computer's internet connection.  And if something else slows that speed down even more, than it can cripple your connection altogether.

Well, that "something else" comes in the form of Windows updates that happen in the background without telling you.  Even when set to "metered connection," it's still a burden on your bandwidth.  Nothing was loading, not even the simplest web pages.

So I set my laptop up on a tv tray just a few feet from the router--where the signal is as strong as it gets--and did all the updates I could.

My internet speed is now back to normal.

I also ran Malwarebytes and quarantined a thing.  Not sure when or how that thing got there.  But it's in the naughty-code cage now.

To paraphrase what's-her-name from Poltergiest, "this computer is now clean."

The answer is 42

In my work in progress, I thought I had forty chapters and an epilogue.  I had miscounted and mislabeled them, though.  I actually have 42 chapters and an epilogue.  There's a lesson there about double-checking and triple-checking everything.

I also downloaded an update from Calibre.  When I made an epub in the latest version, the epub reader looked different from what I expected, and I sort of freaked out a little at the lost functionality.  Then I remembered that the developer isn't the sort to reduce functionality; instead, he simply "hides" functions until you go into your preferences and activate them.  So, after a little searching, I figured out how to customize the epub reader to my tastes.  Yeah, Calibre is still awesome, and the developer is still a bona fide hero as far as I'm concerned.

Third draft is done

Book is finished, basically.  Just have to proofread and do some formatting.  Word count is 106k.

Got cold quickly

These weather swings have been weird.  We had a cold spell in December, then a warm spell in early January, and now a cold spell again.  Unseasonable temperatures in all cases.  There haven't been many "typical" winter days this winter.

I find weather interesting, and that's why I try to make it a feature in my stories.  I think it can also help set the mood for a scene.  If your characters are going to storm a castle, after all, then why not have them do it during an actual storm?  Wind and rain add to the excitement.

More interesting weather scenes are on the way.  Stay tuned...

Space Force uniforms

The U.S. Space Force has unveiled its new uniforms.

I guess that camo is for blending into the space forests.  :/

Look... I like the idea of a Space Force.  I mean, I'm currently writing a series about a space marine, so I obviously dig this stuff, right?  But come on, man.  At least make the camo monochrome if you're going with that sort of pattern.

This is just a money-saving thing, of course.  They're using hand-me-downs from the other service branches.  They said so themselves:

But if the new uniforms aren't actually new uniforms, then why the big reveal?  Why mention it at all?  I just don't get it.

The best part of the announcement is the comments.  Looks like the Navy is trolling them.  lol

This is life in the 21st century.  Enjoy your stay.

Progress report

I'm at about the 93% mark in the mobi file, so I'm nearly finished with this stage of the editing process.

I've come up with a names for continents.  I'm still on the fence about them, but I think I'm going to go with them.  I still need another place name for a political entity.

I found a few continuity goofs and fixed them.  Man, I hate finding those things.  I really hope I catch them all before publishing.

Story has chapter divisions now.  Forty chapters and an epilogue.

I'll wrap the editing up this weekend and then begin the proofreading.  I might do some chores in between, though.  I've got stuff I really need to work on.

Onward!

Switching gears temporarily

I'm at about the 64% mark in the mobi file, so I'm nearly two-thirds of the way finished with the line edit of book 4 of Wheel of Fire.

I decided I needed a small break, though, so I didn't do any line editing today.  Instead, I worked on chapter breaks.

I've already got all the scene breaks.  When writing, I end a scene with an asterisk break and then move on to the next scene, repeating this process until the book is finished.  Later, I go back and change some of those asterisk breaks to chapter breaks.

I've got three basic criteria for chapter breaks:

1.)  A chapter should be neither too long or too short, so preferably somewhere between five and twelve OpenOffice pages.  Sometimes I cheat, but only sometimes.  What I consider "too long" or "too short" may vary from book to book.

2.)  A chapter's name should be interesting, but vague, and not a spoiler.  Or, if a spoiler is unavoidable, then it should only spoil material from the beginning of the chapter, not anything from the end of it.

3.)  I try to avoid using chapter names that I've already used in previous books in the series.

I usually have multiple scenes in a chapter, but there are occasions where I'll have an unusually long scene that merits its own chapter.

Anyway, once the chapters are as good as I can get them, I'll go back to line editing.  Then comes the proofreading and whatever final adjustments need to be made.

It's coming together, folks.  :D

Tough questions

I've been watching the Jeopardy GOAT shows this week.  It's a sort of tournament between Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer.

As expected, all three champions have an impressive array of knowledge.  Also as expected, the questions are tougher than usual.  I don't know the answers to most of them, and I usually know most of the answers on the regular show.

One of tonight's Final Jeopardy questions asked for two movie producers.  I got Ang Lee correct, but I couldn't name the other.  I was in good company, though, because all three guys also came up with Lee but failed to name the other one.  (It was Alfonso Cuaron.)

Right now, Ken leads with two match wins to James's one, but I wouldn't count anyone out yet.

New year, new plans, new hopes

Well, it's 2020 now.  The year we all get renewed focus.  (Ha!)

First of all, let's all remember that it's not actually the first year of a new decade.  It's the last year of the old one.  Counting starts at one, folks, not zero.

We can still call it the first year of "the twenties," of course, because it does end in twenty.

In any event, I hope to make this year better than the last.  I've increased my gross income over the prior year's income for three years now, and I want that trend to continue.  I've got a few other goals, too.

I intend to start using click ads, starting with AMS/Amazon Ads.  I considered this a long time ago for the trilogy, actually, but once I started crunching the numbers, I concluded that the math didn't make sense.  It might make sense for Wheel of Fire, though.  I aim to give it a try.

I intend to make greater use of Story Origin's group promos.

I will probably get some audio production rolling, though that's still up in the air.

I'll publish book 4 of Wheel of Fire soon and I'd like to publish book 5 this year, too.  We'll see how fast I can crank it out.

I really want to get a handle on my digestive system so I can stop having headaches all the time.  I started taking Metamucil a couple of weeks ago, and I think it's helping.  Jury's still out, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

I need to exercise more.  I'm in terrible shape, particularly my legs.

I lost my traction on Apple, probably due to them changing their storefront and screwing up my algo momentum, and now I need to figure out how to get it back.  If I can figure out AMS, then maybe I can do some Bookbub CPC ads, too, and target the non-Amazon stores.

I intend to sketch out the next trilogy.  I want to have detailed outlines ready to go so I can hit the ground running when I finish Wheel of Fire.

That's all for now.  Good luck to everyone, and I hope all of our self-improvement hopes for this year come to fruition.  :)