First post in a while, I know. Being an adult with ADD can be a real bitch in a lot of ways. For me, the hardest part is prioritizing my time. This is one of the reasons that I'm an overweight, 31-year old slacker who has floated from one totally unrelated field to another.
El Calendario
I'm now using Google Calendar to try to change all that.
What I've done is actually budgeted most of my days to follow a rather rigorous schedule. From my sleeping time to my commute times to my 'at work' time, I've scheduled all the obvious things, but I've also gone a step further and budgeted time for blogging, set a stringent homework schedule, and also made damn sure to set aside time for writing.
As it stands right now, I've filled up nearly all my daytime hours during the week, left the evenings somewhat flexible, and tried not to schedule anything on the weekends.
I've also regulated my eating in this new approach, in an effort to drop 120 pounds as soon as is healthy, and in that effort, I've budgeted exercise time each weekday morning.
The main problems I'm trying to address are: a) I want to be a sharper student in my final (haha) year of study and not push things until the zero hour, b) I need to drop 120 pounds, for all the usual reasons, c) I hardly sleep, and I think a lot of my problems go back to that, or maybe it's circular; whatever, d) I need to write a lot more, and e) I want to do so much more in my life than I am, and that requires that I stop fucking around all the time.
I'll try and keep all two or three of you updated on my progress in this regard.
In Other News
- I'm pretty sure Endless Wars is going to end up on the iBook store pretty soon. The publisher sent me an email about it, but as stated before, I'm a slacker, and have not followed up on it yet. One thing I'll be looking at closely is the money. I'm annoyed that the major publishers are so greedy that they can justify charging even HALF what of what a hard cover book costs (and PLEASE stop buying hard cover books, my friend. You're only feeding a horribly broken system. Cheap ebooks = everyone is happy.)
- On that note, it occurs to me that I forgot to make sure my book ended up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I'm thinking that'll get remedied in June, if I'm reading my calendar correctly.
- I came across a stack of EW books that I still haven't sent out, because I forgot. I'll ship them next week. The recipients know who they are.
- EW2 is under way, though it's been halting steps, due to my utter lack of self control. That is being changed this afternoon.
- I am super-pumped for the return of EGM. Check out their really cool approach to the digital mag. I would be very interested in doing a comic this way, if any artists are interested in collaborating.
- I'm thinking more and more about being a writer in 'the digital age;' I think I may post more on the ideas I've been having.
- Speaking of which, aside from the pretty-good tutorials on the MSDN site, does anyone out there have any recommendations for good sources from to self-teach Visual C#?
- the one thing that makes me want an iPad is that it could eventually become a) the device that unifies my Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, & .pdf libraries (via apps), and b) becomes the premier e-comic & e-mag device. I don't like the price point, I don't like the dearth of storage it offers, I don't like the lack of Flash support, and I don't like the lack of video codec support. I want a 1TB model that can (GASP) handle Flash and (GASP) play back .mkv & .avi. I know that's madness to think a computing device could do that, but one can always dream.
What about you? How stringently do you schedule yourself? What do you think of the transition to digital media that is happening in the book/mag/comic world? What do you think if the iPad?
-Blaine
On sale now!
Showing posts with label kindle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindle. Show all posts
20090804
Even closer...
...got the book back from my editor/wife. She doesn't normally read that slowly, but was taking time to give me a thorough ass-kicking from an editorial standpoint. Some stuff she loved, some stuff she hated, and I am now poring through her notes and making minor adjustments in preparation for submitting the manuscript to Lulu to get the thing printed.
The manuscript, now, is at 260 pages, but that will likely increase a little.
I had a very minimalist cover in mind that was simply a black & white photo of a building (central to this particular book) for the front and back of the book, but have decided that I'd rather have plain white w/ black courier font for the covers & spine. Just seems cleaner and less pretentious. I dunno. I just like the way it looks in my head. We'll see. I'd like to have each book in the series be kinda uniform in that respect.
I've confirmed the book will be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as the Lulu site.
There will be an e-book version available at some point, but I don't know if it will be day & date with the print version.
There will NOT be a Kindle version, as I've pulled my support for the device after the 1984 fiasco.
I don't yet have a release date. I have a feeling it'll be this month, but it could slip to September. I may push it to September just so I have time to actually build up some anticipation for it. Again, we'll see.
I've made some cost-related decisions, as well. Any additional content that's included will likely be downloadable, to reduce the cost of the book. The more the book costs to make, the more I have to charge. Also, I will be taking a dollar or less per book, in an effort to further reduce cost.
I've started the second book, and it was refreshing to really bang out some new material with these characters for the first time in years. If the first book was dark, this one is cold. With any luck, it won't be another 10 years between books, and I can put out a couple a year. I feel great about the second book thus far.
I'm also thinking about doing a free online-only prequel series of shorts to help flesh out the worlds that appear in these books. I've got the first one in the bag, and am kinda sitting on it while I decide what to do with it.
There have been two very rough things in this process: nightmares and lost companions.
Writing the book gave me nightmares, and editing it has had the same effect. There's some really twisted, deeply personal shit in this volume, and writing/editing it forces me to confront a lot of this shit, at least on some level, and the result is nightmares. Not the kind ya laugh and tell your wife about the next day, either.
My Linux netbook is down at the moment, at least until I either diagnose it or send it in to the manufacturer. It's covered under warranty, but I have a feeling that the HDD is on its last legs. I'm going to try and grab an image of it this week, before I send it in, but I worry that I can't keep it running long enough to grab said image. We shall see.
Either way, that netbook was HUGE in getting this thing edited. It's only 8.9 inches across and weighs 2 pounds, so it was a delight to just lie in bed, read, and edit. It's also my only portable option for Linux at the moment, and Linux is ideal for writers.
With Linux and a little know-how, a writer can pick up a cheap-ass Linux netbook, and customize the shit out of it, thus creating his/her ideal writing/editing setup. Ask any serious writer, and they'll tell you that they are very particular about their rituals, spaces, setups, etc. for when they write. I'm not as overly sensitive as most writers and don't like to cripple myself by limiting the conditions under which I can write.
That reminds me, some day I'd like to post about my dealings with other writers, and how most of them hate me, and how musicians are actually 'my people.' Just know that most writers are amazingly pretentious douchebags who want nothing more than to masturbate to ten-cent words.
Anyway, the netbook will be up and running again soon, but since I back everything up every day in quadruplicate, it's not too big an issue. That thing is just my favorite object in the world, and my most useful tool (other than my penis.)
I'll be back soon. The breaks between posts will be shorter from here on out, since there will be more to talk about the closer we get to release day.
Real quick, I've been reading my first ebook. I wasn't sure if I wanted to publish in that format, so I decided to test-drive a book. I've been reading the first Song of Ice and Fire book in this format, and so far, I really like it. I've been using eReader (running via Wine) on my Ubuntu netbook (which is perfect as an ebook reader, another reason I already miss it.) The netbook is so light and small, one can hold it easily in one hand and lie on his/her back, or lie in any preferred reading position. The nicest thing is that the backgrounds and font are totally customizable, so you can adjust everything until it's nice and easy on your eyes. I think I like it.
In the meantime, let's talk books. What are your favorites? Who are your favorite authors? Favorite genres? Do you like ebooks? What do you think of the Kindle? Anything!
Alright, let's get this hype machine going! HOOWAH!
-Blaine
The manuscript, now, is at 260 pages, but that will likely increase a little.
I had a very minimalist cover in mind that was simply a black & white photo of a building (central to this particular book) for the front and back of the book, but have decided that I'd rather have plain white w/ black courier font for the covers & spine. Just seems cleaner and less pretentious. I dunno. I just like the way it looks in my head. We'll see. I'd like to have each book in the series be kinda uniform in that respect.
I've confirmed the book will be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as the Lulu site.
There will be an e-book version available at some point, but I don't know if it will be day & date with the print version.
There will NOT be a Kindle version, as I've pulled my support for the device after the 1984 fiasco.
I don't yet have a release date. I have a feeling it'll be this month, but it could slip to September. I may push it to September just so I have time to actually build up some anticipation for it. Again, we'll see.
I've made some cost-related decisions, as well. Any additional content that's included will likely be downloadable, to reduce the cost of the book. The more the book costs to make, the more I have to charge. Also, I will be taking a dollar or less per book, in an effort to further reduce cost.
I've started the second book, and it was refreshing to really bang out some new material with these characters for the first time in years. If the first book was dark, this one is cold. With any luck, it won't be another 10 years between books, and I can put out a couple a year. I feel great about the second book thus far.
I'm also thinking about doing a free online-only prequel series of shorts to help flesh out the worlds that appear in these books. I've got the first one in the bag, and am kinda sitting on it while I decide what to do with it.
There have been two very rough things in this process: nightmares and lost companions.
Writing the book gave me nightmares, and editing it has had the same effect. There's some really twisted, deeply personal shit in this volume, and writing/editing it forces me to confront a lot of this shit, at least on some level, and the result is nightmares. Not the kind ya laugh and tell your wife about the next day, either.
My Linux netbook is down at the moment, at least until I either diagnose it or send it in to the manufacturer. It's covered under warranty, but I have a feeling that the HDD is on its last legs. I'm going to try and grab an image of it this week, before I send it in, but I worry that I can't keep it running long enough to grab said image. We shall see.
Either way, that netbook was HUGE in getting this thing edited. It's only 8.9 inches across and weighs 2 pounds, so it was a delight to just lie in bed, read, and edit. It's also my only portable option for Linux at the moment, and Linux is ideal for writers.
With Linux and a little know-how, a writer can pick up a cheap-ass Linux netbook, and customize the shit out of it, thus creating his/her ideal writing/editing setup. Ask any serious writer, and they'll tell you that they are very particular about their rituals, spaces, setups, etc. for when they write. I'm not as overly sensitive as most writers and don't like to cripple myself by limiting the conditions under which I can write.
That reminds me, some day I'd like to post about my dealings with other writers, and how most of them hate me, and how musicians are actually 'my people.' Just know that most writers are amazingly pretentious douchebags who want nothing more than to masturbate to ten-cent words.
Anyway, the netbook will be up and running again soon, but since I back everything up every day in quadruplicate, it's not too big an issue. That thing is just my favorite object in the world, and my most useful tool (other than my penis.)
I'll be back soon. The breaks between posts will be shorter from here on out, since there will be more to talk about the closer we get to release day.
Real quick, I've been reading my first ebook. I wasn't sure if I wanted to publish in that format, so I decided to test-drive a book. I've been reading the first Song of Ice and Fire book in this format, and so far, I really like it. I've been using eReader (running via Wine) on my Ubuntu netbook (which is perfect as an ebook reader, another reason I already miss it.) The netbook is so light and small, one can hold it easily in one hand and lie on his/her back, or lie in any preferred reading position. The nicest thing is that the backgrounds and font are totally customizable, so you can adjust everything until it's nice and easy on your eyes. I think I like it.
In the meantime, let's talk books. What are your favorites? Who are your favorite authors? Favorite genres? Do you like ebooks? What do you think of the Kindle? Anything!
Alright, let's get this hype machine going! HOOWAH!
-Blaine
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