Apollocon First Day

Here I am, still bright eyed and bushy tailed on the first day of the convention. Let's see how long that lasts. Meeting the public can be an exhausting experience...but rewarding. Lots of interesting people here.

But I must sleep, for tomorrow will be long.

G'nite.

I'm Off to the Convention

Apollocon is finally upon me, and it's time to find out what being on the other side of that table in the dealer's room is all about. I'll be selling my books...

The Ways of Khrem (my novel)
The Middle of Nowhere; Horror in Rural America anthology (my story is "Storm Chase")
The Bitter End; Tales of Nautical Terror anthology (my story is "The World in Strips")
Pandora's Nightmare: Horror Unleashed anthology (my stories are "So It Begins", and "And So It Ends")
Silver Moon, Bloody Bullets: Werewolf anthology (my story is "Roadkill"
and
Mystery of the Green Mist: Mystery anthology (my story is "Between Friends")

I will be selling these books for either a tiny profit, cost, or below cost...depending on the title. At this point it's more important to get myself read. Besides, I'm starting to come to a conclusion about print books. I'm beginning to think they are more use to the small time author as mobile advertising for the upcoming ebook than they are as a source of income themselves.

Oh well, I didn't get everything done that I planned for this convention; partially because I didn't even have some of those plans until a few hours ago...see how my mind works...but mainly because I just ran out of time. It's okay, I've got the basics covered. Now it's time to get ready to go.

One last thought...once this convention is over, I'm going to scale back the energy and thought I've put into promoting lately and start concentrating on writing again. Fun is fun, but it's time to get back to work and start producing.

Late Start

I finally got to bed at a decent time last night, and loved it so much that I didn't want to get up this morning. So I'm running a little late on things.

I now have my bookmarks for Apollocon printed out, and they are waiting to be cut at Office Depot. They came out looking really good...even better than they look on the computer screen. So that's another task successfully completed. My poster is done as well, and also looks very good. Heck, all our table needs now is little flags and streamers...maybe sparklers at the corners.

Also, my brand new Sanyo Xacti HD2000 camcorder of awesomness arrived yesterday! Woohoo! Now I shall capture all those precious and embarrassing moments in glorious high definition!

*does a happy dance around the room*

Anyways, there is still more that needs to be done, so I shall get busy. The house is in better shape after the visit of our cleaning lady, but I've noticed we have let stuff pile up where she is having a harder and harder time sorting it and putting it away. Time to get rid of some junk.

More Digital Play

Above, is a very rough mock-up what I'm thinking the ghost story collection for the Kindle could look like. I've still got a lot of different fonts to try out on that 4, and I'm considering enlarging it a little more. I want the cover to be simple and strong. This is just one idea, and I've got a couple of others...but I would need to do a little free hand art to pull those off and that's not easy for me. Still, it's worth a try.

As Apollocon approaches, I've been doing more artwork than writing anyways. I'm designing bookmarks to give away to the people I actually manage to sell my book too. Heck, I'll give them away to people who just need them. I'll have one set advertising The Ways of Khrem, and another set advertising The Barrow Wolf. No point in putting a bookmark into a matching book.

Truthfully, I'm having fun. I used to enjoy doing artwork before my hands started going bad, and now this lets me do it all over again. And it's actually for a purpose, which makes it all that much more rewarding to do. So it's like a bonus...fun + satisfaction.

Fiddle-Farting Around

I didn't get a lot done yesterday. Rowan's therapy schedule has been expanded to three days a week, which cuts in on my productivity. It's in a critical cause though, so I'm not complaining. At least I managed to get out of the house last night, and have a writer's night out with Cherri Galbiati. We had a good time, discussing book cover strategies, and the upcoming Apollocon. I didn't eat anything but a small plate of fries since all the gluten I've been taking in lately has literally made me sick. But a good time was still had, and we were out late enough that dragging myself out of bed this morning was done under protest.

 Lately, I've mainly done some strategizing, and different forms of digital artwork. On the strategizing part,
I'm currently thinking of compiling a four-pack of ghost stories and simply titling it "4," or "4 Dead Girls." since it happens that all the ghosts in this one so far are female. I've got an idea for a book cover that will be simple, strong, and should stand out when reduced to thumbnail size.

I've noticed that's a peril that a lot of publishers and cover artists haven't adapted to in the new age of digital bookstores...having their bookcovers turn into little smudges of colors when reduced to the size that it's often presented when shown with a list of other books at the online market. From now on, the big test of any cover I make will be checking to see how it looks as a small thumbnail. The Barrow Wolf does well in that catagory, although I'm going to have to think about that font in the future.

Oh well, that's it for now. The house is a disaster, and I guess I'm supposed to do something about that.

Another Weekend Ends

I'm back from a weekend spent with family and old friends. I went to the wedding party of woman who I used to babysit when she was three, and I was twenty. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty ancient at the moment. But it was good to see that life turned out happy for her and her family. In real life, happy endings are to be treasured.

Of course, when you're a writer that's not always the case. I always try to make sure and not get into a habit with my endings. In some of my stories the protagonist prevails, and in some of them they fall. When you write horror, you can't let the reader get comfortable knowing that your the type of writer who's charactors always get away, or always get "gotten." Fall into either rut, and you're stories lose their edge.

The current ghost story I'm working on is for a self publishing project. I intend to make a packet of four or five good ghost stories, and then sell them for .99 cents...or 1.99. I've got one story called "Storm Chase," that I have the rights back to, and another unpublished story called "The Tragedy Man" that only needs a little reworking, and there are two stories for it right there. The bridal story makes three, if it comes out well. And "comes out well," is critical. I will have to make sure my self published stuff is off the highest quality, just as if I was submitting it to a publisher. I can't fall into the trap of putting out subpar work, just because there won't be an editor looking at it. Just the opposite. I have to be three times as demanding of these stories. They will be out there representing me.

Yet, while I'm moving the main focus of my short story efforts towards e-book, novels are still another matter. I'm fairly confident I'm can rise to the challenge of formatting and putting out a short collection of stories, but I don't know about a novel. That's where a publisher still comes in handy. Finding the right home for the right novel is the name of the game there.

But first I need to get back to work on this short story collection. Having Rowan home during the summer makes working on the novels difficult anyways. And the short story collection can be educational for working and marketing in the ebook market. Also, it means I can  play with cover design...which I find to be enormous fun.

Anyways, that's pretty much it for now. Tomorrow Rowan starts her new Monday therapy at Learning Lane, so I will be taking her to therapy three times a week now. That's okay, it's good for her and that's what matters.

Gone for the Weekend

I'll be gone all weekend, visiting family and friends. I'll be sure and take my camera, and practice showing more curiousity in the world around me.

One Zonked Little Boy

The last time I caught a raccoon in the attic, I woke Sheridan to see it but he was so wiped out he didn't remember. He was disappointed and insisted I wake him again if caught another. When I caught this one, it was almost midnight and I once again tried to rouse the boy to see the varmint. This time I decided to record the effort to prove to him that Dad didn't let him down.

So here it is.

He was woke up after about three hours of sleep, and led to the living room to see the raccoon. Despite appearances, he is NOT awake.

My New Coal Mine Canary

Since I'm currently working on a couple of horror/ghost short stories, I was a little concerned whether I was achieving the proper level of suspense and tension. I like to have a certain level of scare factor in my stories, and refuse to simply settle for substituting gore...not that gore doesn't have it's place from time to time, but it's used way too often as an easy substitute for "scary."

So how can I be sure something is scary?

That's when a stroke of genius hit me. My wife, Karla, usually refuses to read, watch, or listen to anything that's scary. The only time I ever got her to a horror movie, the results were pure hilarity. So now her job is to act as my "canary."

Her job is to read a story, as far as she can, and if she reads it all the way through then I know the story is lame and needs to reworked. On the other hand, if the canary "passes out", and puts the work aside, then I know it's got potential.

I want to take this opportunity to publically thank my wife for being such a good sport. Thanks, honey! You're the greatest!

On another front, the new central air unit is installed and the house is a wonderful temperature in the low seventies. Ahhhh....even the cats love it.

On another note, I caught another raccoon in our attic trap. It was humanely released, of course. Film later.