Dear Microsoft...

Dear Microsoft,

As one of the thousands of independent writers or small prublishers who use your Office products, I would take it as a real favor if you guys would update your Word program so it would save documents in the kindle format. That would really be swell.

Thank you,

D. Nathan Hilliard.

PS: I would even pay for a product like that if you didn't want to make it a patch.

Sick

I wasn't feeling well yesterday afternoon, so we canceled the trip to the resort. Instead, I took Sheridan to the movies to make it up to him. I figured sitting in an air conditioned theatre was more my speed anyways. As it turns out, I broke out in a fever while in there and alternated between shivering and sweating my way through the movie.

Sheridan enjoyed the show, and chirped about the movie as I stumbled my way out into the parking lot...trying to dredge up the strength to drive home. I managed to make the drive, and shambled along behind Sheridan into the house. I then went immediately to bed, at about 4:30, and didn't wake up until Karla had to go to work this morning.

I still feel like the wrong end of a car accident, so there won't be much happening today. My job for now is trying to see if I can get to feeling well enough to take Rowan to therapy at noon. We'll see. Till then, I'm going to lay on the couch and try to recover.

Update

Well, after burning the midnight oil and cramming my poor brain full of HTML, I successfully figured out how to fix the problem with my project. Unfortunately the implementation of that fix is going to require me to go through a book length document and manually insert HTML tags. Oh well, nobody ever said a writers life was all fun and game.

But I think I'll avoid writing science fiction because I might have to teach myself rocket science one evening.

The worst part is I now have a miserable head cold and I'm looking out at the world through a fishbowl. We cancelled the kids swimming trip to the resort and I'll just take the boy to see a movie instead...as I think I might be able to handle sitting in an air conditioned theatre...maybe.

Weekend Stuff

I went and saw "Predators" at the theatre tonight. I was all prepared to hate it, since I felt they pretty much ran that franchise into the ground, but it turned out to be okay. I would rate it right behind the original...better than the second one...and much better than the Alien vs Predator garbage that came along later. It even had a bit of the feel of the first one. So I recommend it to any Predator fans who are on the fence about this one.

On another note, my formatting project was a partial success but I think I can do better. I think I know where the problems with my project came from, but now I've got to fix it.  I've located some online HTML tutorials and I'm going to cram on that for a day or two then try again. I want to be able to upload things for publishing on the kindle with confidence. All I have to do is learn a programming language in a day or two. No big deal.

Whats going to make it more of a challenge is that I'm going to be going out with the family tomorrow. We're taking the kids swimming at a resort in Conroe, so I'm not going to have access to a computer for most of the day. Oh well, I'll be sure and take pictures. All work and no play makes Nate something something.

From The Princess Bride to Hemingway

I spent the better part of the day with "Storybook Love," the theme to The Princess Bride, playing in the background. After seeing that movie the other day, it stuck in my mind like it always does. I started to wonder what it was about that movie that made it work so well.

While it did have a cast of actors who would turn out to be good, they were mostly nobodies at the time...with the exception of a few TV actors. The film didn't have much in the way of a budget either. I realized while thinking about it, how simple and elegent of a story it really was. The charactors were all painted in broad strokes, yet the movie respected itself despite it's silly aspects and had a real heart at it's core. And it was all done with minimal sets or complexity, and a straightforward clarity.

Which brings me to Hemingway.

I've read some of Ernest Hemingway's works before, and have always admired his ability to sum up a moment with that same simple minimalism. And since I've now got a kindle reader on my laptop, I thought it time to use it to good effect. So I bought the complete set of Hemingways short stories.

 They will provide both good reading and a great example of good writing to inspire myself with. It's always good to see what the other guy has done, and why not go ahead and get the best. I used to be a voracious reader when I was young, and I need to start reading more again. And Hemingway is simply the best author I could think of to start with.

Ah well, I need to get to bed because all to soon it will be me for whom the alarm tolls.

Sigh

I watched The Princess Bride with my son last night, and it put me in a really odd and rather meloncholy mood. Honestly, I think it's one of the best movies ever made, and the musical score is a soulful favorite of mine. I only see it every few years, but it's always like visiting an old friend.

But this time it really drove home how time has flown by. It was twenty three years ago when I first watched Inigo Montoya finally catch the six fingered man, and The Dread Pirate Roberts rescue his princess Buttercup. It seems like the movie comes from a completely different world now.

How the hell did I get so old?

Oh well, I finished my formatting project so I'm getting ready for the next project. I've just migrated The Tragedy Man over to my laptop/writing computer for rewriting. I'll post a snippet of it later today. I mainly just need to rewrite the ending, and tweak a few things...like renaming it. Anyways, it will be the second story in "4."

This weekend I intend to spend time with Sheridan so there won't be a lot of writing accomplished. That's okay, I need more Sheridan time. It's good for both of us.

Formatting for Great Justice

I'll be working on my kindle formatting skills all day today. Thankfully, I'll be home for the entire day, so I finally have time to settle in and work. I've got the boy off to camp, and the girl parked in front of a computer of her own. Now lets see if I can get something done.

An indie writer can't get too much practice at this...and I would rate this as a top three survival skill necessary to be an independent writer...the other two skills being the ability to write well, and the ability to convince your wife that your not an irresponsible bum who is taking her for a ride.

I'm still messing with that ghost in the photograph idea. I may change it's concept since "The Tragedy Man" already features a graveyard from a vanished town, and I don't want to repeat the same idea in an anthology. That's okay, I think I've got a better and more suspensefiul angle anyways. What if you started getting pictures from the cell phone of somebody you murdured? Hmmm...

Oh well, time to crank up the AC, and get to formatting. Might even do a little housework on the side.

Go me!

A Few Items

"Death and White Satin" is getting good to great reviews from my proofreaders and will likely be the opening story in the "4" anthology. I'm really trying to step up my game with these stories, and I want this anthology to make a strong impression.

Came home to a clean house, which is always nice. It takes a little mental pressure off since I had been letting things slip while writing and working on other projects, and the mess was really beginning to crowd me mentally.

I  stopped at the Kebab House in the Woodlands and had a Donner Kebab. It was excellent and I recommend it to all my Houston readers.

My monopod/walking stick arrived in the mail today. Hopefully this will lead to videos that don't look they were taken by a drunk in the throes of the DTs. That would be nice. Since I'm going to be responsible for cover art/interior photos in my self published stuff in the future, I will need lots of photographic material to work with.

I thought I had evaded the cold that had my wife so miserable last week, but I woke up this morning with a sore throat. Rowan is coughing as well, so it looks like Karla got us after all. Drat!

Blogging from Starbucks

I'm blogging from Starbucks this morning, sipping from my cafe mocha as I type. I'm not sure if that makes me snooty,  faux snooty, pretentious, a yuppie (no, I'm too old to be a yuppie), or what. It's a Starbucks in a Barnes and Noble if that helps.

I just dropped Rowan off at her new therapist in the Woodlands, and I'm stuck out here for pretty much the rest of the day as I have to pick her up later and take her to different therapists. That cuts into my writing and editing time pretty severely...but kiddos have to come first. Any serious progress in writing or editing is now becoming a Thursday or Friday affair anyways...and lets remember I still have Rowan home even on those days. I won't really be able to bear down and concentrate until school starts again.

Anyways, I'm currently doing an editing and formatting project...dry stuff...and then I'll pick up "Fate of the Coral Horn" again. That's just a placeholder name, but I do sort of like it.

Oh well, I'll go back to sipping my mocha and being something something now.