Blog No. 281
Last weekend I had the pleasure of being invited to the first Windsor Small Press Book Fair. It was in a church hall over a coffee shop, and while the cold and rain keep the crowds down, there were enough folks there to make the day profitable. A great help was the low cost of the table. Not only did it mean that only a couple of books needed to be sold to break even (the key breaking point for any event) but it opened the fair to a bunch of new authors and publishers. Sometimes when events are not well attended, the day seems to go on forever. Having someone to talk to on those days is key. For this Book Fair, there were so many writers and publishers I knew (and some I hadn’t seen in a long time) that I was surrounded by people to catch up with, swap books, and talk shop. The customers were icing on the cake. All in all, it was a good start to the monster list of events going on. Continue reading “Local Books”
Still no word on The Thinking Machine. I am in talks with the printer and hope it will be a matter of days, but we’ll see how that turns out. I’m rather disappointed because Saturday is the 
I had a strange thing happen to me last weekend. Nothing. For a long weekend, that’s rather unusual. Most weekends I have a combination of work, events, or family gatherings. With it being the Easter long weekend, you’d think there would be some family tradition, but with my parents out of town, no book events, and the day job closed, I found myself with nothing to do for the first time in a long time. I say nothing to do, but I have plenty. My review copy of The Thinking Machine is still in transit from 
The Thinking Machine is in the proof stage (as stressful as they come) and with any luck, I should have some physical copies by the end of the week. There always seems to be something in the proof that looks weird, has to be quadruple checked, or is just a screw-up. The looks weird stuff is mostly out of my hands. I can read all the printer’s documentation and review my own constructed pages, but no matter how much it seems like things should come out fine in the printed copies, there is doubt. I’ve sent an email, but got a stock response that tells me to look at the documentation. I’ve reviewed my own files and everything should be okay, but. As soon as I give my okay, I am responsible for how the book looks, errors or not (my fault or not). You can see my dilemma. I suppose working with a smaller, more local printer would solve that issue, but I’ve tried that route, and there is a whole mess of other issues that come out of that. Plus, you don’t get any distribution that way. 
I find myself in the rare position where I have more than one thing to talk about and I didn’t have to scramble to find a topic this week. As it turns out, if I tantalize people with the idea of images of me looking like a dork, they all want to see them. Last week, I didn’t have those images, but now I do. If you are just reading the teaser, you have to click on the whole article to see the pictures. I buried them further down. That’s called strategy. The image you see up here is actually from the Chapter’s signing I did with Christian over the weekend. Turns out that when the sun is shining at it’s St. Patrick’s Day, the mall isn’t very busy. 
With that out of the way, a couple of weeks ago I was approached by my friend 
For two weeks in a row, I’ve missed my days off from work. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes you have to be a pirate and be all about the money. When you are trying to get a book out before the end of the month (and write another one) the extra shifts (especially last minute) can be disastrous. Most of my days off are not days off. I don’t always pull a nine hour shift, but I spend a good six or more working on writing, editing, layout, podcasting, and planning for all all the events I go to as a guest, or host myself. Those days off are crucial work days. I just don’t get paid. 