eBook Blues

Blog No. 351

Remember when everything even remotely related to the internet had to have a lowercase ‘e’ in front of it? Then Apple made the ‘i’ a thing and we’re still feeling the backlash from that. It’s all a moot point, though. I just wrote the title and it struck me that we’ll be stuck with eBook for the foreseeable future. No Light Tomorrow came out at the end of 2015 (so long ago now). I did the layout, making many mistakes along the way, but ultimately getting a good handle on the process. I assumed, especially since it is an advertised feature of most modern layout and design programs, I could just knock out the ebooks too. I could not. Eventually, Mirror World took up No Light, so I didn’t have to worry about that any more, but I have two books of a novella series (The Synthetic Albatross to be exact) and since I did those ones on my own, I wanted to make sure I had some good ebooks to go along with them.

Blog Tour Week Four: The Thinking Machine

Blog No. 298

This week’s post is basically going to be a behind the writing for The Thinking Machine, but officially it’s part of the blog tour. I’m not sure yet how that will differ from a regular behind the writing post, maybe I’ll add in all my info stuff at the end so that if the other participating authors share this post, folks new to the blog will have all that goodness at their finger tips. Maybe I’ll just fake it like I do every time and we’ll both be surprised with how things turn out in the end. There will be some things about The Thinking Machine that I know and you may be finding out for the first time, though. No spoilers (I think) but if you haven’t read it, you totally should. Especially if you are reading this.

Blog Tour Week Two: Sharon Ledwith

Blog No. 296

Welcome to week two of the blog tour. If you just started reading my blog (first off, thanks and welcome) you may want to go read the last two posts as they pertain to this four week thing (that I’m lucky to be involved with). Also, if you’re new, go read all my posts. There are almost three hundred of them. What a good way to waste spend your time! For this week of the tour, I’m going to talk about author Sharon Ledwith and her young adult series Mysterious Tales From Fairy Falls.

Sharon is originally from Newmarket Ontario, but now lives in the lovely (I should go there more) Amherstburg, about twenty minutes from my city, Windsor. That makes her part of the local writing community, and when she got here, she hit the ground running. Out of all the authors I know, a surprising few of them take part in things. Some choose to avoid local events in fear of being pigeonholed as a local author, some just aren’t interested. I think those people are missing out. Sharon is not one of those people. She is often part of local readings, book fairs, markets, and other such things. And when she’s not part of it, she is always there to support the people who are. Published by Mirror World Publishing, the same Mirror World from last week’s post about Justine, Sharon has fully embraced the area.

Blog Tour Week One: Justine Alley Dowsett

Blog No. 295

Welcome to Week One of the Blog Tour. Where I focus on someone other than me. But only partially. I’ll definitely get to me. But for the most part I’m going to be talking about Justine Alley Dowsett and her newest book, Mirror’s Deceit. It’s part of The Mirror World Series of Fantasy books.

Justine has been writing for far longer than I have. She went into publishing (something I toyed with, with her help but have since abandoned) and is now the premier genre publisher in the city. The Mirror World books are written with her sister Murandy. Writing with another author can be enough of a challenge, writing with a sibling must take some serous control of your emotions. While I find that process fascinating (from what I understand, they act out the parts and write it all down, amazing) I am more interested in her choice of genre and how she writes books in series.

How do you Write?

Blog No. 217

I suppose a more accurate title for this post is how do I right, but I made the title based on a question I’ve received many times at many events over last year (and a few times before that). Also, I have to contend with Christian’s blog now, and he did a post about his writing, so I felt I had to one-up him some how. I’m going to do that by doing the same thing he did and hope that somehow works for some reason. Also, I’m going to talk about other things, because it’s my blog and I fell like it. Besides, I’m in a rotten mood because I was rear ended on Monday and I am once again fighting some illness. The disappointing thing is that I was having a good day otherwise.

All the Other Ones

Blog No. 201

Last week I was invited to a book launch/reading/jazz show. The author (Vanessa Shields) is a friend of mine, and I was looking forward to going to the show. Not only do I try to go to as many local events as possible (and try is about the best word I can use since I tend to fall short with all the events I am lucky to be invited to) I make it a point to support those local artists (or businesses, etc) who go our of their way to support others. Plus, she is a nice person and does good work. Some days, getting out back out in the evening after a slog at work is insurmountable. There have been dozens of events I’ve missed (this year alone) where everything from interest to desire was urging me to go, but fatigue won out (with a healthy dose of being behind on my own work) and I didn’t make it out. There are some I regret missing, there are others that (from what I’ve heard) I didn’t miss much, but beyond the support and the enjoyment, there is another good reason for me to go to as many shows and events as possible (and I’m not talking about exposure).

Blog No. 200

Blog No. 200

Does reaching a goal count when it wasn’t a goal in the first place? When I first started this blog, it was to capitalize on the followers that my friend and I have gained from our podcast. We started in the early days of podcasting (especially video podcasing) taking inspiration from things like Diggnation. (Remember Digg? Man that was a big deal for a short time). My buddy had the idea and the desire, and I was happy to join in. We focused on the newly released Wii and amassed a large fan base. When the podcast was coming to an end (due to various reasons) I started up the blog. I’d done some blogging on the podcast’s website (mostly updates and excuses) and I expected to be a real writer long before the whole Adventure Worlds thing happened, so I asked the podcast followers to follow me. Then I didn’t do many posts.

The Dying Days of Summer, The Birth of Autumn

Blog No. 197

This morning, while I was driving to work, I noticed a smell, and it wasn’t the sewage treatment plant I pass on the last leg of my journey. I was driving passed a beautiful wooded area (I’m lucky to have several small ones near me) and the air turned crisp. It didn’t last very long. By the time I was pulling into the parking lot (desperately searching for one good song before turning off the car and heading for the building) the sun was chasing the freshness away. We’re reaching an interesting time in our seasons, the transition into my favourite season. The mornings are going to become cooler and more invigorating (for me I suppose if you’re one of those people who can’t get enough blazing heat) but the afternoons still hang on to the summer sizzle. I never know how to dress, but at least I feel more alive for the start of the day.

Multi-Topic (Because one wasn’t enough)

Blog No. 196

The last few weeks have been stuffed full of tasks needing my attention. More than writing or publishing, I’ve had work, family, and general domestic responsibilities come home to roost. I’m not sure if any one of them is worthy of being a blog post on its own, but perhaps together they can make up the approximation of one. As usual, I’m not necessarily sure where I’m going from here. It may just be a list of stuff I’ve been doing (not including all the slacking off I manage to fit in throughout the week. But that could be fun right?