Two in Two Days!

Blog No. 334

I forgot how fun it can be to go to an event and actually sell some books. Don’t get me wrong. It’s work. It’s making sure everything is organized and packed ahead of time, getting up early and piling everything into the car, finding where you are supposed to go and where you can (or can’t) park, then carrying everything to your table, sitting there for eight or more hours, packing it all up, and heading home. Most of the day is spent sitting at the table, greeting the people who wander by, giving the same pitch over and over again. It seems like no big deal, but it can be exhausting. When you have two events in two day, in two cities (though it’s easier when one of them is in your home town) the fatigue is magnified. Those days can feel like years. Sure, it can be fun and when you go year after year, you make friends, but the one thing that helps more than anything else is getting the first sale and keeping the momentum from there.

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The Neon Heart – Release

Blog No. 333

The Neon Heart is out! It’s official, it’s available, and it has a very loud cover. The book took me a lot longer to finish than I had hoped. It is a lot longer than I had planned too, though. The initial idea for the series was to capture the crowd that wants to read, but doesn’t have a lot of time. I got a lot of good feedback from people who bought No Light Tomorrow just to be nice, but ended up finding it approachable and really liked it. I figured, why not make a fun, fast paced book, at a non-intimidating length? They’ll eat it up. They did not. The Thinking Machine sold okay, but it did not have the monster sales I had hoped. It was, however, a new book that I could bring to events and advertise. For The Neon Heart, I changed gears a little. I listened to the feedback from the people who did buy the last one. Thinking Machine was too short and felt rushed. They loved the format, though. With that in mind, I let the story in Neon Heart drive the size. Now I have a book two in the Novella Series and it is the best thing I’ve ever written.

The Final Sprint & The Penultimate Stumble

Blog No. 330

You’re reading this on Thursday (or maybe not, but it’s posted on Thursday). That means tomorrow is the day I’m supposed to get The Neon Heart to the printer in a desperate attempt to get good copies in my hand for April 14th for the Sarnia Pop Culture Show. I say good because so far every first printing I’ve done with IngramSpark has had issues. Everything from falling apart in my hand to having the interior text shifted into the gutter. For some reason, everything after that first print run has been good (for the most part). Three weeks isn’t the best amount of time to leave for the setup, printing, and shipping, but my timetable was moved forward since I’m not going to Shock Stock this year (as I’ve said). The problem is, now I won’t be ready to even submit my final setup to the printer tomorrow.

Let’s Do an Update

Blog No. 328

It’s March. Like, already. Every year things move ever faster towards the inevitable. But until then, let’s talk about what’s going on with my various projects. The obvious one is The Neon Heart, but there’s a novel in there, various events, Flags and High Fives, my progress towards ebooks, the day job, and probably something else. (I’m sure I’ll come up with more as I write this). We also seem to be in the middle of another cold snap (at least when the sun isn’t out). I’m not going to say that that has a huge impact on my writing and all those other things, but I’m not going to say it doesn’t. Enough delays (I suppose) time to get to the nitty-gritty.

February: The Busiest Month?

Blog No. 326

So far, February has been a blur of activity, work, and circumstances. Unexpectedly, it may end up being the busiest month I have this year. I thought April would be a shoo-in, but I may end up not going to Shock Stock (they may not have the room). I still have two other events that month, but neither of them is overnight. The Neon Heart is due in April as well, but since I am currently working on that right now (furiously) I don’t think I will be any more busy with it. (Famous last words, perhaps?). I do hope to get a first (and maybe second) draft of a novel done this year, but while that will be a ton of work, it will be spread out over months. I could end up having some absolutely monstrous months head, but for now, February has completely taken me by surprise.

One Down, Infinity to Go

Blog No. 325

The Guelph GenreCon is done, and I’m going to talk about it (here, in just a few sentences) but I want to start with tomorrow’s reading! It’s tomorrow! I’m really excited about this one, even though I was overwhelmed with all kind of things running up to it (some also exciting like GenreCon and some really stupid). Either way, I feel like it was partially in cruise-control and partially being steered by Christian while I was running around, waving my arms, as if I were on fire. Then, in the last moment, when the other stuff calmed down and the reality sinking in that this reading was just days away, I started to focus and get to work. By then, there wasn’t much more to do. I’ve practiced my reading, made some facebook posts, and delivered some copies of Thinking Machine to Biblioasis. Not much more to do before tomorrow, now. One last thing about tomorrow’s reading. You should go. It’s got Elly Blake, Brittni Brinn, Christian (if you like that sort of thing) and me! And it’s in a really cool place and we will have coffee and timbits.

Year Six Recap (Because I’ve been doing this for Six Years)

Blog No. 320

There is only one blemish on my record (in six years) but I will never let myself live it down. I have posted on this blog every Thursday since 2013, except for April 13th 2013 when I posted on a Saturday. I had a good(ish) reason. I was substitute teaching at the time and I had to go in on the Thursday. Realistically, If I have planned better or used my time more effectively, I still would have been able to get the post out on time, but I didn’t. It stand as the one flub in an otherwise pretty good record. It makes me feel like this achievement (such as it is) has an asterisk next to it. But enough dwelling on the bad. I’ve been doing this for six years. I’m sure I can come up with some good stuff to talk about. Like books and statistics and other oh-so-exciting things! Buckle up, it’s a long one.