Geez, where to even start? Things are flying everywhere today and I’m not sure where to start. Just look at how late this post is coming and how I’m not even scheduling it. I wanted to finish a beta-reading project and send that off first. Things got shaky this morning with getting some stuff set up for Ritual of the Lost Lamb. I’ll mention that one:
Ritual of the Lost Lamb will go LIVE on Thursday, May 11th!
I’ve got everything, but I’m finishing up an editing run to be safe. Not to mention Sunday and Monday have events that made publishing this weekend impossible. At least with next Thursday, I get take a little more time to fine tune a few spots and prep some interviews that can go out that morning. Promoting is going to be a slight headache this time around only because many of the big sites appear to be booked solid for the next for months. So, this book might be getting less exposure than the previous ones. Fingers crossed as usual.
Speaking of promotions, I’m still trying to decide on what I’ll do with The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks. How much money do I put to it? With there not being much time between it and the Windemere book, I don’t know if I can toss a lot at this one. Yet, I feel like I have to do something for it. Then again, I might be able to do a lot with only $200 put towards it. It’s going to be rough since it will be starting up soon after the Windemere push finishes. Poor Ichabod. He’s practically sandwiched between Ritual of the Lost Lamb and Path of the Traitors. Guy can’t catch a break, but I got good feedback for the stories. Enough that I’m strongly considering doing another collection when things settle in the project department. I mean, I had 10-12 stories that didn’t make the cut this time too.
In other news, Protecting Bedlam was completed Wednesday afternoon. Getting a little nervous about this one because of the high emotions I keep seeing in politics. Even with a bunch of the changes, I’m afraid people might just start flipping out. This is going to be a long project too. Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday from June to September, but maybe it will help the published books sell. Don’t really have much else to lose on this one. I don’t have any pictures for this too, which is an issue. No point in getting a cover for a book that’s blog only and won’t bring in money. Might just forget that and depend on have the other covers on the bottom of each section with sales links. Another aside, this is a full book as well, so the sections won’t be small. I did as much chopping as I could, but some scenes required 5-7 pages with no smooth slash part.
Well, I’ve touched on all the projects. Life in general has been crazy-ish. My son has a school project that we’re finishing up today. All he has left is the part that mommy is in charge of, so I can get to those interviews/guest posts. A Friday storm prevented me from getting my pizza reward. Can’t remember the last time I got to it and next week might be out because I need every minute I can get. That and I’m making pizza muffins at some point. Repetition feels wrong to me when it comes to this reward.
One thing I wanted to talk about for a paragraph is lurking. This is coming out of left field, but it’s becoming a pet peeve. There are people who have asked me to speak more about my life on the blog and others who complain that I sometimes write vague allusions to what’s going on. Well, lurkers are the problem. This paragraph alone will bring some headaches, but here we go. You see, there are people who look at my blog and Facebook page without commenting in public. Instead, they email, message, or physically talk to me about these things, which gets awkward. It also makes me paranoid. Anybody else deal with this at times? I know these things are public, but getting into a real-life chat over a post can be a headache because it never happens when you’re ready for it.
Anyway, weekly goals:
- Finish editing Legends of Windemere: Ritual of the Lost Lamb.
- Publish Ritual of the Lost Lamb by Thursday morning.
- Dentist on Monday. Dang it.
- Work on guest posts and interviews now to make promo set up easier. Thing I have 6 of those on the docket.
- Figure out if I requested Soul Eater 23. Got 21-22 and 24-25, but not 23. Did I goof?
- Mention something fun about the new cover at the end of this post:
So, Jason mentioned that the new cover is connected to the first one. I’m going to post a side-by-side for everyone to see. Feel free to say what you think:
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- Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
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- Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Legends of Windemere 
Other than a tree and the clothes, I don’t see a connection. Wait maybe that’s it. I have never had your experience with e-mail. I’m glad too.
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Clothes and similar were part of it. The forest in the first one is rather lush and alive. Combined with his stance, it gives a hopeful look. The new one has a darker setting and Luke is rather crumpled to denote a level of despair. I think the face-to-face is worse than email though. At least I can put an email to the side if I’m not in the mood to respond.
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Face to face EEEK. You poor man.
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Yeah the poor part seems to come up a lot in these encounters. 🙂
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Ugh. Now I get it.
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Bad pun.
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There is always someone who wants to minimize what we do. It could be a snarky remark, or a private email that puts on a costume of being helpful. Just keep doing what you do.
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Thanks. Those ‘helpful’ messages are probably the worst.
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I tend to be a lurker, I admit it, but I’m trying to get better about commenting.
Don’t worry about the reaction to your Bedlam blog book, I’m sure there will be negative comments, but such is life.
Also, if you have that many more ideas for Ichabod Brooks, you should write them, I enjoyed beta reading that one and I’m sure lots of people will enjoy reading it.
Good luck with everything next week, sounds like you have a full plate.
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I guess most of us have lurker tendencies. I don’t mind most people who do it, but the ones that start responding in private tend to irk me.
It is life. Though, I guess I’m just naturally jittery. Hopefully , the negative comments aren’t as bad as I fear. It isn’t like I kept names, full descriptions, or made all of them obvious. Watch me get lectured for being too nice.
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the beta reading. I’ll probably wait a year or two before I do more Ichabod stories. This year needs to focus on finishing Legends and next year is up in the air. I need to get another series on deck while getting the naysayers over here to stop acting like the end of Legends means my career is over.
The plate seems to get fuller by the hour too. Makes me miss the days when I could pull an all-nighter and not suffer in the morning. Wednesday is the only full one I have for editing. Thank god I can reupload new versions too. I hate to take advantage of that system, but this final edit is more to put my own mind at ease.
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I envy your productivity! Well done on all projects and congrats on the imminent launch. Don’t forget to send me the relevant blog post to share 🙂
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You’re on the list. Just hoping I get all my ducks in a row in time. Life is not on my side this week.
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Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog.
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Thanks for the reblog
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You’re welcome
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I think some people eMail comments because it’s easier for them. I mean, if you’re using Twitter to comment on blog posts – like I’m doing here – you can’t get the notifications about further comments sent to you (at least, it won’t let me tick that box any more after I sign in with my Twitter account, anyhow). My theory is that some people don’t want to have to keep coming back to check for replies to their comments, so they send you an eMail instead. I could be totally wrong, of course, but it sounds like a reasonable theory to me.
Anyway, sorry you missed out on your pizza reward again. Good luck with getting everything sorted in time for the release on Thursday, and with your dentist appointment.
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That’s probably for some. Others I know aren’t on WordPress, Twitter, or Facebook. They refuse to get on these things, but they’re lurking. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with this. Yet, there are times where the person seems to only show up when I’m down and to criticize. Doing this without even making it public when I made the initial information public irks me. Usually because it’s people on this side of the computer and they’re looking for ammo to get me to do something or stop doing something.
I’m hoping to have at least most of this sorted out. Thankfully, this editing run is mostly for putting my own mind at ease. So, the story is solid enough for me to publish now. I just want to make sure on this one because of the shift into darkness.
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I can see why that would bother you.
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I see the tree and the same outfit. I like that there is a connection.
Congrats on completing Bedlam. Wow. You have so much going on!
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One could say too much going on. I basically have 3 days to edit 205 pages just to put my mind at ease. Things have already gone wrong. My 9 am dentist appointment was actually 10 am, so I had to come home and now go back. Probably cost me an 30-60 minutes of editing time. Wednesday is the only full day I have for this. Needless to say, I’m getting nervous.
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Lurkers
I’m a lurker
you’re a lurker
he’s a lurker
she’s a lurker
wouldn’t ya like
to a lurker
too?
And that’s it for now…prolly more than my arm could take.
{{{Charles}}}
Ellespeth
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Sorry to hear that. Hope your is getting better.
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