‘Cause I Just Don’t Have Enough To Do

So my latest thing is I’m thinking about doing a newsletter focusing on my book and the upcoming sequel as well as other writing, and offering some exclusive content (backstory on characters, new stuff related to the Revenants series and other projects), contests and giveaways. Yeah I know, like I don’t have enough to do already, right?

If you’d like to sign up you can do so here. Unfortunately with WordPress.com sites you can’t embed the forms so I have to have an off-site page for it. I’ll be moving the blog to a self-hosted site soon, though. I’m not sure when I’ll start sending out the newsletter, and it will be monthly if I can keep up. Otherwise maybe every other month, so you won’t be inundated with stuff every week.

The white flowers below are Oregon’s state flower, the trillium. It’s protected, so don’t pick them if you see them.

Entmoot

Outstanding in its field

The eagle is landing

fine specimen

wild herd of trillium

We’re still getting a lot of fog in the mornings, as you can see.

Revenants Abroad and My Battle with CreateSpace.

Just so you guys know, at this point I do not plan to move forward with paper copies of Revenants Abroad. I’m so disgusted with CreateSpace/Amazon’s destruction of the cover art, I can’t bring myself to sell print copies. I can’t understand why the perfectly good artwork that was supplied to them is turned into a murky mess, and they refuse to do anything about it. Their only solution was to tell me to upload a lighter version of the artwork. I don’t have the original artwork, or Photoshop, to manipulate it in. For comparison, here is the original image:

And THIS is what they did to it. These are the first two proof copies I received, the third is exactly the same. I haven’t even bothered to check the actual text inside. I just want to cry every time I look at this.

I’ve never seen anything like it. If anyone else has had a similar experience with CreateSpace I’d love to hear about it. I was told this was “within acceptable variances.” They also said something about “spacing” which basically meant they didn’t address the issue at all and all I got was a canned response. Obviously they couldn’t care less about the quality of the books they publish.

Oregon Spring

I’ve been taking loads of pictures lately, just no time to post. Here’s a selection the last week or so. Some of the dates are wrong, typos, ya know. But just in case spring is late in your part of the world, enjoy these pictures.

Not much else going on. Still working with CreateSpace to try to get the cover image for Revenants Abroad printed right. They’ve sent me two proof copies and both were so dark you could hardly see the details and colors in the background. I’m very frustrated. It’s not brain surgery, it shouldn’t be this hard. Let’s hope third time’s the charm.

Revenants Abroad – Chapter 27

Chapter 27 is up on on Wattpad! I’m getting nervous now, down to the wire before I pull it off Wattpad and launch the paper copy on Amazon. :::chews nails::: The final chapter, 28, will post on Saturday. I’ll give it a week, and then the whole thing comes down so I can make it available for sale on Amazon. Get caught up now, if you’re not buying the book!

And we’re finally getting a break in the gray and the wet we’ve had. The rivers are still way up, water’s lapping at the edge of the road in places where I drive, but we’re supposed to be dry for the next week or so. I was able to get a few shots this morning on the way to work. Oddly it was clearer at my house than further down the road where I was once again swallowed up by the fog. This first shot is from my front porch. It’s a little blurry, but the color took my breath away.

The bright purple and reddish-orange faded very quickly to soft pinks

Unfortunately all my shots of the high water in the marsh came out like this:

Which is what happens most of the time. The point is, normally you can’t actually see the water here. So yeah, it’s been soggy.

Revenants Abroad – Chapter 26

Chapter 26 went live yesterday, sorry to be a day late with the notice! Only two more chapters to go after this so time is winding down to read it for free online. There have now been over 5000 reads of Revenants Abroad on Wattpad, so thank you everyone! 😀

Breakfast Club

Rainfree County

Foggy pond

I heard that

Telling secrets

Revenants Abroad – Chapter 25

Chapter 25 is up now on Wattpad! Three left to go, I’ll give it a week and then pull it to get the paper copy up on Amazon. As I’ve mentioned previously, Amazon’s terms are such that if the book is available anywhere for free, they will make it free as well. So… I am forced to remove it from Wattpad when I put the paper copy up for sale. Hope everyone who wants to has a chance to finish it before then.

I’m making slow progress on the sequel, and feeling sidetracked by a couple of other stories I started and want to work on.

Picture is not compressed, if you care to embiggen. Sunrise dressed in blue and gray this morning.

Revenants Abroad – Chapter 23

Chapter 23 is up now on Wattpad! Only five more to go. And as I’ve said I will be removing it from Wattpad entirely about a week after the final chapter posts so I can make it available on Amazon, so not too much longer until the paper copies will be for sale.

So today started out incredibly foggy, cleared later, then the fog was starting to come back on the way home. I really liked the clouds that look like a halo around the tree. It was so odd, lined up just right for that shot.

Revenants Abroad – Chapter 22

Chapter 22 is up now on Wattpad! I want to sincerely thank everyone who’s reading along. I have to say I’ve been a little surprised by the demographics of the readership on Wattpad for this story. The largest percentage (44%) list their age as “over 45”, and more surprising to me is 22% are male. Interestingly most of the engagement I’ve had with people on Twitter about the story has been with men. One reader said, “definitely felt like a more traditional vamp novel with the act of feeding so sexualized”  and that he was looking forward to a sequel. There is a love triangle in the book, but I think it’s first and foremost a buddy story. Mostly they’re trying to survive without getting killed. If you’ve been hesitant to check it out, thinking it’s another YA vampire romance with sparkles, I assure you it’s not.

A question I get a lot is, “Is there going to be a sequel?”

Why yes! Yes there is.

I’m working on it, but need to get back into NaNoWriMo mode and crank out some wordage every day.

And with that, I will leave you with this:

Revenants Abroad–Chapter 21

In which our hero takes matters into his own hands… Neko and Anne-Marie are off to Greece, leaving Andrej and a couple of hired thugs free to do what needs to be done.

Chapter 21 can be read free on Wattpad (and yanno, chapters 1-20 as well…)

So here’s a thing. I’ve been contacted twice by people on Wattpad looking to swap ‘votes for votes.’ Maybe this is how some of them reach the rankings they get, by ‘buying’ or swapping votes. My sense of fair play was offended. I won’t do it. I’ve heard of this being done on other sites, a “you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours” set up. The corollary I fear is that if I don’t, will these people feel snubbed and try to keep people away from my story(ies)? I don’t know. I’m still learning my way around Wattpad and discovering the “clubs” (discussion boards). It seems there’s still a great deal I don’t know about the site. I’ve been disappointed not to even receive any comments on the book, although people have contacted me outside that venue to talk to me about it.

I’m nearing the end of it on Wattpad. There are 7 chapters to go and then I’ll give it a week or so and pull it so I can upload it to CreateSpace and make paper copies available. Amazon’s terms do not allow the book to be available for free elsewhere, or they’ll make it free, too. I’m not sure if I’ll keep it on Smashwords or move it to the Kindle platform and other resellers directly (Barnes and Noble, and Kobo, most notably). I’ll have to see what’s involved.

So anyhoo, here are a few shots from this morning’s commute. Lovely to have a break in the rain. Happy Wednesday!

 

Revenants Abroad–Chapter 19

Chapter 19 posted on Wattpad this morning! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to read about my little group of vampires and humans. It’s still kind of surreal to me that it’s out there and anybody AT ALL is reading it. Lots of questions about the sequel, which is in the works, but it’s way too early even for me to know what’s going to happen! It’s interesting to see which characters become favorites, though.

And a couple pics. I was surprised to see Venus and Mercury in the sky last evening on my way home. I stopped on the road to get pics, just wish I’d had my tripod (or better, telescope) with me. Timestamp is 5:55PM EST, looking south. I rather like this pic:

And this morning:

 

 

Happy Hump Day!