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Book Review: Mik Murdoch by Mike Plested (available from Five Rivers Publishing August 1, 2012)
Growing up as a kid in the backwoods of Minnesota I spent a great deal of time dreaming of what I would do if I had super powers. I had read a lot of comics and knew a lot of different super heroes. I spent a lot of time staring down a tree trying to bend it to my will. I never succeeded. I jumped off a lot of things in an effort to fly. I’m lucky that I never broke anything. I held my breath for what felt like hours and it turned out to only be seconds. I found tools and old objects in the ‘dump’ we had in our back yard.
The ‘dump’ was a large hole in the ground that we were trying to fill in so people would ‘dump’ all sorts of things back there. A lot of broken lumber, old cars, appliances, trees. It was great fun to explore as the pile changed all the time. My brother and I had built a tree house from scraps, put knobs and dials on the walls. Constructed our own contraptions that did many different things.
What I’m saying here is Mike has written a book that really hit home for me.
As a Reader: Mik, for me, is a typical boy. One who is not content with just being a boy. He wants to do more and be more than he is. He tries hard and when bullies knock him down he gets right back up. When he runs into a problem he can’t solve, he tries to gain super powers to over come them. That’s just like any eight-year-old I know. Through trial and error Mik succeeds in failing in many interesting ways. Along the way he’s bullied by a girl and her dog, a glowing turkey, and continues to work hard along the way.
This book is intended for middle-school to young adult and it’s a fun story. It’s told in a series of events throughout the school year and each has Mik working hard to resolve the problem or situation at hand. Not the least of which is keeping his superhero secret identity from his parents. Mike Plested does a great job with building Mik up, giving him challenges that he must think his way through, and work hard to overcome. Not everything he does is successful and Mik learns through trial and error.
As a Writer: When I got through the first half of this book, I had thought the story telling was a little bumpy in spots and I had gotten into the meat of the story. What I discovered was this wasn’t just one story, but multiple stories all wrapped into one. I loved the way Mik went through all his attempts trying to discover how to achieve his own super powers and always had to come to a solution that made sense and fit within the reality of the story.
Mik’s growth from frustrated kid trying to gain super powers to a boy moderately satisfied with accomplishing tasks within his own means is a fun growth arc. For the most part Mik is left to his own devices though there are times when his parents intervene on his behalf and that helps to add to the realism of his growth. The adults are not clueless, but don’t pry too much which gives Mik freedom to do what needs to be done to work on achieving his dream.
Recommendation: Mik Murdoch is intended for a younger audience. Knowing that going in will allow older readers to enjoy this story. Even if this isn’t your cup of tea, it’ll make great reading for your middle schooler or young adult reader. A fun journey of a young boy and his dog (Krypto). From what I can tell we’re not done with Mik. Or at least we can hope we’ll see more. This is only the start of great things to come from Mr. Plested. I’m glad to say I was there from the start.
Daily Update: Back to the grind
Today after a long weekend I’ve got the nose to the old grindstone.
I say that, but I do love my job. Obviously my dream job would be to sit around all day writing the words I want to write instead of the ones that make me money, but I still love my job. Writing code is still a creative outlet. Writing documentation and requirements, well, I can do it even if it’s dull work. At least I’m sitting inside on the computer and I can get up and grab something from the fridge when I want it.
Do you want to know what my favorite part of this weekend was? I’m sure you do. It was taking a picture of couple of ducks.
NO! Wait.It was my favorite daughter learning to ride a bike. Mostly riding a bike.
When I was a kid and I wanted to go somewhere, I didn’t ask Mom or Dad “Hey, can you take me over there?” They had their own things to do and as a boy I was left to my own devices if I wanted to go somewhere. If I walked it could take a painfully long time to get from point A to point B. So if I didn’t want to walk somewhere, I had to learn how to ride a bike. It was a powerful motivator for me. Living in the sticks like I did meant everything was a good distance away and to get there took a good deal of time on foot. So I learned how to ride a bike.
My favorite daughter never had that motivation because we drove her to school, drove her to her friend’s parties or she got picked up. We live in the city and even though it’d be a short bike ride, it’s in the city. I’m not a fan of my favorite daughter out there on the road where some driver not paying attention could run her down. Call me over protective, but I’ve seen too many bad drivers.
It wasn’t from lack of trying. We used to spend a lot more time camping and she did have a bike with training wheels, but where we camped it was just as easy to bike as it was to walk. Again, not a lot of motivation.
This weekend was different. We’d bought her the bike some time ago and she’d been on it a couple of times, but never for very long and she never really got the hang of it. So I took her out bike riding and had her run with her legs down and balance. Then put one foot on the pedals. Then two feet. Just coasting, not pedaling. She knew she had to pedal so she started doing that on her own. Sure it took the better part of a day and we started and stopped many times, but she got the hang of it enough that the next time her friends said “Hey! Let’s go ride bikes” She was able to go with.
It was a proud dad moment, that’s for sure.
In other news, I’ll be writing like a madman again this week.
In even more news, I interviewed Mike Plested about his book, Mik Murdoch. Check out the interview here.
I’m off to go find more pictures of ducks.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Jack Kane Edits are done
Last night I had a marathon of editing and I got through the rest of Jack Kane. I got through the last third of the book and my oh my does my brain still feel like mush. Not in a bad way. More like the way when you decide to walk for the first time in months and you feel wiped out but there’s the surge of endorphins that makes you feel elated. I’m riding that kind of high today.
What Mike and I created together is a fun, fast-paced book. It’s still got a couple of holes that Mike and I will likely pass back and forth and fill in, but over all it’s a fun story. A little more polish and we’ll get it sent off to beta readers, some editing friends, and then it’ll be the big agent hunt. Our intention is to find an agent or publisher for this book. We’ve already talked that one through.
We’ve both read and re-read all the talk of going Indie, contracts, royalty rates, and the like. At this point in our careers it’s a matter of gaining momentum. Once we have that momentum, there’s nothing wrong with creating another property and going Indie. It’s a matter of keeping an eye on the contracts to make sure all the clauses are in order. I also have friends that know contracts and have offered to give them the once over to make sure we’re not signing over rights that we should retain.
I was going to write a long post about “To Indie or Not to Indie” but I will write that when my brain isn’t as mushy as it currently is. I tried to read a little before I went to bed and I could barely keep my eyes open. I also slept in until nearly 9AM. That hasn’t happened in a long time and it felt great. Nearly 12 hours of sleep. After the week I had and getting through the edits of Jack Kane, I think I earned that little nap.
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. I don’t know when I’ll get around to my daily update so Happy Mother’s day to all you moms out there. I hope someone special in your life makes the day extra special for you.
Today is too beautiful of a day to stay inside. Tomorrow I’ll write about Mother’s Day. And Ducks.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: The ebook pricing debate
It seems that every couple of months (sometimes monthly) a battle will rage about the pricing of ebooks. Because of the Department of Justice stepping in claiming that the Big 6 are doing bad things, price fixing, the agency model, and so many other terms, the internet is abuzz with information right now. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone is claiming that people want cheaper ebooks. People want to spend less money on books than what the Big 6 is charging. I keep hearing all this noise.
I’m subscribed to a lot of blogs and have done enough reading to formulate an opinion. I’ve even given myself time to digest all of this information to be able to form a coherent thought about all of this. Being that I’ve bought books for a good majority of my adult life (and enough of my teen life) I know enough about books and how much they cost. Do you want to know what I think about all of this?
People will pay what they’re going to pay.
It really is that simple. It doesn’t matter if an ebook is $14.99 or if it’s .99. It really doesn’t matter. People will pay what they’re going to pay. Let me explain
I’ve bought a lot of books. Boxes and boxes of books. I love to read. There are some authors (like Tad Williams) that I will buy the hardcover as soon as it is out and devour it. I’ve paid as much as $29.99 for a hard cover novel. It never bothered me. Other authors, let’s just take Piers Anthony as an example, I’ll pick up his books in trade paper back. The most I’ve paid for a Piers Anthony novel is around $6.99 or $7.99. The point is, the price isn’t what got me to make the purchase. The author is what got me to make the purchase.
But that’s physical books. Perhaps I’ve put more worth on having a physical copy, right? Well, let’s look at my buying as of late.
I’ve picked up a lot of free ebooks. I’ve read a couple. They’re alright. I’ve picked up a large number of .99 books. I’ve read a few. They’re also alright. I haven’t picked up a stinker of a .99 book yet because I’m picky. I’ve picked up a few stinker free ebooks and I can see why the person is giving them away. These make up less than half of what’s on my ereader at the moment. Most of what’s on my ereader? Samples and books over $4.99.
That’s right. I only have a few books in the $2.99 – $4.99 range. Why? I really like the authors and I wanted to get their novels. I will always buy a Stephen King novel. I love his writing even if Under the Dome left me underwhelmed with the ending. I still loved the characters, the incidents, the mystery. The ending just sucked but I still got my money’s worth. I’ve picked up 11.22.63 and the Wind Through the Keyhole. It doesn’t matter what the price it. I’ve got a few Mike Stackpole novels on there as well. Again, I’ll buy whatever he produces because I really enjoy his style of writing.
But let’s look at the samples. Do I only pick big 6 books? NO! I’ve got a lot of Nightshade books (bought some of them outright), I’ve got Apex books, Edge/Tesseracts, Pyr, and I do also have some Big 6 books. The publisher isn’t what’s driven me to purchase the books. It’s the author being out there, talking about their book. It’s me getting to know the person that wrote the novel, looking at the first few chapters in the sample and I’ll buy a copy. I’ve got Skalzi’s Redshirts on my reader. Fun stuff. I’ll be buying the book when it comes out. Doesn’t matter what the price is. I know I want to read this book. I’ve done this with many authors.
Beyond that, I’ve got Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds also. Why? I’ve read his blog. I enjoy his writing style. I will pick up the next book I know even though I haven’t read the first. It didn’t matter what the price was. I wanted the book, I bought it.
You may think, “Well you must have a lot of extra money to buy all these books.” Not really. I don’t spend as much on books as you might think. I’ve gotten some book that I was waiting on when they were suddenly free on the Kindle. I’ve won a couple in giveaways. Some were dropped to .99 and I couldn’t pass up on that deal. I’ve even gotten a couple free because I blog and every once in a while I’ll do a book review. Give me a free book, I’ll review it. It’s the least I can do.
But my point is I’ve only a few times in my life cringed at book prices. You want to charge me $21.99 for an ebook? That’s pushing the limit a little too far. Unless it’s an omnibus with three or four novels. Then I’ll pick it up. I bought the Stieg Larsson books for $29.99. Why not. That’s three books. They’re getting great reviews. They seem to be worth the price. I’ve also picked up a trilogy for $2.99 because the premise sounded interesting.
I’ve bought books from people I follow on twitter. Why? They seems like interesting people and I like to support interesting people.I’ve got a few Scott Roche books on my ereader and I do need to get through them and review them. Same with Justin Macumber and Zoe Winters.
So where do I think books should be priced? Well, I think that depends. If you’re an indie author who’s got one or two books out, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick them up for .99. If you’ve got several books out then I wouldn’t be surprised to see them at $2.99 as I would think you’ve got more books out, you’re good at this writing thing. If you’re doing this for a living and making money and you’ve got a proven track record, I’d be more than happy to pay $5.99 and up for one of your works.
My point is it’s not the price that’s important or at stake here. It’s the author. Price for me depends on how established you are. Do I like what you’re doing and I’ll be willing to pay $12.99 or more for your new novel (like the next Wheel of Time book) or are you a brand new author who I’m willing to take a chance on? It’s not a hard and fast rule. You can’t put a line in the sand and say “No one will ever pay more than this” because you’ll be wrong. Sales figures prove that. Look at the Amazon top 100 and you’ll see prices all over the map. It’s something personal and something that each author needs to figure out for themselves. Just because J.A Konrath says “$2.99 is the golden price point for a book.” Doesn’t make it true. It only makes it true for him. It makes it true for people who’ve set their price at that level and had success.
What are your thoughts on ebook pricing? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
Tomorrow I’ll write about ducks
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: May Gray
In the San Diego area we have something every year called May Gray. It’s when the marine layer comes in and engulfs the city with haze. This will run into June and become June Gloom. It normally burns off, but every morning is filled with fog and dampness. This means if you wash your car, it’ll most likely be dirty the next day due to the overnight moisture.
What this means for me is headaches. The high humidity helps my sinuses fill to the bursting point. It’d be nice if I could just blow my nose and be done with it, but that doesn’t happen. Ah well. Life goes on.
Yesterday my favorite daughter was supposed to be back at volleyball practice. She had to do a one mile run on Monday so her ankle was sore and she didn’t practice. Darn it. There’s always tomorrow.
I started this post early in the morning. It’s not 8:30PM and I’m just getting back to it. It’s been one of those days where everything happens to keep you from getting back at it. I’ll get over it.
I met with my co-author, Mike Plested, tonight and we had a great conversation. We’ve both been busy wrangling cats and find a point where our paths cross has been difficult. Somehow the stars aligned and we both looked into the face of God and saw each other looking back.
Okay, that’s just weird. But we discussed several things including: Marketing the Action Pack Podcast to reach a larger audience, Beta readers for Jack Kane and the Statue of Liberty (now that editing will be off to him shortly), our top secret project, and several other things. Our paths are intertwined at this point and that’s a big plus. Mike has gotten some great contacts out there in the writing universe, I’ve got…production value? Yeah, let’s go with that. I’ve been cranking out a large number of words and I intended to keep getting more and more written this year. I’ve only just begun.
Since the first of the year I’ve written nearly 184,000 words. I’ve completed a few new short stories, the Action Pack, gotten deep into To Fall From the Sky (to be shelved until a later time), and more. I’m 20 days (roughly) ahead of schedule and I couldn’t feel better about it.
Yes, I should be doing more to promote myself. I’ve been lacking in that department. This summer I plan on stepping that up. June will be a very VERY (did I say very?) busy month. It’s JuNoWriMo. I am taking a vacation at the end of the month. There’s more volleyball practice. I’ll be starting a new project at work. There are other personal issues that shall not be discussed here. Even with all that going on I’m still going to blog daily and I will complete JuNoWriMo (50,000 words in the month of June) before I go on vacation. I know I can do it.
This is what I mean when I say I’m in production mode. I’m producing more words than I ever have before. It feels great and the May Gray and June gloom will do nothing to stop me from writing more.
On the reading front (you may have noticed a couple of book reviews) I’m reading Stephen King’s 11.22.63 and The Wind Through the Keyhole. I’ll post reviews on those once complete. I’m loving 11.22.63, The Wind Through the Keyhole, not so much. One feels like a great King novel, the other feels like… It’s hard to say but it’s almost like he’s just trying to cash in on the Dark Tower once more. It’ll all be in the review.
I’ve got some editing to do before I get to bed. My talk with Mike distracted me away from writing about ducks. I’ll get to them tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Oh my mouse!
Yesterday was a busy day. A lot of work needed to happen and it did. Once I finished with all that work stuff, I picked up my favorite daughter from school and we headed over to my mother-in-law’s house.
She had a busy day with doctors opening her chest up just a little so they could replace her pacemaker’s battery. While they were in there, they poked around and everything looked good so they just replaced the battery. They didn’t go any further than that. Today she’s doing great. The outpatient procedure went without a hitch.
My father-in-law proved how sneaky he can be. With a bunch of us there he asked who would like something to eat from the taco shop. He took orders, called it in. I told my favorite daughter “Let’s go. We’ll pick up the food.” I know he had a stressful day at the hospital and I figured he needed a rest. He thanked me and said not to leave for ten of fifteen minutes. It’ll take a while for the food to be ready. I said, “Oh, ok.” My favorite daughter and I sat back down and he took the roundabout way to get out where I couldn’t see him and next thing I know I see his truck driving up the street.
I could only sit there and laugh. I guess with a waiting room filled with stressed out family members, he just wanted a couple minutes of alone time as all of them followed him home as well.
We ate, we talked, we laughed. My mother-in-law looked tired, but was in great spirits. Today she’s doing even better.
So today was an even earlier day than yesterday. I’m used to getting up at 5am or 5:30am. I’ve done that many times before. Today it was 4:30am because I needed to be in the office by 6am for an early morning call that, of course, got pushed back to 6:30am once I was in the office. Well, these things happen. I made good use of the time.
I was happy to be in the office. I have my mouse once again. A week without it and it feels like finding an old friend. It’s like riding a bike. It’s like sitting down and clicking all the right buttons and having the mouse do what I want versus not having the buttons I need at all. The bug mouse will be put back into cold storage until another day when I forget my mouse in the office again. I hope that’s not any time soon.
I’ve given serious consideration to getting a mouse with more buttons. I keep seeing gaming mice with a large number of buttons (one has a 12 digit thumbpad), but I’m sure more than I’d need, but I see other mice with a few more buttons than I have now. It’s one of those things that once you get used to the buttons, you miss them. I’ll keep it under consideration for now.
Another thing I’m thinking about doing it putting a SSD (Solid State Drive) into my netbook and upgrading to Windows 7. But I might make it a linux machine or even a dual boot. I’m not sure just yet. I’m still thinking about this one. I love the keyboard on the netbook so I’m not thinking about getting rid of it just yet. I also saw a way to replace the screen with a touchscreen for around $100. I might do that too, we’ll have to wait and see. Like I said, I like my netbook, it’s just a little slow. I’ll have to see what I can do with it first.
On the writing front. Edits for Jack Kane and progressing nicely. I’m about 8 or 9 chapters in. Probably 30 more to go (or less I’m not sure). There’s lots to edit, I don’t think any major rewrites will be required. There will be some new chapters needed to fill in a couple small gaps, but overall it’s looking good. Once I complete my edits, they’ll be over to Mr. Plested and he’ll be able to give them the once over and then it’s off to Beta Readers.
Speaking of readers, Don’t Eat the Bread is not out in the wild. It should be available on the Nook, Kindle, and Smashwords. Go pick yourself up a copy and let me know what you think.
There is a lot to do, so I’d better get to doing it. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll write about ducks. We’ll see.
Until Tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
Daily update:a short post today
Today is a busy day. I got up early. Got an oil change on the truck. Got the air conditioner recharged. Got it washed inside and out. I am now washing the Tahoe and I will fill er up with gas.
This afternoon my favorite daughter has a volleyball clinic. Hopefully her ankle hold up today and she’ll be able to play in tomorrow’s game. Her team is the #1 seed and they do need her. It has been difficult for her to sit on the sideline during practice and not participate.
Tonight we will be heading up to LA. We have a two hour drive ahead of us. This will be the furthest tournament we have driven to. It is also the last ‘real’ tournament for the regular club play. So my favorite daughter is trying to deny her ankle hurts.
I went walking this morning again. I am not back to walking every day but I can do two miles in thirty minutes. It feels good to get outside and stretch my legs again. The shin splints don’t seem to be bothering me and that’s a huge plus.
On the writing front: I completed My Teacher is a Werewolf. I will give that an edit of my own before sending it off for further editing. While I let that one digest for a bit I have dived head first into the Jack Kane edits. Once I complete those it’ll be off to Mr Plested for his edits then off to beta readers. A lot is happening on the writing front.
I was thinking of changing the format of these daily updates. Thoughts? Opinions? I would love to hear them. I know there will be more book reviews in the future. I am heart done with Mike Stackpole’s In Hero Years I’m Dead. A review will follow.
There is still a lot to do today. So…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: It’s the little things.
I’ve always heard bigger is better. To an extend I subscribe to that concept. But big things can come in small packages.
Take for instance two little things that can in the mail. One yesterday and one today. Both made me extremely happy. The first was a 32GB USB drive. It’s actually smaller in size than the 4GB I was using, but it’s bigger where it counts. Of course I’m only using a very small portion of its capacity, but I’ll figure out what to do with it.
The other little item I got is even smaller. It’s a 32GB Micro SD. I have a xoom tablet that I use for everything these days except for writing. I had filled up a 16GB micro sd card and have made some music and video purchase I wanted to include on the card. It’s, obviously, the same size as the 16GB in physical dimensions, but with twice the capacity.
Now why did I buy myself a couple little things? I felt like I deserved it. Why did I deserve it? Because I hit my one third mark. I’m now 150,000 words into my 2012 goal. I bribed myself with a couple little gifts for hitting a goal. A little less than half of those words are new fiction, the rest would be blog posts.I can’t remember the last time I’d written this many words in a year and I’m just getting started. I’ve got big plans and here’s what I’m planning.
I’m going to finish up My Teacher is a Werewolf. I’m only about half way with that one, but should be able to knock it out quickly. I need to record the next episode of Golden West. That story is really shaping up. Left off on a couple good cliffhangers. Then I’ll be starting Of Gnomes and Dwarves. As much as I hate to do it, To Fall From the Sky just isn’t going where I want, it’s not keeping my interest right now, and it’s slowing me down. I need to get into a work that’ll excite me again and get me fired up to sit and write.
Speaking of getting fired up, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here. I’m going to do the complete read through/edit of Jack Kane and the Statue of Liberty. I won’t count that 100% toward my word goal, but I will count the edits/rewrites as 1/4 word for each word edited. So I need to edit at least 5000 words per day to hit my writing goal. I think I can manage that. Once those edits are done, I’ll fire that over to Mike who’ll give it his once over and then it’s off to Beta Readers.
Only then will I begin Of Gnomes and Dwarves. I love everything about those books. I know that I love them more than they deserve as the writing is utter crap. I’ve done some reads of the start. It’s bloated, very slow in parts, even slower in the beginning, but has a great story to be told. I won’t be changing the story much, but I will change how it was written, paced, and make it a stronger story. I started it over 20 years ago. I think I’ve gotten a little better at this writing stuff.
Once I finish with that, I’m going to write the sequel to V&A Shipping. No, I haven’t gotten the first picked up by a publisher yet. I had told myself long ago not to write any sequels until I’d gotten the first in a series published. But I’ve got a wonderful idea for the sequel and it’s just begging to be told. If you liked the first, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the second.
My plan, after those two, is to write the sequel to Astel. Again, this is a sequel that’s been banging on the side of my head for years and needs to be written. I put out Astel over a year ago and many people have asked where the next book it. It’ll be there soon enough.
That’s what I’ve got scheduled for the near future. I’m not going to try and plan too far out. I might sneak in another My Teacher is a… depending on how the second is received. My Teacher is a Zombie has gotten good reviews by those who’ve read it, but sadly sales aren’t there. I know I need to do a lot more about this self promotion stuff, but I feel I need a bigger body of work for people to pick and choose from.
I still have a couple short stories out there that I’m waiting on edits for. I have covers. They’re awesome! Once I get the edits, the ebook will be assembled and BANG! Out there.
But right now I’m just spending a lot of time talking about writing instead of actually writing. So…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: I won a book!
Every once in a while (probably more than I know) Tor.com gives away books. Entry is usually quite simple. Email them your address, they’ll mail you a book. I’m not a lucky person so I do the steps needed and never think about it again.
Well, this time Mr. Murdock was lucky! I went here: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/broken-universe-sweepstakes, and I’ll be getting a copy of the book before it goes on sale! Yesterday I talked about waiting for stuff to show up in the mail. Well, here’s something else in the mail for me. WOO WOO! Excitement is mine.
If you haven’t already done so, Nightshade books is having a half off sale. They’ve got a TON of books out there. I met them at WFC2011 and they’ve got a great collection of books, authors, and anthologies. I mean, come on, 50% off! How often do you see that happen? Plus, if you buy four books you’ll be entered into a drawing. What are you waiting for? GO!
Ok, you can finish reading this first.
Yesterday I was on FIRE! Maybe not litereally, but I got my blog post out and I hit my word count goal (now for fiction only). I put down around 2500 words. Hopefully I’ll do the same thing again today. We’ll see how it goes. My favorite daughter wants to go see her friend run in a track meet and then she has practice. I’d like to get a little walking in again today.
Did I mention I’m walking again? Not as fast and furious as last time, but I am walking and it feels great. My brain wants to run, but I know if I do I’ll end up hurt once again. Don’t need that happening. Slow and steady until I’m ready.
The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is dropping stories. Be sure you’re subscribed over at http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/ and check amazon on occasion. I will try to drop links where I can.
Like this
http://www.cynicalwoman.com/2012/04/19/published-hanumans-gift-by-helen-e-h-madden/
And this
http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/
So go buy a story, enjoy. And don’t worry, I’ll let you know when mine is out there. I’m excited to know what Tee does for a cover. He’s been doing all these covers and they all look great. I’ll just have to wait and see.
I’m waffling. I haven’t waffled in a long time. I know I want to write Of Gnomes and Dwarves. But I’d also like to do the sequel to V&A Shipping. I’m torn. I love both universes. I think I’ll be putting To Fall From the Sky in a desk drawer somewhere and revisit it later. Of course I need to finish My Teacher is a Werewolf first and get that one out there into the wilds of the world. I think I’m driving myself nuts with so many writing projects. Changing my daily goal to be a fiction goal really lit a fire under me to start producing more fiction. I want to get back into my two favorite universes and the only thing stopping me is me.
I also need to get Jack Kane over to my co-author Mike Plested. Oh, and I need to write up a guest post for him. He’s got a book coming out and I’ll post all over about that as soon as it arrives. I mean, it’s Mik Murdoch (with an h, not a k so he’s not related to me so stop asking).
This post was a very random collection of thoughts. Gee, I should write stuff down. In case you’re wondering, yes, this is how my mind works. 
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Some days it’s never easy.
I almost let yesterday’s writing slip by. I sat, wrote two words, would get distracted, didn’t get back to it for a couple hours. Sat again, wrote a couple words, got distracted again. You get the picture.
We went and got the wife the new iPhone. She needed a new phone as hers had gone through the wash. Twice. It still worked, but the cracked screen cut her fingers more than once and who knows when it’ll finally give up the ghost. So rather than wait for the inevitable, we did the needful.
Siri is nice and I had to teach the wife to speak slowly to Siri. It wasn’t her accent that Siri didn’t understand, it was too many words in rapid succession. It’ll take getting used to, but she’ll get the hang of it I know. The wife is smart and adaptive.
I did not get a new phone. I still love my Atrix. It does all I need and more and I push it to its limits some times. I did a couple daily updates with it and I’m sorry for the number of typos that likely slipped past me. It autocorrects and odds are I missed something. I have a ‘voice command’ feature on it that I’ve never used. Seems like it’d be similar to Siri without the talking back part. I think. I’ll have to check it out as I’ve never used it.
Then there was gas, dinner, a visit, all distractions. It wasn’t until after 9PM that I actually got to writing and I burned through 45 minutes and got out just over 1000 words. I hit around 1700 on the day. Not too shabby, but I always feel like I could write so much more than I do.
In case you missed it, Unorthodox Writing Tips volume 1 is available all over the place. Here’s the smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/150171. It’s also over on Kindle and Nook. It covers the first 25 blog posts from this site as well as 6 unpublished episodes that were recorded as audio versions at Get Published. It’s around 25,000 words of advice goodness without telling you how to write words, but more how to inspire yourself to write words.
There are times I sit down to write these posts and I have a lot of negative thoughts. I think about money problems, bad drivers, people that make me angry, political rants, or just random negative thoughts. One thing I’ve tried to do is keep all that away from here. I want to project a positive light on what I’m doing with these daily posts. Hopefully you don’t think I poop sunshine every day. There are times when I just get worn down like everyone else. Some days I need a pick-me-up. Today feels like one of ‘those’ day. I think I need a shopping trip to Fry’s J
There’s a lot to do and I’d better get to doing it.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
