Blog Archives
Live Stream Testing…
Today I did a little test with my YouTube live stream. It hadn’t been streaming. Not sure why or what I was doing differently. Today, it appeared that it all worked.
Even though I was only testing, I still decided to chit chat a little bit about what’s going on with the books, what I did today, and other things about the setup I’m using.
Lots of info in the video if’n you’re interested. I’ll write a longer post on Monday.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0141-e11dc55
Update on a few different things.
Up first: Live stream scheduling.
I know I’m not on a schedule with the live streams to YouTube. My apologies for that. I’ve many things to figure out, like how to set up my feed to alert people 30 minutes before I “Go Live”. The main purpose of the streaming instead of recording and uploading is time savings. I also need to figure out the background music and title shot before I start streaming. We’ll get there. Please be patient while I figure out new technology.
Secondly, my person schedule. I still work all day. That’s not going to change any time in the near future. What will change is I’m getting up earlier to do my workout rather than taken an hour after work for my workout, then shower, then get dinner, etc. I’m getting as much done in the morning as I can, so, when I’m done with work, I can get to the writing business.
That said, today I got done with work and took a nap. I’m old. My body doesn’t want to adjust as quickly as I want to. Again, this will take time but we’ll get there. Much like my brain, my body is learning new things as well.
Finally, Jack Kane book 3. My intention was to sit down last night, crank out a couple of thousand words, and get the file over to Mike so he could do his chapter. Well, I’ve been in the story of 3 other series, lots of edits, and getting things scheduled and uploaded. My brain wasn’t fully in the Jack Kane brain space. I didn’t get as much done last night as I’d hoped.
Tonight, I’ll get further along and hopefully get that over to Mike.
If’n you’re curious how I got started in reading and writing Steampunk, check out the video tonight.
I’m off to go make words happen.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0138-e115jhs
Enjoy what you enjoy. Let others enjoy what they enjoy.
The title of this blog post couldn’t be any more simple. I’ll get to that in one minute. Let me cover two other topics first.
- I got background music on the live stream for youtube. My next step is to get an opening and closing video sequence. Once I have that, these streams will be mostly on auto pilot and I’ll be saving so much time. It’s exciting. 🙂
- Got started on Jack Kane book 3. I hope to get that over to my co-author, Mike Plested soon so he can dig in and get going.
Back to the main topic.
As I’ve gotten older, unlike many, I’ve found that I don’t hate certain content as much as I used to. Sure, there’s music I don’t like. Movies I think stink on ice. Books that should never have been published.
So what?
Why am I going to waste my time and energy being angry that people love something that I dislike? Twilight? I thought the books were awful and the movies worse. You love them? Good. Enjoy! I’m glad you found something you like.
Avatar? Prometheus? Those movies, for me, were beautiful to look at, but the stories so disjointed that all I could do was shake my head and wish they’d spent any amount of money on script doctors to fix the glaring problems on the screen. Did you like them? GREAT! I’m glad you did. Many people loved those movies.
John Scalzi? I think he’s a good guy, though I’ve never met him. I’ve heard stories about how he talks down to his fans and other authors. I’ve never had that interaction. I think his books are well-edited junk that have awful plots and are easily predictable. You like his stories? GREAT! I’m glad for you. Buy more of his books and enjoy them. You are his audience.
When I posted last about Scalzi, a couple of other authors thought I was on the Scalzi hate train. No, I’m really now. I wasn’t then, I’m not now. Please, if you’re an author that hates Scalzi and you think because I don’t care for Scalzi’s work, don’t think that means I’ll love your work. The last two authors that sent me work on this premise…well, let’s just say I cared for their work even less.
Quite simply, as I get older, I find I’d rather focus my time and energy into spreading love for what I love instead of hate for what I don’t like.
How do you deal with content you consume that you don’t care for?
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0137-e113cj5
It all about carving out time…
Tonight I testing out live streaming to YouTube instead of recording, editing, compiling, and uploading an episode. I went from taking 2 hours to do my 15 minute video, to 20 minutes and it was already live on YouTube.
There are still many things to figure out and while my audience is still small, there’s time to figure it all out. I need to find out how to add looping bed music. How to add an intro/outro. Title cards. Perhaps even a caption. Lots of things to figure out.
But guess what…
I now have time to do that. Normally when the file would be compiling, I’d be working on the title card for the video. Then I’d come over here and work on the blog post. I’d upload the video to YouTube and now I’m uploading to IGTV. All of these eat into time I could be spending doing something else.
Like writing.
I had, honestly, thought about not doing the videos any longer. It was a brutal internal struggle. I’m torn. I want to keep doing the videos, but they were eating into my writing time. The videos are helping me grow my audience, so I didn’t want to stop making them. I feel there is value there.
Live streaming may solve all those issues. I’m even more excited now, knowing that I can keep making the videos, and have more time for writing. That’s my main goal is to be an author, not a YouTuber. One must be primary and not eat up all my time.
Also, it’ll free up a little bit of time for me to do TikTok videos as well. I want to expand into that platform. Got to keep the content flowing to grow a following.
As I say over and over again, mostly to reinforce this in myself, I’m on a journey of learning. The more I learn about what I’m doing, the more fun I’m having doing what I’m doing. I’m so happy you’re on this journey with me.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0136-e10thb9
Slow Boil.
A few things tonight.
First off, I spoke with my co-author, Mike Plested, and we’re ready to get started on Jack Kane Book 3. No title as of yet.
We do know some things. We know where the story will start. We also know where the story will end. Much like a Rubik’s Cube, what we don’t know, yet, are all the steps in the middle that will get us from that beginning to that end. Oh, we know some movements. Much like solving a cube, there are certain patterns and known situations. It’s a matter of doing all the right movements and seeing where that brings us next to know what we’ll be doing next. Until we get to that point, we won’t know.
What we’ll know is when the book is done. Much like the cube, there are infinite possibilities to get from a start to an end, but you always know the start, sometimes, you know the end.
Next, Haircut is doing well. I’m honestly surprised. I’ve sold 5 copies compared to the 0 I’ve sold of GRPC2. I expected the latter, I’m surprised at the former. I had thought I’d sell exactly 0 copies of Haircut as well. Not only did I sell copies, I got a 5 star review on the same day. I’m floored.
I’ve said all along, I’m not expecting much in the first couple of months as I get this all started. I’m going slow. Yes, I’m posting all over every platform that I can, but my followings are small. Time. A fraction of what they were when I was podcasting back in the Hey Day of podcasting. It’s going to take time to rebuild. I’m going in expecting this to be slow and I’m ready for it to take time.
If you’re watching the videos, I’m trying out my GoPro as a WebCam. Let me know how it looks.
Finally, My boss announced that he’s quitting. Retiring, really, but he’s leaving the company. He’ll be gone in 3 weeks. Though not entirely unexpected, it’s surprising. Everything he’s had in motion personally, he’s been getting ready for this moment and it jumping while he can.
That said, I’ve been working very closely with him over the past couple of years. We meet twice a week and go over nearly everything the team is working on. We’ll discuss things at length. I know all the moving parts of the team.
But I’ve never been in a leadership position before. Even so, I’ll be applying to be his replacement. This is scary AF. I doubt I’ll get the position for a variety of reasons, but going through the interview process will be enlightening. If I even get that far.
I’ll need to reach out to his boss and find out.
I’ve been in a similar situation before. I took leadership mentoring. Did tons of leadership courses. I’ve got all that behind me. Only thing I don’t have is practical experience. With a team like ours, it might not be wise to put an unproven leader into that position. Cybersecurity is no joke.
We shall see. I’ll keep you posted.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0135-e10rlpj
I’m a reader before I’m a writer.
One thing I don’t like about the kindle tracking my reading progress with my reading goal for the year…or my days/weeks/months reading…it doesn’t take into account the days I read physical media.
I read. Like, I read a LOT. Not just books, short stories, and magazines. I also read news articles. Mostly politics, science, astronomy, and the like. I also read a good number of writer blogs and web comics.
In today’s video I mention Kill Six Billion Demons. I purchased the first two books off Amazon and I’m currently reading the webcomic on Comic Rocket (a website that will remember which page you’re on with a webcomic). First, Comic Rocket is great for, not only discovering new web comics, but also remembering where you’re at in your reading of a given web comic. I know it’s frustrating trying to remember where you’re at when reading a long running comic and not remembering your place.
At any rate, I’ve been reading a lot of older Marvel comics. Lots of old Ditko and Kirby comics. The stories are weak, yes. But then these comics were intended for kids. Villains explain in great detail what their plans are and every character talks…a lot. And then they talk some more. Lots of thought bubbles. There’s never a question as to what is happening.
I’m not reading most of the dialogue. I’m going through and looking at the artwork and being amazed at how many comics some artists were putting out in a given month. Truly amazing.
Back to KSBD. This isn’t a comic for kids. It’s not an adult comic, but it covers some weird topics that, unless you’re a little versed in various religious backgrounds, it’ll go over your head. That artwork is intense and visually strange. I was draw to this one much like all comics I’ve been drawn to over the years. The artwork. Topped off with a fun story, that’s keeping me around even more.
As I said at the start, I read a lot. My kindle doesn’t track all my reading. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes it’s annoying knowing I’ve a far longer streak than the device will give me credit for. Darn it.
I wish I could support every artist I find on the web. I do. There is so much great content out there. I do what I can. When I can’t do anything financially, I’ll do it through this blog with reviews.
That said, what are some web comics you’re reading? I’d love to know. I’ve got so many, that it’d be hard to come up with a quick list. Perhaps someday I will.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0134-e10pk7l
Expanding My Platform.
Let me start with saying…I’m not a smart man. By no means an I tech-tard, but there is so much new technology, that I’m trying to keep my head above water with it all.
Tonight, I decided to stream to Twitch. This won’t be my first time, but it will be the first time I’m talking. I don’t even know what I have on my channel over there. What I do know is that I set up my account to allow me to stream to it. I hooked that key into my OBS software, and, if all went correctly, I was streaming while I was recording.
I know I’ll need to get on a schedule and try to record at the same time each night. We’ll see how that goes.
Why? Why am I doing that?
To expand my reach.
Yes, yes. Jack of all Trades, Master of none. I get that. I’m having fun and still learning. I know Twitch is mainly for streaming games, but there are talk shows over there as well. I won’t be able to compete with any of them, but that’s not what I’m trying to do.
I know everyone consumes content differently. I’m exploring options for content delivery.
To that end, I’m also looking at converting videos to upload to IGTV (Instagram longer videos). I’m looking at doing shorter 1 minute videos for both TikToc and YouTube shorts, possible even for Instagram stories.
There are so many options for getting content out there and much of it I can repurpose. I need to take the time and figure it all out.
Why? Why you ask?
Because I’ve got content, writing content, coming out and I want people to easily find me and what I’m doing. I’ve got a short story coming out tomorrow. So, I’ll mention it in all the right places.
Like here!
I’m LOVING what My Favorite Daughter did with the covers. You may hate it. I get that. What this cover will do is start out in the crowd. When I have 9 shorts out, those 9 covers will piece together to make the cover for the collection of those 9 short stories. And that pattern will keep going! I’m super excited about doing this.
The other thing this will do, for my readers, is give them a visual cue that this isn’t a novel. I don’t want people to drop .99 and be like “Pfft, this isn’t a book.” No, it’s not a book. It’s a short story and it’ll stand out because of that. Hopefully people will get it.
Also, this cover will stand out dramatically when in a huge list of other stories and books. If you scroll on Amazon looking at the top 100 of any category and saw this cover, it’d stand out in dramatic fashion. One of these things is not like the other.
I want people who are scrolling to stop and look and wonder…what’s this? And hopefully click on it, read the blurb and be intrigued enough to buy it.
That’s the plan, at any rate. As always, I’ll let you know how it goes. This is the first of many short stories to come.
I’m off to go study the back of my eyelids.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0133-e10njgo
Trigger Warning: A discussion about depression.
Because of my foray into podcasting so many years ago, I’ve met a large number of people online that I consider friends. My circle is wide and I keep in touch with as many of them as I can. It’s not always easy and there are times I lose touch. I’m not a perfect person. I do my best and that’s all I can do.
That said, one of those friends was lost last year. I only found out last week. For the individual’s privacy, I will not mention the name or circumstances. The struggle was personal and unfortunately the struggle was lost.
What I will talk about today is depression. Clinical depression.
Let me state here and now, I’m not a professional. I cannot diagnose or help someone suffering from depression. I can offer a ear if you need to talk, but I’m not able to do more than that. If you feel you may suffer from depression, mental illness, or have suicidal thoughts, please seek professional help and get the help you need. If you’re reading this blog, know you mean the world to me and I want nothing but the best for you in all ways.
First off, depression is not sadness. Sadness is what I felt this weekend. I lost my mother some years ago. My wife lost her mother as well. Though I miss them dearly, I’m happy for my step-mom, all my wife’s sisters and my wife who is a wonderful month to our favorite daughter. I feel sadness that My Favorite Daughter is in the process of moving out. Very slowly, but she is moving out. It makes me sad that she won’t be in our house any longer, but I’m so very proud of the woman she’s become and that this was her decision she made with her boy. The two of them will do well.
Depression is a clinical condition. It’s a mental imbalance related to how one’s brain is wired. Not everyone suffers from depression in the same fashion. Most people I know who have admitted to having depression, after seeking professional help, admit they spent years hiding their condition from family and friends. Most are ashamed to talk about it. That’s part of depression. It lies to you and tells a person they’re wrong in the head and undeserving.
I suggest go to http://wilwheaton.net/ Wil has suffered openly with his depression for a long time and blogged at length about his condition. Same with Jenny Lawson talking not only about depression, but her other multitude of mental illnesses. There is such a stigma around talking about metal illness that many chose to hide their condition. Some self-medicate to hide their condition. Others find release in the bottom of a bottle. Others see no hope and seek a more permanent release.
This topic isn’t easy to talk about or bring up. As I said, I’m not a professional. I cannot offer help, hope, or diagnosis. All I can do is talk about this topic openly and hope that others do the same. It needs to be normalized that those who suffer from mental illness are just as ill as people with a physical condition. The difference is those with mental illness can hide their condition easier.
If you suspect someone you know is struggling with a mental illness, don’t push them to seek help. Don’t berate them to do what you think is the right thing to do. Don’t think that just because you would do something about it means they’re capable of doing that. Everyone suffers differently when it comes to depression. Offer to talk with them. Support them no matter what choice they make even if it’s not the choice you would make. I’m not saying let them commit suicide if that’s the path their on, but understand that you’re also (most likely) not a professional and will be unable to diagnose what’s wrong with someone.
Another thing we all can do is to open the national dialogue when it comes to talking about mental illness is all its forms. From Autism, Asperger, Depression, Down Syndrome, the list goes on. People who suffer or take care of someone who suffers, shouldn’t be afraid to talk about it. It’s way past time we open the topic and stop letting people suffer in silence because they feel like they’re broken.
I could continue, but I’d rather do that in the comments. Please, share your stories. If you’re not comfortable doing that here, find a place where you can talk openly without fear. If you’re struggling with mental illness, seek out professional help. Know I care about you.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Is it worth it?
This isn’t my first time on this merry-go-round. I’ve asked myself this question several times over the years. Is this all worth the effort I’m putting into what I’m doing? I’m creating art, but to what end? Why put so many hours into something only to put it out and watch it fail?
GRPC2 launched yesterday. I sent an email to my newsletter. Put out a blog post. The YouTube video. Put it out on FaceBook. All my other social media.
2 days in, I’ve sold 0 copies.
Let me stop you from going and buying the book right now. Please, don’t buy the book because I don’t want to guilt anyone into buying a copy. I fully expected to sell zero copies. I said when I launched the book, I expected to sell zero copies in the first month of launching the book. This isn’t a surprise.
When I launched Golden West, I sold a couple of copies. Gave away quite a few. Second book, I sold very few. I didn’t sell any of the 3rd. To this day, I think one person has read book 3 in the Golden West trilogy and that’s a completed trilogy. Honestly, I expected to sell some copies. I didn’t think the story would fall dead.
It did. I didn’t fully promote that series. I don’t even know how many people know I wrote it. By the time I’d started publishing those books, I’d already lost a good number of my audience. These things happen. It’s all my fault for having so many stops and starts over the years.
For those that have stuck with me and watched what I’ve done, thank you for being there. Even if you’ve not bought a book and are waiting for audio editions, I still appreciate you being there. You help keep me motivated to keep going and put out more books.
So, is this all worth it?
Honestly, I won’t be able to tell you for quite a while. I don’t know. I’ve invested myself in a 2-year plan. I want to get these 16 books written, published, and out to readers. After those 2 years, I want to work on something else if the sci-fi hasn’t taken off. If, after 5 years, I’ve still not garnered an audience, I’ll have to evaluate if it’s all worth it.
Yes, I’m giving myself 5 years. I hit publish on my first book, Chosen: Astel 1, back in 2011. I’ve been at this for 10 years already. I’ve published in fits and starts and with no consistency in either topic, genre, or schedule. This time around, I’m changing my tactic. I’m on a schedule. I’ll be putting out only Sci-Fi (Space Opera) books until I complete a story arc. I want to give readers a completed story line to follow from beginning to end.
I know I’ve lost so many people because of what I published and how I published it. I can’t change that. What I can change is how I approach my publishing going forward. That means getting on a course, on a schedule, and sticking to it. Getting words down every day to get more books done. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The only thing that’s currently out of my control is growing my audience. How will readers find me? By me getting more and more content out there. That’s my goal. If I stick to it, over the next two years, I’ll have a dozen new books, and 50 or more short stories. 2 years, over 60 new pieces out there for people to find. That’s how I’m planning on attracting people’s attention.
Well, part of it. I also plan on reaching out to podcasting friends when I get the wheels in motion. I’ll reach out to blogs, send out review copies, find websites that do reviews and see if they’d like a copy. I’ve got plans in my head and I’m reading more books and taking more lessons to help better chart my course. Many have gone before me. Some have been wildly successful.
Let me state emphatically, I don’t feel I’m owed anything. It’s not “my turn”. I won’t succeed simply because I waited long enough and I want it bad enough. That’s not how art works. First of all, art is subjective. What one person hates, another will love. I need to get work out there, and let people find it. That’s all I can do right now.
Is it all worth it?
I simply won’t know for quite some time to come. I’m going to enjoy the ride for all its worth. I’m glad you’re here with me and I hope you stick around to see what happens next.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0131-e10dirf
To Promote or not to promote…
First off, let me say, I’m tired. Like really tired.
The Mrs went on a week-long trip to Florida to visit family with her sister. All went well until their return trip. There was a major storm sweeping across the country. Their flight out of Orlando was delayed, but they got to Charlotte where all flights were cancelled. They had to get a room for the night, which, thankfully, they did. They were up early the next morning and back home.
Needless to say, I was also up late and up early. Had to do the day job until their plane landed. After work, took a short nap and my brain is goo. You can probably tell in today’s video.
Moving on.
One of the things I’m thinking a lot about lately is promotion. Yes, I need to be better at marketing myself. I’m not good at that. I’ve not studied what I need to do on that end. I’ve got books to read, yes. I need to get to those. Let’s not put the cart before the horse.
I do plan on doing marketing. Later. Right now, I’m concerned with planning and scheduling as well as writing that next book. It does me no good to market if I’ve got nothing to market beyond myself. This is why I’m slowly building my platform. I want those who follow me to see and understand that I’m putting in the hours. I’m doing what it takes to get that next book out.
Also, I want potential readers to show up here, and see “Hey, this guy is busy!” That’s not going to happen over night. Every “overnight success” put in the time. Paid their dues. Struggled to get ahead. I’ve read enough autobiographies to know that famous comes LONG before rich. That’s if rich ever happens.
My expectations have been set and lowered down to reality. I won’t be burning money trying to promote myself until I’m much deeper into the series than I am. I’m planning a 16 book arc across 4 different series. There’s a LOT of work that needs to happen. I’m only 4 books in. A quarter of the way. Once I get to the half-way mark, then I think it’ll be time to start doing more on the promotion side of things.
This isn’t a race. It’s a marathon. I don’t want to spin up a marketing engine, only to have it stall out. I’ll get books out there. I’ll try to catch people’s attention. Quietly sneak up on readers and BAM! Look! Books! WOO!
I kid. Though I have had several people rediscover me recently, and that feels great. Soon enough, we’ll get onto bigger and better things with regards to getting the word out. That is, if the sands don’t shift too drastically. I mention in the video about how some sites and devices may stop collecting user data for targeted marketing. That’s a danger for a small author who depends on those targeted ads to attract new readers. I understand privacy and all that. I do. I just know that the world is about to take a major shift. We’ll see where it ends up.
I’m off to get some rest.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/5-a-Day-With-Jay—0130-e10bbtr
J.R. Murdock 