Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 135
December 23, 2018
Low key day...
I did a load of laundry then spent the day lounging in bed and reading. I'm in the middle of Tomas O'Canainn's Home to Derry, a roman a clef about a widow raising 5 children in Derry in the 1940s, focusing on a middle boy named Sean. I'm enjoying it a lot, especially Sean's dancing about with religion...thinking if he says enough prayers a Protestant girl he likes will convert to Catholicism so he can marry her...and worrying his mother will find out that's what he wants to do...
He's either 10 or 11 years old, but hasn't actually stated his age so I'm not clear as to the exact time frame. I know his father died of appendicitis when he was 4, in 1935, and that's about it. That and they live on the north end of the city, close to where the old Swilly train depot was. If so, that would make the story happening during WW2 and I don't get that sense about it. Still, it's a nicely told book with gentle details that I find fascinating. Like calling his mother "mammy." I'd seen that in comments on Facebook's Derry of the Past page. Now that site has been a fountain of information.
I think the house they live in is relatively new, because it's not listed on a 1905 Old Ordnance Survey Map I have of the city but is just barely noted on the 1946 Burrows Pointer Guide Map to Londonderry. These maps are a bit confusing. The former, for example, makes reference to a lunatic asylum just north of the city center while the later says it's a hospital. Since I'm still looking into whether or not a hospital was open on the Bogside of Derry during the Troubles (I don't think there was) it would be nice to know what was what, back then.
The main hospital for the city is Altnagelvin, which is on the Waterside and was big and modern back in the early 60s. I passed it when I did my walk from Burntollet Bridge a couple years back, and it's even bigger and better now. But I've seen reference to a clinic on the Bogside, where Brendan would be living, and I think the lunatic asylum was still in operation as late as the mid-seventies, so I'm still digging into that, because it factors into his return in 1981.
The more I know the more I know I don't know...
He's either 10 or 11 years old, but hasn't actually stated his age so I'm not clear as to the exact time frame. I know his father died of appendicitis when he was 4, in 1935, and that's about it. That and they live on the north end of the city, close to where the old Swilly train depot was. If so, that would make the story happening during WW2 and I don't get that sense about it. Still, it's a nicely told book with gentle details that I find fascinating. Like calling his mother "mammy." I'd seen that in comments on Facebook's Derry of the Past page. Now that site has been a fountain of information.
I think the house they live in is relatively new, because it's not listed on a 1905 Old Ordnance Survey Map I have of the city but is just barely noted on the 1946 Burrows Pointer Guide Map to Londonderry. These maps are a bit confusing. The former, for example, makes reference to a lunatic asylum just north of the city center while the later says it's a hospital. Since I'm still looking into whether or not a hospital was open on the Bogside of Derry during the Troubles (I don't think there was) it would be nice to know what was what, back then.
The main hospital for the city is Altnagelvin, which is on the Waterside and was big and modern back in the early 60s. I passed it when I did my walk from Burntollet Bridge a couple years back, and it's even bigger and better now. But I've seen reference to a clinic on the Bogside, where Brendan would be living, and I think the lunatic asylum was still in operation as late as the mid-seventies, so I'm still digging into that, because it factors into his return in 1981.
The more I know the more I know I don't know...
December 22, 2018
Reading...just reading...
I ran some errands then spent the day finishing Adrian McKinty's Gun Street Girl. This book is set against the lead-up to the Anglo-Irish Agreement and its immediate aftermath, in late 1985. Inspector Sean Duffy knows everybody knows everything while people insist nobody knows nothing, especially when the RUC is involved. A code of silence broken only at great personal risk.
Sean's in his mid-thirties, alcoholic and a junkie, and fast approaching burnout when what he figures will be his last case for the Royal Ulster Constabulary gets him caught up in levels of intrigue that neither John Grisham nor Tom Clancy could conceive. It has a double murder, two possible suicides that you know won't be, paramilitary involvement, gun running, MI5, CIA operatives, Oxford University...the whole mosh pit of UK society, back then.
It really does have a lot of the flavor of Belfast in the mid-80's and I'm getting an idea of how soul-destroying the Troubles have been for people and the insane alliances it brought about. It also has women willing to sleep with Sean because they're hot for him. Very easy-going, for the 80's, when people were beginning to freak out about AIDs. On top of that, McKinty spends so much space on what his detective is drinking and snorting and what music he's playing and what programs he's watching, I felt almost like I was reading a textbook.
What is fun is how this book gives Chandler and Cain and Hammett major runs for their money in the cynicism department. The way the higher-ups in the judicial system are out more for brownie points with their superiors than actually solving crimes works as well in Belfast as LA. Money and power having more currency than truth is the same.
Still, I never got caught up in the story. I read it more from a sense of research than fun. Which I guess is okay. It' just I'd like to find a book that will sweep me away with its characters and events like Anna Karenina did...and Steven King's early works...but I can't think of a book that has done that, since I started writing novels. So maybe I no longer will.
That would be tragic.
Sean's in his mid-thirties, alcoholic and a junkie, and fast approaching burnout when what he figures will be his last case for the Royal Ulster Constabulary gets him caught up in levels of intrigue that neither John Grisham nor Tom Clancy could conceive. It has a double murder, two possible suicides that you know won't be, paramilitary involvement, gun running, MI5, CIA operatives, Oxford University...the whole mosh pit of UK society, back then.
It really does have a lot of the flavor of Belfast in the mid-80's and I'm getting an idea of how soul-destroying the Troubles have been for people and the insane alliances it brought about. It also has women willing to sleep with Sean because they're hot for him. Very easy-going, for the 80's, when people were beginning to freak out about AIDs. On top of that, McKinty spends so much space on what his detective is drinking and snorting and what music he's playing and what programs he's watching, I felt almost like I was reading a textbook.
What is fun is how this book gives Chandler and Cain and Hammett major runs for their money in the cynicism department. The way the higher-ups in the judicial system are out more for brownie points with their superiors than actually solving crimes works as well in Belfast as LA. Money and power having more currency than truth is the same.
Still, I never got caught up in the story. I read it more from a sense of research than fun. Which I guess is okay. It' just I'd like to find a book that will sweep me away with its characters and events like Anna Karenina did...and Steven King's early works...but I can't think of a book that has done that, since I started writing novels. So maybe I no longer will.
That would be tragic.
December 21, 2018
I am done on UG...
Underground Guy's paperback edition is now available through Amazon, thanks to Ingram. It's still finishing the setup, but it can be ordered. I don't know if anyone can actually order direct from Ingram, except in bulk. But that's neither here not there because this a POD book, not the kind that'll be put on Barnes & Noble's New Releases table.
I'm now a bit at loose ends. I've set up some promo through Smashwords and Ingram and know the Christmas holiday is overpowering everything, right now, so there's not much I can do to get the book noticed. And reality is, it's a very niche market. My hope is the people who've bought HTRASG will find it and go for this one.
So there it is. I've published two books this year -- UG and The Alice '65, and they could not be more opposite in style, substance and meaning. I also wrote a first draft of Dair's Window, a gay romantic-drama. I halfway think I did all of this just to see if I could...and damn well did. Shit.
So all of my whimpering and whining about A Place of Safety needs to be flushed down the toilet with all my other crap. I can do this and make it work. Reading McKinty's books, as well as those of Stuart Neville and Gerard Brennan, showed me I don't need to be exacting in my details. In fact, being precise like that would prove I'm not of the area. All I need to worry about is not crossing the line into unintentional parody.
That's easy to do if you write colloquial-style dialogue, which I do tend to do. And I'll still need to do some of it because of Brendan's sociological background, but no need to go overboard. I can almost hear some of it turning into a Barry Fitzgerald type of Hollywood Irish...all blather and twee, and that would be death to the story.
But now...after what I've done in the last year...I know I can avoid that. I can make this story sing. Pop. Rock. Ballads. Elegies. Opera. All of it.
So just to verify I'm letting my ego run wild -- I plan to make this my War and Peace.
I'm now a bit at loose ends. I've set up some promo through Smashwords and Ingram and know the Christmas holiday is overpowering everything, right now, so there's not much I can do to get the book noticed. And reality is, it's a very niche market. My hope is the people who've bought HTRASG will find it and go for this one.
So there it is. I've published two books this year -- UG and The Alice '65, and they could not be more opposite in style, substance and meaning. I also wrote a first draft of Dair's Window, a gay romantic-drama. I halfway think I did all of this just to see if I could...and damn well did. Shit.
So all of my whimpering and whining about A Place of Safety needs to be flushed down the toilet with all my other crap. I can do this and make it work. Reading McKinty's books, as well as those of Stuart Neville and Gerard Brennan, showed me I don't need to be exacting in my details. In fact, being precise like that would prove I'm not of the area. All I need to worry about is not crossing the line into unintentional parody.That's easy to do if you write colloquial-style dialogue, which I do tend to do. And I'll still need to do some of it because of Brendan's sociological background, but no need to go overboard. I can almost hear some of it turning into a Barry Fitzgerald type of Hollywood Irish...all blather and twee, and that would be death to the story.
But now...after what I've done in the last year...I know I can avoid that. I can make this story sing. Pop. Rock. Ballads. Elegies. Opera. All of it.
So just to verify I'm letting my ego run wild -- I plan to make this my War and Peace.
December 20, 2018
Back to reading on NI...
I got Adrain McKinty's 4th Sean Duffy novel, Gun Street Girl, today and am settling in to read it. I've already done his first three books -- In the Cold Cold Ground; I Hear the Sirens in the Street; and In the Morning I'll Be Gone -- and while he's not big on inventive plotting his sense of low-key if not merely-tolerable paranoia is very interesting. They're all set in Belfast, which isn't quite the same as Derry, but they do give me a taste of the area as it was in the 80's.
Sean's a Catholic cop in the very Protestant RUC, which was so notoriously brutal, partisan and anti-Catholic it had to be renamed after the Good Friday Agreement because of all the connotations the Royal Ulster Constabulary raised; in 2001 it became the PSNI -- Police Service of Northern Ireland -- and is still overwhelmingly Protestant, but a goodly portion are now Catholic...and I digress...
McKinty's style is something like a Northern Ireland version of Raymond Chandler, with a shattered, fraying Belfast his substitute for a corrupt, decaying Los Angeles. He works in actual events -- in his third book, Sean helps keep Thatcher from being assassinated in the bombing of a hotel in Brighton -- and provides twice as much cynicism as Philip Marlowe could ever have worked up. His stories are a bit predictable, but I don't know if that's from me having plotted my own version of dark and cynical or if it's just that I've read too many mysteries to be surprised, anymore.
In fact, I can't think of the last time a book has surprised me. Maybe that's why I focus so hard on characters and let them lead me places -- letting them provide the surprises. Which they have, many times. So maybe I'm spoiling myself. We shall see.
I also got another book that I bought based solely on liking the writing style of the snippet I read -- The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. It's set in a boarding house just outside London during WW2. I didn't realize till after I ordered it that he also adapted the scripts for Hitchcock's Rope and the British film, Angel Street (and Gaslight, its American incarnation).
I have a feeling this may be the book I prefer, as a reader.
Sean's a Catholic cop in the very Protestant RUC, which was so notoriously brutal, partisan and anti-Catholic it had to be renamed after the Good Friday Agreement because of all the connotations the Royal Ulster Constabulary raised; in 2001 it became the PSNI -- Police Service of Northern Ireland -- and is still overwhelmingly Protestant, but a goodly portion are now Catholic...and I digress...
McKinty's style is something like a Northern Ireland version of Raymond Chandler, with a shattered, fraying Belfast his substitute for a corrupt, decaying Los Angeles. He works in actual events -- in his third book, Sean helps keep Thatcher from being assassinated in the bombing of a hotel in Brighton -- and provides twice as much cynicism as Philip Marlowe could ever have worked up. His stories are a bit predictable, but I don't know if that's from me having plotted my own version of dark and cynical or if it's just that I've read too many mysteries to be surprised, anymore.
In fact, I can't think of the last time a book has surprised me. Maybe that's why I focus so hard on characters and let them lead me places -- letting them provide the surprises. Which they have, many times. So maybe I'm spoiling myself. We shall see.
I also got another book that I bought based solely on liking the writing style of the snippet I read -- The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. It's set in a boarding house just outside London during WW2. I didn't realize till after I ordered it that he also adapted the scripts for Hitchcock's Rope and the British film, Angel Street (and Gaslight, its American incarnation).
I have a feeling this may be the book I prefer, as a reader.
December 19, 2018
UG paperback is uploaded to Ingram...
Now all that's left is getting a PDF proof and, if that looks good, having them send me a printed copy. Normally I do that on a rush service, but with Christmas they aren't offering the option so I'll probably just let it go live and get the printed copy when I can....and hope for the best. I want it available by Christmas.
For once I didn't have to keep uploading corrected files over and over, like previous books. The text still saves from Word into PDF with color profiles, no matter what I do, but that doesn't seem to make a difference once it's printed. Watch it freak out, this time.
Then there's the cover -- shifting from RGB to CMYK absolutely killed the vibrancy of my reds, and I can't seem to work around that. Maybe if I had a newer version of Photoshop I could, but mine's 15 years old. It's serviceable and does everything except the transfer of colors, so I can't whine.
So I celebrated by watching The Big Sleep (1946) as I sorted through a pile of paperwork and bills, and I'm finally getting the last of my Christmas cards out. I get later and later every year, but at least I had a decent excuse.
Y'know, I whine and bitch and complain and get beaten up by the whole process of writing...but once the work is done and it's as good as I can make it (for now), I love the final result. Parts of Underground Guy are some of my best work, yet. And while there's part of me that says it's just a niche genre gay-sex book...a part I can't shut up...I think I did a damn good job on it. I may get one or two reviews that say it's crap...if I get any reviews at all; that's not guaranteed...but I don't care. When I did my last check today I found myself feeling proud of several moments, and how the plot flows together, and the characters as they reveal themselves in steps and stages.
What I did in this book is basically take an evil man, use him as the centerpiece of a story he is telling, and have him change in stages from a beast to a human being. If I did it right, when he breaks down after finally connecting completely with a victim of the serial killer...people will weep for him. I hope. I weep, but then I'm the writer. And I'm self-aware enough to recognize that I've fallen in love with my words.
But I still think they're damn good.
For once I didn't have to keep uploading corrected files over and over, like previous books. The text still saves from Word into PDF with color profiles, no matter what I do, but that doesn't seem to make a difference once it's printed. Watch it freak out, this time.
Then there's the cover -- shifting from RGB to CMYK absolutely killed the vibrancy of my reds, and I can't seem to work around that. Maybe if I had a newer version of Photoshop I could, but mine's 15 years old. It's serviceable and does everything except the transfer of colors, so I can't whine.
So I celebrated by watching The Big Sleep (1946) as I sorted through a pile of paperwork and bills, and I'm finally getting the last of my Christmas cards out. I get later and later every year, but at least I had a decent excuse.
Y'know, I whine and bitch and complain and get beaten up by the whole process of writing...but once the work is done and it's as good as I can make it (for now), I love the final result. Parts of Underground Guy are some of my best work, yet. And while there's part of me that says it's just a niche genre gay-sex book...a part I can't shut up...I think I did a damn good job on it. I may get one or two reviews that say it's crap...if I get any reviews at all; that's not guaranteed...but I don't care. When I did my last check today I found myself feeling proud of several moments, and how the plot flows together, and the characters as they reveal themselves in steps and stages.
What I did in this book is basically take an evil man, use him as the centerpiece of a story he is telling, and have him change in stages from a beast to a human being. If I did it right, when he breaks down after finally connecting completely with a victim of the serial killer...people will weep for him. I hope. I weep, but then I'm the writer. And I'm self-aware enough to recognize that I've fallen in love with my words.
But I still think they're damn good.
December 18, 2018
UG's paperback cover and synopsis
This is what I worked on all day. Stayed home sick with a near case of strep throat and will probably be home, tomorrow...so may as well make use of my time...-----
Four men have been raped and murdered in London and the Metropolitan Police think Devlin Pope, an American businessman, had something to do with it. Why? Because while reeling from from news that his mother’s body had been discovered twenty years after her disappearance, he sexually assaulted a young British constable who was working undercover to help catch the maniac.
Of course, Devlin is arrested and the police don’t even begin to believe anything he tells them, despite him obviously being horrified at the torturous deaths that were inflicted on innocent men. Besides, he can prove he was in America when three of the murders occurred. Problem is, he also has a history of brutalizing men who’ve crossed him. But since Reg, that constable, had done nothing to anger his inner beast -- except be in the wrong place at the wrong time -- Devlin’s explanations sound false to everyone ... even himself.
Why? He’s experiencing something he never has, before -- shame over his actions -- and he’s spinning headlong into chaos ... because he has fallen in love with Reg, a man who’s married, has children, is heterosexual ... and hates even the thought of being near him.
Then Devlin learns the police do have another suspect and they are hoping he will help prove that man is the murderer. Instead, he comes to believe they have narrowed their focus to the wrong individual, but they won’t listen to his suspicions. Now he must find the killer, himself ... because to his horror, since Reg looks like the dead men he has continued to put himself in harm’s
way -- and it appears he has become the madman’s next target.
And there seems to be nothing Devlin can do to keep a man he loves but knows he can never have from being butchered.
<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style></div></div>--><div>---------</div><div>I hate to do it, but I like this cover a lot more than my artist's one. It's got the grittiness I think the story needs...even if CMYK doesn't want to give me the rich red I had in RGB. I'm sorry to do it, but I'm dumping the artwork.</div><div><br /></div><div>The book needs what it needs...</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Jamthe..." height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
December 17, 2018
Paperback of UG is coming soon...
The paperback edition of Underground Guy is 316 pages and just under 100,000 words. Cost will be $12.95. It'll be in a 5x8 inch format and I'm thinking a darker cover than what I'm using for the ebook. Not sure yet, but I don't want to mislead anyone on it. It's a very brutal book. The ending got adjusted to where Devlin is not completely over his past...hell, not by a long shot.
This story really is raw, in many ways. I hope not too much so. I've heard from a couple of people Bobby Carapisi winds up that way...though one man actually said it's not a very deep book. Not sure what he wanted or expected. In fact, I'm not sure how I could have made the book deeper than it is. But it's something to keep in mind as I work on A Place of Safety -- finding ways to add to the depth of the story.
UG has a fair amount of rough sex in it, too...but it also gets pretty deep into Devlin's mind and emotional turmoil, I think. I guess I won't know how it comes across until people start reviewing it. If they do. Which makes me nervous. People tend to either love my work or hate it; it's very rare for me to get a middling kind of reaction. Good thing is, it's already selling in ebook.
Looks like another trip to the UK is in store, this time to Reading and probably straight from LAX. Then home via JFK...though I am wondering if it'd be easier to come back through Toronto, again, and just catch a bus home. I'll check into that once the trip is actually set. Right now it's only 98% sure.
I'll be in Anaheim for 2 days just after the first of the year...the opposite end of town from where my friends are. I'm still going to try and see some people, but I'm staying on East Coast time so can't go too late. I'm going to see if some of us can get together at a place like Real Food on La Cienega near the Beverly Center for dinner once of the nights.
Right now I'm zoning...so this is all, for the moment.
This story really is raw, in many ways. I hope not too much so. I've heard from a couple of people Bobby Carapisi winds up that way...though one man actually said it's not a very deep book. Not sure what he wanted or expected. In fact, I'm not sure how I could have made the book deeper than it is. But it's something to keep in mind as I work on A Place of Safety -- finding ways to add to the depth of the story.
UG has a fair amount of rough sex in it, too...but it also gets pretty deep into Devlin's mind and emotional turmoil, I think. I guess I won't know how it comes across until people start reviewing it. If they do. Which makes me nervous. People tend to either love my work or hate it; it's very rare for me to get a middling kind of reaction. Good thing is, it's already selling in ebook.
Looks like another trip to the UK is in store, this time to Reading and probably straight from LAX. Then home via JFK...though I am wondering if it'd be easier to come back through Toronto, again, and just catch a bus home. I'll check into that once the trip is actually set. Right now it's only 98% sure.
I'll be in Anaheim for 2 days just after the first of the year...the opposite end of town from where my friends are. I'm still going to try and see some people, but I'm staying on East Coast time so can't go too late. I'm going to see if some of us can get together at a place like Real Food on La Cienega near the Beverly Center for dinner once of the nights.
Right now I'm zoning...so this is all, for the moment.
December 16, 2018
UG is definitely up as an ebook
I reread the notice from Smashwords about my upload not passing epub-check and realized it wasn't going to be fully available until the issue was repaired, so went in and reworked the Table of Contents and uploaded a new one...and that worked. It passed. So it's fine and is available in nearly a dozen formats, including Kindle.
I turned to working on the paperback file and Word decided to have fun with me. I was trying to work it so the header didn't show up at the top of the first page of each chapter...and thought I had it...but then Word went into meltdown and seemed to wipe out everything I had done. I freaked.
But...I had saved beforehand, so before careening into trash my computer mode I shut it down and reopened the file...and there was only one issue that needed work. So it looks like the text of the book is set, too. All I need is the cover, then it's done. Underground Guy will be completed and will be my second original novel published this year.
I'm taking off a little while from writing before I get back onto A Place of Safety. Obviously I'm not going to meet my planned deadline, but it's immaterial. I now have the rest of my obligations out of the way...and I'm ready to see how I do with Brendan's story.
The positive thing about working on UG and slamming out Dair's Window for NaNoWriMo is it's built my confidence in my writing. I think UG holds together well, and events flow naturally...for a hot and heavy murder mystery-suspense tale. Apparently very hot, because just to announce it I was going to buy an ad on Facebook...and they refused. Facebook, one of the avaricious companies there is refused my money because the book is for adults.
The puritans have returned and we're the witches they want to burn.
I turned to working on the paperback file and Word decided to have fun with me. I was trying to work it so the header didn't show up at the top of the first page of each chapter...and thought I had it...but then Word went into meltdown and seemed to wipe out everything I had done. I freaked.
But...I had saved beforehand, so before careening into trash my computer mode I shut it down and reopened the file...and there was only one issue that needed work. So it looks like the text of the book is set, too. All I need is the cover, then it's done. Underground Guy will be completed and will be my second original novel published this year.
I'm taking off a little while from writing before I get back onto A Place of Safety. Obviously I'm not going to meet my planned deadline, but it's immaterial. I now have the rest of my obligations out of the way...and I'm ready to see how I do with Brendan's story.
The positive thing about working on UG and slamming out Dair's Window for NaNoWriMo is it's built my confidence in my writing. I think UG holds together well, and events flow naturally...for a hot and heavy murder mystery-suspense tale. Apparently very hot, because just to announce it I was going to buy an ad on Facebook...and they refused. Facebook, one of the avaricious companies there is refused my money because the book is for adults.
The puritans have returned and we're the witches they want to burn.
December 15, 2018
UG is up...I think...
I posted Underground Guy on Smashwords and it looked okay...but then I got an error message so dug back into the Word doc to correct what I think the issue is. When I got done, I went online to update my submission...and it looks like it actually was all right. I checked it in epub and everything did what it was supposed to. Same for Mobi. So I sent Smashwords an email asking about it but don't expect an answer till Monday. Still, they're offering it for sale...so maybe it was a glitch on their end.
I worked up a cover using the artwork I commissioned and like it a lot more. Still not 100% on it. The feel is too light for the darkness of the story...but I sort of like how the light shining on Reg works with the shadows laid in by the artist. I know him as Wereorc but his human name is Brendan Fann and I do enjoy his fantasy work of orcs and satyrs and werewolves. I just think this is too mainstream for him.
Anyway, the story is complete. What's funny is how I kept finding errors as I was formatting for ebook. Nothing major, just bits where the quotation marks were wrong and, to my surprise, a couple of lines where I liked grammar-check's suggestions on sentences better than my own. I also made a few more changes in the telling and found I'd spelled Leila's and Sir Monte's names three different ways and didn't notice it when I was going over the last time. But then, neither did my proofers...
That's embarrassing. The nice thing about find is you can locate the offending words with just a few letters in the right order and figure out how many other mistakes you made, like that. I have a sheet of them to transfer to my paperback Word file...a long list.
Jesus, me and typos...
I worked up a cover using the artwork I commissioned and like it a lot more. Still not 100% on it. The feel is too light for the darkness of the story...but I sort of like how the light shining on Reg works with the shadows laid in by the artist. I know him as Wereorc but his human name is Brendan Fann and I do enjoy his fantasy work of orcs and satyrs and werewolves. I just think this is too mainstream for him.Anyway, the story is complete. What's funny is how I kept finding errors as I was formatting for ebook. Nothing major, just bits where the quotation marks were wrong and, to my surprise, a couple of lines where I liked grammar-check's suggestions on sentences better than my own. I also made a few more changes in the telling and found I'd spelled Leila's and Sir Monte's names three different ways and didn't notice it when I was going over the last time. But then, neither did my proofers...
That's embarrassing. The nice thing about find is you can locate the offending words with just a few letters in the right order and figure out how many other mistakes you made, like that. I have a sheet of them to transfer to my paperback Word file...a long list.
Jesus, me and typos...
December 13, 2018
Workin' through it...
I'm threatening to come down with another cold, which is making it hard to concentrate on UG. I can go for a couple hours then start zoning and wanting to sleep. I know it's not the story doing that to me; I also feel it in my nose and back and everything. What perfect timing.
It's still my goal to get the book out in ebook form this weekend. I've got about 130 pages left to smooth over, then shifting it into the format is next. I've sort of started on that, but setting up the table of contents is a lot of work so we'll see how it goes.
I'm not sure if I want to go through the trouble of making up a new image for the cover, right now. I've thought of something that might make the artwork I commissioned work better, since it came out to light and gentle for the tone of the book...but we'll see how it goes on Saturday.
It's going to be interesting to get people's reactions to this story, considering my hero...well, anti-hero, really...starts out as a rapist and shifts into a true-hero...of a sort. He's still something of a bastard at the end, with his subtle knowledge he's basically recruited another straight guy onto his side of the aisle and plans to take it farther.
Can't be too nice about my assholes, can I?
It's still my goal to get the book out in ebook form this weekend. I've got about 130 pages left to smooth over, then shifting it into the format is next. I've sort of started on that, but setting up the table of contents is a lot of work so we'll see how it goes.
I'm not sure if I want to go through the trouble of making up a new image for the cover, right now. I've thought of something that might make the artwork I commissioned work better, since it came out to light and gentle for the tone of the book...but we'll see how it goes on Saturday.It's going to be interesting to get people's reactions to this story, considering my hero...well, anti-hero, really...starts out as a rapist and shifts into a true-hero...of a sort. He's still something of a bastard at the end, with his subtle knowledge he's basically recruited another straight guy onto his side of the aisle and plans to take it farther.
Can't be too nice about my assholes, can I?
