Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 51

Workus interruptus...

Looks like the beginning of May is going to be busy. Two jobs popped up for overseeing pickups and packing boxes into containers for transport, one on each coast. Took some hours working up estimates for each and melding them into one I already had going. They look pretty solid, so I better get my ass in gear and finish up editing on NWFO.

What's awkward is, working on these caused me some tension. I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, with them, but I wound up with a nasty back ache and stiffness in my shoulders and neck. Old age? Not seated right? Fighting to keep the costs down? I dunno. I tried Icy Hot and wrapping myself to keep the warmth in, but nothing worked till I popped a double-dose of Advil.

The good thing is, Curt -- AKA: How to Rape a Straight Guy -- is now available for sale in paperback through Amazon and B&N. I've ordered a copy to see how it prints out when going through the retailers. Hoping it's as pretty as it looked in the proof.

I dealt a bit more with the mess over Hunter, at Amazon, and one of my FB friends sent me Jeff Bezos' email address, so sent him a query. I doubt anything will come from it, and reality is the book is still available through B&N and BAM so I can point people towards them. But Amazon's the biggest in the world and not being one with them is like being a ghost.

That probably added to the tension in my neck. As did checking out air fares from here to Hong Kong for the new Firsts-China book fair, the beginning of December. Last time I went, through Toronto, it was $1700, r/t. Now it's more than $2500. Damn.

And my Texas nephew is getting married in October, so I have to go down for that. Yeah...a bit of tension.

I did get through a couple more chapters of NWFO. I'm now under the gun to get this edited, input and sent off for proofing within the next two weeks...but I'm having questions in my head about things and not sure I've answered them sufficiently, yet.

Oh, perfect. The caps lock key on my Mac just came undone.

Amazonicus-inrterruptus...

I'm halfway through this red pen edit of New World For Old. Jeremy's back from Israel, having fought in the Yom Kippur War, and Brendan is the only one who notices he's changed. Mainly because Brendan's seen the same thing in friends of his back in Derry.

Jeremy also senses that Brendan has seen death, like he has, and would understand his emotional distress. They become good tight friends over the Fourth of July holiday, thanks to both having nervous reactions to all the fireworks and gunfire.

I'd be further along but an issue with Amazon came up. My book, Hunter, is no longer being sold by them. It's been shunted onto third party suppliers who are charging 10-25% more than I do. It's still available at the correct price through B&N and BAM, but at Amazon it looks like it's out of print.

I tried to find out what's going on and spent 3 solid hours getting shunted about from one unhelpful twerp to another. Online messaging. Phone call. Texting. Posting queries on my author page. Then finally I got a link that took me to a page where I could do nothing because the book does not have an ASIN; it's got an ISBN.

Well, when you hit a brick wall...all you can do is step back and stop hitting it. And from now on direct people to BAM or B&N. And if they insist on buying through Amazon, let them pay the extra money. I'll still get my part because the suppliers will need to order it through Ingram.

I checked my other books and all of them are fine. Maybe I'll look into becoming a seller of my own books through Amazon, at the correct price, and see if I can make a better cut, that way. It's stupid, but that's Amazon. It's not like they haven't been stupid with me, before.

I'm now back to thinking about NWFO and probably should label this draft 9, since I've done a fair bit of restructuring. We'll see what happens when I input the corrections I'm making.

Slashing...

I cut an entire scene where Brendan and Jeremy go to one of Uncle Owen's bars, even though Brendan's underage. It felt wrong. First I tried to shift the place into being a restaurant and bar, like Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica. That place has dining on one side and the bar through a door to the other side.

But that was requiring some serious word dancing and seemed too much like busy-work and repetitious, since he does the same thing with Scott, later...albeit into a gay bar. So that's a good 3 pages gone.

BUT...I added in a bit at the gay bar where Brendan almost runs into Carla, a nurse at the doctor's office he was taken to, a few times. She's someone he automatically takes a dislike to, but doesn't remember anything about the visits except for slashing visuals that lead him to believe she molested him while he was mentally incapacitated. It's never going to be specifically discussed, but it adds to his sense of confusion and wariness.

Now I'm at a point where I need to know when Sam Houston Book Shop transferred operations into the Galleria. I know they were there in 1980, but the store had been around for nearly 35 years prior to that. But this is Christmas 1973 and I'm not sure they were there. I don't want to make a mistake and have him reference them years before their arrival.

But all I can find online is lots of discussion about the high-end stores and when they arrived, along with a few of the smaller shops and restaurants. The expansions. Lots of photos of the exterior through the years. But no word about Sam Houston.

I worked there from 1985-1992 before moving to LA. I remember a lot of the place, but that's starting ten years after the point where Brendan is in town. He doesn't like going to the Galleria because the prices are too high for him, but he does like ice skating around the rink on the ground floor of the main part of the mall.

It's the one thing he now has that does not connect him to his past in Derry.

Red pen

Started my red pen edit of New World For Old and in the first hundred pages found one repetition and one inconsistency. A couple of typos and some moments where I could trim back a bit too much wordiness as well as a couple of spots where a bit of clarification helped.

If I can get it done and input by next Friday, I can send it off and ask for feedback to be returned no later than the end of June. That gives me a month to update it, format it into 6x9 size and send it to Ingram to prep. With it being so close, I'm starting to get antsy and wanting it done.

Once it's gone, I'll start in on the dust jacket. See what I can do about that. I'm still thinking making it a passport as the main art, open and folding around to the back of the book. We shall see.

I approved Curt in paperback and found it's already listed on Amazon, for pre-order. Not on B&N or Books a Million, yet. I've ordered a copy for myself, wanting to see how it prints up.

APoS-Derry is going to be on exhibit at the LA Times Festival of Books , which will be held at the University of Southern California in LA on April 20-21, 2024. If you're planning to come to the festival, here's what you need to know:

Booth Name: The Reading Glass Books
Booth Number: 959
Zone: Black
Contact Persons:
Lyn Goot, Kathy Pinero: (203) 871-8975
Time: 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Post eclipse depression?

Yesterday was not good. I went into the office to help with setting up shipments for dealers returning from the NY Book Fair...and I kept making mistake after mistake after mistake. Usually stupid things, like inputting 144kgs instead of 114kgs or not verifying all of the boxes were ticked on a master airway bill. I think I made more work for everyone instead of lightening any burdens.

That started me spiraling down into the blues, and it got so bad that when I tried to do some grocery shopping I couldn't face it so just blew it off. Figured I'd treat myself to a BLT at 5 Guys and come home to mope. That only made things worse.

That BLT was not good. The bacon and cheese were cold, the lettuce messy and the tomato so thick it kept sliding out of the bun. What's more, it cost me nearly $20 for that, a small order of fries and a regular soda. Which got me to thinking about how the last few times I've gone out to eat, where it's cost me about the same amount but only been adequate to actually bad. 

And it's not just fast-food places. The last two times I ate at Chili's I was really underwhelmed. And the lamb curry I got at Taj Grill was okay but the samosas were way overdone. And those fucking meals cost me $30 each. The only thing I've enjoyed, lately, was a make-your-own personal pizza at Pie-o'-Mine, and that's only because I made sure I got extra sauce on it.

So I crashed into one of my woe-is-me phases and did nothing, last night, except watch some Poirot on Britbox. And even bitched about how those programs were done. By the time I was ready for bed, I hated the world.

I was a bit better, today. Only a couple mistakes and the unwillingness of a program we use to set up shipments to work with me, in full. That, I cannot blame on me. But I've done all they wanted, so at least no more fuck-ups there.

I got a burrito at a Mighty Taco, en route home, which was bland and borderline tasteless until I spiced it up with some tabasco. Then I moped a bit, took a nap that made me more tired as well as achy, got angry about it, and made myself my own BLT. I had some bacon, cucumbers (in place of lettuce), cherry tomatoes, cheese, mayo and mustard. Did it on toast...

And it was fantastic! Just what I needed. I have enough left for another, if I want it. Maybe lunch, tomorrow. After I go out to do the grocery shopping I should have done, yesterday. So the hell with eating out.

Oh, the proof just came in for Curt. And it looks good. I'm ordering a copy. If that's good, too, it should soon be available through Amazon...but we shall see.

Change of direction

I've decided to change the title of one of my books -- How to Rape a Straight Guy -- to Curt so I can offer it in print, again, instead of just ebook. I've come to the conclusion I'm being obtuse about the title. It's always been problematic but it worked well for the story, and I thought people were just being puritanical. Which they were.

After all, the book has been banned several times over since I published it in 2007. Now the only way anyone can read it is in an ebook. But there are a lot of readers who just won't deal with that. I, myself, prefer not to. I like the feel of a real book.

So...I'm digging through Shutterstock looking for more images to use for NWFO when I get led to a photographer's page that includes some amazing photos of men and women...and up pops one that all but screams Curt to me. He's the main character of HTRASG, and tells the story in first person...and it fits him so well, I dowloaded it and worked up this potential cover.

Of course, first I had to determine what size I'd do the book in. Then locate the file from the last update...the one that Ingram rejected. Then reformat it and get the cover template...and it turned out I had 2 ISBNs left from the ones I'd bought for APoS...and this is what I came up with. All today.

It just fell together, as if it's meant to. So I've uploaded it to Ingram and am waiting to see if they accept or reject it. If they say yes, I've got my first novel back out in paperback circulation. If they say no, I'll check a few other options to see how it goes.

But at least I'm still trying to honor my work, even my in your face queer erotica.

Ring bindered...

Busy day. Had an ophthalmology appointment to check on my right eye. Got dilated and told I can't watch the eclipse because it might cause permanent damage, so to be mean I called in clouds. If I can't see the sun, nobody can.

This photo is the height of it, at 3:20pm. By 3:24 it was daylight, again. Here's a brief video I took, as well. Clouds were gone by 6pm.

I've put APoS-NWFO into ring binders and tomorrow I will dig into them. 31 chapters, half in 1 and half in the other. I had to empty one binder of an earlier draft of the story...that was only 315 pages long, double-spaced Courier 12point font. It's changed a bit.

What's nice is reading notes I'd made of things to add to the story to make it better and forgotten about. Most were cheesy, but some were good and I will consider adding. But it's about time to start packing this volume's papers into a bankers box ready for storage, all the information I've got. I think the story is pretty tight...so those notes had better be really impressive to be fitted in.

I finished reading The Detective Up Late and it was okay. McKinty's style is taut and lean almost to the point of emaciated, but the story moved fairly fast and had an upbeat ending. I didn't buy a couple aspects of the subplots, but they were unimportant. What was fun is, since the story was set in 1990 I knew the references made, here and there, and his comments on groups like The Official IRA were fun.

I ate some sugar-free cookies, last night, and there was ...

I ate some sugar-free cookies, last night, and there was something in them that my body did not like. I wasn't just hitting the bathroom; I had cramps and gas and felt somewhat nauseous...which is a big deal for me because it's been decades since I last threw up. Wasn't able to get to sleep till after 4am, and even then I woke up every 2 hours to deal with some irritation.

It finally settled down about noon, today, when I had hot tea and buttered toast for lunch. But I'm never eating anything sugar-free again. Fruit juice as a sweetener is okay, as is honey. No syrup or high-fructose crap. I may even get some frozen fruit and make my own compotes or something.

I managed to fiddle around with APoS-NWFO's formatting, today, and it looks like the book with be about 340 pages in 6x9" format. I can live with that. I also printed out a hard copy, but in larger font and more spacing, so it was over 400 pages. 

I had to go out and get a new ink cartridge for my HP printer, so walked down to Target. It was a nice day for it, and it's a mile each way, which is good exercise for me. But damn, did that tire me out. I just nuked some Stouffer's lasagne for dinner and that's been fine.

As for HP...I'm ticked off. I had a backup black ink cartridge when I started printing. I finished up the one in the printer, replaced it with the new one...and only got 120 or so pages from it before it ran out. I'm doing this in draft mode so it uses half the ink. I'm of a mind to send it back to HP and complain. The one I got at Target is the XL model...and I'm leery of it having all that much ink in it. The last time I used an XL cartridge, it was a different size from the regular one. Not this time...even though it says on the cartridge that it's the extended one.

Anyway, I finished my printing and can do the red pen edit. But I'm exhausted, right now, and my back is killing me from weariness.

Settling down

Took the day off from worrying about APoS-NWFO and did very little on social media. Instead, I'm reading Adrian McKinty's final Sean Duffy murder mystery, The Detective Up Late . I've read all the others--as well as Gerard Brenna's and Stuart Neville's works--mainly to get a feel for the syntax of Northern Ireland...only to find they're all set in Belfast, not Derry. That's like using the way people in San Antonio talk as opposed to Dallas. Not severe differences, but enough to matter.

The one real positive is Duffy is originally from Derry; he's just a Catholic cop in a hateful Protestant-riven Constabulary. AKA: peelers...RUC...the usual stupid people who think they're either smart or too butch to care.

I'm going to adjust the font and sizing, tomorrow, and print out a hardcopy to start going over in red pen. Make sure the changes I input in draft 7 work well enough...as well as check for typos, missing words and inconsistencies. Then send it off to be properly proofed and edited.

I'm liking the changes I made in this draft. It's funny, but putting Brendan back in the attic room for the last quarter of the book actually worked out better than him returning to the pool house. Maybe I'm paying attention to him enough to make this work, now.

Home Not Home is next. Of course, it needs a LOT of work, even though it's in 3rd draft. I have a section I need to add where Brendan learns his father was recorded by a college student while telling one of his stories in a pub and he goes to listen to it...and it's beautifully told. It was caught at just the right moment, before Da was too drunk to keep his thoughts in order.

He gets a copy and shares it with Eamonn, who's locked away in the H-Blocks. And despite him pretending to be someone else, the two brothers reconnect so that later, when it's suggested Eamonn add his name to the list of hunger strikers, Brendan has more cause to turn brutal to keep it from happening.

It's all leading to an ending that I'm not crazy about, but is necessary. Dammit.

Draft 7 is done

I pushed through, today, and hit the end of New World For Old just a few minutes ago. 145,566 words. It ends when Brendan find out out his mother's cancer is terminal and he needs to go home...and wishes he could avoid doing so.

APoS-Home Not Home will pick up from there as he makes plans for his trip and works out a way to keep from being found out. He knows the British still basically want to speak with him about the bombing, so he can't return as Brendan. Nor is he happy about being Brennan McGabbhinn. He has to do something else...and does.

Jesus, there's a lot that happens in this volume. I'm torn between doing draft 8 and just sending it out to get feedback, first, to see if it's working. Now would be the time, since I want to publish it in about four months, and I'm only just beginning to pull together the cover artwork.

I honestly think I'm at the point where I'm looking more for typos and aspects of the story that don't work for a reader, so it's best to just send it out and deal with the response. Brendan's a bit unsure about it all, but that doesn't matter, right now. I'll be doing another rewrite once it comes back so why the fuck not do it right?

I'll decide tomorrow. Or Sunday. Or after the eclipse.