Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 65

Ps is just fucking weird

I got Photoshop Ps and started working with it and it's just different enough from the CS I had that it drives me nuts. I need to figure out a lot on it, and see how I can change it to suit my preferences, but this is the first pass I've done on a dust jacket for the book...and it took me four fucking hours just to get this.

For example, when setting the guidelines, I can't get it to work in inches, which is what the template is in. So after wasting way too long trying to figure out how to make that happen, I just reconfigured the dims of the template into pixels and did it that way. 

I'm also finding my mouse and Ps are way too sensitive to touch, together. Hell, to my fingers getting anywhere near the trackpad or mouse. I'll deal with dulling them down tomorrow.

BUT...this is beginning to come together. I looked into the Library of Congress about getting a PCN for the book, making it super-legitimate. That's a Preassigned Control Number the LoC uses to classify and list your book. I don't have to have it, but it looks so nice, in a hardcover.

I'm going to print out a copy of APoS, tomorrow. Had to go get another cartridge to get ready for it, and some other running around for meds and such. Also got a new bookshelf since I'm running out of space.

I'm beginning to think I may start getting somewhere with Brendan's story...

Done, for the umpteenth time...

A Place of Safety-Derry is through its latest proofing and wound up at 360 pages, of which about 344 are text. The rest is title page, info, Table of Contents and about the author. I'm going to put my list of other books below my bio, this time, and make it clear I've written an array of novels. Most gay-oriented but some straight. Many with intense sexual content that fits the erotica category, but not all. I've written what I've written, and each one of those books got me one step closer to this point.

I doubt anyone who's actually grown up in Derry will think I've done a good job with the book. Some events I took a bit of creative license with, and excused that by saying it's all Brendan's experience. His interpretations of what's been happening. Some he glosses over; others, where he's more deeply involved, he details as someone caught in chaos and confusion.

This is not an historical novel, even though it's based in history. It's Brendan's story as he tries to navigate his way through a deteriorating situation, like he's on the Titanic and not one of those designated to get in a lifeboat. Some people managed to survive, despite that. I deliberately refused to go with the usual tropes of a friend being killed to teach him some important fact of life, or someone in his family crippled to give him a visual reminder of where his anger stems from.

Even during the slaughter of Bloody Sunday, he's a step removed from those being shot and killed. He knows them well enough to recognize them, but not like they were friends. And he only sees a couple of people shot. It was too out of control and all over the place, and he's hurt and in shock, so he can't take it all in. It's not until he meets with Joanna a couple months after and takes her to the circle fort that he can open up and make decisions about leaving.

I will say half of this book's structure was not consciously set up, but it works well. Brendan did a good job of keeping me in line.

Problem solving day

This has been one of those days where stupid little things keep popping up to demand attention. Like my laptop dumping my connection to Fios and me having to reboot to make it work, again. And one of my jobs, next week, deciding they want me a day later than we'd planned on, meaning an extra day in NYC, which ain't cheap. I'm trying to talk them back into the original schedule. That or after Thanksgiving.

I also need to get paperwork from a client for the export of some books to the UK and they're in a cranky mood. And another job popped up in LA that might require I stay extra time there, too. Actually in Sierra Madre. And Seeking information on import requirements to the UK now that Brexit is in full swing and the Tory government has decided to do all they can to destroy the country's economy.

Then there's just going to get groceries but also wanting to recycle old DPZ bottles only to find the machines aren't working at one store so needing to go to another. It's was $1.30 in bottle returns, so worth the change, but another irritation.

Oh, and Voting! Which is currently looking very good for Democrats across the country, despite all the doomsday crap from the MSM. Anything that happens is bad for Democrats, no matter how good it is. And there's the catastrophe in Gaza where people blame everything on Israel and ignore Hamas' part.

And how the situation there has taken Ukraine off the front page and now more people are crying for Ukraine to just give Russia some land in exchange for peace, when appeasement has never, ever, once worked.

I still managed to get through the chapters on Bloody Sunday and the immediate aftermath, in APoS. Brendan has begun the process of leaving Derry, still planning to work on a cruise ship or ocean freighter to build up money and settle wherever Joanna winds up going to university. He just needs a passport and letter of clearance from the RUC, now called the Police Authority.

So...30 pages left to go.

53 pages left...

Closing in on another pass. After this will come more formatting. I've broken the books into Sections to make it easier to prep correctly. Headers on each page with page numbers in order. Just need to work out the look I want for them.

I kind of like this one, but it can be difficult to set up properly, so the header aligns correctly with the text. We'll see how it goes in my new version of Word.

After that will come working up an ebook version, in which I will do yet another read-through to seek out any recalcitrant typos. I'm also going to ask for reviews from BookLife and Publishers Weekly. I'd like to add them to the back of the dust jacket.

Which means, I'm not actually sending the book in for set-up at either Ingram or Smashwords till after the first of the year. I don't want to publish it till 2024, and things are getting to be so tight this month and next, it's better I delay than rush it through and not like what comes out.
I'm also considering working up a map for the inside, to give an idea of what Derry looked like in 1966, with a couple of fake streets for Brendan to live on. Still thinking about that. It might make the logistics too precise.
Can't have that...oh, no...

Closing in...

Okay, 2/3 of the way through this pass on APoS, and the way it's formatting I'm up to 348 pages. Looks like the final book will be around 360. I've done a bit more trimming and shifting of moments to better help the flow, so it's really turning into an 8th draft. Shit. Is there a clinical name for a writer who can't stop re-writing his work?

I like being back on standard time. DST has always thrown me off, and I hate how it was expanded some years ago for no good reason. But I woke up the morning feeling good, and it's been a good day. I wish they'd do away with the time change and keep it like this...but I'm hearing they may make Daylight Savings Time permanent and that is not pleasing to me.

Something I added to Brendan's character from mine is how I like the night. Day is okay, and if it's overcast I'm happy enough, but it's nighttime when I feel best. I like how the darkness minimizes the ugliness of things. I built that into Brendan and it makes him even less like the rest of his family. I think I know where this is heading, but it won't come together until book three, when he returns to Derry and learns more about his father. Feeling very positive about that, now.

Is there someplace in the world that stays on standard time, year round? I think I'd like to move there.

BTW, Remember, Remember the Fifth of November.

I'm gettin' old...

The job in LA went well. Finished early. Came home early. During my short stay managed to finish a pass through APoS for proofing...and a bit of rewriting. Started reformatting on the flight home, to prep for the hardcover book...and promptly found a typo that I'd missed. So anal little me had to start re-proofing as I rewrote and formatted.

I got in late, last night, had a grilled cheese for a very late dinner, slept for 8 solid hours and got back to work. I honestly do not remember having this much trouble on any of my other books. I reread a fair portion of A65 before sending it off to that competition and found one occasion where I'd doubled up on a word. That's it. And I didn't do 1/10 the proofing on that one as this.

I halfway wonder if part of the issue is that I've been working on it for so long, and done a lot of copy paste from one draft to another, and made copious drafts of moments then pasted them in so that I honestly just jumbled everything up. Or maybe it's just a case of my mental abilities declining as I slip into my sunset years. But reality is, the typos I'm finding are really easy to miss, like no period at the end of a sentence, or missing quotation marks.

Something I have not done is my backwards read, which would keep me from getting caught up in the rhythm of the story. But I don't think I could handle doing that for 139,000 words over 340 pages in a 6x9 format.

I have to admit, this has been a fight to keep going. But I want the book to be as perfect as possible, and my innate paranoia about typos is really working overtime in my fucked up head.

That said...the bit of rewriting I've done has improved it, I'm absolutely certain...and I caught a couple of boo-boos. Like when Brendan sees Joanna for the second time. They're outside Austin's, an expensive department store on Derry's Diamond square. He sees her and her friends go down to a Woolworth's on Ferryquay Street and follows them.

The way I described it, I'd had the girls crossing the square to go down the street, which would place the store on the wrong corner. So corrected that. Also removed a bit of repetition.

It's little things that will make or break this book.

Long day of no writing...

Not exactly. I finished prepping A65 to send off. They wanted a PDF of the story double-spaced so that's what I did. And a short synopsis. And I'm really happy with it. No feedback. We'll see how it goes.

I'll work on APoS on the plane and at the hotel, at night. Plotted out plans for the packing. Completed some other paperwork and end of month business since I won't be able to do it while I'm traveling. I don't do anything financial on wifi outside of my place or the office. I don't trust it.

My flight, tomorrow, isn't till 8:15pm and I don't arrive till 10:45pm, and that's if everything is on time. This flight is not guaranteed to do that. But I've got an aisle seat and my new Air is smaller than that PC and my Pro, and works one hell of a lot better, so I'll do all right.

Countdown to Halloween, still...a night of unimaginable horrors for the faint of heart. Like me. Besides, there are too many real horrors in the world to deal with. I don't know if I'm getting smarter (ha) or people are getting dumber, but whatever it is I'm at the point in my life where I'm close to saying, Fuck 'em all. 

Let Mother Nature take control, show us who's boss and restart the march of evolution with cephalopods. They seem kinder and gentler, and a hell of a lot smarter. 

A bit of chaos...

Today I got booked for a packing job in Anaheim Hills, starting Tuesday. So I have to fly down day after tomorrow. Talk about scrambling, and I'm not home till Saturday. Fortunately, it's a continuation of a job I've already done, twice before, so I know the layout of the place and will have space enough to work in. And an assistant who can do the lifting and moving parts.

I still managed to get through three more chapters of APoS, to 1970. That leaves 10 chapters to do, and I can this little Macbook with me, to do a lot of this on the plane. So I will focus on the job, tomorrow and Monday, before my flight.

I've also decided to enter The Alice '65 into the Cinematic Book Writing Competition. Not sure what it's really about, but you never know who might read it. I found the Word doc for the updated paperback I did in March 2021, and read through some of it. And I'm fuckin' proud of that book. It flows so smoothly. I like Adam and Casey and the people around them. So I'm formatting it into the required style and sending it in.

They offer feedback, but I don't want any. I don't need it. I did a damn good job with that story and all I want is the promotional aspect of this contest. I'm not having anyone tell me how I should have written it to be funnier or simpler or crazier or anything. I've already been through that and found it's bullshit.

I wrote a screenplay for a former friend, using her idea -- her mother had been in Senior Lady Beauty Pageants and she thought it would be fun to make a comedy out of it. So I worked up a full story, characters, hit all the expected high points...and made it about a mistaken magical charm switching the mind of an older woman who's about to be in one of those pageants with the mind of her cop son-in-law who's trying to catch a criminal. Set it in Las Vegas, and all hell breaks loose.

It would have been hysterical with the right actors. But that's how it is with comedy -- the actors make the piece live. What comments did I get back? "Needs to be funnier." I've got the cop caught in his MIL's body suddenly having to deal with her estranged husband when the man shows up and wants to get back together with her in an intimate way. And the MIL in the cop's body has to save the life of his partner when they're attacked, and not knowing how to fire a gun or use handcuffs.

Not funny enough.

I no longer own that script. It was taken away from me fifteen years ago. Given to someone who knows how to write comedy. And what's happened, since? Nothing.

When William Goldman said that in Hollywood Nobody knows anything, he was right. The problem is, nobody knows that they don't know, and are sure that it doesn't apply to them.

Halfway

I'm at the point where the Battle of Bogside is about to begin, and it's also where that PC started fucking up my formatting. It's all better now, and I don't think anything was cut, so I'm toodling along and will return to my original formatting once I'm done with this last proofing. Which should be in a couple days.

I noticed I used the same last name for a couple different people and don't want that. I'm having enough fun with the Eamonnn/Eammon situation. Eamonn is Brendan's older brother, who's injured in the attack on the People's Democracy march at Burntollet Bridge.

Eammon is a friend of Brendan's I consistently refer to as wee Eammon. He's the exact opposite of Brendan's brother -- small, red-haired, looking like a leprechaun, and sickly. I like the contrast.

I do like how I've woven in events as they happen throughout the story, so far. Brendan refers to them or hears about them, so he's not everywhere. Sometimes he even admits to a bit of hooliganism, like in being part of the crowd that burned down a few buildings in July 1969.

But for the most part he's not much involved in the actions. His focus is still making what money he can off his repairs and helping his family in his own way. Like making a garden hutch over into a home for Mairead when she marries Tur Devlin and they have a child. And he's not unfair; because a neighbor let his family stay with them after their old home was trashed, he does some work for her, for free.

My hope is I'm building a human being for people to relate to, not a character or saint or flawed hero but a boy living his life as best he can in impossible circumstances.

1/3 done and feelin' like fun...

I'm through the October 5th march, in APoS, and at just over 139,100 words, and feel pretty good about this pass. Not sure why it keeps expanding because I've cut some more repetition. But maybe my words are fucking like rabbits. Or...maybe it's because of...

Halloween!

I'm counting down to the day on my FB page, having fun with it. 

I now believe that if those brats had just given Freddy a good lay, they'd still be alive. I wonder if I should write a screenplay where the hunky jock lets Michael Myers fuck him and winds up his BBF. 

Or go trick-or-treating, then whoever gets the most candy is able to eat Jason Voorhees...