M.R. Darling's Blog, page 2
May 17, 2016
Proofs have Arrived…
…and that was fast! I’m glad I didn’t pay for expedited shipping, it took barelya weekend to arrive. A large box and an additional $16.77 C.O.D. bill for taxes and processing fees awaited me, the fun never ends for Canadians. Initially offering cash for my cash-on-delivery charge, the man was stumped; Completely at a loss of what to do with this strange paper I had handed him. I relented and offered to pay debit, which seemed to right the sea of wrong that I had placed his little boat in.
Bac...
May 16, 2016
From Thought to Print (Part 1)
Going from thought to print required a lot of steps, and I will save you some time now; There is no end-to-end, one-stop shop for indie writers. You will need a myriad of software unless you are paying someone else to do all the dirty work for you. I haveseen many ebooks, and print book for that matter, that seem to have be designed by an individual that either didn’t care, or didn’t have the knowledge to make it look good. Not onlywould I be damned before I released anythingthat looked like...
May 14, 2016
Spending a Year Writing… (Part 3)
Stepping through the doorway, I sequestered my belongings and continued to my post in the ongoing war against product complacency. My newly-minted commanding officer was still finding his place here, and suffered with the delusion of accelerated promotional tactics. Specifically, failing to see their direct correlation with the snowball effect and how it would one day crush him. Raising the bar also raised the median. At some point, you would be unable to produce even the minimally excepted t...
May 12, 2016
Coming to Print…
My proof copies of A Blue Horizon are on the way! Being new to CreateSpace, it was a learning experience in the basics of publication as I prepared my uploads. Templates make it easier, but in the end, you always triple-guess every move. It takes 24 agonizing hours for the CS team to go over your material to be sure it fits their guidelines, and in that time, I modifiedmy interior media three times.
The review came back with some “non-blocking issues” (takes a second to parsethe English there...
May 10, 2016
Spending a Year Writing… (Part 2)
The walk to work was uneventful, the morning calm and chill as I followed my customary path alongside the railway tracks. It was a route that took me through what greenery I could find, giving me a few minutes of clean morning air before the eight hours of recycled facsimile that I would soon be inhaling. Once again my thoughts drifted to the ‘the story’, my constant companion on this walk to the walled kingdom where ambition goes to die.
Starting as a single flash of imagination as a metro c...
May 7, 2016
Spending a Year Writing… (Part 1)
Shortly over a year ago marked my last day of working for another company, and starting to work for myself. It was never intended to be my last day, I rose to the alarm and put myself together for another slog through the same retail horrors that I had spent nine years trudging though. The difference this day had would be the final straw on a very tired camel’s back.
Rewind to two months previous, a colleague of mine was leaving. His last day was upon us, and I invited him to coffee at lunch...
May 6, 2016
Shareholders Meeting
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Investor Relations Meeting and Technology Showcase Event
A first-hand look at your investment.
Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Alger Strieber
To Our Investors: We promised you results, and in the coming months, those promises will be fulfilled beyond our initial projections. Our extensive worldwide operations have secured us technology that will revolutionize entire industries as the world knows them. Ad...
May 5, 2016
What is the Ashrealm?
It’s a question I asked myself, and it took me a solid year to chroniclejust the beginning of my journey inunderstanding it. The origins,andkey members ofthe unfolding saga, are all here. Their paths inextricably linked to the dawningof a new era inhumankind–one of possible extinction.
Join these flawed, and human characters as they struggle to understand the question: What is the Ashrealm?
The complete first book, A Blue Horizonis available now onAmazon
May 4, 2016
Beau Bradley’s Guide…
I’m still amazedat the number of coffee houses who employ baristaswith little to no experience in crafting the very beverage theirestablishment is known for. From something as simple as the reuse of a spoon, to the horrifying habit of a single cloth to clean everything, very few Cafés are worthy of a second visit. When I have the time in my busy schedule as the leadreporter for KLLTV News, I try to educate these lost souls, and draw them to the enlightenment of tru...
Ground Zero
And it’s out! A Blue Horizon: Ground Zero is now available at Amazon for purchase or borrow via KDP Select Prime service. Get seven chapters, a full third of the complete book, on your Kindle today!
