Doug Farren's Blog, page 2
November 4, 2018
November 04, 2018
I have not posted anything in this blog for several months -- here's why:
I decided to take a short break from writing. I've been spending my time watching movies and science fiction programs that I haven't had a chance to watch. I've been learning more about how to build websites. I've been working on home projects I've been wanting to do for a long time. And, I've been reading -- something I dearly love to do but always set aside when I'm actively writing. The need to write, though, is still there and as of a week ago, I finally began working on a new novel. This one will be the 4th in the Peacekeeper series.
Writing takes time away from a lot of things -- family, other learning desires, and doing things a person just simply likes to do. This time around, I'm going to try my best not to become obsessed with writing. I'm promising myself to take time out to do other things.
I have signed up to attend the 2019 Cleveland Concoction convention. This will be held in Aurora, Ohio from March 1st through March 3rd. I went last year and had a good time. This year, I plan on spending far more time sitting in Author Alley where authors showcase their books and readers can come in, talk to the authors, and buy the books. As long as an author participates in at least 3 panels, they can attend the event for free. It's not a large convention, but it is local and I will get to mingle with some of my author acquaintances.
I missed attending this year's Geek Expo because my wife and I were visiting my dad in South Carolina. We had intended to go earlier but mother nature decided to throw a hurricane at us and we canceled the originally planned trip. Unfortunately, this was the last year for this relatively popular local event. In the past, I did quite well in book sales. No reason for the event's discontinuation have been given by the organizers.
Even though I've been continuing my education on how to build a website, I haven't applied this new knowledge to updating my current site. It does not get much traffic and other priorities have gotten in the way. Someday (soon, I hope), the website will have some additional features added. When I do this, I will let you know.
Right now, it's time to head outside because we have a ton of leaves on the ground that need to be moved to the street. They weren't there when we left on vacation. It's also been raining since we got back and now the leaves will have to be raked instead of blown. Oh well -- off I go!
I decided to take a short break from writing. I've been spending my time watching movies and science fiction programs that I haven't had a chance to watch. I've been learning more about how to build websites. I've been working on home projects I've been wanting to do for a long time. And, I've been reading -- something I dearly love to do but always set aside when I'm actively writing. The need to write, though, is still there and as of a week ago, I finally began working on a new novel. This one will be the 4th in the Peacekeeper series.
Writing takes time away from a lot of things -- family, other learning desires, and doing things a person just simply likes to do. This time around, I'm going to try my best not to become obsessed with writing. I'm promising myself to take time out to do other things.
I have signed up to attend the 2019 Cleveland Concoction convention. This will be held in Aurora, Ohio from March 1st through March 3rd. I went last year and had a good time. This year, I plan on spending far more time sitting in Author Alley where authors showcase their books and readers can come in, talk to the authors, and buy the books. As long as an author participates in at least 3 panels, they can attend the event for free. It's not a large convention, but it is local and I will get to mingle with some of my author acquaintances.
I missed attending this year's Geek Expo because my wife and I were visiting my dad in South Carolina. We had intended to go earlier but mother nature decided to throw a hurricane at us and we canceled the originally planned trip. Unfortunately, this was the last year for this relatively popular local event. In the past, I did quite well in book sales. No reason for the event's discontinuation have been given by the organizers.
Even though I've been continuing my education on how to build a website, I haven't applied this new knowledge to updating my current site. It does not get much traffic and other priorities have gotten in the way. Someday (soon, I hope), the website will have some additional features added. When I do this, I will let you know.
Right now, it's time to head outside because we have a ton of leaves on the ground that need to be moved to the street. They weren't there when we left on vacation. It's also been raining since we got back and now the leaves will have to be raked instead of blown. Oh well -- off I go!
June 24, 2018
June 24: What's Next?
Collision Course is done and is just sitting on Amazon's server collecting prerelease sales until July 9th when the book becomes available. The print version is done but has not yet been uploaded. I'll do that after the ebook is released. So, what's next?
Even though I write computer programs at my day job, I've been finding myself wanting to learn more about website programming. Sales have been pathetic so the incentive to write is just not there. So, I think I will be turning my attention towards learning some more about jQuery and then PHP and MySQL which are the final technologies I need to build some really cool websites. If you haven't been to my author website recently, please check it out. I will be adding a ton more pictures in the very near future so keep checking back.
Why are sales so low? Well, I'm not the only author complaining. Amazon is named after one of the world's largest forests and rightly so. There are literally millions of books available on Amazon. Unless you have the advertising power of a large publishing house or a huge fan base that constantly look to see when your next novel is published, getting noticed is difficult. The winners of this year's Nebula awards have been released. You won't find a single self-published story in the list. There are self-published authors, but the stories that were nominated are those that have been published in a magazine or by one of the large publishing houses.
I'm not complaining (well, not too much anyway) because I've had a really good run so far. But, when sales drop too low, the thrill of publishing a new novel and seeing a spike in sales is just no longer there. If there are competing interests (such as website programming for myself) then such interests become more important than writing for a shrinking audience.
This does not mean I will be abandoning writing or that I will never self-publish another book. The urge will return and I will open up Scrivener and start my next novel. What it will be is anyone's guess since I have nothing in mind at the moment. And as for when ... only time will tell.
Even though I write computer programs at my day job, I've been finding myself wanting to learn more about website programming. Sales have been pathetic so the incentive to write is just not there. So, I think I will be turning my attention towards learning some more about jQuery and then PHP and MySQL which are the final technologies I need to build some really cool websites. If you haven't been to my author website recently, please check it out. I will be adding a ton more pictures in the very near future so keep checking back.
Why are sales so low? Well, I'm not the only author complaining. Amazon is named after one of the world's largest forests and rightly so. There are literally millions of books available on Amazon. Unless you have the advertising power of a large publishing house or a huge fan base that constantly look to see when your next novel is published, getting noticed is difficult. The winners of this year's Nebula awards have been released. You won't find a single self-published story in the list. There are self-published authors, but the stories that were nominated are those that have been published in a magazine or by one of the large publishing houses.
I'm not complaining (well, not too much anyway) because I've had a really good run so far. But, when sales drop too low, the thrill of publishing a new novel and seeing a spike in sales is just no longer there. If there are competing interests (such as website programming for myself) then such interests become more important than writing for a shrinking audience.
This does not mean I will be abandoning writing or that I will never self-publish another book. The urge will return and I will open up Scrivener and start my next novel. What it will be is anyone's guess since I have nothing in mind at the moment. And as for when ... only time will tell.
June 17, 2018
June 17: Next novel is done!
Collision Course is complete! It is available for pre-order now. Please consider pre-ordering the book as pre-order sales help a new book get off to a good start. The cover is at the end of this post.
Grammatical corrections from my wife (who has 27 years of newspaper experience) were entered during the week of June 4th. On June 9th, the manuscript was emailed to Ekkehard Flessa in Germany for his final proofing. English is Mr. Flessa's second language and his English is impeccable. While I waited for his comments, I began the process of formatting the book for printing. This involves setting the size of the page, adding the page headers, and adjusting the layout so that chapter headings all appear on even number pages.
Formatting a book for printing takes a considerable amount of time and patience. Page numbering starts at the first page of chapter 1 which is page 1. All chapters must begin on even-numbered pages. The first page of each chapter does not have a heading but all other pages do. Even-numbered pages get the author's name and odd-numbered pages show the title of the book. Margins are set for mirror margins to allow for the size of the binding and the header of the odd pages and the even pages are not only different in what they contain by how they are aligned.
I also look at where each chapter breaks. If there are only a few lines on a page, the line spacing is adjusted by tiny amounts to either shrink or expand the text to make the final page of the chapter either blank or filled with more lines to make it look better. Other formatting issues are taken care of by the styles I use when creating the book. For example, the first paragraph of a chapter or after a scene break is always left-aligned. Using styles to format a book makes things so much easier, especially when it comes time to alter that format for export to Kindle.
Once the manuscript is properly formatted, it is exported to PDF. I then go through it one more time to verify the book has been exported correctly and looks good. The two-page, side-by-side view is especially useful here. Since I make some corrections to the manuscript when it is formatted for print, I need to take all these corrections and roll them into the Kindle version. A copy of the CreateSpace version is made for this.
I apply a new template to the document and alter the page size to quickly put most of the text into the correct format. The new template alters the formatting as well as the font used throughout the entire manuscript. The final formatting step is to take the rough Kindle version and alter it so it can be converted to Kindle format by Amazon. All headers and section breaks are removed. A page break is inserted at the end of each chapter. The front matter is adjusted to a font size that will look better on e-readers and all tabs are removed (tabs do not translate).
Now that I have a PDF version, I know how many pages are in the final version. This is used to download a template from CreateSpace that is used to create the cover. I use Photoshop to assemble all the artwork and other elements to create the final cover. Since I've done this before, most of this can be accomplished by dragging and dropping the elements from a previous cover into the new one and then altering the text. This gives all of my books the same look.
As you can see, self-publishing a book takes a considerable amount of time. Please share this post with your friends who enjoy science fiction. Ask them to pre-order it; the cost is only $3.50. These sales will give the book a boost when it becomes available in a few weeks. Thank you! And, here is the cover:
Grammatical corrections from my wife (who has 27 years of newspaper experience) were entered during the week of June 4th. On June 9th, the manuscript was emailed to Ekkehard Flessa in Germany for his final proofing. English is Mr. Flessa's second language and his English is impeccable. While I waited for his comments, I began the process of formatting the book for printing. This involves setting the size of the page, adding the page headers, and adjusting the layout so that chapter headings all appear on even number pages.
Formatting a book for printing takes a considerable amount of time and patience. Page numbering starts at the first page of chapter 1 which is page 1. All chapters must begin on even-numbered pages. The first page of each chapter does not have a heading but all other pages do. Even-numbered pages get the author's name and odd-numbered pages show the title of the book. Margins are set for mirror margins to allow for the size of the binding and the header of the odd pages and the even pages are not only different in what they contain by how they are aligned.
I also look at where each chapter breaks. If there are only a few lines on a page, the line spacing is adjusted by tiny amounts to either shrink or expand the text to make the final page of the chapter either blank or filled with more lines to make it look better. Other formatting issues are taken care of by the styles I use when creating the book. For example, the first paragraph of a chapter or after a scene break is always left-aligned. Using styles to format a book makes things so much easier, especially when it comes time to alter that format for export to Kindle.
Once the manuscript is properly formatted, it is exported to PDF. I then go through it one more time to verify the book has been exported correctly and looks good. The two-page, side-by-side view is especially useful here. Since I make some corrections to the manuscript when it is formatted for print, I need to take all these corrections and roll them into the Kindle version. A copy of the CreateSpace version is made for this.
I apply a new template to the document and alter the page size to quickly put most of the text into the correct format. The new template alters the formatting as well as the font used throughout the entire manuscript. The final formatting step is to take the rough Kindle version and alter it so it can be converted to Kindle format by Amazon. All headers and section breaks are removed. A page break is inserted at the end of each chapter. The front matter is adjusted to a font size that will look better on e-readers and all tabs are removed (tabs do not translate).
Now that I have a PDF version, I know how many pages are in the final version. This is used to download a template from CreateSpace that is used to create the cover. I use Photoshop to assemble all the artwork and other elements to create the final cover. Since I've done this before, most of this can be accomplished by dragging and dropping the elements from a previous cover into the new one and then altering the text. This gives all of my books the same look.
As you can see, self-publishing a book takes a considerable amount of time. Please share this post with your friends who enjoy science fiction. Ask them to pre-order it; the cost is only $3.50. These sales will give the book a boost when it becomes available in a few weeks. Thank you! And, here is the cover:
June 10, 2018
June 10--Post Launch Pad
The Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop is over. I met another fine group of people and had a wonderful time. Unlike all past workshops, the transportation arrangements for this workshop did not go smoothly. The vehicles that had originally been rented turned out to be far too small and all three drivers were forced to upgrade. The rental company charged us $50.00 a day for the upgrade cost. In addition to this, the cost that is quoted online does not include a bevy of added charges that quickly put the total cost of each vehicle at well over twice what Launch Pad has paid in the past. The line to pick up the vehicles was long and it took the drivers almost 45 minutes to pick up the vehicles. If you ever have a need to rent a vehicle--you would be wise not to choose Advantage.
My wife has finished her grammar check of Collision Course and the manuscript is now in the hands of my final proofing editor for his review. I will be making a final editing run on the book after I get all his comments as well as starting work on the formatting of the book for CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle. Once I have a completed manuscript, I can build a final cover. With luck, the book will be out in another month or so.
Sales have been very disappointing of late. This does have an effect on how enthused I am about getting this next book out. I have other things I enjoy doing and if people aren't buying my books, why should I spend a lot of time working on writing them and getting them out for publication? Seriously, if there's no incentive to publish, then I'll turn my attention to other things. I'll still continue to write and publish, but it won't be with the same enthusiasm I would have if I was selling more.
One of my other interests is in learning how to build web pages. This involves learning HTML (done), CSS (done), JavaScript (mostly done), jQuery (in progress), and PHP (not yet started). Even though I now know enough about JavaScript and jQuery to build a decent web page, I'm not proficient at it. Being proficient will require practice. Right now, I have a good start on my website and it's only going to be getting better in the future. If you're interested, please check it out. Just point your browser to Dougfarren.com and take a look. Comments are always welcome.
Some of you might recall that I work at a nuclear power plant. The company I work for has been in the news recently because they've filed for bankruptcy protection. The Trump administration is also pushing to keep the nuclear and coal plants open. As of right now, the company plans on closing the plant in May of 2021. I should still be able to remain employed until at least a year after that date putting me within striking distance of full retirement. I believe nuclear power should have a place in our energy supply matrix. I am not a fan of any fossil fuel generators unless they have a way to reduce their carbon emissions. Granted, nuclear power must be treated with extreme respect because the results of failing to do so are disasterous (i.e. Fukashima). But, done right, it is a viable source of power.
Time to post this and get back to working on editing my book ... or maybe I should spend my time updating my website ... or maybe ...
My wife has finished her grammar check of Collision Course and the manuscript is now in the hands of my final proofing editor for his review. I will be making a final editing run on the book after I get all his comments as well as starting work on the formatting of the book for CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle. Once I have a completed manuscript, I can build a final cover. With luck, the book will be out in another month or so.
Sales have been very disappointing of late. This does have an effect on how enthused I am about getting this next book out. I have other things I enjoy doing and if people aren't buying my books, why should I spend a lot of time working on writing them and getting them out for publication? Seriously, if there's no incentive to publish, then I'll turn my attention to other things. I'll still continue to write and publish, but it won't be with the same enthusiasm I would have if I was selling more.
One of my other interests is in learning how to build web pages. This involves learning HTML (done), CSS (done), JavaScript (mostly done), jQuery (in progress), and PHP (not yet started). Even though I now know enough about JavaScript and jQuery to build a decent web page, I'm not proficient at it. Being proficient will require practice. Right now, I have a good start on my website and it's only going to be getting better in the future. If you're interested, please check it out. Just point your browser to Dougfarren.com and take a look. Comments are always welcome.
Some of you might recall that I work at a nuclear power plant. The company I work for has been in the news recently because they've filed for bankruptcy protection. The Trump administration is also pushing to keep the nuclear and coal plants open. As of right now, the company plans on closing the plant in May of 2021. I should still be able to remain employed until at least a year after that date putting me within striking distance of full retirement. I believe nuclear power should have a place in our energy supply matrix. I am not a fan of any fossil fuel generators unless they have a way to reduce their carbon emissions. Granted, nuclear power must be treated with extreme respect because the results of failing to do so are disasterous (i.e. Fukashima). But, done right, it is a viable source of power.
Time to post this and get back to working on editing my book ... or maybe I should spend my time updating my website ... or maybe ...
May 27, 2018
May 28: Launch Pad
It has been some time since I’ve posted a blog entry—mostly because I’ve not had much to report. Proofing of Collision Course is nearly complete and I expect to have it ready for publication in about three weeks. I might delay that a bit to see if I can’t get some pre-orders lined up. The artwork is complete and ready to be turned into a cover.
I leave for Laramie on the 28th to attend another Launch Pad. This will be the first time the workshop has been held starting on a holiday. I wonder what the airport is going to be like? This trip is also unique in that I will be sticking around at the airport until the last person arrives. I will be coordinating which authors will depart with which drivers. We do have one author that has a very tight (36 minutes) layover in Salt Lake City. He also happens to be one of our drivers. If he misses his flight, we will have to designate another driver. This could get interesting!
I’m also getting ready to roll out an update to my author website. I’ve already made some modifications based on my new knowledge of JavaScript and jQuery. This update should be rolled out sometime while I am at Launch Pad.
If you enjoyed Off Course, I think you will enjoy Collision Course. If you’ve read my other novels (especially the Dragonverse series) you will find a pleasant surprise towards the end of the book. Keep your eyes open for an announcement in the next few weeks. Pre-order sales help get a new novel kicked off on the right foot.
I leave for Laramie on the 28th to attend another Launch Pad. This will be the first time the workshop has been held starting on a holiday. I wonder what the airport is going to be like? This trip is also unique in that I will be sticking around at the airport until the last person arrives. I will be coordinating which authors will depart with which drivers. We do have one author that has a very tight (36 minutes) layover in Salt Lake City. He also happens to be one of our drivers. If he misses his flight, we will have to designate another driver. This could get interesting!
I’m also getting ready to roll out an update to my author website. I’ve already made some modifications based on my new knowledge of JavaScript and jQuery. This update should be rolled out sometime while I am at Launch Pad.
If you enjoyed Off Course, I think you will enjoy Collision Course. If you’ve read my other novels (especially the Dragonverse series) you will find a pleasant surprise towards the end of the book. Keep your eyes open for an announcement in the next few weeks. Pre-order sales help get a new novel kicked off on the right foot.
May 6, 2018
May 6: Collision Course and website
My wife has passed the halfway point of her review of Collision Course. It's been slow going but she's promised to speed things up a bit. I'm still hoping for a release sometime this month.
Work on my website is also going slow but I am making progress. In fact, I uploaded all of the changes to the site last weekend. More improvements are coming. The biggest factor in how slow things are going is the weather--it's been very nice! With good weather comes all the work needed to clean things up after Winter. The list was a long one but now I think it's all behind me.
As for writing--I've been thinking about scaling that way back. Writers put a lot of things on hold while they're writing and it's good to take a break from writing and do other things. Reading and watching science and science fiction movies and programs are the things I've been sacrificing. I will get back to writing when the urge hits.
As for my future as an employee at the nuclear power plant, that is still a total unknown. The efforts to save the plant's future with government support are not going well. With the company in bankruptcy, the future is very uncertain. I've been working at the plant for 29 years and was hoping to make it until 70. But, if the news reports turn out to be true, the plant will cease producing power on May 21st of 2021 and begin the process of decommissioning. Once the paperwork to change the license is sent, there is no turning back. I think I will be able to keep working there for at least the first year after the reactor is finally shut down but after that--who knows. The sad thing about it all is that we generate carbon-free power. Replacement power will generate more carbon and the air quality will decrease. Studies show that peoples electric rates will also go up--a lot.
Work on my website is also going slow but I am making progress. In fact, I uploaded all of the changes to the site last weekend. More improvements are coming. The biggest factor in how slow things are going is the weather--it's been very nice! With good weather comes all the work needed to clean things up after Winter. The list was a long one but now I think it's all behind me.
As for writing--I've been thinking about scaling that way back. Writers put a lot of things on hold while they're writing and it's good to take a break from writing and do other things. Reading and watching science and science fiction movies and programs are the things I've been sacrificing. I will get back to writing when the urge hits.
As for my future as an employee at the nuclear power plant, that is still a total unknown. The efforts to save the plant's future with government support are not going well. With the company in bankruptcy, the future is very uncertain. I've been working at the plant for 29 years and was hoping to make it until 70. But, if the news reports turn out to be true, the plant will cease producing power on May 21st of 2021 and begin the process of decommissioning. Once the paperwork to change the license is sent, there is no turning back. I think I will be able to keep working there for at least the first year after the reactor is finally shut down but after that--who knows. The sad thing about it all is that we generate carbon-free power. Replacement power will generate more carbon and the air quality will decrease. Studies show that peoples electric rates will also go up--a lot.
April 15, 2018
Taxes and website
Collision Course is still in the process of being proofed by my meticulous wife. I believe she's about at the half-way point. While she's been proofing, I've been learning how to build a website.
My current website isn't that bad but it's not complete. I also realized when I built it that the JavaScript code driving two of the pages was not written using techniques that are recognized as acceptable in professional programming circles. I sought out some advice, learned a bit about jQuery and then started work on version 2. I haven't updated the live site yet, but I'm closing in on a site that will look very similar to what is seen now but has more professional-looking code driving it.
One of my primary goals is to keep the site simple and easy to use on any platform from small cell phones to giant multi-screened systems. I also want the user who likes to keep JavaScript disabled to be able to view the site. Achieving these goals has not been easy! The new site relies heavily on CSS and HTML 5 for as much of the design and functionality as possible. The pages where JavaScript are required are clearly marked as such.
My biggest problem was in creating a menuing system that works on all platforms. The current system you see now uses CSS and works okay. But with more pages coming, the menu needed updating. A simple drop-down where the user hovers over an item and a sub-menu appears seemed like a good choice but such a menuing system will have problems on a touch-screen. Yesterday, while at the writer's group, a fellow author showed me her website. She uses the now standard three bar menu icon to take the user to a central navigation hub. This is a more elegant solution and is the one I will be adopting.
I've seen such a menu before but never really thought about it until now. It's also far easier to maintain than an old-style menu with categories listed at the top or the side of a site. When a change is made, I will no longer have to update every single page to show the new menu. This is a much better design.
I wanted to bring up a concern about taxes that I noted on Twitter the other day. Two of my author acquaintances have books that have done well last year. One was complaining she was not prepared for the amount of money she needed to send to the IRS while the other said that his accountant had been pretty much useless. I've written several times in the past about taxes for authors. A writer must treat their writing like a business. This involves more than just claiming that your writing is a business. You must be able to show the IRS that you are treating your writing as a business by documentation, separate bank accounts, etc.
One of the other aspects of owning a business is to understand how the finances work. Please don't rely totally on an accountant for this. Take the time to read the IRS publications. Believe it or not, they're not that difficult to read. When tax time comes, the IRS will hold you responsible for the accuracy of the forms you submit--not your accountant. I do my own taxes and I periodically read the IRS publications to keep abreast of the changes in tax law. Sure it takes time. But it's better than finding out that you or your accountant missed something important and now you owe more taxes than you can afford to pay.
There are many resources out there if you care to take the time to do the research. Taxes can be tricky. But after reading the IRS publications, reading a book on taxes for small businesses, and taking the time to get your writing business in order can make tax time less challenging. Planning ahead for the tax you will need to pay is also a must. The IRS will want their fair share of your writing income. Make sure you have it available when the time comes.
My current website isn't that bad but it's not complete. I also realized when I built it that the JavaScript code driving two of the pages was not written using techniques that are recognized as acceptable in professional programming circles. I sought out some advice, learned a bit about jQuery and then started work on version 2. I haven't updated the live site yet, but I'm closing in on a site that will look very similar to what is seen now but has more professional-looking code driving it.
One of my primary goals is to keep the site simple and easy to use on any platform from small cell phones to giant multi-screened systems. I also want the user who likes to keep JavaScript disabled to be able to view the site. Achieving these goals has not been easy! The new site relies heavily on CSS and HTML 5 for as much of the design and functionality as possible. The pages where JavaScript are required are clearly marked as such.
My biggest problem was in creating a menuing system that works on all platforms. The current system you see now uses CSS and works okay. But with more pages coming, the menu needed updating. A simple drop-down where the user hovers over an item and a sub-menu appears seemed like a good choice but such a menuing system will have problems on a touch-screen. Yesterday, while at the writer's group, a fellow author showed me her website. She uses the now standard three bar menu icon to take the user to a central navigation hub. This is a more elegant solution and is the one I will be adopting.
I've seen such a menu before but never really thought about it until now. It's also far easier to maintain than an old-style menu with categories listed at the top or the side of a site. When a change is made, I will no longer have to update every single page to show the new menu. This is a much better design.
I wanted to bring up a concern about taxes that I noted on Twitter the other day. Two of my author acquaintances have books that have done well last year. One was complaining she was not prepared for the amount of money she needed to send to the IRS while the other said that his accountant had been pretty much useless. I've written several times in the past about taxes for authors. A writer must treat their writing like a business. This involves more than just claiming that your writing is a business. You must be able to show the IRS that you are treating your writing as a business by documentation, separate bank accounts, etc.
One of the other aspects of owning a business is to understand how the finances work. Please don't rely totally on an accountant for this. Take the time to read the IRS publications. Believe it or not, they're not that difficult to read. When tax time comes, the IRS will hold you responsible for the accuracy of the forms you submit--not your accountant. I do my own taxes and I periodically read the IRS publications to keep abreast of the changes in tax law. Sure it takes time. But it's better than finding out that you or your accountant missed something important and now you owe more taxes than you can afford to pay.
There are many resources out there if you care to take the time to do the research. Taxes can be tricky. But after reading the IRS publications, reading a book on taxes for small businesses, and taking the time to get your writing business in order can make tax time less challenging. Planning ahead for the tax you will need to pay is also a must. The IRS will want their fair share of your writing income. Make sure you have it available when the time comes.
March 25, 2018
JavaScript
Collision Course is currently being proofed by my wife. Her 27 years of newspaper experience makes her the perfect person to edit my books. She is not a big fan of science fiction and that actually is a plus for her being my proof-reader. Because she does not enjoy reading science fiction, she does not have the tendency to switch from editing mode to story-reading mode. She's committed to proofing at least one chapter a day so I should have a proofed copy in a little over a month.
In the meantime, I've started playing around with my website. It's been too long since I last played around with website development and the memory of how it all works was beginning to fade. It took some time this morning to get back up to speed but now I'm making progress. I'm using a local web server called XAMPP to locally host the test site.
I'm building my site totally manually without using any sort of web building software. This way, I'll be actually learning how to do the programming and how everything ties together. If I were to use a site builder, it would generate the code for me and I would not be doing any learning. That's also why I took the path of learning JavaScript before learning JQuery. I want to know how it works.
XAMPP is a free program and it has all the features of a full-fledged web server. It runs Apache with support for JavaScript, Perl, MySQL, and everything else you need to run a full-blown website. Installation was a snap and it consumes few resources. If you need to build a WordPress or Joomla site, there are installers to put those platforms on XAMPP. If you're serious about developing websites, then this is the route to go.
The editor I'm using is Atom. I tried a few others but Atom is the one with the best documentation and is highly configurable. Brackets is another good choice but finding good documentation on how to use it is virtually impossible. What good is a program that does not have good documentation?
As a self-published author, it's up to me to build my own website. I have a good background in computer programming and learning to build a website is just an extension of my current skill-set. Many self-published authors have taken the time to learn how to build a website because having one is pretty much mandatory these days and paying someone else to build it can get expensive. If you don't want to take the time to learn JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and a host of other acronyms, then give WordPress or one of the other popular content manager platforms a shot. For myself, the best way to learn is to play.
Time to get back to playing!
In the meantime, I've started playing around with my website. It's been too long since I last played around with website development and the memory of how it all works was beginning to fade. It took some time this morning to get back up to speed but now I'm making progress. I'm using a local web server called XAMPP to locally host the test site.
I'm building my site totally manually without using any sort of web building software. This way, I'll be actually learning how to do the programming and how everything ties together. If I were to use a site builder, it would generate the code for me and I would not be doing any learning. That's also why I took the path of learning JavaScript before learning JQuery. I want to know how it works.
XAMPP is a free program and it has all the features of a full-fledged web server. It runs Apache with support for JavaScript, Perl, MySQL, and everything else you need to run a full-blown website. Installation was a snap and it consumes few resources. If you need to build a WordPress or Joomla site, there are installers to put those platforms on XAMPP. If you're serious about developing websites, then this is the route to go.
The editor I'm using is Atom. I tried a few others but Atom is the one with the best documentation and is highly configurable. Brackets is another good choice but finding good documentation on how to use it is virtually impossible. What good is a program that does not have good documentation?
As a self-published author, it's up to me to build my own website. I have a good background in computer programming and learning to build a website is just an extension of my current skill-set. Many self-published authors have taken the time to learn how to build a website because having one is pretty much mandatory these days and paying someone else to build it can get expensive. If you don't want to take the time to learn JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and a host of other acronyms, then give WordPress or one of the other popular content manager platforms a shot. For myself, the best way to learn is to play.
Time to get back to playing!
March 18, 2018
Ready for Proofing
As of a few moments ago, Collision Course is complete and ready to be proofed. Based on the feedback I received from my content editor Lee Dilkie, I've made a few changes in how the story unfolded. I also added a new final chapter that neatly wraps things up. Additional text was added to explain a few things that were left unexplained in the original draft. All-in-all, I am pleased with the book.
I have also selected the artwork that will be used for the cover. I will begin adding the text and making a few minor changes to the artwork to make it look more like all my other books. I would like to thank Lee for his insight and Heather Zak for her hard work in creating the new cover. Now, the book goes to my wife Cheryl so she can work her grammatical magic. I expect that process to take about a month. So what will I be doing next?
My website is presentable but it is missing many features that should be on a professional website. I will be applying my recently acquired knowledge of JaveScript and JQuery to rebuild the website and finally finish it into something any web developer would be proud of. This will be the focus of my attention for the next few months. My intention is to continue to learn JavaScript, JQuery, HTML, CSS, and even PHP to build my knowledge of website development.
I spent all of last weekend in Aurora Ohio attending the Cleveland Concoction Convention. I decided to go for two reasons: 1) Geoffrey Landis, an author and NASA engineer with hardware on Mars, whom I'd met at my first Launch Pad workshop in 2012 and his wife (also an author) would be attending. 2) The convention has an author's showroom where they sell books.
It was very good to see Geoff and his wife Mary Turzillo again. We had dinner together and caught up on things. The book sales are another story. I am positive I did not sell enough to cover the cost of the room. I had decided to stay in the hotel instead of driving back and forth and that decision made the convention unprofitable. But, I had a good time, got to see old acquaintances, and managed to get a ton of editing done. In the end, I think it was a worthwhile investment.
As far as writing is concerned, I'm not sure what I will be working on next. I might just decide to take a long break from writing, focus on learning new programming languages and environments and take some time to see how non-writers live. Writing means sacrificing a lot of things like going out to movies, watching television, surfing the net, reading other's books, and just taking time to do nothing. Time to take a break.
I have also selected the artwork that will be used for the cover. I will begin adding the text and making a few minor changes to the artwork to make it look more like all my other books. I would like to thank Lee for his insight and Heather Zak for her hard work in creating the new cover. Now, the book goes to my wife Cheryl so she can work her grammatical magic. I expect that process to take about a month. So what will I be doing next?
My website is presentable but it is missing many features that should be on a professional website. I will be applying my recently acquired knowledge of JaveScript and JQuery to rebuild the website and finally finish it into something any web developer would be proud of. This will be the focus of my attention for the next few months. My intention is to continue to learn JavaScript, JQuery, HTML, CSS, and even PHP to build my knowledge of website development.
I spent all of last weekend in Aurora Ohio attending the Cleveland Concoction Convention. I decided to go for two reasons: 1) Geoffrey Landis, an author and NASA engineer with hardware on Mars, whom I'd met at my first Launch Pad workshop in 2012 and his wife (also an author) would be attending. 2) The convention has an author's showroom where they sell books.
It was very good to see Geoff and his wife Mary Turzillo again. We had dinner together and caught up on things. The book sales are another story. I am positive I did not sell enough to cover the cost of the room. I had decided to stay in the hotel instead of driving back and forth and that decision made the convention unprofitable. But, I had a good time, got to see old acquaintances, and managed to get a ton of editing done. In the end, I think it was a worthwhile investment.
As far as writing is concerned, I'm not sure what I will be working on next. I might just decide to take a long break from writing, focus on learning new programming languages and environments and take some time to see how non-writers live. Writing means sacrificing a lot of things like going out to movies, watching television, surfing the net, reading other's books, and just taking time to do nothing. Time to take a break.
March 4, 2018
Weather
Editing and revisions to Collision Course are slowly proceeding. I did not get much done this weekend due to our not having any power from 7:15 PM Thursday until 8:30 PM Saturday. I do have a generator but I only set it up to power up the refrigerator and a few items. We have an all-electric home and the power outage was partial, giving us about 50 volts coming into the house. This was enough juice to allow the baseboard heaters to get warm enough to keep the inside of the house comfortable. I do have a rig I can use to power the entire house but the generator does not have a high enough rating to run everything. For example, the generator is rated at 5,200 watts and my hot water tank will draw 4,500. That leaves very little room for anything else.
I should be able to get some serious editing done next weekend since I will be at the Cleveland Concoction. When I'm not sitting on panels on Friday, I will be in the bar or lounge editing. If you're in at the convention, stop by and say hi. I will be spending Friday night in the hotel but driving home Saturday. I will return on Sunday morning to retrieve any unsold books; hopefully, that will be none! Because of the busy schedule next weekend, I don't plan on putting out a blog post.
Time to get back to editing--if my cats will let me. They seem to be especially clingy this morning and insist on getting in my lap no matter where I sit.
I should be able to get some serious editing done next weekend since I will be at the Cleveland Concoction. When I'm not sitting on panels on Friday, I will be in the bar or lounge editing. If you're in at the convention, stop by and say hi. I will be spending Friday night in the hotel but driving home Saturday. I will return on Sunday morning to retrieve any unsold books; hopefully, that will be none! Because of the busy schedule next weekend, I don't plan on putting out a blog post.
Time to get back to editing--if my cats will let me. They seem to be especially clingy this morning and insist on getting in my lap no matter where I sit.
