Steve Umstead's Blog, page 12
February 29, 2012
My global domination of the paperback market begins…now!
My UPS guy loves me. And not just because my kids look like him (hey, wait a minute…) but because he brings me cool stuff every few weeks. Today was a toner cartridge (those of you who caught my inadvertent tweet through Amazon when I bought it the other night know how exciting my nightlife [...]
New Update: Steadily increasing Nook sales due to not doing KDP Select?
UPDATE AS OF 2/29 – SEE BOTTOM OF POST I took a peek at my months sales figures for Barnes & Noble Nook ebooks this morning, and something caught my eye. I looked back at January's numbers, and figured out what it was. As of February 17th, my Barnes & Noble sales exceeded January's entire [...]
February 28, 2012
Excerpt from Gabriel's Revenge, Book 3: Spy Ship Brings Data…and Questions
"NAFN Richard Marcinko, this is Corporal Lewis Grienke aboard the MDF packetship Shadow. Coded message for Commander Gabriel. Please respond." Gabriel turned to McTiernan with his eyebrows raised. "There's a man in that thing?" McTiernan nodded. "Yes, we were as surprised as you. Damned thing is less than five feet across. Must have been like [...]
February 27, 2012
A little moment of panic regarding errors, thanks to Microsoft Word
Just a quickie – quickie post, get your mind out of the gutter… I was setting up my complete trilogy for a CreateSpace paperback printing (warning: shameless plug ahead) over the weekend, using Word to copy/paste the individual manuscript files into one large combined file. The trilogy itself, Gabriel's Journey, looks like it'll top out [...]
Excerpt from Gabriel's Return, Book 2: Heavy Weapons in Action
When Escobio Armory Ltd., a small company based in rural Mexico City, started producing weapons for the North American Federation military forces, they at first specialized in handguns, small caliber long range rifles, and man-portable light machine guns. They did not begin to manufacture pulse weapons until 2172, not long after the disastrous raid on [...]
February 26, 2012
Excerpt from Gabriel's Redemption, Book 1: Back Office Troubles
When Santander arrived, Gurnett and two other security men had two plant workers seated in chairs in a back office. One of the security men was training an odd-looking handgun at them. As Santander approached, one of the plant workers stood up and pointed. "That's him, that's the guy who set me up for this!" [...]
February 22, 2012
Using profanity in writing – is it necessary, or even missed?
I woke up this morning (but unlike Jim Morrison, did not get myself a beer) to a very complimentary 5 star review on Amazon for Gabriel's Journey, the trilogy collection: "The reviews for it were fantastic, but you know how that could go. I'm in between reads so I bought it. What a pleasant surprise! [...]
February 20, 2012
On 50th anniversary of first American to orbit Earth, Glenn pushes for manned Mars mission…and so do I
From Space.com: Former NASA astronaut John Glenn is pushing for manned exploration of Mars and other farflung destinations. On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit Earthwhen his Friendship 7 capsule zipped around our planet three times, then splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Glenn's flight put the United States back on [...]
February 19, 2012
Steadily increasing Nook sales due to not doing KDP Select?
I took a peek at my months sales figures for Barnes & Noble Nook ebooks this morning, and something caught my eye. I looked back at January's numbers, and figured out what it was. As of February 17th, my Barnes & Noble sales exceeded January's entire monthly total. January was my best month to date [...]
February 17, 2012
Update on the word count rising & weight falling
It's been five days since I decided to get my fat butt in gear and make it smaller, while getting my lazy butt in gear and making my WIP larger. The good news? In five days of removing the crap I always eat, and putting in a minimum of 30 minutes per day exercising (cold [...]
