Ray Daley's Blog, page 68

And another story finished.

Another short story written and done. Needs a better ending though.

Always seem to have issues finding resolutions to stories like that.

I’ll leave it a few days, look it over with fresh eyes.

Hopefully I’ll think of something better.

Health update, and a poem!

Got my MRI date, 2nd December. Not that far off, cool.

In the meantime, here’s a poem that I just wrote.

 

Twinkle twinkle little Czar how I wonder where you are,

Smashed aside by revolution, Russias greatest Czar solution.

You may twinkle little Czar, no-one cares now where you are.

Update from Feedbooks

Apparently the problem I was having is due to some of Feedbooks servers being down.

They are still currently down, I will post a working URL for Android users as soon as Feedbooks are fully functioning again.

In the mean time, please feel free to download from Smashwords. If you can.

Thanks for your continued support of my ebooks.

Ever busy

Two shorts typed up today, one I wrote early in the morning and one from 29th Oct that I’d been trying to find the motivation to get done.

At least it’s done and out of the way now.

One is a stand-alone, probably for the flash market or maybe a freebie on here in the near future.

The other is the first in what will hopefully turn out to be a decent anthology. I thought it was a bit longer than it ended up being but I think a bit of work could get it around the 1500 mark as it’s about 900 words now.

1st ebook of the month now available

Smashwords – The Short Trip —a book by Ray Daley.

Major issues getting it online, I can’t download from Feedbooks at all – It keeps directing to a duff link for some reason (I’ve reported it).

When I uploaded what I thought was a working document to Smashwords it totally screwed it up and all my line spacing was gone so it was just a text block. In the end I had to convert the document to plain TXT and convert that to an EPUB then upload that EPUB to Smashwords to get a properly formatted ebook with line spaces.

It kept thinking there were different fonts (there weren’t) and different text sizes (also weren’t either) so I think I’ll be doing some PC house keeping before my next scheduled release next week.

Crazy, or something.

I’ve been a busy beaver this afternoon.

I typed up the new story – it’s probably going out to the flash market, I’ve also been going through all the finished stories.

I’ve now earmarked 12 for next year.

Oh yes, NEXT year.

12 have been chosen for release, they are of course subject to change.

More stuff will be written before the end of the year no doubt and may replace them if I feel they are better or more suited to a specific month to release in.

I’m normally never this organised.

The fact that I’ve not only got 12 stories ready BEFORE next year but I also have 8 spares that can go out to the flash markets too.

The stuff for next year has all been allocated to each month, covers will be done eventually in slow time.

This much is certain, there WILL be at least 1 release per month next year.

Wha’ ‘appen?

I’ll start by getting that title cleared up, it’s a reference to a song by The Beat (or The English Beat to Americans).

Right now I am getting ready to type up a short I wrote in bed last night before going to sleep, I’m feeling incredibly crappy (I think it’s a combination of the meds I am taking right now) and I am quite surprised to be awake this early. Anything before 11am is early, these days.

If I can hold it together long enough to get some food down me and keep it down me and stay out of the toilet long enough then I will get this story typed up before noon (it’s currently 10:19am according to the PC clock). That’s a good intention that will probably slip away from me, I have last nights extended QI to watch (one of my guilty pleasures, plus it’s very educational and generally pretty funny).

Anyway, I’m writing or will be at some point later today.

Another first

And a bit of a sad one I think. My first takedown request filed.

I won’t name the offending site (who were hosting all e-versions of my entire free catalogue) but they have been contacted as have the people they poached the material from.

I’ll let you know what happens.

The Least Haunted House In The World; a free flash fiction story

The Least Haunted House In The World, a flash fiction story by Ray Daley.

That was exactly what the realtor sign said that stood on the front yard, “The Least Haunted House In The World”.

Obviously I had to call them to find out more.

“I’m outside it now, tell me more.” I said to the realtor.

“It’s got no ghosts at all sir. In fact the property is so unhaunted, there aren’t even any living people there.” he said.

“So it’s just a regular house?” I asked.

“Yes, just marketed in a very unusual way. We’re looking for offers around 25k.” he said.

“Would you consider 20?” I asked.

The line went silent for a few moments before the realtor spoke again.

“Sir, I believe you just bought yourself The Least Haunted House In The World.”

THE END

Kindle reading stats

I’ve been keeping a log (on my door calendar) of how long a charge lasts for on my Kindle (K3 keyboard, wifi only) and I’ve been doing that for over a year now. This month I decided to try and do a more precise breakdown and logged how long I was using my Kindle for on a daily basis.

So I noted what time I started reading, when I stopped and noted those down in terms of minutes.

Initially the Kindle was charged for 12 hours.

It was used over a 25 day period before the “please recharge” warning started appearing. (Please note, you CAN continue to read after that message appears, anything up to 5 days more. There will be another message, when you see that you’d REALLY better recharge unless you want to lose the Kindle)

In that 25 days, 6 days were 0 (zero) usage, ie:- no reading time at all. Probably the days I was really tired.

Over the course of the 25 days I read for 1389 minutes or 23 hours and 15 minutes.

On average this was reading for 55 minutes and 56 seconds per day over 25 days.

This is on a Kindle that is almost 2 yrs old, is charged for at least 8hrs when it needs to be recharged, is kept in good working order and protected from the cold (as cold will MASSIVELY sap your battery life VERY quickly as I discovered late this month when the cold kicked in and I lost almost 1/3 of my battery charge in a day) as best as possible (I recommend wrapping it inside something warm like a wooly hat or scarf so it’s not sitting in an ambiently cold room) and does not have an excessive amount of books loaded onto it (I recommend having no more than 800 titles or the indexing feature will sap your battery right down).

Hopefully these figures will be useful to other Kindle owners. Let me know?