Xavier Edwards's Blog, page 9

A Chaotic Week

I’ve spent a lot less time writing over the last few days than I really wanted to. I’ve also spent a lot less time looking after my releases and the interaction with my readers than I really wanted to.

Life continues to get in the way of everything else, and I am beginning to consider strongly whether I should take a short sabbatical from everything, just to let my batteries recharge.

Every time that I push forward with something, there always seems to be something to take my attention away. And, it always seems to be something more important.

This last week a few things were put into perspective when I found myself in the teeth of one of the bush fires that is currently burning in NSW. On Thursday, the day that the fires started, I found myself cut off from the main highway between Sydney and Canberra while trying to get home from Sydney. I was then given directions to try and get around the back of the fire, only to find myself squarely in its path. Backtracking to the closed-off highway, I then found that the only other reliable path back to the highway below the cut-off was also closed. My outlandish consideration of driving back into Sydney and then the long way back via the Blue Mountains and Bathurst was shut down rather quick by the fires at Lithgow and surrounding area.

The photo accompanying this post was taken on the road back to the coast to hunt for a way out of danger. Of note, this road is now closed thanks to this fire, three days after the photo was taken. With the gale force winds pushing the fire at my back, and with no one having a clear idea of just where the fire was at that point, it was causing concern for a lot of people. As luck would have it, the only time that people rang to see how I was doing was when I was mid-escape and in a location where mobile coverage was poor. I know that a few people who were concerned about me were not able to get the news they were after until much later than they should have.

Getting back to the coast gave some good news -- the alternate route to the highway was re-opened, but no one knew how long it would stay open. It also gave bad news -- the entire coastal city I had just driven into was given a bushfire alert, something that really made the situation difficult as it wasn’t really the sort of place to normally received things like that and I was even less willing to spend the night there if I couldn’t get back to Canberra.

There was one other possible route back home, but it was also affected by fire, and no one was saying whether that road was open or closed.

I managed to take the re-opened route, but it became apparent that everyone else was trying the same idea, and I found myself in a 3 km traffic jam, halfway up a set of switchbacks on a very narrow road (technically a highway, but it isn’t really even single lane at this particular pass). With the smoke and uncertainty about how long the pass was going to stay open, being stuck in a jam with nowhere to go and no escape was not the most fun experience.

After a lot of careful driving and navigating by feel, I made it to the highway, and eventually home. In the end, I was only 3-4 hours later than I had conservatively forecast, so it wasn’t too bad an outcome for me. For those who lost lives and property in the ongoing carnage, things are much, much worse, and it’s going to be a rough few days coming up.

Looking at the trouble I’ve had getting to write, it just all seems to be small potatoes. I’ve got a Halloween short, and another novella that I want to have ready by the end of the month (it’s at the editing stage), but I am questioning whether it’s worth pushing too hard at the moment.

Having one of my titles scrubbed from the active list by Amazon, presumably due to the presence of certain words in the title, has also caused some pause for thought about what outcomes are really important. It’s back in the list, but the hassle of sorting it out came at the wrong time.

Back In the Saddle

Things have been a little more disrupted than I would have liked over the last couple of weeks, but it looks like the life issues which got in the way of writing are settling down again. From car accidents, to broken computers, what I’d planned as being a nice couple of weeks of writing was anything but.
My family and I are still dealing with the outcome of a car accident from a couple of weeks ago which has the potential to cause some chaos for another couple of weeks. Fortunately everyone is okay, so that is a major blessing.
The planned time without my computer became something much worse than originally expected (a 2 day repair took 10+ days), and it’s still not quite right. At least I think I’ve managed to track down what the issue is, now. Or, at least I think I have. Fortunately the next step is an overnight fix.
With those issues crowding me out, I was amazed that I actually managed to sit down and get some writing done. I went old-school and attacked it with pen and paper. After the first semi-successful session I had remembered how to write and think at the speed of my handwriting. Some of the story elements that I had been struggling with when writing on the computer became really clear and flowed together nicely when written on the page.
I will probably finish off the current short story by hand, and transcribe it slowly, but it should make for a much more useful and workable story.
The other thing that I missed out on really keeping an eye on was the release of “A Proper Consummation”, which I think is one of my stronger books. It’s out, now, if you haven’t picked up your copy, yet.

Back in the Saddle

Things have been a little more disrupted than I would have liked over the last couple of weeks, but it looks like the life issues which got in the way of writing are settling down again. From car accidents, to broken computers, what I’d planned as being a nice couple of weeks of writing was anything but.

My family and I are still dealing with the outcome of a car accident from a couple of weeks ago which has the potential to cause some chaos for another couple of weeks. Fortunately everyone is okay, so that is a major blessing.

The planned time without my computer became something much worse than originally expected (a 2 day repair took 10+ days), and it’s still not quite right. At least I think I’ve managed to track down what the issue is, now. Or, at least I think I have. Fortunately the next step is an overnight fix.

With those issues crowding me out, I was amazed that I actually managed to sit down and get some writing done. I went old-school and attacked it with pen and paper. After the first semi-successful session I had remembered how to write and think at the speed of my handwriting. Some of the story elements that I had been struggling with when writing on the computer became really clear and flowed together nicely when written on the page.

I will probably finish off the current short story by hand, and transcribe it slowly, but it should make for a much more useful and workable story.

The other thing that I missed out on really keeping an eye on was the release of “A Proper Consummation”, which I think is one of my stronger books. It’s out, now, if you haven’t picked up your copy, yet.

A Proper Consummation Out Soon

After what has felt like a complete age, I have my next title “A Proper Consummation” due out on September 30. It’s a wonderful tale of a couple who never got to have the honeymoon they wanted, or deserved.
Finally, after too many years of waiting, they get their chance, and it will be worth the wait.
In other news, I’m putting this book out early because my main computer is going in for warranty repairs thanks to a sick hard drive and graphics card. This means I’ll be largely off grid for a week, but it does mean that I can go through my next couple of titles with a fine-toothed comb and make sure they’re ready for the editors / proof readers respectively.

A Proper Consummation Out Soon

After what has felt like a complete age, I have my next title “A Proper Consummation” due out on September 30. It’s a wonderful tale of a couple who never got to have the honeymoon they wanted, or deserved.

Finally, after too many years of waiting, they get their chance, and it will be worth the wait.

In other news, I’m putting this book out early because my main computer is going in for warranty repairs thanks to a sick hard drive and graphics card. This means I’ll be largely off grid for a week, but it does mean that I can go through my next couple of titles with a fine-toothed comb and make sure they’re ready for the editors / proof readers respectively.

Drafting Almost Complete

The past week has been a little hit and miss for writing, as life gets in the way, as it does. After having my muse reach into the story I was writing last week, I managed to tie things all together, reflowing sections, moving others around, and now it’s sitting there ready for me to do a final check through and polish ready for being passed off to the editors.
That was a pleasing outcome with the limited writing time I’ve found myself with.
The other pleasing outcome has been another story coming together quickly in a very short amount of time. I expect that this new story will likely only be a short, but I can start to feel some threads in it which could open the door to either a sequel, or to a longer version somewhere down the line.
I was worried that I was facing some more writer’s block, as I couldn’t find a way to advance the new story I am working on, but it suddenly opened up in a slightly unexpected way. The upshot being that the end story is going to be so much better than my original concept, so it’s good to see my muse continuing to help out.
On a final note, “A Proper Consummation” should be out by the end of the month. I’ll start putting up book details and listings soon. It’s already getting really good ratings from my proof reading pool, so I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Drafting Almost Complete

The past week has been a little hit and miss for writing, as life gets in the way, as it does. After having my muse reach into the story I was writing last week, I managed to tie things all together, reflowing sections, moving others around, and now it’s sitting there ready for me to do a final check through and polish ready for being passed off to the editors.

That was a pleasing outcome with the limited writing time I’ve found myself with.

The other pleasing outcome has been another story coming together quickly in a very short amount of time. I expect that this new story will likely only be a short, but I can start to feel some threads in it which could open the door to either a sequel, or to a longer version somewhere down the line.

I was worried that I was facing some more writer’s block, as I couldn’t find a way to advance the new story I am working on, but it suddenly opened up in a slightly unexpected way. The upshot being that the end story is going to be so much better than my original concept, so it’s good to see my muse continuing to help out.

On a final note, “A Proper Consummation” should be out by the end of the month. I’ll start putting up book details and listings soon. It’s already getting really good ratings from my proof reading pool, so I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Unexpected Benefits

With a release due sometime in the next few weeks I was getting ready to sort out the book after that one, thinking that I had effectively finished my initial draft. I was happy to have a book that would be ready to go to the editor and keep ticking over my desired publishing rate.

That was, until my muse stepped in. With only a couple of scenes to complete, with nothing more than simple interaction between the main characters, I thought I had it all done and was starting to think about a Halloween story that I am planning to write. My muse showed her hand and one of the scenes became something so much more than I had ever hoped it would be. Not only that, but it was also something much more than I dreamed it could have been.

As a result, the timeline until the draft is ready might slip a little, but it will be for an overall better book.

Now, to try and encourage the muse to stay a little while longer and help guide the next phase of writing.

Getting Closer

My next book release is probably only a few weeks away, now (certainly no later than the end of September), and I am starting to get really excited about the comments coming in from my Proof Reading team.
With only minor changes being requested by many readers, it should be a fairly straight-forward process to get the book ready and published once the proof-reading period ends.
That is the first bit of good news.
The second is that my next story after that is taking shape quite nicely. If the current rate of writing, editing, and proofing is anything to go by, I would expect to release it sometime around the Halloween timeframe. With Halloween coming up soon, I am also contemplating a short / novella that is suitably themed. I haven’t quite worked out if I will make it a free release, or not, but or how many of the normal publishing steps I will push it through, but I am leaning very strongly toward something special.
Even though I think there are stronger books I’ve written, Cardio Session is currently one of the Books of the Month on the CARE NaUBA group on GoodReads.
I am also going to be one of the focussed authors on a review site coming up soon, which will also be a good chance for my readers and fans to find out more about me.
That is probably all the good news for now, and with a beautiful Spring having started here in Australia, and time to write, and fewer time pressures, things are going quite well for more books before the end of the year.

A Painful Mistake

In general, I've been pretty good with backing up my important work, and in regularly saving my work in case anything untoward happens with my work. Well, mostly.
While working on the new website layout and design I had been saving pretty regularly and had put in quite a bit of work, only to leave it overnight to get a better look at it in the morning. I didn't get the chance to get back to it and the application I was working in crashed.
It was gone. All of it. A day's quality work in setting up my new website look and content, and it was all gone. I had been seduced by the ability of most of my other software tools to automatically save my work as I go, and to recover where I was if they crash. Apparently not the tool I was working with for my website.
I won't be making that mistake again in a hurry.
There has been some positive news from the last week or so, though. I have received my next book back from the editors, and the next one after that is shaping up nicely. The first book will be packed up for the proof readers in the next day or so, which makes for a release in a few weeks time.
I have also had quite a good week for attracting new followers on Twitter, even if I can’t work out what the trigger for it has been. I’m not complaining, but if I could work out what specific things I did right, I’ll be doing them again.
Finally, I have tried a test of a new book cover and blurb for one of my now-free titles, using a quiet little corner of the web to get a feel for how much a different cover and blurb was actually going to have. Thankfully, the results have been quite positive, so I hope to push the changes out across the other retail sites, and to bring the description here on the site up to speed.