Jez Strider's Blog, page 5

The most evil creatures….

The award for most evil creature goes to…the flea!  I absolutely loathe fleas.  I’m sure anyone with pets would agree.  I hate the amount of suffering they can inflict on a pet in such a short period of time.  I don’t even like giving the preventive medicine to my animal because of the potential side effects, but there’s really not other choice.

 

To Kindle or not to Kindle? That is the question

So, I’ve been thinking about finally picking up a Kindle, especially now that I have a publication on it.  I know there is the phone app and cloud reader, but I’m not that interested to read on either one of those.  My phone is impossible to read on in sunlight and reading on the computer just isn’t appealing.  I just don’t know.  I’m torn.  There really is nothing like a physical copy of a book in hand.  I’m also clueless on which version of the Kindle to get.  I like the features of the more expensive ones, but the price of the standard!  Perhaps, after a little more research I can decide.

 

So hateful it’s hilarious….

For my day job I work as a cashier at a grocery store chain in the southeastern U.S.  I hadn’t had any rude customers or anything until…Mister Crankypants showed up.  

The customer uses his debit card.  Near the end of the process it asks “Is this amount okay?”  Often times, and I’ve done it myself, customers forget to press yes.  So I very kindly tell him it’s asking him to press yes.  I had no attitude.  I’ve never had a customer complain about me.  I can grin and bear it through the worst people.  

“I can see!”  The man retorts, then proceeds to hit the button.

I’m dumbfounded and surprised by the aggressive nature of this older gentleman.  I figured we are done at this point.  No such luck.  The register tells me that he has entered his PIN number wrong.

“It’s saying your PIN number was wrong.” I say, once again polite and smiling.

“No it’s not!  Your machine is wrong!”  He tells me.

Once again, I’m surprised by the response.

“Would you like to put it in again?”  I ask, in no way disagreeing that perhaps the machine was wrong and it was not his user error.

“No, but I will anyway!”  

Thankfully, the transaction is approved and he leaves directly.  My “Thank you” and “Have a nice day” dictating no response apparently.

I didn’t get my feelings hurt or get angry because it was so amusing.  My personal philosophy is to always be kind to  people because you don’t know what’s going on in their lives and perhaps just a little kindness will make their day better.  I know I’ve had strangers be nice to me and it helped when things were rough.  I don’t know what justified his hateful response…but he was certainly hilarious in his delivery.

Refreshed

So, I’ve spent the weekend sleeping and gaming.  Yesterday I enjoyed some Left 4 Dead 2 and today World of Warcraft.  I also splurged on some fast food from Hardee’s.  I think this weekend has left me refreshed and ready to get back to business on my second novel.  Here’s hoping for a productive week ahead!

Paperback available again!

I corrected a few minor errors that I had discovered. Just wanted to let those of you who were asking that Vampire’s Eve is ready for purchase once more.  Thank you!  

This first publication has been such a learning experience.  Some of the issues I’ve encountered this first time through should be avoided now that I know about them.  

 

Formatting hurts my brain!

I’m generally pleased with the physical copies of my book, but I found a few things that I wanted to improve upon today.  Also…I had so much trouble figuring out page numbers in word.  Even after following instructions step-by-step.  I read instructions and watched a video.  At least I finally figured it out.  This being my first book, I’m learning many things so hopefully my next publication will be easier.  It’d be nice to have an editor, but I think I’m doing fairly well considering I have to do it all on my own.  

Hey, if I ever get famous, at least the people with the first few copies of my book without page numbers will have a collector’s item!   Ha!

Marketing

I enjoy the writing part so much more than trying to get publicity and market my book.  I am thankful for the support of a local bookstore.  Anyone in the area should definitely check out White Pine’s Used Books!  I’ve been joining a few websites and such, but I feel like it takes too much time away from the writing.  Then again, if no knows about the book, how can they enjoy it?

It was amazing to finally get some of my paperbacks today and see them in person.  They turned out much better than I had hoped!

Les Misérable

I’m so excited to see the musical movie of Les Misérable!  Victor Hugo’s story is amazing, albeit lengthy.  I love the version with Liam Neeson, but the musical geek in me is crying out for joy with this new incarnation.  Hopefully, I’m not hyping the movie too much in my own mind.  We shall see!  

Book Reviews

Hello all.  If you’ve purchased my book, Vampire’s Eve, I’d really appreciate it if you left a review on Amazon for me.  Thanks in advance!  I hope to get some writing done on the second book, but the weekends are always so busy!

Need more time!

It seems like every time I sit down to write during the day, I don’t get much accomplished.  The last couple of hours I’m awake at night are so much more productive.  I should be thankful that I have time at all to do what I enjoy, though.