Iscah's Blog, page 10
January 10, 2014
Friday
I had a productive day for a change. Unfortunately, my beta was unavailable this past weekend, and two snow days with the nephew and getting called into my sub job means not much writing has been done.
Horse Feathers
will be back when it's back. If you haven't started reading, it's a great time to catch up.
If you have been reading, please leave a comment here or on Fictionpress. Be general or be nitpicky, both are welcome as long as it's your honest feedback.
In other news, last year it was my goal to add one new design per month to the Amoeba Ink Cafepress shop. This year I'm attempting to add four new designs per month...some of these may simply be upgrades of current designs where I like the concept but the typography leaves something to be desired.
In my reading, I finished The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (recommended), and I'm midway through The Clan of the Cave Bear.
If you have been reading, please leave a comment here or on Fictionpress. Be general or be nitpicky, both are welcome as long as it's your honest feedback.
In other news, last year it was my goal to add one new design per month to the Amoeba Ink Cafepress shop. This year I'm attempting to add four new designs per month...some of these may simply be upgrades of current designs where I like the concept but the typography leaves something to be desired.
In my reading, I finished The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (recommended), and I'm midway through The Clan of the Cave Bear.
January 3, 2014
New Design and Franklin Art Crawl
Not sure why, but this question mark design popped into my head and would not go away. So I tried to flex my design muscles. All the "splash" elements are supposed to be different punctuation marks.This particular item it's featured on is the new women's hoodie over at Cafepress, though as usual I've added the image to variety of products. They also have some new baby and toddler hoodies that are pretty cute. I've been adding them to the shop this week.
~
In other news, I'll have a table at the Franklin Art Crawl (specifically Merridees Breadbasket) tonight to chat, sign, and sell copies of Seventh Night.
The hardbacks I sell directly for $20 each.
December 30, 2013
Prepping for 2014...
Hope everyone had or is having wonderful holidays. I took some down time, watched some Doctor Who, did a lot of reading, spent time with the nephew (introduced him to the BBC miniseries Narnia), and general holiday vegging.
First, I want to announce some scheduled appearances for this month.
January 20th, 10:30am-11:00am (EST) "Who Are You Calling Old?" blog talk radio. We're supposed to be discussing Minimum Wage in relationship to my budgeting book.
January 31st, 6:00pm - 8:00pm (CST) Cool Springs Barnes & Nobles (Brentwood, TN) will be having a local author meet and greet. I'll be there to chat and sign books.
Getting back to work now, which means book keeping and writing some year end checks. After that I look forward to turning my attention back to writing and creative projects. I did a "speed painting" exercise last night. Not sure exactly how long I spent on this maybe 3-4 hours while watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Hulu. I think early on I tried to make it a Seventh Night picture, but it doesn't really look like her (maybe a bit like her mother in younger years)...so I've just titled it "Girl in Garden". I'm not really planning to put this one up for sale, since it's an exercise and the hands and feet look off, but here tis.
Horse Feathers may not be back until next week. I want to give my beta time to read over the new chapter first.
I hesitate to call in a resolution, but my plan is to dedicate 2014 to unfinished projects...mainly in the spirit of decluttering. I have over 70 books on my "to read" pile, and I'm going to attempt to read most of them this year. If you want to follow my reading/book reviews feel free to friend or follow my Kay Iscah (nonfiction) profile on Goodreads. I have a profile as Iscah (fiction), but I only list books I consider 5-star on that one.
My brother loaned me his Game Cube and pile of about ten games nearly two years ago, so I'm also on a mission to play through all of those.
My grandmother has several collectible items that I need to ebay for her. When I saw her for Christmas, she told me she had read most of Seventh Night and was enjoying it, which was really a warm, fuzzy moment. And yeah, I know she's my grandmother and bias, but considering the trouble she was having with her eye sight, it's rather impressive.
She said she was interested in reading Horse Feathers and The Girl With No Name...I'm trying to figure out the best e-reader to get her. Suggestions?
I have a number of unfinished creative projects that I plan to either finish or disposed of, and shall continue my battle to organize the basement.
First, I want to announce some scheduled appearances for this month.
January 20th, 10:30am-11:00am (EST) "Who Are You Calling Old?" blog talk radio. We're supposed to be discussing Minimum Wage in relationship to my budgeting book.
January 31st, 6:00pm - 8:00pm (CST) Cool Springs Barnes & Nobles (Brentwood, TN) will be having a local author meet and greet. I'll be there to chat and sign books.
Getting back to work now, which means book keeping and writing some year end checks. After that I look forward to turning my attention back to writing and creative projects. I did a "speed painting" exercise last night. Not sure exactly how long I spent on this maybe 3-4 hours while watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Hulu. I think early on I tried to make it a Seventh Night picture, but it doesn't really look like her (maybe a bit like her mother in younger years)...so I've just titled it "Girl in Garden". I'm not really planning to put this one up for sale, since it's an exercise and the hands and feet look off, but here tis.Horse Feathers may not be back until next week. I want to give my beta time to read over the new chapter first.
I hesitate to call in a resolution, but my plan is to dedicate 2014 to unfinished projects...mainly in the spirit of decluttering. I have over 70 books on my "to read" pile, and I'm going to attempt to read most of them this year. If you want to follow my reading/book reviews feel free to friend or follow my Kay Iscah (nonfiction) profile on Goodreads. I have a profile as Iscah (fiction), but I only list books I consider 5-star on that one.
My brother loaned me his Game Cube and pile of about ten games nearly two years ago, so I'm also on a mission to play through all of those.
My grandmother has several collectible items that I need to ebay for her. When I saw her for Christmas, she told me she had read most of Seventh Night and was enjoying it, which was really a warm, fuzzy moment. And yeah, I know she's my grandmother and bias, but considering the trouble she was having with her eye sight, it's rather impressive.
She said she was interested in reading Horse Feathers and The Girl With No Name...I'm trying to figure out the best e-reader to get her. Suggestions?
I have a number of unfinished creative projects that I plan to either finish or disposed of, and shall continue my battle to organize the basement.
December 21, 2013
Last Horse Feathers Chapter of the year.
Horse Feathers Chapter 32 is up. Sorry, it's late, but the delay allowed my beta reader to look it over. I've fixed a few typos from 31 too.
This is the last chapter for 2013. I'm taking the rest of the year off for holidays and year end paperwork. May still do some writing. I'd like to get ahead again and leave more time for editing.
Please help support Amoeba Ink by checking out our books, Zazzle, and Cafepress shop.
This is the last chapter for 2013. I'm taking the rest of the year off for holidays and year end paperwork. May still do some writing. I'd like to get ahead again and leave more time for editing.
Please help support Amoeba Ink by checking out our books, Zazzle, and Cafepress shop.
December 13, 2013
Chapter 31 is back!
Chapter 31 of Horse Feathers has been revised and is back up now. To make it up to those of you who read it before (cause you will need to read the new version) and for the delay on chapter 32, here's a coupon to download The Girl With No Name for Free, but it's only good this week.
Follow this link to Smashwords: Before the Fairytale: The Girl With No Name
And use this code: CV22K
You must use it between now and December 20th.
Follow this link to Smashwords: Before the Fairytale: The Girl With No Name
And use this code: CV22K
You must use it between now and December 20th.
December 9, 2013
Chapter 31 is Down
I apologize for doing this, particularly to those of you who already read it, but I've decided to remove Chapter 31 for rewriting. I attempted to keep moving forward and work on Chapter 32, but it was like a needle skipping on a record. My brain kept shouting "wrong, wrong, wrong". So eventually I gave in and went back to Chapter 31.
The good news is I finally rewrote the conversation between Phillip and Lord Harold, so that it was "right". I'm hoping I'll be able to get both 31 and 32 finished this week, but we'll see.
It's been the first day my brain has really felt clear in a while. My senior year of highschool, I had burn out so badly I could no longer read the English language (which was kind of terrifying for someone who wanted a writing career). It took a year off, several months of sleeping for 14 hours a day, and an unholy amount of Scooby-Doo to get it back to fully working order again. This time wasn't quite as extreme, but it's the closest I've come to that level of burnout since graduation.
Apologies again if I've been weird or non-responsive the last couple months. My head's been in a fog. It's started to clear. Today was the first day in a month I didn't feel sick or exhausted.
The good news is I finally rewrote the conversation between Phillip and Lord Harold, so that it was "right". I'm hoping I'll be able to get both 31 and 32 finished this week, but we'll see.
It's been the first day my brain has really felt clear in a while. My senior year of highschool, I had burn out so badly I could no longer read the English language (which was kind of terrifying for someone who wanted a writing career). It took a year off, several months of sleeping for 14 hours a day, and an unholy amount of Scooby-Doo to get it back to fully working order again. This time wasn't quite as extreme, but it's the closest I've come to that level of burnout since graduation.
Apologies again if I've been weird or non-responsive the last couple months. My head's been in a fog. It's started to clear. Today was the first day in a month I didn't feel sick or exhausted.
December 6, 2013
Horse Feathers Chapter 31 is up.
My brain did not want to write this chapter. It's normal for me to have to tweak a bit, but not rewrite entire conversations so many times. After many, many hours staring at my laptop and playing solitaire while I tried to figure out the next sentence, Chapter 31 is finished and posted.
I suspect this chapter may still go through more editing than some of the others after the story is finished.
My artistic efforts aren't faring much better. Cafepress added (or is adding) table runners to their list of items. So I took a stab at designing one and ended up with these kind of generic creepy trees...
Only thing I've put them on is a cuff bracelet. There's some issue with the thumbnail for table runners, so I haven't tried to add that item to the shop yet.
I did get a little work done modifying some existing designs like Ashley's Manic Teddy and Baby Sea Turtle, so it would fit more items. Added Ties for both of those. Considering some of the new merchandise options, I think I ought to try designing a proper pattern...hrm.
P.S. If you're reading Horse Feathers please leave some feedback...doesn't have to be profound, just let me know you're reading. Mention something you like or don't like.
I suspect this chapter may still go through more editing than some of the others after the story is finished.
My artistic efforts aren't faring much better. Cafepress added (or is adding) table runners to their list of items. So I took a stab at designing one and ended up with these kind of generic creepy trees...
Only thing I've put them on is a cuff bracelet. There's some issue with the thumbnail for table runners, so I haven't tried to add that item to the shop yet.
I did get a little work done modifying some existing designs like Ashley's Manic Teddy and Baby Sea Turtle, so it would fit more items. Added Ties for both of those. Considering some of the new merchandise options, I think I ought to try designing a proper pattern...hrm.
P.S. If you're reading Horse Feathers please leave some feedback...doesn't have to be profound, just let me know you're reading. Mention something you like or don't like.
November 29, 2013
Horse Feathers Chapter 30
Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and survived Black Friday unscathed. It's been kind of a weird year for me, as much good as bad but energy draining.
New Chapter:
Horse Feathers Chapter 30 has finally been posted.
New Reviews:
Tracy Kiser at
And Janice Spina at jemsbook reviewed "Seventh Night".
Other News:
I'll be participating in Franklin, Tennessee's Art Crawl on Friday, December 6th.
New Chapter:
Horse Feathers Chapter 30 has finally been posted.
New Reviews:
Tracy Kiser at
And Janice Spina at jemsbook reviewed "Seventh Night".
Other News:
I'll be participating in Franklin, Tennessee's Art Crawl on Friday, December 6th.
November 21, 2013
Imaginarium Twitter Party
Imaginarium is hosting a Twitter party tonight at 9pm EST, follow #ITranscend . They'll be giving away lots of ebooks including some copies of Seventh Night and The Girl With No Name. Should be some other authors hanging out at the chat, unfortunately I don't have a names list, but following @ImaginariumCon might give you an idea.
You can go here to follow it chatroom style: http://twubs.com/ITranscend
I'm going to try to attend, haven't quite mastered twitter yet, but I'll make an effort.
In other news, I finished updating Horse Feathers. Only significant change is I took a bit of dialogue away from Lord Harold and reworked it into a short conversation between Phillip and Horus. Not a plot change, but important for character consistency. Other than that I just fixed a few typos, added a couple descriptive words, and tightened up a sentence or two.
You can go here to follow it chatroom style: http://twubs.com/ITranscend
I'm going to try to attend, haven't quite mastered twitter yet, but I'll make an effort.
In other news, I finished updating Horse Feathers. Only significant change is I took a bit of dialogue away from Lord Harold and reworked it into a short conversation between Phillip and Horus. Not a plot change, but important for character consistency. Other than that I just fixed a few typos, added a couple descriptive words, and tightened up a sentence or two.
November 14, 2013
Seventh Night...now on Kindle. No Horse Feathers this week. And Imaginarium Announcement!
The good news:
Seventh Night is now available on Kindle as well as Hardback: http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Night-Iscah/dp/0983551944 Amazon has been cutting prices on hardbacks, so instead of $27.99, the book is now listed for $19.44. Also if you buy a hardback, you can get a Kindle copy for 1/2 price.
If you're boycotting Amazon, there are other bookstores. Barnes and Nobles for instance.
The bad-ish news:
I realized Horse Feathers needed to take a breather and go through a little editing. A few things seeped into the story that Phillip is insisting are wrong. No major plot changes, but I may need to shuffle a little dialogue. At least one significant phrase got put in the wrong mouth. I'll let you know when the updating is complete.
I went through the first four or five chapters this morning, made a few extremely minor changes, and I hope to make a lot of progress this afternoon and evening.
Great News
I'll be a guest at Imaginarium 2014 September 19-21 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Louisville Airport. Imaginarium is a creative writing convention. I'll give more details as I get them.
Seventh Night is now available on Kindle as well as Hardback: http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Night-Iscah/dp/0983551944 Amazon has been cutting prices on hardbacks, so instead of $27.99, the book is now listed for $19.44. Also if you buy a hardback, you can get a Kindle copy for 1/2 price.If you're boycotting Amazon, there are other bookstores. Barnes and Nobles for instance.
The bad-ish news:
I realized Horse Feathers needed to take a breather and go through a little editing. A few things seeped into the story that Phillip is insisting are wrong. No major plot changes, but I may need to shuffle a little dialogue. At least one significant phrase got put in the wrong mouth. I'll let you know when the updating is complete.
I went through the first four or five chapters this morning, made a few extremely minor changes, and I hope to make a lot of progress this afternoon and evening.
Great News
I'll be a guest at Imaginarium 2014 September 19-21 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Louisville Airport. Imaginarium is a creative writing convention. I'll give more details as I get them.
