R.J. Blain's Blog, page 69

Upcoming Releases: Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 1-4

Nicolina Desmond and Richard Murphy (from Witch & Wolf #2, Winter Wolf) are back.

Long before the plague threatened to wipe out the Fenerec, Nicolina Desmond was a Normal girl with extraordinary circumstances. In order to prove herself and escape her father’s chokehold on her life, she’s determined to get on the fast track towards an independent life.

However, she never anticipated how meeting Richard Murphy would change her life…

Tales of the Winter Wolf contain short stories featuring many of the characters from Winter Wolf. All titles in the Tales of the Winter Wolf set are $1.99. The first volume will release on July 14, 2015, with the remaining volumes releasing in 2-3 week intervals.

These are interconnected short stories. Some stories are intended to be read together with other stories while others can stand alone.

I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 1
Hunted

Nicolina Desmond should have known that her twin’s overly friendly behavior with the eligible Fenerec males would land her in trouble, but she never expected how far young, single werewolves would go to secure a mate.

The Scent of Guilt

When Richard is invited to hunt Nicolina’s kidnappers with her father, he jumps at the chance. With Desmond lusting for blood and violence, Richard is forced to toe the line between mercy, justice, and revenge.

Firecracker

Charles Desmond’s influence isn’t enough to stop those who are determined to take Richard’s rank through force. With Nicolina Desmond out on the hunt to kill him once and for all, he’ll need a lot more than luck to survive his stay with the Desmonds.

Glitter

Richard Murphy has many sides, and Nicolina Desmond is dismayed to discover that he truly has the patience of a hunting wolf and his pranks are just as nefarious as hers. When the bodies of Fenerec turn up in her back yard, however, she might have to kill again, and her target is none other than Yellowknife’s injured Alpha.

Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 2
Charmed

While Nicolina is relieved to have survived her first quarter at Stanford, there are still a few surprises left in store for her, leaving her with a lot more questions than answers… and an extra mouth to feed.

Crash and Burn

Richard’s worst fears come to pass when Nicolina’s plane crash lands at the airport, leaving him to either win a dominance battle with her father or witness two of North America’s most dangerous Fenerec run wild in the middle of a crowd.

Wild Wolf

Richard’s desperation to dominate Desmond and his mate has done far more damage than anyone ever suspected. With his human half in trouble and fading fast, it falls to his wolf to find a way to save them both. To make matters worse, it’s Christmas Eve, and Richard’s past comes to haunt him once again.

 

Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 3
The Silvered Wolf

With Richard recovering, there’s some hope of salvaging their normal Christmas rituals, but her father’s plans sweep her up into her worst nightmare—one where she’s a bartering chip held by none other than the Silvered Wolf.

The Games Wolves Play

Richard and his wolf are delighted to have Nicolina for their own for at least several days, but when his parents show up, the game he was playing with Desmond takes a lethal turn.

 

Tales of the Winter Wolf, Vol. 4
Tangles

Between her father’s plans to subject her to a trip to Yellowknife and the matted ruins of her hair, Nicolina’s life has become a tangled mess. When help comes from an unexpected source, she’s forced to look at herself and her worst enemy in a different light.

Witch

When an Inquisition witch shows up to take Richard into custody, Nicolina once again proves he has a lot to learn about Desmond’s daughter.

Striking a Deal

Dealing with the devil has its risks, but when Nicolina strikes a bargain with Richard Murphy, she fears she has bitten off more than she can chew.

In Hot Water

What should have been a relaxing side trip to the mountain springs lands Richard in hot water.

Breaking Point

Everyone has a breaking point, and Nicolina Desmond is no different. When her father crosses the line one too any times, an impulse decision results in her teaming up with Richard Murphy for some good old-fashioned payback. The only problem? Their opponents are three of North America’s most dangerous wolves and the entirety of Richard’s pack.

Random Rambles: Oh Where oh Where has RJ gone, Oh Where oh Where Could She Be?

I’ve been quiet lately. I’ve been quiet on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere else on the internet. I’m pretty sure there are those who think I’ve probably fallen off the face of the Earth.

I’ve been busy.

So, to catch everyone up on what I’ve been doing and why I’ve been doing it, I’m going to write this post. It’ll probably be boring. But, hey–I’m still alive, sort of.

For the fun stuff, I saw Jurassic World in theaters on opening night. I absolutely adored it. It was fantastic. It was campy, ridiculous, and fun. I really enjoyed myself.

That about sums up the fun stuff. There were a few birthdays (mine included) but they’ve come and gone, breaking up the monotony of the rest of my life.

Three words sums it up nicely: cleaning and writing.

I’m taking a bit of a break from novel writing to practice shorter fiction. I’ve done some short stories ranging from 3,600 words to 10,000 words. I’ve done a pair of novellas, which were ranging between 15,000 to 20,000 words.

All of them feature Nicolina Desmond and Richard Murphy before the events of Winter Wolf. In short, I’m writing a series of interconnected tales regarding the trouble they got into together before fate tore them apart–and ultimately threw them together again.

I’m getting outside of my comfort zones. I’m writing romance, because let’s face it: Nicolina and Richard have a romance before Winter Wolf, and it involves fireworks. Lots of fireworks, explosions, and things like that.

I’m not comfortable writing romance as a primary plot element. I had to do so in Blood Diamond, which made me feel weird the entire time I was writing the book. The main character, Dante, is just that sort of guy. His lady is his life–as are little ones. That means romance is a major part of who and what he is–and who and what he has to become.

I’m the kind of girl who forgets about flowers and doesn’t really care if I get a pretty piece of jewelry for Valentine’s Day. (When I get them, I am totally caught by surprise and end up squealing for weeks, but that’s okay.)

So, writing a romance for me is about as far outside of my personal comfort zone as it gets. I just don’t have really good comparison points. Neither my husband or I are really the romantic types. (We make some efforts now and then, but… special occasions only, and our version of a special occasion is a nice steak and playing some form of game together…)

In the grand scheme of things, I have about the same inclination for romance as a velociraptor. I mean, what isn’t there to love? Look at those pretty eyes and big teeth. Roaaaar!

So, I’m venturing into the great unknown on this project. I’m having a shocking amount of fun with it, too. I have two beta readers to help me refine and improve these stories. I’m getting the hang of shorter fiction, although I still have a tendency to think in novels. In a way, while I’ve been trying to make certain each short story (or partnered set of stories) is self contained, I do draw on the previous stories to add depth and layer them.

Unlike my other Witch & Wolf stories, Tales of the Winter Wolf uses two first person perspectives: Richard and Nicolina’s.

I really like switching between the two of them. Some stories show events from each of their perspectives. Some show the aftermath of one character’s tale from the other’s eyes. Some are meant to be read together, as the other character plays too important of a role to ignore completely.

Unlike my novels, I’m planning on releasing these in shorter volumes, including 2-5 stories per volume. (I’m looking at roughly a third of a regular novel’s length.) Each volume will be priced at $1.99, and once I have enough material, I’ll be releasing them on a set schedule–probably once every 2-3 weeks until the entire set is finished.

I’m still working on novels, but I’m stepping away. Until I have the cover art for Blood Diamond, I don’t really want to deal too much with longer fiction. Rider of the Sun Horse will probably be produced next since I already have the cover art–Zero will come after, unless the cover art for Project Zeta is ready. It’s switching up my order for things, but I don’t mind.

I’m writing, I’m working, I’m being productive–most importantly, I’m having a lot of fun.

So, you can expect some new novel releases from me this year in addition to short story and novella collections. My patreon users will get access to some of these stories before they release, though the mix will be scattered and probably only have one story included from each collection.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t read Winter Wolf, you’ll be spoiled on some things here. If you don’t want spoiled… don’t read beyond this image of blood and a cross, which I’m pretty sure is the fate I face if I ruin one of my novels for some readers!

(c) Jo Naylor (Creative Commons License – Flickr)

Richard and Nicolina get into a lot of trouble over the years before the precursors to Winter Wolf, so I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship plays out… and I really look forward to showing the reality of Nicolina’s past versus the memories she thinks she has during the novel.

Yes, these short stories spoil backstory for Winter Wolf. It’s really interesting, as you’ll notice inconsistencies in Winter Wolf.

These were done on purpose. Nicole Thomas of Winter Wolf has trauma-induced amnesia. As a result, she has fabricated memories. It’s actually not all that uncommon. It’s a natural response to fill in the blanks with something that makes sense to the victim, which is exactly what she did.

But anyway. I’ve been busy. I’ve been focusing on my work, on cleaning my house, and otherwise dealing with the real life.

Don’t worry, I haven’t gone away. I have lots of plans for fiction this year. How much will I accomplish? Good question. I guess I’ll find out soon!

Crap. Taxes. I need to do those this week. Argh! Taxes!

I’ll just file the extension and procrastinate on those a little longer…

Movie Review: Jurassic World

I don’t watch much tv. I don’t watch many movies either. In fact, when it comes to common, popular entertainment… doohickeys… I’m about 20 years behind the curve.

When I was a little girl, my all-time favorite movie was Jurassic Park. Who he fuck am I kidding? it’s still my all-time favorite movie. (I got to see it in theaters not too long ago, and it was amazing. It was a private showing, and I screamed so many times.)

I love the original one the most, although I did enjoy the two sequels. But, in 1993, I fell in love with Raptors. (Utah Raptors… I know they have a proper name, but screw it. Utah Raptors. I don’t mind them calling them Velociraptors in the movies, but the real ones were about knee high, although they did share many similarities to what is portrayed in the movie.)

I love Raptors. I love them with the fiery passion of a thousand supernova. I love them so much that I’m seriously considering finding raptor plushes and scattering them around my kitchen as a warning against other predators near my primary source of food.

I also seriously adore Chris Pratt as an actor, so, Jurassic World has been one of the best things to happen since, I don’t know, my marriage and the first film.

Just look at this beauty. What is there not to love? Sure, that gorgeous eye will examine you to identify your vitals and proceed to eat them, but… that’s okay, right?

I went into Jurassic World figuring I would love it. I mean, it’s one of my favorite franchises ever. I like Jurassic Park more than I like Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy. I’ve been waiting for the park to open since 1993.

The movie surpassed my expectations.

The human leads were fantastic–but the real stars of this movie were the dinosaurs, just as it should be. The plot is what you want from a Jurassic Park film. Dinosaurs are supposed to eat people. Dinosaurs are supposed to start eating people pretty quickly. Really cool dinosaurs eating people is why I wanted to see this film.

I was not disappointed. If anything, I was blown away by the fact that these dinosaurs weren’t just hungry predators. They were intelligent and hungry predators. There was no humans being ultra smarter than the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs were legitimate.

They had feelings. Well, some of them did. Some just want to kill you and eat your internal organs. Those are feelings, right? They are!

The Raptors were my favorite part of this movie. They have names. Each one has a distinctive personality.

At one point, I was shrieking raptor names in the theatre. I am going to make the assumption my friends were embarrassed to have any association with me, especially at that one point when that one thing happened.

The movie was true to the original movie in so many ways. There are hundreds of easter eggs in the film. There are references to all three movies. There are tiny little details that will make you walk down memory lane, if you’re observant and look for them. There were moments where the film simply paused, allowing for those wows to kick in. There were moments where the entire theatre burst into giggles and woos and similar things, all because we got to see something really fucking cool or that we were caught by surprised–or taken on a trip on the Way Back When machine.

And the first time they play the original Jurassic Park theme, it is glorious. You might want to conduct with the music.

The Park is Open.

Buckle in, it’s a wild ride. This movie is fun. It’s ridiculous. It only takes itself so seriously, marrying the comedic wonders of the original with the thrills and chills of really cool dinosaurs eating people.

I am leaving you with one spoiler and one spoiler alone. The movie ends with the T-Rex roaring.

I think I’ll go see it a couple of more times before it leaves theatre. Then I’ll buy it and watch it over and over and over again.

Because dinosaurs. And Chris Pratt. And Chris Pratt being awesome with dinosaurs.

P.S.: Blue is my favorite raptor.

Delving into the World of Short Stories

(c) JordyR (Creative Commons – Flickr)

I have always been interested in writing novels over short stories. I’m pretty convinced that my brain is wired for long, convoluted stories with a vast sandbox for me to play in. Instead of a pond, I chose the oceans–and I’ve loved every minute of it.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve decided to take a stab at the art of writing short stories and novellas. I’ve decided I will write one story a month at a minimum, with other work being done on novellas as I have time. To facilitate this, and keep myself on track, I’m utilizing patreon as a way to give fans and readers access to these short stories as I write them.

They won’t be perfect, and I know that. I expect there will be types, ways the story could have been worded better, and stories that just don’t quite live up to my hopes and expectations for them.

Once a month, I will be sharing a story with my patrons. Some months I may include more than one story in the patron pack. Some months, I may release two different stories.

If you have been wondering how you can support my writing career beyond buying my books, Patreon is a great way you can contribute. We both win!

Since I don’t know a whole lot about writing short stories, I’ve decided to dive in and learn by doing. Today, I did rough outlines of four different stories. I think one is likely a novella while the other three will fall within the 5,000 to 10,000 word range, which is well within threshold for a short story.

The first thing I’ve learned from the process is that I have to be careful to only focus on one major theme and one story arc; it isn’t a novel. I don’t have the room to ripple the backstory in or the extra plot elements. But, I still need to include some of it, because a character is not just about who they are now. Who they were in the past matters, as their current now is a reflection of their past self, while their future self is a reflection of their present self.

I want to capture that in short story form.

I have no idea how well this will work. I don’t know how good I’ll be at writing short stories…

… I just hope that I’ll entertain my patrons, readers, and fans. Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

If you’re not interested in obtaining the stories via patreon, I will be releasing them in e-book (and possibly print) format once a year, give or take a few months. Novellas will be released to Amazon within a month or so after release to patrons.

Thanks, folks!

Random Rambles: Adventures in Financing

(c) Jo Naylor (Creative Commons License – Flickr)

Money. Hate it or love it, it’s something almost all of us have to deal with. The transition from child to adult involves the inevitable conflict of wanting things and realizing that nothing comes for free.

Maybe you have the supplies to build or grow what you need, but you need to invest your time. Your time is valuable, so this isn’t a free investment. (Don’t undervalue yourself; your time is valuable, no matter what the assholes say.)

Maybe you want to skip the time investment, so you have to pay for what you want. (Maybe you lack the skills to make it, or maybe you’re just lazy and don’t want to spend the time–that’s all right. I’m lazy too.)

When I was younger, money was magical. My mother (wisely) bribed us kids into working by dangling rewards for us. However, despite the introduction to basic bartering and finances, I never was really ready for life outside of the nest. Let’s face it, financing, budgeting, and general life skills weren’t taught in school. I watched my mother fight with her taxes, but it was frustrating and intimidating for her, therefore it was something I wanted absolutely nothing to do with.

At my school, we learned how to vote, but we weren’t taught how to actually balance a checkbook–we were, however, taught how to write checks. We were taught how to spend money, but we weren’t taught how to save it, how to plan ahead, and how to live anywhere other but in the moment.

As many of you are probably aware, my husband was laid off from his job after more than twelve years of employment at the same place. He found a new job, which he really likes, doing things that interest him. He’s far, far happier now than he used to be.

However, he’s a contract worker now. This comes with a variety of issues. First, taxes aren’t withheld. That’s our responsibility. Second, his employer is the in US, which adds some complexity to our situation.

Most importantly, we only get paid once per month instead of every two weeks. That’s a huge adjustment. Instead of living pay to pay, I have to live in the moment and thinking a year in advance.

If I don’t save the tax money, I won’t be able to pay the government on time. That’s not good. That means I have to think ahead, withholding enough for taxes, all while juggling our various bills.

This is not a skill set I was taught in school. Planning a year in advance for anything? Pft. I don’t know about everyone else, but I grew up in an instant-gratification society.

There’s nothing instantly gratifying about managing a budget. It’s hard work.

So, here’s how I’m doing it–manually. There are programs you can use to help, but I have opted not to use them. There’s a reason for this: I am a hands-on learner. If I want to make a budget that works for me and my family, I need to see the numbers, play with them, prod at them in their devilish home in excel, and really get an understanding of what I’m looking at–and how I’m spending my money.

It’s more work, but going over the financials bit by painful bit is how I learn what I’m doing right and wrong.

Please note: I am not recommending you do these things for yourself. I am not responsible for your financial decisions. What I do with my household finances works for exactly one financial situation: mine.

Please consider all of the information as a sharing of a single strategy.

You’re welcome to use my strategy if it fits your situation, but nothing in this post constitutes as legal or financial advice. I’m not responsible for your choices.

Before I begin, I’m going to discuss some of the challenges my husband and I are facing, which are playing a huge role in our monthly and yearly finances.

Challenge #1: Sewage Flood.

Yeah, I’m still in debt from that. No, I still don’t have a basement. One day, however, I will have a basement. But, for now… I need to pay off all of the debt from related expenses. (These include replacement of the furnace, replacement of the entire breaker box, and the rewiring of the pool. These three items cost in excess of $10,000 and weren’t covered by insurance.) Insurance covered the cost of cleanup and materials for the replacement. However, because the basement wasn’t to code, things outside of the cleanup sphere of influence needed to be addressed, we ended up with far more spent than insurance covered. That rode my credit cards–some is still riding my credit cards.

Plus interest. Can’t forget the interest. Interest is the killer of souls.

Challenge #2: Withholding Taxes

We aren’t sure how much the tax man is going to yank from us, but I’m anticipating the number falling somewhere between 39-49%. The lowest I’ve ever seen our taxes was 31%. The highest I’ve seen it has been 54%.

This year, I’m looking at an estimated 47% tax rate for my husband with provincial and federal taxes combined.

Challenge #3: Credit Card Debt

This ties to Challenge #1, but it is a problem in and of itself. Credit Cards are dangerous things. Sure, they can save your bacon when shit goes to hell–but once hell starts, it is excessively difficult to climb out of credit card debt. Of all of the challenges I’ll face this year financially, this one takes the cake and the cherry on top.

Now, with the background established, I’ll go into my method of addressing the problems.

Step One: Realistic Expenditures.

Most people think budgeting is about saving money and cutting costs.

Wrong.

It is about identifying and understanding what you are actually spending your money on. If you base your budget on idealistic situations, it won’t work.

Budget based on what you’re actually spending. That stops the surprises before they happen. But, here’s the problem.

Most people (myself included) spend more than they have. That leads to the situation of debt, debt, and more debt. Step one, however, shouldn’t change.

Identify what you’re spending your money on. Know your income. Know your expenditures. Know what you’re doing right.

Learn what you’re doing wrong.

Step Two: Identify Critical Expenditures

My budget is broken into several different categories, including wants, needs, monthly bills, and yearly bills. So, in order to form my baseline budget, I took a close look at what I was actually spending and identified the items that were critical.

Critical is just that–you absolutely can’t live without it.

For my household, this includes things like the mortgage and certain bills. (The internet and cell phone bills count for us, because my husband cannot do his job without them.)

This becomes the foundation of the budget.

If you’re going to try looking at your finances in this way, here are some items you will want to consider for your critical expenditure list:

Mortgage/Rent
Minimum Credit Card Payments
Electricity/Hydro
Bills required for work
Food (Basics)
Taxes

Step Three: Identifying Luxury Expenditures

Life’s stressful enough without luxuries, but you really need to know how you’re spending your money. Learn to identify what you can live without. Luxuries are just that: things you can live without.

Make a list of these things. Order them by priority. How important are they to you?

Go ahead–make notations on the things you could trim out of your budget, but don’t trim them out, not quite yet.

Step Four: Add it up. Weep.

This is the weeping phase, probably when you look at your total income versus total expenditures and realize they don’t add up. You’re probably spending more than you have.

I’m not going to say it’s okay because it isn’t–it’s not good. Money worries are a huge stress factor. Finances have ruined many a marriage and will ruin many a marriage in the future.

This is the time to acknowledge and accept your actual financial situation.

For me, it’s also the time to start making a game plan. After the weeping, cursing, and burning desire to burn things with fire. Coherency will typically take a leave of absence at this point, and that’s okay.

It’s normal.

The problem is, from my past experience, is people stop at this step. They don’t move forward. They don’t find ways to get beyond the current situation to a better one.

Some people are in the situation where they simply can’t.

I was hoping to be out of debt in a couple of months, but it isn’t happening. In our situation, the tax percentage we have to pay prevents us from being able to really attack our credit card debt and eliminate it from the picture.

Can I do it? Yes. It will take a long time and will require a lot of willpower to accomplish it, however. This leads me to the next step…

Step Five: Problem Solving, Brainstorming, and Fitting Square Pegs into Round Holes.

I know the tax bill next year will be devastating. However, I also know that credit card debt and interest is equally devastating. So, I decided to compromise.

I’m taking a risk. This is not advice or recommendations to do this. It’ll either pay off or it won’t. If it doesn’t, I’ll be in even more financial problems come next year. If it pays off, we’ll be far more stable. It’s a calculated risk. If I play the numbers just right, it’ll work.

I know that my tax rate will be around 47% come April of 2016. So, in order to accelerate the repayment of my credit card debt, I am withholding 24% of the taxes and tracking the yearly withheld percentages and amounts. By withholding half of what I’ll actually owe the government, I’m paying down credit cards faster; this lowers my interest payments and minimums each month.

In 3 months, once I have done some damage to the credit card bills, I will withhold extra taxes until my yearly tax withholding is at 47%. I’ll have to slow down how much I pay back my credit cards, but at the same time, I will be able continue paying down the cards because my interest rate and minimums will be lower.

The calculations are a bit complicated, but it works out at the end of the day. I might be able to do accelerated tax payments for 4 months.

This is a bandaid and it comes at a cost. But, the bandaid will help the wound heal faster, even though it isn’t an instant fix. What it does do is let me fit that square peg into a round hole. There’s a fine line between being able to pay down credit card debt versus being trapped in an endless cycle of just paying off the interest accruing from the debt.

The goal of this is to balance the scales in the right direction. The ultimate goal is this:

Each month, I am able to pay off the following for each credit card:

Interest Charged
All New Charges/Bills/Etc
Minimum Payment
A Little Extra

So, here’s an example, taken directly from one of my credit cards. This card is charged for a lot of our monthly bills.

Statement balance:
$3,948.66


Statement closing date:
05/05/2015


Credit limit:
$X (It’s a secret.)


Minimum payment due:
$107.01


Minimum payment due date:
05/26/2015

Interest Charged:

$68.00

Interest ($68) plus Minimum Payment ($107.01) equals Baseline Payment ($175.01)

This card is charged roughly $800 a month for bills and various other reoccurring payments.

So, current payment for the card, factoring in 1-3 on the list is: $975.01.

I have actually paid $1,040 on the card in the month of May. That means I paid 64.99 more than the minimum, which classifies as a little more.

Some of you might be questioning my math at this point. Why pay off the interest and the minimum payment on top of the reoccurring bills? The minimum payment would be sufficient to cover the new interest and pay down the card a bit. Why the little extra overtop of this?

The idea is to eliminate all sources of debt from the card. Interest appears as a charge on the card. It’s money you’re spending each month. Therefore, it needs to be accounted for. That means it falls under “New charges” technically. I separate it as a way of seeing how much money I’m wasting each month simply because I’m carrying credit card debt. It motivates me to get rid of the debt.

The minimum payment amount is actually the baseline paying down the card amount. Each time I pay the minimum amount, I’m whittling away that much from the actual debt. The little extra is just a cherry on top.

I do this for each and every credit card I have with the exception of one card. This card is a financial card; it gets charged once a month for a service. (It’s sort of like a loan.) I pay off what’s charged each month for this card.

Now, here’s a consideration: If I do not have any new charges going to a card, I will pay off the new interest and the minimum payment plus a little extra. The little extra might be a lot extra, if I have the money to work with.

If I don’t, the little extra is something like $10.00. I have three rainy day credit cards with balances. They aren’t getting new charges, so I pay off the minimum amounts plus interest plus a little extra to pay them off while I focus my attention on the card with the largest active balance and interest rate.

By doing it this way, the interest payments and minimum payments will shrink each month. That gives me more room to work. But, if I have the money to afford the previous month’s higher minimum payment and interest charges, I pay that amount.

It prevents me from having to recalculate all of the math plus has the added bonus of paying off the cards faster.

If I do have a rainy day, I can then recalculate my actual minimum payments and interest charges and pay down the cards appropriately, thus saving a little money each month.

That’s essentially it in a nutshell. It took me about four hours to go through the past few months and identify bills, but if you have banking software that does that for you, great! I needed to dig in and do it manually because that’s how I think.

But, I walked away with a game plan, a method of crawling out of debt, and a realistic budget–one I can actually adhere to because it is no different than the reality of my expenditures.

Phew. Long post was long. Sorry about that.

Good luck with your finances. Money sucks.

RJ’s Misadventures: Formatting for Print

About a month or so ago, I promised myself that I would bring Requiem for the Rift King and Witch & Wolf back into print. I also promised myself that I would learn how to format for print on my own, setting up the print interior exactly as I wanted it.

This is a record of my misadventures as I am working on preparing Storm Without End for print.

I will be breaking this up into a lot of pieces. While this isn’t a traditional guide for formatting for print, this will highlight everything that has gone wrong with the process.

Selecting a Trim Size

One of the hardest choices I had to make when deciding to format for print was the trim size. Createspace has many options for trim size. My previous print run had an unusual trim size.

This time I went with a standard trim size. I want to enroll my novels into extended distribution for a chance to get them in bookstores and in libraries. I decided on 5.25 by 8, primarily due to the fact it is relatively close to the original trim size. The benefit? I can fit more in the book. Fewer pages translates to a lower cost.

I also selected cream paper, as I like the color better than in-your-face white. For the exterior cover stock, I went with Matte, which looks really lovely.

Getting Started

Up until this point, I have hired someone to handle the interior formatting for me. I’ve been a coward, I’ll admit it. Learning something as complicated as print formatting is scary!

However, it only looks complicated. I’m now shaking my head at how easy it is once I took the time to figure out what was going on. So, here’s how I got started:

I logged into CreateSpace and I clicked the link stating: How to make an interior PDF

I also, from my project’s setup screen, used this:

Download a Word® Template

Start with a blank template or formatted template with sample content designed for this trim size.

I opted for a formatted template. I removed the links to them, since the blank and formatted templates are tied to the trim size you select for your project. Go get your own template! If you use the one generated for me, it won’t work–not unless you’re using the same exact trim size I do.

Once you have your formatted or blank template, you will be ready to begin.

Setting Up the Template

Open your template, save as a different file, and create your master print file for your book. You’ll want to keep the blank/formatted template preserved so you don’t have to download it again later.

In the template, you’re going to see a bunch of chapters (ten of them, in fact) that you can use to format your text.

Create the Appropriate Number of Chapters

For reference, my novels range from 18 to 30+ chapters.

Adjust the Headers

Just as a friendly word of advice: Adjust your headers / footers before you begin this process. Just double click on the header or footer and modify them to your liking.

Warning: Yes, you will have to do this for each template chapter if you do not like how the page numbers are formatted. Author Name and Book Title should auto-populate across all chapters.

Copy/Paste Template Chapters

To begin, highlight the contents of one chapter. Copy it to your clipboard. Make sure you get the blank spaces above “Chapter Number” since it does make a difference.

Go the last chapter of the document. Click on the last character in the chapter. In word, you will need to create a page break. However, you need to use a very specific version of the page break function.

In Word 2010+, there will be a little drop arrow where it says break under page setup in the layout tab. Select Next Page from the list.

This will create a new page for you to copy/paste your next chapter. Rinse and repeat until you have the appropriate number of chapters for your novel.

Note: I use Scrivener with my novel broken up into chapters as individual text files. This makes it extremely simply to do.

Populate Your Chapters

There are several ways you can do this. Here is how I do it:

Click before the first word of the chapter. (In the CreateSpace Template, this is actually a number.
Paste.
Highlight the template text.
Delete the template text.

This preserves the formatting of my text. This won’t work if you’re using Word, as Word wants to preserve the paper size in addition to formatting. So, if you’re using word as your primary text editor, you will have to find a different method of populating your chapters, sorry!

Justify the Text

Text justification is really important. Books look terrible in print without it. So, highlight all of your chapter text and click “justify.” It is the last option in the text layout buttons. (Right, Left, Center, Justify.)

Adjust Your Margins

Amazon has strict rules on what the margins are for printing. You can find them on the link I gave above.

Check your current number of pages. Open up the margins field (Layout, Margins–>Custom Margins.)

Follow the instructions on the page. If the inside margin says 0.75, put that in the field. Outside margin should be set to 0.50.

Once you have confirmed your margins are correct, you hunt and slay orphans.

Hunt and Slay Orphans

Once the text is justified, it is time to hunt and kill orphans. Orphans are single words or sentences on a page. I also have to recenter any scene break glyphs/markers at this point.

In order to slay orphans, I will shift a line from one page to the next (or two lines… very rarely three) from the previous page. Sometimes you can’t avoid a line with a single word on it–but you can always backtrack and add a carriage (hard) return here and there to make certain you don’t have an orphaned line right before a scene/chapter break.

I prefer 3+ lines whenever possible.

I also shift scene breaks to the next page whenever possible. (This is only done if the scene break is the last thing on a page.)

Use your judgment and figure out what you think looks best.

Some people prefer to fiddle with line spacing on individual pages in order to shift a line to the next page. I don’t like this because I can’t stand slightly offset text when looking at two pages. I’d rather have an uneven number of lines on a page, which is why I made the choice I did.

That said, if you can adjust the line spacing, it’s probably the most elegant method of doing it. I went with easy rather than complicated and persnickety. That was a personal choice.

It’s entirely up to you on how you slay your orphans–just make sure you do it. Orphans are horrific.

Populate Your Front Matter

Front matter is the title page, dedication, acknowledgements, copyright page, and so on. Make sure this is all filled out. Also fill out your back matter, which is the About the Author page–and anything else you want to shove at the end of the book.

Table of Contents

Now that you have finalized your print layout, it is time to fill in your table of contents. Try to keep it on one page (or you’ll screw up the page numbers!)

Let it Sit & Double Check it Later

Put it down for a few days. Come back and check the work later, when you haven’t spent the past 2-4 hours frying your brain on the persnickety nature of print formatting.

So, how did I screw it up the first few times?

I did everything wrong.

I tried hunting orphans before I confirmed my margins, thus creating odd gaps in my novel, which needed to be removed. I didn’t adjust the header/footer prior to copy/pasting a lot of templates, which meant I had to fix them all manually.

I added 2-3 extra hours of work just because I didn’t know how changing one thing would make other things break.

Editorial Process: Blood Diamond

In order to take a more systematic, thorough approach to my editorial, I have changed how I work.

Change is a pretty common theme in my life at the moment.

I use Scrivener as my writing tool of choice. I like the layout, I really appreciate the compiling abilities of the program, and there are many useful features.

Because I have gotten a new computer–one that actually works–I have completely changed how I work. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X has a special way of handling programs in full-screen mode. By swiping three fingers across the track pad (or two across the magic mouse), I can switch between windows easily. This has let me focus my concentration quite a bit; I don’t get distracted by shiny things, including IM messages. (I hear them ping, but I ignore them until I finish what I’m working on.)

It has also done away with my side-by-side editorial practices. While it slows my editorial pace a bit, it has had a lot of fringe benefits.

One of the consequences of this change is the fact I have to pay more attention to what I’m doing. That’s a good thing. As I am constantly swapping between screens, I have to take better notes on what I’ve done to each chapter.

That’s where Scrivener comes in.

In order to polish Blood Diamond, I am doing multiple passes on each and every chapter. I am recording the passes as I do them. Here’s a list of editorial work I’m doing:

Implementing Rachel’s Edits
MS Word Grammar/Spelling Check
Reread/Line Edits/Proofing Edits
MS Word Grammar/Spelling Check
Reread/Line Edits/Proofing Edits
MS Word Grammar/Spelling Check
Implementing Proof Reader Edits
MS Word Grammar/Spelling Check
Re-Read/Proofing Edit

Proof Reader / Rachel Edit Implementation is pretty straightforward: I read over their notes, confirm the correction, implement the correction, and triple-check it.

MS Word Grammar/Spelling Check might come across as a little silly to you; it’s actually quite helpful. Here’s the thing: computers aren’t great at grammar checking, but there are some rules that simply shouldn’t be broken. Its vs It’s is a great example.

Word is actually very good at catching errors of this nature. I’ve seen it correctly identify passive voice–and even make suggestions on how to rewrite the sentence. It isn’t always right, but it is a really good starting point for fixing a lot of little things.

The green, red, and blue squiggles in MS Word are my friend, and I am absolutely not ashamed of admitting this. Any tool that can help me catch an error is a good tool. MS Word flags things–sometimes it flags the wrong thing. That said, it’s my job to go through each and every thing it flags, confirms whether a fix is needed, and fix it if it is.

Computers aren’t a substitute for a human… but a computer is also a neutral party.

If it sees an error, it’ll tell you–even if the error is not legitimate for fiction. What it does is force me to look at the sentence, at the phrasing, and at the specific words. This allows me to make an editorial decision.

You’ll notice I do this quite often.

Editing always runs the risk of introducing a new mistake when any change is made. So, after every round of editorial, the chapter or section I’m working on is run through MS Word again.

This significantly helps me catch mistakes.

Now, you’ve probably noticed that my list has a lot of repeated work. One pass isn’t enough. However, here’s something really important: I am not going back and making changes for the sake of making changes. I’m only making necessary changes. If there is a sentence that is awkward, I need to fix it.

If there’s a word that isn’t used appropriately, I need to fix it.

Changing a sentence for the sake of changing the sentence isn’t what this phase of editorial is for. So, when I say Line/Proofing edits, I mean I am making necessary adjustments to the book.

While I will sometimes rewrite a sentence because I can, I shouldn’t. If I can make the sentence substantially better, I should.

My goal is to write a good story my readers will enjoy.

Fiddling for the sake of fiddling usually does one thing and one thing alone: it sucks the life out of the story.

Over-editing is a real risk, and it’s one I’m trying to avoid.

So, while I am going to be doing a lot of passes and recording them as I finish (on a chapter by chapter basis), I am perfecting what is there, not changing it for change’s sake.

It’s a challenging line to toe without belly flopping. Here’s hoping I can refine the story and make it a tale people want to read.

I’m excited. I can see my self-editing skills improving, and that’s a huge thing for me.

Random Rambles: Changes

(c) JordyR (Creative Commons – Flickr)

As many of you are aware, my husband and I have been dealing with a lot of changes in our lives recently. Today starts week two of my husband having a new job.

It is 9:07 AM. My husband has already left for work. He was up and about, going through his morning routine at 9:00 AM. I watched him in bemused wonder, trying to figure out who the ruggedly handsome man occupying my house was.

In the years we’ve been married, my husband hasn’t been a morning anything. But, for the vast majority of our marriage, he’s worked at the same place with a rather long commute. It used to be 30 minutes on a good day at our first apartment/second apartment/condo. At our house, on a bad day, he’d be in the car for an hour and a half each way.

We both knew this sort of drive was stressful, but just how much of an impact it was making was hidden under the piles of other crap thrown at us from all directions.

My husband losing his job was perhaps one of the best things to happen to us since we got married.

With the severance money, he bought me an early birthday present–a new laptop for me to work on. We’ve been talking about replacing my computer for a while, but it had been set aside as a potential present for a Christmas or some such down the road. My desktop hasn’t been nice to me lately; if anyone or anything touched the case, something will short circuit, cutting out all of my USB ports. It was excessively frustrating to say the least–and a worry of epic proportion. (Would it short circuit the entire board? Would it go on a murderous rampage and kill my novels?!)

Because of the severance, my husband decided to give me a Macbook Pro. I’m thoroughly in love with it. With how I use the system (a browser with a couple of tabs and Scrivener), I am getting a 18+ hour battery life on a single charge. My lap isn’t frying, either!

We’re both adapting. This may sound weird, but positive change can be difficult to cope with. Doubt plays a factor. Between the commute and being pushed out of a job he had worked at for more than twelve years, doubt was a big problem. Starting something new is frightening. Would he like it? Would he fit in? Would he be okay with going in earlier? Could he handle being on call 24/7?

He was out of bed at 9:00 AM this morning, and I didn’t even have to resort to stealing his covers. It’s raining, and the weather didn’t chain him to bed, hiding under the covers in his effort to hide from it.

Last night, he was wandering the house, talking to himself and the cats as he made certain he had everything he needed for work in the morning.

He’s happy, and in turn, that makes me happy.

It takes him ten minutes to get to work. If he has to run an errand, he can; 20 minutes total commute around lunchtime means he can come home and visit me if he wants–or go to the bank to deal with all of the things needing to be dealt with. (That’s what he’ll be doing today.)

Today, I’m hoping to finish the transcription of Blood Diamond. If I do, I’ll begin the many rounds of rereading, editing, rereading, proofing, rereading, proofing again, rereading, more proofing, and even more proofing.

The end of May for release is still a potential possibility. The cover art isn’t ready yet. I’m hopeful everything will come together.

I’m also hopeful that sometime this year, maybe I’ll be the one who catches the break. I could use some good luck.

It turns out that the silver lining in the black supercell of job loss was actually made of platinum and could be harvested for personal use. Who would have thought?

Sometimes, making the most of a bad situation can make all of the difference in the world.

Short Stories, Novellas, and Novels, Oh My!

I’ve been busy the past while trying to get Blood Diamond ready for publication. I’m really pleased with my progress. While I doubt it’ll be ready in May, it’ll be out in June or July for certain. (Editorial work needs to be finished and I need cover art, which is something I have no control over at this point in time.)

Things have been really tough lately, but I feel like I’m finally getting a handle on all of the things going on in my life. That means I can really focus on my work, something I feel has really suffered in the past week.

In addition to my novels, I’m branching out into writing novellas and short stories. These are side projects, things I will be doing for my entertainment (and yours.) I have started a patreon to help support this hobby. The patreon is designed to give a platform for me to share these stories with patrons.

How it works is pretty simple: You pick a reward level. Each time I release a short story (or novella), you will pay for your reward. I’m planning on releasing a short story once a month, along with some extra material. I might do more than one short story each month, but that depends on time. On the side, I’ll be working on novellas.

Each year, I will release an anthology of all of the short stories I wrote for the patrons.

I think it’ll be a good thing for me to practice writing shorter stories–and really rewarding.

Being completely honest, it’s very frustrating to spend a quarter of a year working on a novel just to watch it flop on release. I think by having another outlet for my creativity–one that doesn’t have such high demands on me–I will really be able to broaden my horizons and have a lot of fun at the same time.

It’ll be good for me.

In other news, I have started working in earnest on Project Zeta, Zero, and Rider of the Sun Horse. I have no idea when these projects will release. Project Zeta is also dependent on cover art. (It might even be next year until Project Zeta is ready, as my artist might not be available to do the work until then.)

Zero’s cover is pretty much done. After these projects are finished, I will be working on Royal Slaves and City of Clocks. This lineup will carry me until mid next year, which is when my cover artist should be available again for work.

Beyond that, my husband found a new job, which he started today. He seems to really like it. I’m very happy for him. With the uncertainty lately, I’m going to be working even harder at upping my novel-writing game. I want to produce more novels and I want them to be of higher quality than ever.

I want to tell stories people want to buy.

That’s all. I’ll be in my bunker working if you need me.

Bang for your Buck: Coffee, Books, and Cash

A barista spends 3 minutes making you a $6 cup of coffee, you tip her. A writer spends a year writing a book, you complain $4.99 is too high

— Robert Swartwood (@RobertSwartwood) October 4, 2012

I saw this a while ago. It resurfaced in early April, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It impacts every aspect of my professional life. My new releases are $4.99. It used to be $5.99, but I ultimately settled on $4.99.

Why?

Robert Swartwood’s tweet illustrates it perfectly. As a society, we’re willing to pay a barista to make us a coffee for $6–and we’ll drop change in her tip jar, all because we appreciate the work she put in for us.

Usually, this work is no more than 3 to 5 minutes.

It takes me at least a quarter of a year to write a novel. Sometimes I write one faster, if I’m pushing really hard at it. I work 9+ hours a day, churning out words in the hopes of making something out of my career.

Some days, that barista makes more in tips than I do in sales on my novels. That’s what society has deemed as important, and I don’t know how to bust through that wall.

I want people to look at my months of hard work and effort and believe it is worth more than that 3 minute cup of coffee.

My novels take longer than 3 minutes to read, too. It usually takes a reader longer than it times to drink that cup of coffee to finish one of my titles. Even if you speed read at 1,000 words per minute, you’ll looking at an hour and twenty minutes to read my shortest novel.

Some of you may claim that it’s possible to return that cup of coffee if it doesn’t take good.

Trust me on this one–you can with books, too. It happens to me all of the time, almost always in the first two weeks of a novel’s release. You know, when people want to read the book but don’t want to pay the author for their hard work. It’s pretty frustrating looking at the returns in the first two weeks of a release, knowing that a title is either in progress of being pirated or someone just doesn’t feel like paying. Of course, there are those who genuinely bought by accident due to one click buying, but… after a while, you get used to the fact that people aren’t in that later category.

It sucks–especially when you realize that a cup of coffee is worth more than the hard work and effort spent writing and editing a novel.

Is that a whine?

You can bet your bacon that it’s a whine. (Or you can just give your bacon to me, because I like bacon a lot.)

Go ahead and judge me if that’s up your alley. From where I’m sitting, it really sucks knowing that my novels can’t compete with a cup of coffee. It’s a real kick to the self-esteem. Many authors (myself included) have battered self-esteems. I’m okay admitting that. It’s the truth.

Many authors have second jobs. I’m not one of them. I’m stupid, crazy, have probably made the worst financial decision of my life, and I refuse to give up my career choice, which makes me irresponsible, too.

If you can afford to buy a $6 cup of coffee, please don’t tell your author friends you can’t afford their book. Just be honest with us and tell us why you don’t want to buy the book. Your honesty goes a lot further than empty promises and lies.

At least we learn something when you’re honest about it. We learn what sells our books and what doesn’t sell our books. That’s almost as valuable as the golden egg of being paid for our gold work–almost.

And if that answer is that you enjoy your coffee more than you do literature, that’s all right. Seriously, it is.

Not everyone is a crazy book hoarder.

If only cash were not a finite resource. If it weren’t, I could have my $6 cup of coffee and all of the books I want.

And yes, I skip the coffee to buy the books… or I twist a friend’s arm and have them buy me a coffee. And yes, I’m totally guilty of this.