Friday, December 20, 2013

Some Progress is Good Progress

I'm still working on KM6. It's a little slow going, but at least it's moving along.

I've known for a while that Killing Monsters (KM2) was not available on iTunes. I could NOT figure out what was causing this. I'd gone in and made updates and tried to figure it all out, but nothing I did worked. I happened to sign in to Smashwords yesterday and saw that I had an open ticket on the book (this is a new feature where other retailers can leave you messages). iTunes was rejecting the book because I had something like "killing memories can be purchased at Smashwords" in the front matter. I get it... they don't want me directing their customers to another site. Makes sense. So, I removed this line and hopefully it will be available soon.

I have a day off today (woot woot), so I plan on trying to write for several hours. I did hit a bit of a stall with KM6--I'd taken the book in a direction that I think I need to reverse (bringing Gregory Waller back into things). I think that's the wrong move. So, I'll work on that today and hopefully continue on.

For Adam fans, rejoice! He's making an appearance.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Well... that didn't go so well.

I failed my first attempt at National Novel Writing Month. Epic fail. There will be more attempts in the future, it just didn't happen for me this year. The good news is that now I can start writing without the added pressure of a deadline. I plan to return to KM6. Hopefully I can get into it and plow through a first draft. I kinda feel like editing as well... but I do think I need to give writing more of a go. I've neglected myself for too long.

Good advice, Bradbury!
One thing that I hope helps me out is my Black Friday purchase: Microsoft's Surface tablet. I got the original one (it was cheaper) with a red keyboard. (I think red stimulates something... right. Maybe the creative juices will get riled up and excited.) I like the idea of being more portable. My current laptop is pretty amazing, but it's bulky and heavy. The Surface will be about 2lbs total. I have grand plans of writing during my lunch break or riding on a plane somewhere and writing. I'll admit, it was the commercial with the lady on the plane that really made me sit up and say "ooo, I want that."

Hopefully this isn't something that I'll set aside and not use. It's probably good that I went with the cheaper option instead of the newest model (which I really wanted).

So... here's to December being a better month for writing. Until next year's Nano!