Where Have I Been?

I've been under a rock. There is no excuse for not writing as often as I could be. However, the great news: I have a new book on the way! I was 99% certain this morning I'd be approving the new book. Instead, I decided to flip through a section of the book, I rarely focused on in previous editing attempts and was stopped by a glaring error. So I had to fix that. Since I was in the mood for re-uploading the file, I went and tried a little experiment and fixed something that was literally trivial but the fix made my heart feel better about layout.
So "On the Shoulders of Giants", my latest book for The Company (not to be confused with the general Hollywood euphemism for the CIA or any other Federal agency) is actually a 3 part book series. I had started in June organizing all three books, I actually thought I could publish all three books by the end of the summer. But I realized, there were some major holes in my research for the bulk of two of the books--so I focused on this third book, the biographies of people who contributed to science, 43 different people in the field of science and their accomplishments written for students who need modified curriculum. For every 1-2 pages of biography, there are 2 different sets of questions. One direct W/H questions (Who, What, When, Where, How--no "Why"..that's a different level of thinking), and the other more about encouraging research and finding answers to relate to the readings. Every biography had a map of the modern birth country of the scientist, a timeline of the scientist's life in perspective of the timeline of history that modern history recognizes, and then one illustration that relates to the reading of something that the scientist is connected with.
This book was intended to be a capstone on an already epic series. And then when I moved it to be my sole focus, I do think it lost a little edge, and then I went into the publisher to start setting the book up for publishing. And then there was a problem. A major problem. At 200 pages, with about 175 pages that had color, the book would have to be priced at nearly $50 for The Company to make any reasonable money-- our usual royalty is from $6-$10 per book. That amount broke our general rule of trying not to charge more than $30 to every customer.
We hemmed and hawed painfully for a few days. There are some things that aren't worth fighting for, we put the customers first. The book illustrations were redone: all to be in black and white. It was challenging at first, because we didn't know what would translate well in black and white-- it turns out nothing did so we threw away a lot of original illustrations and used some very old, old graphic tricks like patterning to get the effects we wanted, not just removing the color from the graphics. We tried just removing color from the graphics. It wasn't enough to be visually clear.
So right now, we're waiting to hear back from the publisher. We're 99% certain we'll be approving the draft as final tomorrow. (Yes we know we were 99% certain we'd publish to day, but give us our hope!)

When the Push Isn't the Story

There is no secret, I'm constantly churning out at least a short story or two. But lately, my work hasn't been as fruitful. And it's definitely slowed. Certainly my life situations do really limit my productivity. Between the fact that I'm trying to find a grad school that will take me and testing for other issues related to getting into the grad programs I wish to get into.

So this is the first year in a long time I have access to the required reading block in my academic schedule where it's required that all students come in and read at the beginning of class. And to my unexpected pleasure, the teacher with whom I am partnered with this year, has a wonderful book collection. I am in book heaven. I spent the first three weeks of the school year devouring a new book and then I realized there was a book I "should" read. I picked up that book, it is a biography.

The medium of biography is not a focus of the type of writing I do: general descriptive non-fiction and fiction. But as I read this story and look at the life of another person who just had an opportunity like no one else could have ever believed. I haven't even gotten to the primary focus of the biography yet.

But this reminds me of two things: writers need to read everything and then reading helps writers get clarity in directions of the ways their fiction or non-fiction need to be able to appeal to a variety of readers.

Yes I am still writing. I am still reading as well. I hope to become more open to reading more genres.

Long Plot Line of Continuity

A general I have three little "plot bunnies" for fiction work I'm working on. One of which, yesterday, I was about to let out for someone else to claim as their own but I was thinking about how vividly I dreamed and how much I thought the ending would be an interesting twist. So I kept the plot bunny. I'm looking at these three and realizing how much I love the short story. Even with twists, they are to the point, and they don't require elaboration in the case of no one cares what they eat for lunch on Tuesday. Unless it really matters to the plot.

Other important issues before I get to the point of why I'm writing today, I finished submitting and the process for publication of yet another book for the company. Since having finished that book, I continue to bounce around ideas for releasing the second book this summer. I have yet to finish setting it up, I'm afraid of finding a huge error right now. To complicate matters, though I backed up everything and the old hard drive is still accessible, I got a new hard drive in the laptop, but it isn't the old set up which is its own problem. I can't quite find if there was a "D" file and gaps in my research show that I may need to hold onto this book just a little bit longer.

I have eight active projects I rotate through these days. Two on similar topics but are presented differently and the rest are all history based. I will eventually return to science, I have a whole new section to add, but it's also going to be much harder. I am also working on finding illustrations to accompany each section. It's a lot harder than it sounds because I'm mostly preparing all of these photographs for each chapter. Right now, I have an estimate on my hands that one of my books will be 300 pages--pushing its retail price into the $60 range. I'm hoping to bring down the cost, and yet every time I think about cutting a corner somewhere, I realize I'm short changing some piece of the layout.

But all of these are minor plot points in my goals of publishing and writing. Both professionally and informally, my writing forms this grander story arc. Unlike my writings: I don't know where this is headed ultimately. It certainly isn't for fame. And it isn't bound for riches. I've made my peace with those two points. Maybe one day, but certainly not now.

But TV plot lines have gotten a little crazy lately. Sometimes they remember the point of everything. Sometimes they make you remember information from three seasons back. And sometimes, each season might as well be its own thing and have no basis in reality. Some shows are very disjointed from reality to begin with, but others make you wonder how many times they will fire the entire writing team and start over. Just because the writers preserve the characters and their background stories does not mean that the writers understand what they've done the last forty episodes, or even the last two weeks of filming.

I also realize that most people no longer watch an episode a week, instead turning to 'binge' watch in a batch. But then: even having all the episodes with quick turn around means that some things may make even less sense. I am very bothered by this.

Drowning in Work

I think the thing I resent the most about being paid for my non-fiction work is the amount of research I need to do to make the bit of non-fiction be truthful. Or as truthful as I understand the world. And yet, I know I will have opposition as I have the words "Darwin", "natural selection", and "evolution", within my own, modern loving country.

But now I sit on my lap with history, and I know there is yet another controversy going to be lead to my feet. But I publish it anyway.

I have blood and gore in my Project Beta. It's being illustrated. Going to publish it anyway.

I have been toying with the idea of getting an intern next summer. Just to help with the research.

But I'm on the precipice of releasing a new book. I'm waiting to hear back from the publisher and I thought I would actually submit something to my Author's blog.

And I want to send a congratulations to my friend Jane. She has known for a while she's expecting. She and her husband, Tarzan, have waited 13 1/2 years for this to happen. I wish them the best of luck.

As for my adventures when I'm not doing work, primarily between the hours of 12 pm to around 6pm to help conserve electricity, I'll be gaming via hand held devices and writing by long hand or through my ipad (which will hopefully not kick off while I'm using it.)

So much to do, so little time. And I want to release at least 3 things this summer. Some people have babies, I have books.

Roadblocks

Roadblocks in writing are harder than they look. 

Things like "Spare the air days" limit research possibilities and then the actual finished product. Don't suggest that writing on a pad of paper and researching at the public library between hordes of fellow citizens or even trying to organize materials on my phone or iPad are a useful alternative because they currently aren't. I will gladly give up my spot at the public library to a family who doesn't have an air conditioner. I will gladly give up my spot to a person who doesn't have access to research in the middle of the night so they can get their essay for their last community college class.

But what about my trusted laptop? You ask so very politely. Ah, my laptop has had hard drive issues for months now. I couldn't let it go because I had so many things that required my full attention at the time. So this device too is out of my reach being examined thoroughly by people who should know more about computers than I. I hope the drive is not toasted. I suspect I might not be so lucky.

So I sit in my office, sometimes napping because during a spare the air day that's all one can do. And I think about how important the images I have in my head are and how they can't tantalize someone else's sense. I think about the fact that I could solve some of my problems by just writing this all out by long hand without being distracted by the constant need to research a specific fact I am unfamiliar with.

And maybe without distractions, I can concentrate on not making another project. Only if that were true eh?

Heat wave: hurry up and pass before I burn off all my good ideas being lazy.