Saturday, April 26, 2014

Can they PLEASE throw some strikes?

It's Saturday already? Guess it's time for another post. Currently watching the Detroit Tigers game and I'd like to focus on ANYTHING else right now, so I'm writing this. Although, as I wrote that, the Tigers put together a double play to end the inning, but I've already started this so I'm finishing it.

This past week, my dog got a vet visit. She does not enjoy vet visits. Nothing horribly wrong with her, just the usual check-up and get her shots up to date. She does have a lump on her abdomen that I was worrying about, but it's a benign lipoma. Nothing serious. I just have to keep an eye on it and, if it gets bigger, then let the vet know.

For Easter, my family took my grandma out to a fancy brewery. Yes, a brewery. This place somehow has some really fancy food including these gourmet fries that are mouthwatering when you dip them in mayonnaise. It sounds disgusting, but I get excited every Easter because that's where we go to eat and I love those fries.

I have a feeling that there's something else... The book still isn't ready for publishing yet considering it's still in the 'other people are editing it' stage. Plus, I still have to somehow put together another cover that I have no inspiration for. Think that's all I have now. So, until next time, have a great week!

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Done! Sort of...

Super news coming from the book front! My personal editing for my second book is completed! So, I've sent it on to be edited by other people. Meanwhile, right after I sent it, I came up with a much better ending that would fit the feel of the book better and make it slightly longer. (Not that it needs any more length in its current state. It's longer than some novels out there, but shorter than my previous one.) I've told this to my editors and, while they're going to read the current version, I'll write the new ending and send it to them for comparison. I'm hoping to release the book soon, though I still have to create a cover for it. No idea what to do with that.

While I'm doing that though, I'll also be working on writing for fun. Back to my fanfiction and writing short stories that might become ideas for books. Plus, I'll be developing some of the ideas for new books. These are still in the science fiction genre. One of them revolves around ghosts while another takes place on a fictional planet. That's all I'm prepared to say about those at this time. Very vague, I know. I just don't want to give away ideas and see that someone else writes it first.

My sister's home from college for the weekend. Why is this? Because of the holiday known as Easter which is highly recognized in my religion. For a while now, we've been eating no meat on Fridays as our religion dictates (though I've seen SOME of my family members not go through with this supposed rule). Let me tell you something. When you can't have something, that's when you want it or, in this case, crave it the most. But whatever. Since tomorrow is actually Easter, family stuff will be going on. Only on my mom's side though. For some reason, we never seem to celebrate with my dad's side during Easter. Odd.

That should be a good amount of rambling for this blog post. Guess I'll put in an obligatory 'Go Red Wings!' since they're in the playoffs once again. Seriously, they've been going to the playoffs for as long as I can remember. I think it's a 23 year streak or something which is really sweet. I'm not much of a hockey fan, but, being from an area where hockey is almost religious, I can still root for them and watch them casually. Now, this is a good spot to stop. So, until next time, have a great week!

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Tired... So Very Tired...

Time for another post! With my second book all typed up now, I have to go through my personal edits and then it's going to be looked over by other people before I actually do the publishing thing.

Speaking of publishing, I had thought that I knew no one with connections to the old-fashioned publishing community. Well, I was wrong. Actually, it came up rather recently. Turns out that my cousin is marrying someone who is friends with someone that works in publishing. And it's a BIG publishing company. So, my future cousin-in-law is going to show my work to her friend. I'm really excited to see how this turns out. Could become something, could become nothing. Either way, I've got to roll with it.

I'm going to keep this really short because I'm running more on coffee than sleep. Those west coast baseball games are late in my time-zone and I've been staying up to watch them. I haven't felt this tired since I stayed up all night to study for a Biochemistry exam and then had to spend the day after going to four different classes all in different places on my college campus. So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Almost There!

I'm almost finished with typing up my second book. Got to the last chapter and started to type it up, but then I realized that it was rushed. Probably because I felt rushed to get it finished. So, as I'm typing it, I'm going to edit it to make it seem less rushed and fit better with the rest of the book. I'm really excited to get this out to you readers. I think this is better than my previous book which, apparently, is what writers are supposed to feel. More writing means more practice and experience at it means better books.

There was one point this past week where I wasn't able to work. That's because the power went out in the house while I was working. This is one reason why I hand-write everything first! You never know when you're going to lose everything and need a hard copy.

As for the sports thing... Well, at least the Tigers are doing great! Can't say the same for the Spartans. I really want to just forget about basketball and focus on baseball. It's kind of hard when every channel seems to talk about the Final Four.

That publishing opportunity that I wrote about before? After some research, found out it's probably a scam. Was hesitant to go that route anyway.

Time to get back to typing and working on that last chapter that just doesn't fit. If things keep going the way they are, then I should be done with the typing tonight or tomorrow morning. I think I said that before, but every time I tried to buckle down and get to work, someone bothered me with something and I ended up distracted and unable to concentrate on writing. Unfortunately, I have that problem. This time though, I'm pretty confident that I'll get this finished soon! So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Go *insert sports team here*!

I was going to wait until even later today to post this to see if I could finish typing my book up today, but it looks like that will happen tomorrow and I don't want to delay this too much that I forget to post. So, yeah, not done typing yet. There are some interesting things going on though.

First, sports. Super excited for the next couple of days. On Sunday, the Spartans are playing in the elite eight in the NCAA basketball tournament. Normally, I'm not that into basketball, but, since it's the Spartans, I've been watching. Last night's game was awesome. It really could have gone either way and there were tons of fouls in the end of the game. Watching that kept me on the edge of my seat. On Monday, baseball is back! Well, baseball that actually matters. I'm really ecstatic about the Detroit Tigers this year. They should be fun to watch on both offense and defense.

Next, I've got an interesting opportunity, but I'm not sure if I should take it. See, I was contacted through Twitter by a company that helps authors self-publish at a lower rate than most competitors. They'll even do physical copies of books and it's been a huge dream of mine to see my work in print. However, there's a catch. They're based in the United Kingdom and most of the distribution would be in the United Kingdom. I live in the United States. That's a long commute. Plus, I would really like there to be more options in my home country than in a foreign one. Yet, this is still an interesting opportunity that I need to consider. It's something that I need to put some thinking time in without something else bogging my mind. Which I can't do until my book is typed up.

So, that's what's been going on this past week and a couple things that I'm looking forward to for the next. Until next time, have a great week!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Pain in the Leg

No update on my book this week. I should (hopefully, knock on wood) have it typed by next week. I've been a bit distracted by baseball and basketball. Plus, there's something going on with my leg. It's a reoccurring thing that seems to pop up when I walk or stand a lot. Basically, if I put too much work on my leg, my ankle starts to hurt. When I feel the affected area, I can feel a bump even though it's not big enough to be visible. It also feels stiffer there than my other leg. I've had this for a while, but never got it checked out. I assume that it would take some time and money that I don't have to fix it. And right now, it's more of just a nuisance that only hurts when I do too much. So, as long as I avoid doing too much, the pain should go away soon.

Don't have much else to say. Lent is going on, so no meat on Fridays for me. I'm reading a book called Pathfinder which is really good. I got it a while ago, but haven't had a chance to really read it until recently. It's kind of long, but I like that. More to read. Anyway, that's what's going on here. So, until next Saturday, have a great week!

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Band Concerts

I'm going to come right out and say it. My next book is still not ready. Now that that's out of the way, I can focus on the rest of this blog post which I'm going to keep short.

Yesterday, my little sister had a band concert. Not just any band concert; it was a district festival concert where the band was rated and, if they got a high enough rating, they would go on to state festival. Seeing that she's in the highest band in a high school where band is a huge deal (Seriously, a huge deal. When I was there, band members were voted in as homecoming king and queen.), we all expected them to get straight ones (highest rating), especially since it was only district. Well, nope. They ended up with three twos for the prepared pieces and a one in sight reading (where they get a random piece of music that they've never seen before and have a set amount of time to look it over before performing it). This means that they're not going to state festival. I think it's the first time in the history of Wind Ensemble (the name of the highest band) that they didn't qualify for state festival. I'm pretty sure about it too since Wind Ensemble was created my sophomore year of high school. In all honesty, I can tell why they did so poorly. The tuning was atrocious, some of the the players were playing too fast while others were too slow, the dynamics were almost stagnant with barely a difference between the softest parts and the loudest parts, the whole notes weren't released together and the balance of the band was definitely top heavy. My dad was shocked they didn't get an overall one. I wasn't. It might seem harsh, but, as an old member of the band, I remember better performances and not just when I was there.

So, that's what's going on here. I'm hurrying with my book, but I don't want to rush it too much and turn out a book of bad quality. It's mostly typed up, but I'm adding in a new chapter that I didn't have in the first copy because there seems to be some missing scenes. And that's it. Until next time, have a great week!