...has come to my house. My kiddo is sick again, but after fearing that it might have been something far worse, I was glad for this diagnosis. I'm a little relieved that he decided to go on a noodles cooked in bouillon binge the day before the sore throat set in, because I think it helped him retain water. The name of the game is yogurt and homemade applesauce now, which suits me fine as long as it keeps him strong and hydrated.
In writing land, I am still plugging away at edits on Redemption Book 5, and the launch for Book 4 went off without a hitch! I came downstairs last night, just after midnight when I had to give my kiddo a dose of ibuprofen, and uploaded the new file with the link to the pre-order for Book 5 at the back. If anyone got an email about a new version being available, that's what that was about. :)
I'm gearing up for finishing Books 6 and 7 now, which I believe will close out the series. I make no guarantees on that, but I think that's where this story line will close out.
Happy reading,
Al
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Monday, April 27, 2015
Getting ready for the release of Pale Hound
The "final" draft has been uploaded, but I caught two more little errors. I'm going to upload a new draft first thing release day, so only the folks that download Pale Hound before I get to it will ever know. (ETA: Pale Hound, Redemption Book 4 is coming out this Thursday, April 30th!)
The new upload will also include a link at the back to the next book in the series, because I just created the pre-order for Lion's Shadow last night.
My camp NaNoWriMo was a little bit of a disappointment, because I spent most of it editing Lion's Shadow to get that pre-order file ready. I'm only about 20,000 words into writing Redemption book 6 now, but hoping to kick it into high gear after my final pass of Lion's Shadow, which has a tentative release date of July 25th. Book 6 will be out in either September or October, depending on how writing goes the rest of this year.
Spring has finally arrived in my backyard, and I *think* that we've already had our last hard freeze for the year, but in Colorado one never really knows. I've already got half of my vegetable garden planted, and I just put out some annuals on Saturday...followed by an epic 2 hour weed pulling session. My daffodils have come and gone, but I've still got some tulips in bloom, and waiting to see if I get any irises this year. The hibiscus have just started to come out of hibernation, and it looks like the tiny hydrangea I planted last year, which I was sure had died, is now making a come back.
Happy reading,
Al
The new upload will also include a link at the back to the next book in the series, because I just created the pre-order for Lion's Shadow last night.
My camp NaNoWriMo was a little bit of a disappointment, because I spent most of it editing Lion's Shadow to get that pre-order file ready. I'm only about 20,000 words into writing Redemption book 6 now, but hoping to kick it into high gear after my final pass of Lion's Shadow, which has a tentative release date of July 25th. Book 6 will be out in either September or October, depending on how writing goes the rest of this year.
Spring has finally arrived in my backyard, and I *think* that we've already had our last hard freeze for the year, but in Colorado one never really knows. I've already got half of my vegetable garden planted, and I just put out some annuals on Saturday...followed by an epic 2 hour weed pulling session. My daffodils have come and gone, but I've still got some tulips in bloom, and waiting to see if I get any irises this year. The hibiscus have just started to come out of hibernation, and it looks like the tiny hydrangea I planted last year, which I was sure had died, is now making a come back.
Happy reading,
Al
Monday, April 13, 2015
Redemption is going back on Nook, Apple, etc.
Hearkening back to my post about putting the Redemption series in Kindle Select for a three month run, the enlistment has now expired, and this series is returning to the usual vendors over the next few weeks. The series will still be available on Kindle, and the first book is currently free on Amazon and elsewhere. Additionally, book 1 is now available for the first time in the Google Play store for free, and I will be working on getting the rest of the series made available there before the end of May.Happy reading,
Al
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Camp NaNoWriMo, I'm finally starting!
My edits for Pale Hound ran over, which led me to making another quick draft cover (still debating if I like it more--see draft below). Then I went to the zoo with a friend who I rarely get to see because we live a long distance apart (time well spent). Then I had to take my son in for a routine medical appointment, and found out he will need some not routine medical tests (stressful). Then I got sick, probably partly from the stress. :P
But my child is safely sleeping now, the edits are done, I'm holed up on the couch with my cats and my laptop, and it's raining tonight. I'm finally ready to start writing for April's Camp NaNoWriMo, so yay!
This is the first NaNo I've gone into with a detailed outline in hand, so I'm interested to see how it affects my speed and voice while writing. If it's not working, I may just ditch the outline, but I hope it does work. I've heard from many other writers that they were able to increase their writing speed (and even the quality of their writing) with a good outline.
So if you're doing Camp NaNo this month, I'll see you there. :)
And here's that cover. The changes are subtle from the previous version, but I wanted to put a little more plot into the image this time around with the sparks. I also felt that the sky was a little too barren without clouds, so I added some wisps and readjusted the treeline to make it more interesting. Pale Hound is currently available for pre-order, to be released on the 30th of this month.
Happy writing,
Al
Monday, March 23, 2015
Yes, but where are the cup holders?
My husband sent me this link, because we're both total nerds about futuristic technology.
I watched the video, and thought the projected signals the car used were very cool, but this little voice in the back of my head kept saying "white interior...white interior...white interior..."
Anyone who has gotten into a car in bad weather, or has eaten in their car, or has small children who have brought things into the car, etc., knows what I'm talking about. The last car we purchased in this household got decision delayed for months because the color we wanted only came in the white (well, "beige") interior instead of the black (well, "charcoal"). In the dealership car we tested, the beige interior was already showing stains, and it didn't even have 500 miles on it yet.
Maybe I'm just a messy person. Here's to hoping that future cars come with the option of stain hiding charcoal interiors, are self cleaning, or maybe the entire interior comes standard coated in this stuff.
I watched the video, and thought the projected signals the car used were very cool, but this little voice in the back of my head kept saying "white interior...white interior...white interior..."
Anyone who has gotten into a car in bad weather, or has eaten in their car, or has small children who have brought things into the car, etc., knows what I'm talking about. The last car we purchased in this household got decision delayed for months because the color we wanted only came in the white (well, "beige") interior instead of the black (well, "charcoal"). In the dealership car we tested, the beige interior was already showing stains, and it didn't even have 500 miles on it yet.
Maybe I'm just a messy person. Here's to hoping that future cars come with the option of stain hiding charcoal interiors, are self cleaning, or maybe the entire interior comes standard coated in this stuff.
Friday, March 20, 2015
One book finished, another to begin
I have just finished draft one of Lion's Shadow, book 5 in the Redemption series. It's about three weeks late on when I anticipated finishing it, which in part explains my absence here, but it will still make the publication date in July. I'm setting up my Scrivener template for book 6 tonight, and fighting the urge to start writing it, because I already have on my calender to give Pale Hound (book 4) the final read through before I release it next month. I might cave and make a cover for it, just to relieve some of the tension.
There's just something about endings that make me want to start a new book, and it's really hard to have to go back (in this case, to edit), when I want to be writing forward. But I know it's better to leave things to mellow for a while before I do each editing round, so unless I'm going to sit on my couch doing nothing in the mean time (unlikely), I'm going to be writing between edits.
In other news, I'm having fun reading all of the rumors about the upcoming Star Wars movies. While it wasn't classic Trek, I did enjoy the J.J. Abrams reboot movies enough that I own them now, and I'm curious to see what he does in the Star Wars universe. I've got my hopes up, which could be a dangerous thing.
Al
There's just something about endings that make me want to start a new book, and it's really hard to have to go back (in this case, to edit), when I want to be writing forward. But I know it's better to leave things to mellow for a while before I do each editing round, so unless I'm going to sit on my couch doing nothing in the mean time (unlikely), I'm going to be writing between edits.
In other news, I'm having fun reading all of the rumors about the upcoming Star Wars movies. While it wasn't classic Trek, I did enjoy the J.J. Abrams reboot movies enough that I own them now, and I'm curious to see what he does in the Star Wars universe. I've got my hopes up, which could be a dangerous thing.
Al
Monday, February 23, 2015
Apparently, I'm still sleepwalking
I've been pulling a lot of late nights lately as I'm writing book 5 in the Redemption series. It's not a "meet the goal" thing, but more of an "in the groove" thing--I get going, and I don't want to stop until the thoughts are out. Having already plotted out the entire rest of the series already, finding those breaking points is a challenge.
When I was pregnant, I pulled a lot of late nights too, but for an entirely different reason. My husband reported to me a couple of times that I was getting up and wandering around the house before coming back to bed. He thought I was doing paranoid nesting things like making sure the oven was off or the doors were locked, but when he finally asked me about it one morning, I was surprised. I didn't remember getting out of bed at all. Now, I wasn't entirely shocked, because I was a sleepwalker when I was a child, but I thought I had given it up sometime between the ages of ten and twelve.
I mention these two things in conjunction because I got a fitbit for Christmas. I was looking at my data a few days ago, and noticed a disturbing trend. Apparently, I'm still sleepwalking some nights, and staying up late seems to be the trigger.
I looked online and I'm not the only one. For some people, it looks like the wrist band is registering hand movements as steps. I tend to wear mine in a pocket or clipped to my hip (it registers the steps more accurately, especially when I'm pushing the stroller), so I don't think that's the case for me.
It isn't a lot--less than 100 steps each episode--but I kind of want to hook up a camera to see what I'm doing at night. I guess it might explain some of the bruises I get on my shins that I don't remember getting.
Al
When I was pregnant, I pulled a lot of late nights too, but for an entirely different reason. My husband reported to me a couple of times that I was getting up and wandering around the house before coming back to bed. He thought I was doing paranoid nesting things like making sure the oven was off or the doors were locked, but when he finally asked me about it one morning, I was surprised. I didn't remember getting out of bed at all. Now, I wasn't entirely shocked, because I was a sleepwalker when I was a child, but I thought I had given it up sometime between the ages of ten and twelve.
I mention these two things in conjunction because I got a fitbit for Christmas. I was looking at my data a few days ago, and noticed a disturbing trend. Apparently, I'm still sleepwalking some nights, and staying up late seems to be the trigger.
I looked online and I'm not the only one. For some people, it looks like the wrist band is registering hand movements as steps. I tend to wear mine in a pocket or clipped to my hip (it registers the steps more accurately, especially when I'm pushing the stroller), so I don't think that's the case for me.
It isn't a lot--less than 100 steps each episode--but I kind of want to hook up a camera to see what I'm doing at night. I guess it might explain some of the bruises I get on my shins that I don't remember getting.
Al
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