Finally Some Good News

I just returned from Nebraska, where I spent some time with my parents and sister. The weather was spectacular for us, except for one brief downpour that managed to drench me thoroughly. We did a little sightseeing (driving past the Nebraska State Capitol never gets old), watched a little hockey and baseball, and did a lot of talking, which was the most enjoyable.

It's always nice to spend time with people who accept me for who I am and don't seem to mind my company, amazingly enough.

When I got home, there was a brown cardboard package waiting for me in the stack of mail. I knew it was the latest proof copy of The Other Side ... and once again, I was a little afraid to open it. We've had so much trouble with the cover image and I wasn't sure I was ready to go through that again. However, I knew I had to do it, so I opened it.

I think this is the one! The image is much better and I think the artist has fixed the problem. I can't tell you how happy I am to report that to you.

Tomorrow after I get unpacked and do the laundry, I'm going to try to go through the whole book once more (just a run-through, not a complete rereading), and then I'll most likely approve it at CreateSpace.com. When that's done, it won't be long before The Other Side shows up on Amazon!

I must admit that there were times I wondered if that would ever happen, but I was determined to see it through, so we're almost there. You can either watch for the news on my Facebook page DianeMcCallumAuthor on FB, or keep checking Amazon, or check back here next week for the latest news on when it will be available.

Tell all your friends that it's almost time for the fourth novel in the Penumbra series to come out!

And thank you again for your patience.

Perseverance

It sounded like an amazing plan: launch a rocket that deploys its payload and then comes back to land on Earth safely so it can be used again. When SpaceX announced that they were going to do this, I thought it sounded exciting. Not only would it save resources and money, it would be a cool sight to have that rocket settling back down on our planet after its voyage spaceward.

As is so often the case, it didn't quite work that way. The rocket missed the target. The rocket landed perfectly but then tipped over and exploded. I'm sure some people were questioning whether it could ever work correctly.

But SpaceX didn't give up. They kept looking at the problems and trying to solve them. They kept trying, even in the face of embarrassment at the failures. They used each disaster as a learning tool.

And then, one day, it worked. And then it worked again. And then it worked a third time. I have to admit that I think the sight of that rocket gliding down onto the platform is a thing of beauty. Maybe it's the failures that made the success that much more meaningful.

Here's what success looks like from the rocket's point of view:

I congratulate SpaceX for their determination and their success. These are the qualities that will help humanity one day reach the stars.

I'm trying to follow their example: I've just ordered a third proof copy of The Other Side. Let's hope that my third attempt will also be the one that works!

Try Again

Things are moving on The Other Side again. As you know, there was a delay because there was a problem with the cover image being too dark, but once again the artist has come through for me and provided me with a revised image. We really hope this one will work!

I made a few tweaks to the story and resubmitted the cover image. After about twelve or so hours, CreateSpace gave me the go-ahead on the files, so I ordered another proof copy today. The ETA is May 2, but I'm hopeful it might arrive a little before that. Then ... cross your fingers that the cover will be okay!

I find it a little hard to believe that it's almost May and my novel isn't out yet. I never would have imagined that it would be delayed this long, but that's how things go. At least you know I'm trying very hard to get it right!

Once I get the proof copy, I'll have to read it one more time, just in case there's one last thing I missed. If nothing horrible jumps out at me and the cover is okay, this novel might finally see the light of day!

Thanks for your patience. While you're waiting, please spread the word about the series and consider writing a review on Amazon for one of the novels. I'd really appreciate it!

Small Setback

I have a proof copy of The Other Side in my hands! (Well, not while I'm typing, but you get the idea.)

It came two days early, so I thank CreateSpace for that. Also, I see exactly why it's important to order a proof copy because there's a small problem with the cover: the image is darker than expected so a silhouette in the image hardly shows at all. Thank goodness I had a chance to see this before the book officially comes out!

I've already notified the artist and she's working on it, so I'm sure we can get this fixed. She's done a great job so far and has always been very patient and willing to make adjustments. (I'll tell you more about her when the novel actually comes out.) Meanwhile, I'm proofreading the text to check for any typos or stray things that need to be fixed.

I have given you some teasers for this novel, but I thought I'd give you a first look at the cover blurb:
       Reggie Hawkins has been in some bad situations ... and being confined to his
     house for weeks has to be in the top five. No appliance is safe when a mechanic
     gets bored.
       Things are about to change, though: a messenger with a warning is on the way
     and gunmen are storming his brother's law firm. Hawkins will have to act quickly
     to rescue his kidnapped brother.
       What he learns about who's behind all this will lead him and the crew of
     Penumbra on a quest to the far reaches of space, where they'll make their
     most stunning discovery yet.

I hope that will pique your interest! It's never too early to start spreading the word about the new novel coming out soon, so we can build interest for it. I'll be sure to keep you updated on its progress.

The Little Things

I write about a lot of different topics on this blog. I've detailed some of the joys of writing and some of the frustrations. Sometimes I'm thrilled and sometimes I'm dejected. That comes with the territory, I guess.

Sometimes when I'm a little down, a great event will raise my spirits. Those are the good times! More often, however, it's something small ... and I have to be willing to recognize it. Here are three examples.

I needed to double-check some tax information recently. (Even when you make no money, you have to report your earnings and expenses to the IRS. I joke with my husband that I'm helping reduce our tax rate with my lack of sales.) I found a discrepancy, so I had to look at some of the reports online. While I was doing that, I looked up Outsider on amazon.com (that still hasn't gotten old) and scrolled through the information. As I did, I noticed something strange:

Amazon.com Feb 4, 2016

The last time I looked, Outsider was at about five or six million in the Amazon Best Sellers Rank, certainly not 224,181. This could only mean one thing so I hopped over to Createspace.com and ran a report. Sure enough, for the first time in over two years, I'd sold a copy of Outsider on Amazon! I don't know how this happened or who bought it, but it was cause for celebration. (To keep things in perspective, I noticed that my other two novels are still ranked at around five or six million.) To that lone buyer out there: thank you!

I stopped in at the local bookstore this weekend to check on my inventory and chat with the proprietor. When I arrived, there were others ahead of me so I browsed while I waited. As I did that, I heard the proprietor say to another woman, "That's one of our local writers." I looked around, but there was nobody else in the store ... so then I realized that she meant me! That doesn't get old either.

Last but not least, I was at a medical establishment recently, waiting for someone to actually come see me after I'd waited for about 45 minutes. I was annoyed, trying to think of some way to catch someone's attention so I could voice my displeasure. Instead, I allowed myself a bit of whimsy: I imagined my characters storming the place, pistols in hand. I saw terrified office assistants cowering while my characters spread out, shouting, "Okay, what's the deal? Why's no one seeing Diane? Get to it!" I actually smiled and was in a better mood when the doctor did arrive, so I didn't even say anything snide. That's a win.

Each of those little things added up to something that made my week better than it would have been otherwise. I try to notice and embrace these kinds of things because they're what make the not-so-good times bearable.

What are the little things that made your week better? Be on the lookout because they can try to sneak by without you noticing them. Take note ... and enjoy!

In the Shadows Now Available

That's right, it's finally ready!

I only missed the deadline I'd set for myself by ONE day, so that's not too bad!
(I published it on February 1.)

Here's the link to Amazon: In the Shadows  I'll try to add it to the right side of this blog like the first two novels.

I'm a three-novel author! Wow, it's hard to believe. This one was the most challenging so far, but "what doesn't kill you ..."

I want to thank the artist, Kristi Kranker, for the cover image, and I also want to thank CreateSpace for making this dream a reality.

I hope to have the Kindle version ready by tomorrow, so look for it on amazon.com in the next few days.

And please tell all of your friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, neighbors, etc., about the Penumbra series. Word of mouth is the best advertising, right?

Thanks again for your support!

Proofing is Done

Believe it or not, I finally finished proofreading In the Shadows. Of course, I could have continued to go over it forever, but I decided it's time to stop that and let go. Unfortunately, I still have to put it through CreateSpace's review process, so it won't be released in January after all.

But I was close!

This novel proved to be a bit of a challenge in more ways than one, but it taught me a few things. One of them is this: don't put it off until near the end of the year! If I'd worked on the novel more during 2014, I wouldn't have found myself releasing it in February instead of January. Lesson learned and let's hope the fourth one will be ready a little sooner.

No time to worry about the fourth one, however. I'm going to submit In the Shadows to CreateSpace. If all goes well, I might be able to approve it tomorrow and then it should be up on amazon.com by Monday or Tuesday!

If you follow me on Facebook, I'll post there when the book is available. Otherwise, you can either check amazon or tune in to this blog next weekend.

Thanks for your patience and support!

Slight Delays

Now that I have the proof copy of In the Shadows, I thought I'd just sail through the rest of the process ... but I wasn't quite right about that.

My biggest problem is that I happen to have a job where I basically proofread all day. During the week, I get home from work to discover that more proofreading just doesn't sound fun, so that mostly leaves the weekend. By then, though, my eyes are tired and need a break. Because of this, I'm moving a little more slowly than I thought I would.

Another issue involves the cover. When I took the proof copy to the artist, the first thing she noticed was that part of the right side of the image was cut off. When I picked up a ruler, I discovered that the width that CreateSpace lists on their site for my cover design is actually about .25" more than what the proof copy width is, so that's a problem. The artist and I are working on that and hope to get it resolved soon. (Actually, she's doing more of the work on that right now.)

So things aren't moving quickly. I promise I'll keep working on the proofing, but I already see that one scene needs a rewrite, which will take a little time.

I'm still aiming to get this novel released in January, but it's starting to look like it will be late January.

Stay tuned for updates.

Another In The Shadows Update

Good news! I finally finished the blurb for In the Shadows, which means I was able to submit the whole book to CreateSpace.com for review. After waiting 24 hours, I got the word: it's good to go!

I've now ordered a proof copy that's supposed to arrive around January 5. (It's hard to wait!) Then I'll finally be able to hold my latest novel in my hands. What a feeling that is. (And it lasts until I start proofreading and find the inevitable mistake. Oh, well, that's part of the process.) I'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, believe it or not, I've starting working on the next one! (It already has a rough draft.) This one will need A LOT of work: it doesn't have a title and it isn't even broken into chapters yet! (I think I have a good title in mind, though. I'll give it some thought and let you know once I'm sure.)

Remember to tell all of your friends and family members about the first two novels. They'd better hurry and read them before the third one is out, right?

I hope you had a peaceful holiday and will have a wonderful New Year. Look for the beauty that's around you, sometimes where you least expect it.


From Photography Workshop, November 2014

Thanks, as always, for your support.

In the Shadows Update

I've made more progress since last week, so here's the latest update.

On Monday, I got the final image from the artist for the cover. It's now on my hard drive, ready to be submitted.

On Wednesday, I registered In the Shadows with CreateSpace.com and received an ISBN for it. (That's always one of my favorite steps.) I then typed the ISBN on the copyright page.

On Thursday, I submitted the interior and it was accepted. Whew! I paged through their Interior Reviewer, which shows me what the interior will look like once it's printed, and it all looked pretty good. I also got some Likes for my posting about it on my Facebook page, which I really appreciated. Thanks for your support, everyone!

Now I'm frantically trying to write the cover blurb. I've told you a little about this in the past: I need two blurbs, one for the cover and one for the Amazon page. I think I've got the one for Amazon done, but the cover blurb is proving to be pesky. I'm getting some editorial help from my husband, who keeps telling me to "punch it up," so I'll work on it some more and try to get that finished today or tomorrow. Once that's done, I can start working on the cover at CreateSpace.com.

The book is starting to come together! Don't forget, though, that I'll have to order a proof copy and proofread the whole thing again, so we're still looking at January for a release date. I feel I'm getting closer, though!

Thanks again for your support.

Continuing to Format

I finally feel I'm making some progress on In The Shadows!

The artist and I have been meeting and emailing, and we're getting close to the finished product for the cover image. I think the black and white version is done, so now she'll add color to it and we'll see how that turns out.

Meanwhile, I've started to format the novel in earnest. I typed In The Shadows before I had the template that I used before, so there's a lot of work to be done. I already worked on the headers (which I talked about in a previous post), so now it's on to the rest.

First I worked on the margins. I use custom margins, which are set up in Page Layout in Word. Once I set it for mirror margins, I could set the margins for the top, bottom, inside and outside, using the guidelines from CreateSpace.com.

After that I justified everything except the chapter headings, so the text goes all the way to the edge both inside and outside. It looks a lot cleaner that way. I had to watch out for the last line of each paragraph, though: if I forgot to press Enter at the end of the line, it was all spread out and looked very odd!

Next I set the trim size, which is 5"x8". This is also set in Page Layout and is applied to the whole document.

I had to wait until after I set the trim size to set the Drop Caps. I learned the hard way that these might look great in one size, but then look absolutely wrong in another size, so I don't set them until late in the process. If you don't know what Drop Caps are, that's okay (I didn't at first either). If you look at the first line of each chapter in either of my novels, you'll see that the first letter is much larger than the others and extends down to the next line. I set this to "drop" down two lines rather than three, because I think it looks better that way. I have to manually set this for every chapter.

Now the slow part: I need to scroll through the entire thing, looking out for bad page breaks, bad scene breaks, bad line breaks, etc. This takes quite a bit of time, but I don't mind. It's kind of an excuse to run through the story again, although I'm not rereading the whole thing. It gives me little reminders of scenes that I particularly like.

And that's where we are for now. I need to keep checking the format and the artist needs to apply color to the cover. After that, I'll be ready to try submitting the whole thing to CreateSpace.com. I'll let you know more about that when the time comes.

Onward!

Starting to Format

Formatting is an important component of preparing my novels for publication. As I think I've mentioned before, this is one of my least favorite parts of the process, but it has to be done. I'm rapidly approaching that point in the third novel, so I'd better get started.

One aspect of formatting that's already done for this novel is the headers. When you look at my novels, you'll notice that there's a page number at the top of each page. There's also either my name or the title of the novel. I had to set all of that up.

First I create the headers and select the style that puts them on opposing pages. I had no idea how to do any of these steps a few years ago, but I learned a lot from createspace.com and from Googling various things like "how do I put headers on opposite pages." Whenever I get stuck, those two sources are invaluable.

I needed to select a font for my headers and that took some experimenting. The recommendation I got was to use a sans-serif font, meaning it doesn't have the little flourishes that you find in a font like Times New Roman (which I use for the text). After some testing, I went with Calibri. Then, after some trial and error, I got even pages to have my name and odd pages to have the title.

My next problem was figuring out how to remove page numbers from the front pages and the first page of each chapter. This was surprisingly difficult, possibly because again I didn't know what I was doing when I started. Rather than get into a complicated explanation (and get part of it wrong), I'll just tell you that it involves creating sections and marking the first page of each section as different. On this novel, I had to go through several attempts before I got it right. Thank goodness for the option to close without saving the latest changes! After a few failed attempts and perhaps a little swearing, I finally got it right (although I don't have the front pages included yet, so we'll see how it goes once I add those).

One step down, several more to go!