Cat

      I don’t quite know how to begin this, except with tears in my eyes.

A few years ago, we started to see a black and white cat in our neighborhood. He was rather large, with poofy fur and a rather arrogant gaze. He didn’t have a collar or tag, so we never knew whose cat he was. He never seemed afraid or happy or much besides regal. He seemed to believe he owned the neighborhood, posing like a statue in various front yards.

Our yard was one of the yards he chose. I don’t know why. I wasn’t particularly welcoming, especially whenever I caught him anywhere near my birdfeeders in the back yard. He would position himself there as if waiting for a snack. I would chase him away. For a large cat, he got over the six-foot fence in a flash, each time with a rather accusing glare.

I decided to follow my usual rule, though: cats are not allowed in the back yard, but I will not disturb them if they’re in the front. He didn’t seem to understand about the back yard, but he certainly took advantage of the front yard, posing on the front sidewalk as if challenging me. Several times he took a nap between the front bushes, a curled-up ball of fur among a bed of leaves. Those were the only times he looked happy.

He also liked to position himself on the front splash block (I had to look that up), at the base of a gutter downspout on the garage, looking like the sphinx as he surveyed the surroundings. He’d be there when I came home, watching me as I pulled the car into the driveway, eyeing the garage door as it swung upward. I was always worried that he’d try to get into the garage, but he never did. The first time it happened, he was startled by the garage door’s sudden movement, but after that first time, he didn’t react at all, as if to show me how enlightened he was.

If we came home from the store and he was anywhere near the car, he’d watch me as I got out. His eyes would narrow, but he wouldn’t move. It was as if he knew I could be mean, but somehow I wasn’t going to be at that particular time.

If only he and I had known …

I came home from work at 5:00 on Friday. The forecast said it would be cold overnight so I went outside to put down some bird seed. When I got out there, I saw the cat under the birdfeeder again. It had been a long, hard week at work (which isn’t an excuse), so I overreacted. I tried to shoo him but he just looked at me with his narrow eyes. I thought he’d finally decided to challenge me, so I grabbed the hose. Of course the hose wouldn’t work, which only enraged me more. I ran inside, filled a milk jug with water and ran outside to splash him with it.

This time he tried to get away. It was with a jolt of horror that I saw him pulling himself forward with his front paws, while his back legs dragged uselessly behind him. Something terrible had happened and he was badly hurt.

I dropped the jug, knelt down and said, “Oh, sweetie! I’m so sorry. It’s going to be okay.”

He nestled into the leaves and gave one soft meow, which even now breaks my heart into little shards of glass.

I bolted into the house and there followed a series of frantic phone calls. The one veterinary office still open didn’t have anyone available other than a sympathetic receptionist. The other clinics were closed. The police said they couldn’t do anything for a cat. The humane society was closed. Etc.

Finally, my husband called our next-door neighbor, who owns cats. He came over, assessed the situation and went to get a cat carrier. I got thick gloves because I’ve handled an injured pet before, but the neighbor was able to crawl into the bushes and simply lift the cat up, depositing it gently in the carrier. I was amazed that the cat was so calm. I wanted to do something more, but there wasn’t anything I could do as he took the carrier back to his house.

Later we received an email: the cat was so badly injured that they had to put him down. We’d thought he had been hit by a car, but he apparently had a BB pellet near his spine. Surgery would have been difficult and expensive.

And now I’m crying again.

Much of it is guilt: I splashed water on the poor animal! Much of it is rage that a cat would have to suffer so much. And perhaps most of it is grief. I’d started to like the cat, despite my grumbling about him, despite my chasing him from the back yard to protect the birds. I remember him sleeping peacefully in the bushes. I remember him almost seeming to wait for me to get home. I remember how beautiful his fur was. I remember his soft meow, which I now interpret not as a warning or rebuke, but more a sigh, a comment that he was tired and hurting and he just couldn’t do what I wanted.

I’m sorry, cat. I should have done better. I should have let you know that not all people are horrible, but I only reinforced it instead. I don’t feel I have the right to ask for your forgiveness.

At least now you don’t have to feel it anymore.

Please, please rest in peace.

Parting Shot Copyright

 I just reread my last blog. (Wow! 8 months ago! Sorry about that.) Some of my questions have been answered and some have not. It's hard to believe we're descending into a similar situation as the delta variant spreads. (No matter what I said in December, I'm tired of wearing a mask.)

I still want to stay out of the political arena, but it boggles my mind that some people think they can tell health departments, school districts and government entities that they can't create rules to keep everyone safe. Banning mask mandates seems like the height of arrogance to me; it's more important to show you're right (or more stubborn) than to protect other people?? I don't get that at all.

One of the results of the pandemic is that a lot of offices in Washington, D.C., closed. That includes the Copyright Office. Oops. And guess who filed for copyright protection last August? Yep, that would be me. (So THAT's why you shouldn't publish during a pandemic!) I've learned my lesson a little late, it seems.

The big problem is that they closed the warehouse where they keep the physical copies of submitted works. They sort of filed everything in that warehouse in order received, but no one could touch it until recently. If you remember the gigantic warehouse at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," that's probably what it looked like while all those works piled up. (I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't realize what a problem it would be.)

I knew there would be a delay, but here we are, a year later, and my case is still open. I even submitted the file electronically last month in the hopes that it would help my case. The Copyright Office acknowledged that they received it ... and then nothing.

They do say on their site that they're processing claims from October 2020, which is after my submission date of August 2020, so I'm hopeful that I'll hear something soon. There's no precedent for this, though, so I have no idea.

I guess one of these days I'll get a nice little surprise when my copyright registration appears in the mail without warning! That will be nice.

Meanwhile, I hope we can all get a handle on the delta variant and once again start to feel safe again. We're all in it together, so we all have to do what we can to keep each other safe.

P.S. If you expect me to comment on the Cubs' fire sale, it's still too soon and I just can't. Sorry.

Perspective

First of all, I want to apologize for not posting in August. I think that's the first month I've missed!

I held off for most of August because I thought I was going to have a great post. I thought I was all set to describe with full enthusiasm the total solar eclipse that I'd witnessed.

As so many things in life go, it didn't quite work out that way.

I'd planned ahead. I had the day off from work. I had the official solar eclipse glasses. I had selected my route and I even had a companion for the journey to St. Joseph, Missouri. That was going to be one of the top spots to see the eclipse, so that's where I was going. Never mind that the forecast said it would probably rain.

We drove up there and passed through a very heavy downpour around Kansas City, but it didn't last long and we managed to avoid the crowds to find an ideal spot in the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store. It was partly cloudy, but we could still see the moon starting to cover a little bit of the sun. I'll admit that it was a pretty amazing sight.

Then it clouded over. Then it rained. We couldn't see the sun at all anymore.

As I despaired, my companion reminded me that we would still experience totality: the darkness, not the actual sight of the moon covering the sun. I tried to take some comfort in that, and it was pretty cool when the sky got darker. The temperature fell and everything looked eerie. The horizon turned sunset colors of pink and orange. Those two minutes were unlike anything I'd ever experienced.

Then the sun came back out and it was still cloudy. Not only that, traffic was so bad that it took us an extra two hours to get home, after sitting motionless several times in bumper-to-bumper vehicles. Meanwhile, we listened to people on the radio tell us how incredible it was to see the corona.

It took a few days for me to be able to consider the trip without bitterness. It didn't seem fair that so many people got to see the full eclipse and I didn't. It stung when other people gushed about how spectacular it was.

But when I think about it, it was my fault. Weather forecasters aren't perfect, but when they say it's going to be cloudy, all the wishful thinking in the world won't clear the sky. I was stubborn: I had a St. Joseph eclipse T-shirt, so I was going to St. Joseph! Next time I'll listen to the forecasters and try to be more flexible.

I have less than seven years to think about that while I'm planning for the next one.

Me in aforementioned T-shirt August 2017

Unwriting

Writer's Block.

The mere phrase strikes terror in the hearts of writers everywhere. Nobody wants to think about it, but it happens to all of us.

I have several methods to deal with it. I go for walks so I can think. I listen to my favorite music. I read books by other people. I reread my own books (to remind myself that I can do this).

Lately, though, I've recognized that something else is called for. This one took me a long time to figure out when I first started writing.

Here's what's happening: I write a few sentences and then it's as if my characters stop and look at me to ask what's next. I write a few more sentences and they stop again. They're not running out ahead of me like they usually do. They're looking at me as if to ask, "What are you doing?"

After this has happened several times, I finally admit it to myself: they're doing this because something is wrong. If I can't figure out what happens next, it means I'm not happy with where I am. Somehow, I've gotten off track and I shouldn't be here.

So I do one of the hardest things for a writer: I "unwrite." In my case, that involves cutting and pasting text into a Rejects file, in case I want to use some of it later. Basically, it means removing a big section of what I've written most recently. That hurts, especially when I've been battling writer's block and I'm so proud of myself for actually writing something, anything. It has to be done, though. My characters are telling me that they shouldn't be here, so I have to take them back to where we went wrong and start again.

This has worked for me in the past. I think my subconscious recognizes that I went astray at some point, and I just have to figure out when that was and correct it. Once I get it right, my characters usually run out ahead of me again and we're all on track together.

Meanwhile, I've also recognized a major plot mistake in this novel, so I'll be trying to correct that.

All in a day's work for a writer.



Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to post comments. Happy 2017!

To Be Continued

There were a few dried leaves in the open doorway. My footsteps echoed on the wooden floor as I entered. Most of the tables were gone. There were a few lonely books on the remaining bookshelves. It was the last day that Spellbound bookstore was open.

I shook Brett's hand and took back the copies of my novels. He told me he doesn't know what he'll do next, but he acknowledged with a smile that there are a lot of opportunities. I wished him well.

Then he said something that sort of surprised me: he wanted me to let him know when my next novel comes out.

It surprised me for a few reasons. First of all, I was touched that even in his situation, he wasn't thinking only of himself, but was reaching out to someone else.

Second, it reminded me that I have another novel to work on. That might sound silly: how could I forget that I have this novel to finish? Well, this has been kind of a tough year for me, and several factors combined to give me a pretty tenacious case of writer's block. The novel kind of slipped out of the Top Ten things I was considering ... until Brett reminded me.

As I walked to my car, I made myself stop and consider the plastic bag in my hands. It held four novels and they were all written by me! When I was younger, the mere thought of that would have made me do a silly little dance of joy. And those books made me realize that I want to create another one. It's been sitting on my computer and needs me to finish it.

So I want to thank Brett one more time. His dream hasn't ended: he's just going to move on to the next one. His attitude about that has been positive and hopeful, not angry or disappointed, which is a lot better than I would have reacted. And he's inspired me to keep up with my own dream. I have actually written seven whole sentences today and I'm going to keep going!

I think we'll both be okay.

I wish you all the best in 2017.

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!

Five Years Ago

On this date in 2011, my husband and I were watching the TV screen with wide eyes. We live in Tornado Alley, as so many people do, so we keep a close eye on the weather this time of year, and that year was no exception. There was a big red blob on the radar heading right toward Pittsburg, KS.The weather forecasters were saying it was a bad one.

Then, inexplicably, the red blob took an abrupt right turn, missing Pittsburg, and another turn that took it to the east ... right toward Joplin, MO. It spawned a massive tornado that wiped out a third of the city and killed over 160 people.

I still think about how close we came to being the ones in the path of that tornado. But even more than that, I think about how resilient Joplin has been. They lost a hospital, many of their schools, and countless businesses and houses. And yet, in the years since, they've managed to rebuild almost all of it. A lot of volunteers from all over the country came to help, but the residents had to make the decision that they wanted to stay, and that's what they did.

On this five-year anniversary, I salute Joplin residents for their courage and strength. In the face of tremendous loss, they showed a determination not to let it get the better of them. It hasn't been easy, but the city has rebounded.

Congratulations, Joplin. In a season when it's sometimes easy to be fearful, you show us what hope and courage can accomplish. I wish you continued success.

Out of the Habit

Some habits are bad (like that mid-afternoon snack of Pringles chips I just had). Some habits are good (such as using a seatbelt or brushing one's teeth). It seems to be easy to fall into a habit if you don't want it, and hard if you do want it. (For example, regular exercise is difficult for me, although I've been working on that lately with more walking.)

I've had habits come and go throughout my life. Some of them are pretty weird: when I take a carrot stick from the refrigerator, I always tap it twice against the rim of the container and then shake it once over the sink to get the excess water off. At bedtime, I start by lying on my left side and then turn over onto my right side when I'm ready to sleep. I'm sure there are others I'm not even aware of.

Could I break these habits if I wanted to? Yes, if I put my mind to it ... but there seem to be more important things to worry about than these little quirks.

However, I find I've lost one habit that I had for a long time: writing. I think I need to clarify that: writing fiction. For years, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for me to be working on two or three novels at the same time. Short stories also swirled through my brain. I was always scribbling down ideas or daydreaming to bring the ideas into better focus.

Then I got my first novel published. Suddenly I had to concentrate on the details of the novel (fonts, front pages, title, back cover text, etc.). Then I had to worry about book signings, copyright protection, marketing and social media. So I worked feverishly on all of those things.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped writing. I've done plenty of rewriting (enough for a while!), but the ideas have dried up. I'm pretty sure it's just because I got out of the habit. Unfortunately, this isn't a habit that comes easily, at least not this time. I've been trying, but there aren't any ideas in my head yet. It's going to take some practice. I'll have to get into the habit of putting myself in front of a keyboard and forcing myself to find words to put on the page. (I think that short story I wrote last Halloween was a good beginning.)

I know it will come back sooner or later. There are hints of images or considerations in my head. I just need to tease them out and turn them into something resembling a story. I'll probably write some pretty terrible stuff before I get something good.

Don't get me wrong: I'm very glad I published my novels. It's been an exciting ride, and I'm not done yet. It's just that I'm ready to get back to creating more of them!

Update on The Other Side: the artist is working to make the cover image a little lighter. I expect to hear from her in the next few days. After that, I'll submit the new version and order a new proof copy. (I'm getting into the habit of patience, not entirely by choice. Ha!) Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience.

Park

I'm afraid I don't have much to report about The Other Side. The cover image continues to be an issue, but I'm hopeful we can get that fixed soon. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, the pleasant weather has prompted me to take a few more walks in the wooded park north of town. (This is the one whose skeleton I enjoyed earlier in the year.) I'm happy to report that the yellow-rumped warblers are back! I heard a faint buzzy sound and followed it around with binoculars for a while before I spotted the first warbler. Then I saw several others in the same area. Despite their rather ungainly name, they really are beautiful birds and I was happy to get a chance to see them as they pass through this area. If you want to see a photo or learn more about them, here's a good site: All About Birds-YR Warbler

I also had a rather startling encounter as I was walking toward the parking lot. My mind was wandering but it vaguely noticed a rather long reed or piece of grass that was draped across the path. As I started to step over it, however, I suddenly realized it wasn't a piece of grass, just as it realized I was rather large and close. You would have laughed to see it because we both recoiled, just like in a cartoon. I stepped back and it slid into the nearest patch of grass, where I couldn't see it anymore. My initial look, though, has me convinced that it was a rough green snake. I'm sorry I didn't get a better look because it was a lovely shade of green and I would have liked to admire it. Maybe next time.

Already the leaves are starting to come out in the trees. As much as I like being surrounded by green as I walk, it makes birding a lot more difficult. I had trouble with some unknown bird calls today: the birds easily disappeared amid the canopy ... and then they sang and called just to taunt me, I suspect. "Ha, ha, I'm in here somewhere, but you can't see me!" I suppose birds aren't really that mean-spirited, but it sure seems like they are sometimes.

That's all I have to report for now. I've done a little rewriting on The Other Side and it's mostly ready to go, so once we get the cover problem solved, things should move along. (I'll be able to take it out of park and get it in gear.) Fingers crossed!

Blank

I got a statement for my 401k plan this past week. When I opened it, I looked in the box that lists my current balance and it said $0.00. I know the stock market is bad, but really!

Fortunately, the person in charge of our 401k plan at work had already notified us that we would see this, due to our plans being transferred from one company to another. I'm glad she did that or I might have freaked out. In a few days, we should get a new statement that tells us our real balance. I'm certainly hoping it will be over $0, although I'm not sure I want to know the real balance right now until things settle down in the stock market.

For now, it appears that the account is empty ... and ironically enough, that's what's happening in my head right now, especially regarding this blog. I'm out of ideas!

It's not that there's nothing going on in my life. It's not that I have no thoughts whatsoever (that would really be scary!). It's just that everything is either too boring or too personal to write about. It's also one of those common things I have to deal with occasionally: writer's block.

My characters don't seem to want to talk to me right now. I haven't even been able to squeeze out a Closet Spaceship episode, and those are usually rather easy because they're a fun diversion from the novels. I have no constraints; I just start imagining a conversation with one of the characters and go from there. Right now, though, the characters are hiding and silent. Even Nick!

That's okay. I've been through periods like this before and I always got through them. This blank feeling will pass and the ideas will come back to me. It's just a matter of paddling the canoe through the still waters to get back to the rapids.

Meanwhile, work continues on The Other Side. Paddle, paddle.

If you have any topics you'd like me to cover, or any questions, feel free to leave me a comment.

Remote

Today I am posting my blog from my husband's office because we haven't had Internet service at our house since Tuesday. There are problems with the cable and they don't see it getting fixed until at least Monday.

About 15-20 years ago, this wouldn't have bothered me. I had very little presence on the Internet, although I would have missed email (as I really do now!). I didn't have a blog, a Facebook page, or anything like that. I think I might have laughed if you'd told me I'd have all that now or that I'd find myself almost dependent on the Internet.

We don't have TV service either, so I don't really know what's going on in the world, except for what other people choose to tell me. Some people might like that, and I find I don't miss coverage of the presidential candidates, but I really miss knowing about events in this country and others. Most of it isn't good news, like the shooting in California, but it's news I think I need to know. I want to know about current events because I don't like being uninformed and because I'm a writer, which gives me a desire for knowledge and, sometimes, understanding. (Not that I understand the shooting.)

This should be a good thing for me. You're probably asking, "Doesn't that mean you can get more writing done?" And that's a legitimate question. I did get quite a bit done the other evening (when I wasn't on the phone with the cable company), but it was a short-term success. I don't write well when I'm concerned about something (like when we'll get service again) and I found that I need a little distraction when I hit a rough patch and can't seem to find the right words. It helps to browse Facebook or some other "mindless" site while the other side of my brain works on the problem. Without that distraction, I have a little more trouble getting unstuck.

Besides that, all of this makes me feel isolated. It's very strange, because I'm married, I have friends and co-workers that I see almost every day, and there were several people I saw when I was volunteering today ... yet despite all that, I feel there's something missing.

I know people have mixed opinions about "being connected" and I am one of those who is sad to see a roomful of people all intent on their devices instead of having a conversation. But now I understand a little better the need for that connection beyond one's own life and surroundings. I wouldn't say I'm incomplete without it, but I feel a little more like I'm part of the world, instead of just a part of my community, when I'm connected.

I think it's a good thing to be reminded that there is more out there than what's right in front of me. And I hope to get to interact with it again sometime soon!

Darkness Falls

Part of my job involves taking calls from customers regarding their ads. This position rotates through my department and my turn ended at the beginning of this month, but a customer recently called when the designated person was already on the phone so the call rolled to me.

We spent about half an hour on the phone together, going over each portion of each ad, detailing the changes that needed to be made, and through it all, the caller was the epitome of patience and graciousness. When my computer was slow, he told me to take my time. When I didn't understand one of his requests, he reworded it for me until it was clear. He maintained a warm tone and thanked me several times for my help.

The next time he called, which was yesterday, he knew my first name so the operator directed his call to me again. He told me he was very pleased with the look of the ads but he wondered if he could make another small change or two. I told him I would make any changes he requested and we walked through the changes. Again, he was polite and patient. He thanked me for my help and praised the ads.

That same evening, I learned about what had happened in Paris. It might seem that the two things are unrelated ... and yet, they aren't. They both reflect the choice we all have in how we live our lives.

Here was one man who decided that he would approach his interaction with another person using good humor and warmth. He wasn't doing anything heroic, he was simply calling to request a change, but he did it in a way that made my day a little brighter. It didn't take a great deal of effort, but he made that effort and I certainly appreciated it.

Then there was a group of people who decided to act quite differently in Paris. Since we don't know for sure who these people were, I can't name their group (although there are hints of who it was). However, I do know that these people have decided to approach others with hate and murder. It doesn't matter if the people they encounter ever did anything to them or their acquaintances. They might turn on each other if given the right provocation. Whatever the situation, they respond with rage. People who have never met them are forced to deal with the consequences of that rage.

Please think about this the next time you encounter anyone in your life. I'm not suggesting that you will ever feel the need to pull out an AK-47 or a bomb, but we all contribute a little to the world's anger when we decide that politeness doesn't matter, when we snarl at someone who may or may not deserve it. I am as guilty as the next person of occasionally letting a personal feeling of annoyance spill out around me to darken the day of someone else. I need to try harder to remember that each person might be having a good or bad day, but I don't need to make it worse. I don't need to be part of the darkness.

Like the gentleman on the phone, even if I brighten the day of only one person, isn't that worth it? If we all try to do that, we can't solve all of the world's problems, but it might mean that at least there's hope for humanity ... and for peace.

The Other Side Update

I haven't given you much in the way of updates lately for The Other Side, have I? I am working on it, but things are a little slow in that department. Here's why:

When I started on my novels, I wrote Outsider first (no surprise there) and then I slowly wrote four other novels. In between writing, I would go back and edit/rewrite on previous novels. After a while, I realized that the third novel was too short, so I combined it with the second to create Another Shot. What started as the fourth novel was now the third, and I was having some real trouble with it: I couldn't come up with an ending that worked. I rewrote and rewrote, but it never ended to my satisfaction. Finally, with more than a little regret, I realized that the novel would never work as it was and I discarded it. (Believe me when I say that was not an easy thing to do.) The final novel was now referring to things that had never happened!

I wasn't happy with only three novels, so I resolved to write one to go between Another Shot and the final novel. As it turned out, I managed to fit two novels in there, In the Shadows and The Other Side. This means the final novel also neglects to mention big things that happened in those two novels! As you can tell, that last novel is going to need a lot of work.

In the meantime, however, I have to deal with The Other Side. Since it was technically written last (even though it isn't the last novel in the series; how confusing is that?), it has had the least work. Some of the original writing came as late as 2008 or after, so I haven't been through it as many times as the other novels. Since I don't write things perfectly the first time (or even the second or third time), I'm having to do a lot of rewriting. I've also been adding scenes that should have been in there but somehow weren't.

All of this means I'm doing more work on this one than I even did on In the Shadows. (You might remember how much work I did on that late in 2014.) The good news is that I'm doing this work over the summer instead of over the fall, so I've given myself some more time. I'm still aiming for a release date of January, although that isn't set in stone.

Meanwhile, just to make things "interesting" for myself, I'm trying to create a video for In the Shadows. Sometimes it gets confusing and I have to remember which plot line I'm working with, but it means that things don't get boring!

That's the latest update. I appreciate your patience and I thank you for reading my blog (and my novels).

Independence Day Update

Happy Independence Day!

I have a few updates. First of all, on Monday I got the official Certificate of Registration for In the Shadows from the U.S. Copyright Office. That's always cause for celebration! It's a lot of fun to pull the paper out of the envelope and unfold it to see my name and the novel's title there on the official certificate. I have three of them now, and I'd like to collect more in the future.

To that end, I'm working on the fourth novel, The Other Side, this weekend. Chapter 15 is causing me no end of trouble because it's one of those chapters that's particularly difficult to write. It's more introspective than action-packed, which I sometimes struggle to get right. I'm going to keep working on it, though.

I've also been working on some other things. I added a sample of Outsider to the iAuthor site (you can see it here: Outsider on iAuthor). I also signed up for Ask the Author on goodreads.com, so people can ask me questions about my novels and writing (you can see my profile and my first answer here: Diane on Goodreads). I've been trying to post interesting things on Facebook and I got a good response to my post there about the copyright registration (here's my page: Diane's FB Page).

I'm also writing a piece of fiction for this blog (Closet Spaceship) and I've opened a file for a possible sixth novel in the series. (Don't get too excited about that last one because I don't know if it will go anywhere, but at least it's a start, right?)

So that's what I've been up to this weekend! Three-day weekends are the best.

Happy summer!

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!

Facebook

Yesterday I created a Facebook page for myself as author and I have to say this: it was one of the more frustrating things I've attempted for a while. I will admit that I'm not savvy about social media, but I am reasonably intelligent and I should be able to figure FB out. Not true. I managed to post something, but it stuck a photo in there I didn't want and I don't know how to remove it.

The biggest problem is the URL. You are supposed to be able to set up a custom URL that is easy for people to remember, but each time I try to do this, FB tells me I have to verify my account using a cell phone with SMS capabilities. I don't have such a thing so it appears that I'm out of luck as far as this goes.

As a result, my URL is this ugly thing: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diane-McCallum-Author/723981777642107

I dare you to memorize that! I had to paste it in a Word document so I can copy and paste it whenever I need it. I've tried FB's Help but it doesn't address this particular issue; it merely tells me how I SHOULD be able to change my URL.

So if you're expecting a lot of activity from me on Facebook, you'll be sorely disappointed. I'm going to stick to this blog and rarely deal with Facebook. Sorry about that.

If anyone has any advice for me, I'll gladly consider it.

First Novel, Second Post

It's been over six months since I published Outsider, which is hard to believe! It was pretty exciting to see it show up on Amazon for the first time. This was followed by several firsts: my first sale, my first Kindle offering, my first book signing.

Book Signing at Hastings store in Pittsburg, KS - March 2013

This is my first novel in the Penumbra series; there should be about five novels in all. They follow the adventures of Captain Ben Lamont and his crew, who travel through a wormhole near Earth's atmosphere to patrol the colonies beyond, troubleshooting where needed ... and there's a lot of trouble and shooting involved!

The first novel features Sean Foster, a college student who's been sentenced to twenty years in a colonial prison far from Earth. If that's not bad enough, it turns out that his transport has been targeted for destruction by unknown attackers. It's up to the crew of Outsider to rescue Sean and discover why he received such a lengthy prison sentence, as well as why his ship was destroyed.

The sequel will pick up a few months after Outsider ended. In my next post, I'll update you on its progress. Stay tuned!