Third Video

Happy Labor Day Weekend! For many of us, it's a chance to rest and recharge our batteries before we launch ourselves back into the labor that helps us pay the bills.

For me, it's been a chance to finally finish my third video! I think I must be the world's pickiest person because I spent a lot of time this morning adjusting transitions and effects. It's a good thing I'm not a movie director because considering how much time I put into a one-and-a-half-minute video, can you imagine how long a two-hour movie would take??

This video is for the third novel in my Penumbra series, In the Shadows. Please share it with friends and family.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozZbYu15Q_I

I appreciate your support!

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).

The Desk

We recently had some windows replaced in our house and we needed to move stuff out of the way so the workers could actually get to the windows. I also realized that there would be dust involved, so I wanted to cover what I could. In the end, I decided to remove everything from my desk.

Wow.

It's amazing what kind of stuff accumulates on a desk (or any surface where you might set things you intend to put away later). It was almost like an archaeological dig! I found a list of possible titles for the series of my novels ("Penumbra" was second on the list). I found random notes of plot ideas or character studies. I found sketches for the videos. I found a list of possible ship names. I found a list of Amazon rankings for Outsider (the highest is 241,491 and the lowest is over 2 million).

Not all of it was book-related. I found a great photo of my co-workers (taken two years ago), some Dilbert cartoons, a scribbled note about an elliptical machine I was considering two or three years ago, a Kansas bird list and a nice postcard of the Colorado Rockies.

It was pretty easy to shove all of it in drawers or a bag before the window guys arrived. It wasn't so easy to take it all out and decide what to do with it after they left. In fact, the bag sat in the living room for a week before I worked up the courage to open it.

I recycled a lot of it. I filed some of it. And I started a new stack of "I don't know what else to do with this" items on the corner of the desk.

There's a lot less clutter than there was before. Let's see how long that can last.
In the meantime, if I need a new ship name, I know where to look!

Are We Alone?

I stumbled onto a fascinating and entertaining video recently about the Fermi Paradox. I didn't know what that is, although I'd heard about the issue before. Basically it boils down to this: if there are billions of galaxies, each with billions of suns, many of those with planets, why haven't we run across alien life by now?

It's an intriguing question. I always believed it was because the distances are too great, but that's only one facet of a complicated issue.  Here's the video:

It gives you a lot to think about. It's still possible that there's life in those galaxies that are too far away for us to ever reach, but within our own galaxy, is there other life?

If there are other lifeforms out there, I wonder if we could ever safely meet. Think about the havoc that's been caused on our own planet when one species is transplanted to another continent. Either it hunts another species almost to extinction or there are germs that the native species has no defense against or some other calamity. It usually doesn't end well. So what would happen if an entirely new lifeform, something we might not even be able to imagine, showed up in our atmosphere, even with benign intentions? I see why alien invasions make such good scary movies.

On the other hand, could terrestrial life really be the only life out there? That thought fills me with dread. You'd think I'd be more frightened if there were aliens coming at me, but the thought of such an immense void is daunting ... and if we're the only intelligent lifeforms anywhere, that seems to put a big burden on us. We're it. We're responsible for all of the life in the universe! You see why that's a little scary?

And that leads to one idea in the video that really struck me. If Earth holds the only lifeforms in the universe (or even in our corner of the universe), we need to preserve that life. As the narrator says, "The universe is too beautiful not to be experienced by someone."

This is one reason I think space travel and exploration are so important: eventually, we'll need to spread out beyond Earth to preserve the small spark of life we represent. And right now, we need periodic reminders of how absolutely beautiful the universe really is.

Let's experience it.

Distractions

I've been trying to work on the fourth novel but there have been a few distractions.
I finally got over my virus, only to be struck by monstrous allergies, which are threatening to rob me of my voice again! Argh. (See last week's blog about my voice.)

I also spent some time finishing up my second video, this one about my second novel, Another Shot. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to do so here: Another Shot video  Let me know in the comments what you think. It was fun to make, although this one seemed a little harder than the first one. I think I was trying too hard this time around because I wanted it to be better than the first. I don't know if I succeeded or not, but at least it's out there.

I've also been spending entirely too much time on Facebook lately. I "blame" it on my good friend Bill Zahren (we met at Morningside College), who keeps posting updates on his first two novels. He's hoping to get the first one published this year and I wish him every success. He has a page where you can follow his progress here: Bill Zahren-author FB Page

Despite all this, I am getting some work done on the fourth novel. I'm pleased with the first seven chapters (although they could always use a little tweaking), but now I need to move on to the rest and make them better. In a few weeks, I'll let you know the title of the novel, but I'm still swirling it around in my head to see if I think it works.

The local bookstore, Spellbound, is planning some type of event for local authors in Pittsburg, KS, next weekend and I'm hoping to take part in it. I don't have any details yet, but I will post them on Facebook, Google+, my Amazon author page and my Goodreads author page as soon as I get them. Stay tuned!

And that's the latest! Thanks again for your support.

Spring Forward

Now that I have In the Shadows done, I can just sit back and put my feet up, right?

Not exactly.

For one thing, I'm still trying to drum up interest in it through this blog, Facebook, word of mouth, etc. And I'm working on another video to possibly catch the eye of people who might not otherwise have heard of the Penumbra series.

Then there's the fourth novel. Oh, yes, there's another one ... and I've learned my lesson with In the Shadows: this time I won't be waiting until September to start working on it. That was my fault and caused me all sorts of problems last year, so I'm going to try to avoid it this time. I'm working on a particularly difficult scene today (sorry, no hints yet!).

Does this mean I spend all of my time on the novels? Certainly not (although sometimes I wish I could spend at least a little more time on them). I have this thing called a job and it takes up quite a bit of time. Until some rich person feels like paying me to write, I'll be going there on weekdays.

But I do other fun things, too. I'll be joining my Audubon group tomorrow to trek into the country and look for short-eared owls. Trooping across a muddy field is well worth it when you get to see such amazing creatures (I'll let you decide if I'm talking about the owls or my fellow Auduboners).

So life goes on. I'm just glad it's going on while the temperature is starting to go up again! Longer days, too!

Thanks again for your support. Please keep spreading the word.

How I Made a Video

I hope you've seen my video for Outsider by now. Please share it with your friends: you can either send them a link, or you can go to Youtube, find the video and click on "Share." Then you can choose Facebook, Google+ or wherever you wish to share it.

Here's the link again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VihpR0pKQXE

I'd been wanting to make a video for quite some time, but I wasn't sure how to do it until I learned about Windows Movie Maker. I threw together a little test video to see how the software works, but I knew I couldn't get away with making a video using others' photos or drawings, so that was my first hurdle.

To solve it, I bought some Crayola markers and cut some sheets of paper into fourths. Each quarter was one of the images. I drew up a little storyboard so I would know what images I needed. Then I drew images on the paper and scanned them into my computer. Since they looked a little raw, I fixed them up using Paint. (This was the most time-consuming process of the whole video.)

Once I had my bundle of images, I imported them into Windows Movie Maker. I arranged them on the timeline at the bottom, and then I began adding effects and transitions. This took a while because there are an amazing number of these available! At first I only used fades, but then I began experimenting with dissolves, peels and other effects. It was kind of fun. (The most important thing I learned was to Save Project, so I could save my changes but I didn't have to finalize the video.)

Then I hit another snag: what music to use? I knew I couldn't use someone else's music any more than I could use someone else's images, so I was stuck. (I had some music lined up but couldn't use it because of copyright.) Fortunately, Youtube has free music available in their Audio Library, so I spent quite a bit of time going through that until I found something I liked. Actually, I found two songs and it took me several play-throughs before I could pick one that fit better with the video images. (I chose "Warrior Strife" by Jingle Punks. Great band name!)

Of course, the song I wanted was too short, so I had to paste it in there twice, cut off the excess and add a fade at the end so it didn't just end abruptly.

Then, after some hesitation, I pressed the "Publish" key and there was my video! I still had to upload it to Youtube, of course, but that wasn't so bad after the whole process of creating it.

In a way, this process was a lot like publishing Outsider itself. I created the story, spent a lot of time to format it the way I wanted, and then had to have the courage to press "Publish." I'm glad I did, in both cases.

I might make a video for Another Shot, but I think it will be a while before I have that much spare time, so don't hold your breath.

Thanks again for your support!

New Video

This week I mailed off two copies of In the Shadows to the Library of Congress for mandatory deposit. I didn't think they would get there right away because of all the nasty weather on the East Coast, but when I checked this morning, they'd arrived! That means they're in the Library of Congress! That still makes me grin like an idiot, even for the third time.

Here's another thing that makes me kind of happy: I made an actual video! It's on Youtube and everything. (You don't even want to know how long it took me to put this together.) Here it is:



I hope this will help get the word about Outsider to more people. Please be sure to share it with everyone you know! Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VihpR0pKQXE

What do you think? Is it passable for my first video? Should I try to make more? (Feel free to leave a comment below!)

Recollection

Happy Memorial Weekend! It's the unofficial start of summer, but it's also a time to remember ...

I started to think about those I remember, and it saddens me that the list is longer than I expected. I guess we can't escape that unless we have no human contact whatsoever, which wouldn't be worth it. The sadness is accompanied by a feeling of gratitude to have known them as long as I did. Family and friends, you are not forgotten.

I plan to use this weekend to make as much progress as I can on my third novel. Yes, there is a third, and yes, I have a rough draft. I'm in the polishing stage. That's when I read over what I have and wonder, What was I thinking when I wrote that???
Then I fix it (at least I hope so). I enjoy jumping back into that world temporarily, especially when this "real" one gets a little hectic.

Speaking of different worlds, how would you like to know what it's like to be aboard the International Space Station, gliding peacefully over the Earth? I don't know about you, but I would spend the whole time staring out the window ... and now I have the chance to do that! No, NASA hasn't invited me up there (although I would accept the invitation, NASA! Call me anytime). Instead, the Internet has come up with yet another way to suck up my time. Look at this.

How would you like that view out your window? Here's your chance to see it! It's here: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/  (If you go there and the image is gray or black, give it about 30 minutes. The station orbits in and out of darkness several times a day. One orbit takes a little over 90 minutes.)

So while we remember the ones we've lost, we can also remember what an awesome planet we live on and how much it's worth saving.

Bonus Post!

I just saw this video today and thought: Wow!

I wanted to share it because I think it's exciting what SpaceX has accomplished. Here's the information that went with the video:

Published on Oct 12, 2013

On Monday, October 7th, Grasshopper completed its highest leap to date, rising to 744m altitude. The view above is taken from a single camera hexacopter, getting closer to the stage than in any previous flight.

Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle designed to test the technologies needed to return a rocket back to Earth intact. While most rockets are designed to burn up on atmosphere reentry, SpaceX rockets are being designed not only to withstand reentry, but also to return to the launch pad for a vertical landing. The Grasshopper VTVL vehicle represents a critical step towards this goal.

Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage tank, Merlin 1D engine, four steel and aluminum landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.

(FYI: 744 meters is almost half a mile.)
That's right: the rocket goes up and then it comes down, but not in the usual manner. This kind of stuff always makes me giddy. I can't wait to see what's next!