Sunday, April 29, 2012

Life changes*

I decided that since I can now live a schedule-free life -- which is a really strange and basically uncomfortable feeling -- I'd try to let my sleep patterns become natural and whatever they would be in a world that didn't include a 9-5 job or a class schedule and homework due dates. My guess was that I'd start staying up really late and waking up even later, but that seemed okay and even sort of fun to me. Apparently, however, that is not my body's natural sleep cycle and I feel silly a little for ever thinking it would be. Instead, I get tired when it gets dark, wide-awake when it gets light. I've been waking up at 5. In principle, I totally object. In practice, I really like walking the dog at 6:30 instead of 8:30. The world is peaceful and beautiful and no one is out except the herons and the squirrels and the ducks.

Unconnected to the sleep schedule, I seem to be becoming curmudgeonly. I feel a little young for it, but yesterday I read a review of a song -- yes, a song review -- and felt a strong desire to tell the author what an idiot he was. Then I read comments to a blog post about self-publishing and was halfway through writing a response that pointed out the total lack of logic in one comment when I came back to myself and closed the comment box. Next I saw a book cover and had to restrain myself from writing the author to tell him what he needed to fix on it. That one was frustrating because the author used a good photo with terrible typography. If he paid a designer, he should get his money back. I think I have to shut off my connection to the internet and take more walks, because curmudgeonly is not like me.

In book changes, I'm going to make the price on Ghosts .99 for a week, from May 1 to May 7. It's an experiment, mostly to prove to myself that it's a bad price point. I'd have to sell ten times as many copies in the first week of May as I did in the first week of April to make it seem worthwhile and I don't think that'll happen. But the only way to know for sure is to try it.

*I wrote this post mostly because while I walked I was thinking about words that were both nouns and verbs. In the title, I'm not sure which 'changes' is. I like that in a word. 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Insanity

I may have gone insane. Well, technically, I suppose I already am. The whole agoraphobia thing probably qualifies me, not to mention the depression and anxiety. But no, this is a different kind of insanity, one that's not listed in the DSM.

Hmm, you know, insane is not really a diagnosis. I wonder which disorders actually qualify as insanity and which are just issues? I guess that I will never find out because I am now a graduate school drop-out. Mostly, making the decision and acting on it left me feeling relieved and happy. Then yesterday -- the first day of the rest of my life -- I felt much less happy as I realized that I either have to take writing seriously as an income-generator or get a job.

I said as much to R in the car and he pointed out that if I started taking writing seriously, it would probably stop being fun. I swear, he's unreasonably wise for a person so young.

So for right now, I'm going to just have fun writing for a while and start worrying about getting a job when the money that we were living on while I went to graduate school starts to run out. And meanwhile I can hope that the money from writing will stretch that time. Today I posted the first chapter of Thought that I've written in a month. And yeah, it was fun.


Friday, April 6, 2012

A Gift of Thought

Have I finished writing the book? No. Should I really do that? Yes. But meanwhile, here's my current winner on the cover.



I'll want to add a blurb, once I finish writing the book and someone says something meaningful about it, but I think this cover walks a fine balance between connecting the book with A Gift of Ghosts, using color to emphasize the lightness, but also making it clear that this book is rather more of a thriller. The image is actually Union Station in Washington which -- if you're reading along on fiction press -- you'll know is a location used in the story. But even without knowing that, the columns say DC and a lot of the book is set there. And I liked the skew of the columns -- it fits the fact that it's a weird little story!

Hmm, it occurs to me that I don't know how easy it is to find me on fiction press. I mean, it's easy for me. But easy for anyone else? Well, here's a link if you feel like reading a rough draft in slow-motion: A Gift of Thought. If you do read it, leaving me reviews honestly does motivate me to write faster. Yes, it's a terrible external locus of validation problem but part of the fun of writing is knowing that other people are having fun reading!

Once I finish writing, I'll take the story down, so if you're reading this post in May or so and the link doesn't work, that's why.

Cover note: a small border around the background photo is really essential to give it proper definition. Without the border, the photo sort of floats and looks unfinished. The border's not even noticeable except in its absence.