Goodbye 2014, Whose Theme Was "Technical Difficulty"

This is about the time each year that I look back at the past year.

If gremlins exist, we were beset by them, beginning with the replacement of an ancient (in today's terms) desktop that was running Windows XP.....

The change-over of all the files involved new programs in order for them to work properly, and although it is not my forte, I managed to get things restored with the exception of our address book database. That had to be put into the laptop to work properly.

We'll just let that thought stay there for a while. My laptop is the only computer that has our address book database. A database that, if not transferred to another computer right away, tends to like to corrupt the media it's saved to.....

Next, my husband bought a laptop. It wouldn't finish the initial start up. It kept going to a black screen instead of allowing information to be entered. It was brought back to the store where it was purchased, replaced, and the initial start-up was performed at the store....

It, too, suffered from suddenly going to a black screen without reason. Numerous attempts were made to fix it, but it had to go back to the factory - twice - before it began to behave as if it knew how to be a good lappie.....

While going through the stuff with the laptop, our cable company raised their rates for the third time in a year, so we went to a dsl provider. A "downgrade", according to some, but a more reasonable dent in our pockets. More tech time to change everything to the new connection. It was starting to get easier, but the gremlins like to play games. The dsl company promises phone service without interrupting the wifi. Sometimes it works and I can surf while I talk. Sometimes the wifi crashes when a call comes in.

Interesting thing about the crash pattern, though. It seems to happen only when my husband calls.

Of course, shutting off cable means we're on an antenna for television. We somehow manage to get lucky, as the gremlins seem to like only messing with the high tech stuff.. An online assessment site tells us we can get 6 channels at our location. We get 12.....sometimes.....9 reliably.

Speaking of high tech, remember that database with our addresses in it? The one that only resided on my laptop because it corrupted the CD......and the DVD......and the USB......and, it seems, my hard drive....

The technician where I make my daily bread tells me that a failed hard drive usually happens in a Dell laptop within 3 years. I managed to make mine last for 6, which he thought was very good, but the database......

Remember that database?

That database didn't transfer with the other backup files that held all the other things I saved on my laptop. It didn't save on the USB where I put it, a single file on it's own little thumb drive, even though it opened - twice - when I checked the transferred file on the USB.

Gremlins love to mess with Christmas, as that's what the address book was kept for. That''s why I'm writing this HERE instead of in a newsletter to be included in Christmas cards. Just those who mail to me will get a card from me this year.....

My daughter, who moved back in with us after a failed relationship, rounded out the scourge on the laptops. Only problem is that she lost her recovery discs at some point along the way. I'm not techie enough to handle THAT little dilemma, as that involves finding someone with a recovery disc for the exact kind of laptop that she has.....

The gremlins win again, it seems, even at work, where three replacement printers for the front end and endless repairs to both the front end and copy center printers has become almost a common theme for each week.....

So, let me hand out the little Santa hats to make all my little gremlins look festive and wish you a Happy Holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule. Kwanzaa, or "National The Floor Is Lava Day". May you have a gremlin free 2015.

One last post on "A Wild Tiger's Heart" now that it's up for sale

I'm slowly tamping down little ground fires that were started when the paperback went live.  Seems that, even though I thought I had everything under the business name before publication, the printer had other ideas and tried to claim all the glory for the work.....

I really hate when I do all the work and someone else, like a manager, claims all the glory. It's like someone stealing from you, but they're stealing your energy instead of actual cash....

BUT, if you would like to have a peek at what's currently available or would like to keep up with the latest published works, the easy link to follow is this one, as it's going to be connected to everything I do in the future:

amazon.com/author/debiemmons

The options available involved being available world wide in an ebook, which the first two books were, being available to bookstores, which the first two books WEREN'T, and I'm also looking into how to make all three current publications audio books, as there are some who have asked about that option.  Watch this blog for announcements of when that will happen.

In the meantime, I have to take a brief break for the holiday season and to learn a new part of my job, as I've been promoted at the Staples "Gym", "The Company That Pays Me To Work Out", to an Inventory Specialist.  Longer hours, earlier shifts, and a bit more incentive to get my fanny perpendicular and out the door.

Speaking of which, it's the "Witching Hour".  As the old commercial for Dunkin Donuts used to say, "Time to make the donuts"....

Be good, or if you can't be good, name it after me.....

And for my NEXT trick.....

I've been trying for years to get my husband to read my books. He's not a big romance fan, but I don't usually write the hunting and fishing type thing he likes to read.

Then the brainstorm struck when I was going through and checking my links in my pages at The Northern Bard (a couple of which need to be fixed at this point). A few years ago, as something of a joke, I wrote a couple of tales about a character we had named "Superburnerman". The tales are actual things that have happened to Superburnerman's mild mannered secret identity, but the tales are done with a little tongue-in-cheek, comic book styled dramatics in the telling.

I mentioned the brainstorm to my husband and daughter, whom I'll call Thing 1 and Thing 2 for the rest of this blog so you can follow along.....

Thing 1, my hubby, started suggesting some of the tales in which the reality was stranger than fiction, the tales that we tell our friends that always get the "this didn't really happen, did it" look.....

Thing 2, the girl child, started talking excitedly about some comic book styled drawings that could be included in the book, and she's already started to work on some concepts just for the main character....

Over the past few days, as I'm tying up the last few things on A Wild Tiger's Heart, both Thing 1 and Thing 2 keep coming up with more exciting tales and more interesting art works to accompany them, and I haven't even started the collection of stories yet.

We do, however, have a working title and a by-line:

"The Sort Of True Adventures of Superburnerman"

"Most of these stories are true. The names were changed to protect the innocent and the identities of those who might be considered criminally insane."

As soon as I confirm that the last "fixes" on the last book have been put into place, I'll be writing some interesting stories to gather into a collection. 

*rubbing my hands together in the way I find so annoying when the fly on my desktop starts doing it back*

This next book should be fun!

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

I've been paying attention to the news again while I make my choice as to which thought to follow next.  This is never a good thing, because it just gets me all fired up about things I can't change....like the police departments across the United States.

In the mid-west, we have primarily black neighborhoods being patrolled by white officers who seem to think it's fine to shoot unarmed people rather than arrest them and have to deal with a trial.

All over the United States, there are stories of injustices served up by power-mad police officers, such as a recent one coming out of the next town over in which a 17-year-old girl filed charges against a 30-year-old at a group home, but instead of bringing the summons to the accused and getting a signature that he'd been properly served, they sent the summons through the mail.  The accused, much like the witches in Salem, Massachusetts, is sitting in jail, unable to make bail or provide for his family, for not appearing for a court date that he didn't know he had to appear for because the post office lost the summons letter.....

There are seriously days that I fear for my country when these are the people who are supposed to be upholding the laws that our crooked politicians put onto the books...........

The calm before the next brainstorm

As the hard work on "A Wild Tiger's Heart" starts to wind down, leaving only a book trailer and considering a couple of new offerings for this release (namely a hard cover option and an audio book option, both of which people have asked me for over the summer), I have a breathing space for the moment. A slim moment in time when the characters from the last book begin to quiet and sink into a dark corner, but the characters from the next adventure aren't talking to me yet...

Time for meditation, which usually works best outside. One problem with outside at the moment...

I live in Maine. It's snowing. A nice meditation outdoors could mean a couple of body parts being sacrificed to the God of Frostbite. 

Maybe I can meditate inside, despite the fact that I need to play music to cover the odd sounds the old farmhouse makes.

That odd "thump thump" as the snow falls off the metal roof onto the ground.

The slight "clink" as a mouse, passing through, knocks two glass objects together in the cabinet.

The occasional odd, high pitched yelp from the Shih Tzu/Pomeranian cross as the Bengal mix cat pranks him yet again, not really hurting the dog, but scaring him yet again. (I almost feel bad for the dog, as I suspect he'll have a heart attack some day from this, but it's so fun to watch the mini-tiger stalk his prey.....)

But I really don't have a nice, long piece of continuous music on any of the media that I have available. I mean, I could use a good, long period to shut down the conscious thought and just drift a while..... 

As if on my wavelength, a new acquaintance posts a lovely piece of music:

http://youtu.be/DTl3pHq8bzU?list=LLhX_JQqsOqLkZSowSUmv-Jg

Over an hour of meditation type music. How very nice! I think I'm going to like this new acquaintance!

The dog's high-pitched yip blends in very nicely, becoming part of the music........



Addendum: After the meditation.

I had been fussing about an introduction to the book in a video "trailer". I managed to realize what I wasn't doing right and finished it. It's up and running here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN4-Rq-EJ2w&list=UUUjfL8rZjhcdwAtz_7W-p2w

As if the Universe was telling me I did the right thing, the book arrived....and the spine is the perfect width.

Alas, there were a couple of minot formatting gaffs, but it will be able to be corrected by the November 30th release date.

Not a bad day in the neighborhood........

Another Brief Pause for a Message from Our Sponsor....*grin*

Here in America, it's Veteran's Day.  We, as Americans, reflect on the many people who have served our country in the many wars over the 200+ years we've been a country.

This is my dad, Robert L. Dow, who joined the Navy right out of high school:

He served during the Korean Conflict stateside while several of his nephews, who also joined up, went overseas.  (If I haven't already explained about my screwed up family tree, where my father, the youngest of nine children, had nieces and nephews before he was born, I'll have to address that at another time, but.....)

This is my husband, who was in the Air Force right out of high school:

My father-in-law, cousins, and many friends could also appear here if I had pictures of them in the service, as I seem to have a lot of people I associate with who thought it honorable to defend the U.S., no matter what stupid crap our politicians demand that they do......

I am honored to have known so many honorable people in my life and hope to know many more, even those who have served for other countries in their military. Those who offer to give their lives for their families and friends always have a place in my heart.

Happy Veteran's Day, America.

On your mark, get set, PUBLISH.....

Yes, that's right!  We're officially in the last couple of weeks before everything goes live for "A Wild Tiger's Heart". The files have all been uploaded, they're being reviewed by the printer, Nook and Kindle for any issues, and should go live for November 30th.

With all of that going on, it must be time to dust off the old book trailer skills so that we can have an intro before the book goes live....


No rest for the wicked....


"And she's off, rounding the first corner and picking up the music discs for the background sounds......"

UPDATE November6, 2014:  The Kindle version is up and running!  You can pre-order for the November 30th release date here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P9W11D4

There was a minor glitch with the cover that the art director has taken care of, so with any kind of luck, the paperback will be printed for a test run within the week, and Barnes & Noble will also hopefully produce the link to the Nook version soon.  Thank you to all who have been  watching this happen through the blog or through Facebook.  I really have enjoyed all the feedback and look forward to any comments that might help me to write the next book.

Update November 8: We are now live on Nook! Here is the link - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-wild-tigers-heart-debi-emmons/1120692607?ean=2940150555815

Hark! Thanksgiving Approaches!

Since I'm not as popular as another Maine writer, Stephen King, I work a "regular job" in addition to the writing. Sometimes, odd things happen, such as on Monday, when I was asked to work 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. to get the store set up for the Holiday Sales Season. Normally, I don't see many animals on the road on my way back home at around 10, but for some reason, on the way in....

I swear the skunk either was suicidal or had rabies. I saw the eyes as I started down the hill from my house and started to slow down, unsure as to what I'd seen. Cat? Racoon? It soon became clear, from the black body with the white stripe, that I was seeing a skunk, but it at first looked like he was turning back to where he'd started, so I prepared to slip by him.

Without warning, he turned and raced toward my car, running directly in front of me as I hit the brakes and tried to miss him. Nope! My car, even two days after the hit, still reeks. But that little skunk started my gears turning.....

Normally, I've had several such experiences to keep me on my toes. I usually have more bad luck than good, but this year seems to be different.  Looking at the "Good Times/Bad Times" lists, I only have three really bad things that have happened:

1) In the spring, when I had a speech about writing arranged, it was bitterly cold and most of my friends had to work, so no one came to hear me talk.

2) At the end of our annual anniversary camping trip, Bill lost the transmission in his truck and had to get a new vehicle to get a guarantee that the new transmission would continue to work for more than a year.

3) A hard drive that I'm told lasted twice as long as the product normally does fried out on me, costing me $50 for a new one.

4) I hit Mr. Skunk.

On the "Good" side, however:

1) Almost as soon as I finished the story about Chase and Aloriah, Kelly started whispering about her story. Instead of a long break in which I'm feeling bereft, I immediately went into writing the next book.

2) With a solid thought about what I was looking for in a character, I started looking for models and made a request on Facebook to have some suggestions to look at while I began writing. Less than 24 hours later, I was inundated with a single name: Daniel Sobieray. Rather than let me talk myself out of it, I sent him a message BEFORE putting any photos onto the fledgling fan page for the budding book - and found myself in contact with someone who is not only a gorgeous model, but a brilliant actor and producer who was able to arrange a cover shoot.

3) Through Daniel, I've met several photographers who have introduced me to creativity that I knew existed, but was never able to harness. They, in turn, have "introduced" me to several models. I've found myself in a marvelous group of wonderfully friendly people unlike the types I knew in high school and college who were cuter than the average person. They've made Kyle and Chase even more honest personalities in my mind, as these men I've been meeting this year are very much like my handsome Benton men - and they've helped me to form Stefan into a more complete character.

Also, because of the positive experience with Daniel, I've spoken with the first model to have graced my fan pages attached to a character. He has also begun to suggest other people whose pages I should like, and a European model/photographer group is beginning to form.

4) Whenever I've run into mischief with the writing process this year, I've had people who are happy to answer questions. Whether I'm having a learning issue with a new program or technical difficulties needing the geek squad, I ask a few questions and I have someone stepping in with the answer I need.

5) As this influx of work-related support has been going on, long lost relatives have been appearing on Facebook, finding me through other relatives I'd already friended. The influx of family members has also provided me an emotional support net for those times when I start to doubt myself.

And all of this doesn't even touch the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the sudden influx of visitors to all the sites I put in place as marketing tools when writing "The Tiger's Cub"....

My Thanksgiving is starting early this year, as I am most thankful for the year so far. I have been blessed by all that I hold holy and am most grateful for all the gifts that have come my way.

I only hope that all of those I've mentioned above, who have proven to be such blessings in my life, are as blessed as I have been......

Starting to wonder if I'm still being tested.....

My first book was a test of my patience with technology. I started out writing it in 1994 on a Tandy HX1000, which had 256 mb of memory. Each time I sat down to write, I had to pull out a floppy disc, put it into the computer, and then make sure to save when I was done. According to the computer, I was writing in a document file. What I wasn't told is that the document file was only ever going to be able to be opened by a Tandy HX1000 computer.

I didn't know that last point until the Tandy suddenly made an odd noise, a puff of smoke came out of the back, and the computer shut down, never to start again.

A friend, who had just purchased a new computer, had a Compaq that he'd retired in his clo.set. There was nothing technically WRONG with the Compaq, he had just opted to go for bigger, better, faster, I was told. Once again, it was what I WASN'T told that came back to bite me in the tush.....
.
While I love my friend dearly, he's a graduate of M.I.T, and has his own way of doing things. For instance, he doesn't do games on computers, so he had removed some programs that he thought only had to do with gaming. Unfortunately, there are some programs that are tied together, so when he removed the games from his computer to save memory space, there were a couple of programs that were affected - and since I couldn't recover the document file from the floppy disc I'd been using with the Tandy, I had to start writing "Night of the Tiger" all over again. Because of my experience with the Tandy, I not only saved my work on the computer itself, but I was saving to a floppy disc.

I didn't know about Rich Text Format, so I was still saving as a doc file. Stupid human. The Universe laughs at such foolishness!

The Compaq's issue with the missing files eventually became my issue, as the programs started to not work properly. Instead of saving my documents as words, my story started to have odd characters thrown in, like long sections of alien symbols instead of the words I had typed. I hadn't been saving to a floppy disc or a cd, so by the time I thought about that, the files I saved were corrupted....

My husband came to the rescue by buying me an HP desktop computer base. Unfotunately, the problems with the Compaq programs meant that I had to start from scratch again on my story. I had also managed to injure myself, so I was starting this process again at a time that I was on heavy duty pain medications.

I still read through the first book and get frustrated at the computer programs that caused so many issues, especially since some of the finer writing on the story got "eaten" by computer programs....

By the time I started work on "The Tiger's Cub", I had learned a lot about computers and how to save files so that they can be transferred from one computer to another without loss of any part of the work. My work is now saved in both a document file and a rich text format, allowing it to be transferred easily between computers. The new "learning curve" for the second book involved working with models and making ones own cover for a book when the publisher doesn't have an art director to make the cover for me. The fact that the cover was fouled when it got to the publisher frustrated me - and still does when I look at some of the covers online that involve a heavy black streak in my model's hair that wasn't there on the art piece the publisher finally agreed to use.

So, I launch into book three with all this education in place. I'm saving the files religiously, both on the computer and on a thumb drive, since floppy discs are technology of the past.  I have a cover whose art work has already started to get rave reviews. I have the book formatted to the correct size for me to be able to see what it will look right after it's printed. I'm working very hard to get it to look just the way I wish for it to before it gets loaded to the printer's web site for the first "test print"....

And each time I open the file I've been so religiously saving, the formatting has somehow changed again so that I have to start again each time.....

I now work with technical savvy people. I can ask what's going on and how to stop it from happening, but I don't like what I'm hearing....

It seems that this time, the technical difficulty is coming from the fact that I still have Microsoft Works, which is formatted to work with Windows XP, on my laptop. Although it was supposed to continue to work with Windows 7 when I bought my Dell laptop, it's had to be uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of times over the years to keep it working properly. The problem is that Microsoft no longer supports this program, and therefore, more recent updates to the Windows 7 operating system means that, even if I uninstall and reinstall again, there won't be any updates coming in to correct the issues it seems to currently be having.

*giving Bill Gates the evil eye, as I've already had to buy all kinds of "extras" over the past year to compensate for Microsoft deciding to no longer support Windows XP or any of the related programs*

Before we get back to a situation in which I have to start over on a story that is just one month from release, I'm looking at the current programs used for editing the story. Do I choose Microsoft's Office 365, which has a yearly fee attached? Do I go with Microsoft Publisher instead, even though I know nothing about it? Do I get the 2013 Works program that was made to work better with Windows 7 and may be just enough to keep me going for a couple more years, when the Dell laptop will probably need to be replaced because parts are already starting to wear out?

Sounds like a job for the Techno-geeks at Staples, who are probably ready to string me up somewhere in the back room for asking them so many questions already.


Addendum October 21: Less of a problem than I anticipated, considering past experience. It's a simple matter. New hard drive. Extra gigs of memory. It will be here on Monday. Meantime, I've installed the needed programs in the desktop and am continuing on.  I was also told that my six year old laptop should have done this to me three years ago. I feel better now. 

I kept it alive longer than it should have lived. It was meant to die. *smile*

A Word from Our Sponsor......

Someone asked me yesterday about what I do in my "spare time". Um, yeah. About that......

"Spare time" doesn't exist at this time of year for me.  There are the normal tasks around the house, such as putting up a plastic barrier around the edge of the foundation before snow flies, as I live in an ancient farm house that has sincere leakage issues where the wood is rotting at the top of the cement. There's the putting up of any Halloween decorations that I want to put out. There's deciding what I'm going to do for a costume, as my husband has a co-worker that has a marvelous Halloween bash every year.

And, this year, there's the final tasks for releasing another new book.

The reviewers are reading the book and one has already given me her review.

The grammar/spell check has been run and I need to go through the second edit to confirm that the "corrections" haven't ruined the tale.

The formatting for the PDF file that goes to the printer is being done.

And we have the full-on cover that needs to be printed in glossy and matte formats so I can decide which to ask the publisher to request from the printer. This will also be my chance to note if the art director has to correct anything before the printer gets a chance at this cover.....

Here is the official front-and-back with everything except the bar code for "A Wild Tiger's Heart":

Oddly enough, when I posted this cover to the fan page on  Facebook, my fan base for the new book suddenly had an increase of 18 people - none of whom are on my friends list. I'm guessing either Daniel Sobieray or Patrice Garza (or maybe both) might have people who were on the fan list and shared. I personally like this cover better than anything I've ever had in the past, and I fully plan on taking advantage of Northern Bard Publications offer to do this kind of cover for a re-release and possible boxed set for the series......

Thank you for all of your feedback, whether here, in my private emails, or on Facebook. I'm really enjoying this little "give-and-take" with this release, and hope that some of the writers who are following this blog will consider having work looked at by NBP. I'm more relaxed with this release than I have been in a long time, and am extremely happy with the cover.

In my best Gomer Pyle voice: "Surprise, surprise, surprise"

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away......

Oh, wait. That one's been used....

About two and one-half decades ago, I wrote a short story to prove to my mother-in-law that I could make money from my writing. In order to hide the fact that my male character was at least partially based on my sister-in-law's fiance (at the time), I described Kyle Benton as having long, dark hair and a full beard with heavenly green eyes.  I had no internet access in 1989, so the thought of actually locating someone to portray Kyle on a fan site never even crossed my mind.

Fast forward to 2008, when "Night of the Tiger", which had been online as an ebook for almost a decade, was being released as a paperback.  Looking for new ways to market such things, I started looking at fan pages and such, but multiple searches for a model who looked like Kyle kept bringing up those ever-popular pages I call "pink bunny slippers", as they're cute, but have absolutely nothing to do with what I searched for.  It wasn't until I was looking for a picture of a model for the next book that I came across this photo of Greek model Theo Theodoridis:

I almost fell off of my seat, as this is the Kyle I was picturing with his beard trimmed back a bit. But then, this handsome man posted one yesterday that seriously made me choke on the coffee I had just sipped.  THIS is the handsome devil of a man that I have been picturing in my mind since 1989 as the truck driver who works his way into the life of a little Amer-asian exotic dancer, a young woman who has been hiding in plain sight for 7 long years....

All I could think yesterday was that, somehow, from inside the cob web infested darkness at the back of my brain, my little former exotic dancer managed to snap a photo of her truck driver and posted it on the internet for me...

I understand that people have been telling me for years now that God, or Allah, or Yahweh, or He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named can sometimes do strange things to show us that we're on the right path, but this is getting a little ridiculous! The Universe seems to be having fun with me this year, first slamming me with an all-too-perfect model/actor for the part of Stefan Savoldi, then showing me these wonderful new photos of Theo that look more like Kyle than anything I've been able to find online so far.

Maybe I should ask for that new model for Chase, since Dylan hasn't been posting new photos?

Addendum 10/19/14: Theo posted another photo this week that presented me with the whiney voice of my character fussing because it was another photo that I was trying to swear looked like Kyle from his days as a trucker.

"But I'm computer illiterate and never had a laptop on the road!" Kyle whines in my head, even though, in his current short haired and clean shaven state, he DOES have a laptop in his office that he uses to keep track of his family as they travel in Europe.  Too bad, Kyle!  I still think this photo looks like your lovely wife snuck up on you in the early days of your relationship and snapped a photo of you......

And thank you, Theo, for the posts on Facebook that I'm "creatively borrowing". So good to see you on a regular basis instead of just hearing gossip and rumor about how you're doing.  *grin*

Houston, We Have A Problem

Since I've been updating you on the progress on the newest creation....

One more chapter to edit and then it starts to get interesting. Reviewers will get the tale next, acting sort of like "guest editors". Their thoughts on the book may or may not get used anywhere (at the publisher's discretion), but since they're trusted friends who did this on at least one other book ....

Yeah. They know me. They know if they point out something that's off, it will be fixed before it goes to the publisher. I like having friends like that.

Only problem is that the last two books were around 77,000 words each.

"A Wild Tiger's Heart" is currently at 106,000 words, and as I've made corrections, it's been growing. (Final count as of editing completion on 10/8/2014: 108,563)

Of course, I keep telling myself that the word count also includes the stuff that isn't really part of the story.

There's the copyright stuff already added
And the bit about it being a work of fiction
A dedication
Thank yous to those who helped
A preface that reintroduces the characters from the other books, just in case the reader didn't read the first two

All that only takes up 1000 words.

Let's see what the critics think before I start to worry about what to cut out. Perhaps it just needed a bit more story for Kelly and Stefan. They are a little older than the other two couples I've written about..

So, to quote all those old shows I grew up watching, "The moral of this story is...:"

If you have a network of people you can trust to give you the truth, not matter how much it may hurt, trust them with your baby. Sometimes you can be surprised. Sometimes they tell you that you did good....

*sigh*

Back to that last chapter, much as I always hate to see the stories end. It's time to finish my baby and send it off to see what others think before the publisher, who almost has the whole cover ready except for the depth of the spine for the title there, gets it.

The 10 Books That Influenced Me The Most...

One of my friends on Facebook was challenged to the test that is my title for today's blog, and my cheeky comment to her was "I could only get the list down to 10 if allowed to use series as a single book".

I've been thinking about it.  My cheeky, off-the-cuff immediate response was absolutely correct.

Take the "book" that I think influenced me the most: "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. The singular tale itself is quite powerful, with a message that I think was well captured in Peter Jackson's film when when Galadriel says " Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

But therein begins the dilemma.  If I count the next books that influenced me the most, it would have to be the three books of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  That removes the first four slots quite handily, but.....

There are also all of these books:

The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey (3 main books and many offshoots)
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (7 main books and one offshoot - so far)
"King of the Wind" by Marguerite Henty
The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley (20 of them)
"Stuart Little" and "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (7 more books)
365 Bedtime Stories: A Story for Every Day of the Year by Nan Gilbert (because I NEEDED a short story every day about the kids on What A Jolly Street)

As I sit and try to type a name for a book - just one at a time - onto the list, other books crowd up, wanting to make sure to be mentioned, as there are so many with such memorable characters: Tigger and Winnie-the-Pooh, the Mad Hatter & the Cheshire Cat, Horse Badorties from William Kotzwinkle's "The Fan Man", Walter the Farting Dog.....the list goes on and on....

And, of course, the classics that we were "forced" to read in class also influenced me greatly. I once fought the idea of becoming a published writer because I didn't want to end up like Captain Ahab, endlessly chasing the "white whale" of a pipe dream, for example...

I guess the best way for me to state this is simply: I gain a little something from all the books I read, whether it be simple entertainment that touches something inside to make it memorable or a life's lesson, as those old tales that used to end "and the moral of the story is...."

My life is and always has been surrounded and influenced by the books I've read, the places I've gone, whether actual places or just figments of the author's imagination. Parts of every book stay with me to come out at the oddest times - such as sitting in an outhouse in the middle of the North Maine Woods and, seeing a bright light, suddenly remembering a scene from Stephen King's "Dreamcatcher" involving a toilet and an alien being.........

Yes indeed.  Some books influence me by being thought provoking. Some influence me by giving me a great sense of humor. And some influence me by making me freak out in the middle of nowhere because of imagined terrors......

*gives an evil grin as the light fades*

Models,Copyrights, and Other Oddities

A few years ago, I started reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter Series. I like her.  She has a web site where one can go and look at the characters from her books in stock photos she's (or perhaps one of her helpers) found that looks like she pictures them.

In the interest of doing something similar for those who read my books, I used my new favorite play space, Facebook, and made a fan page for "Night of the Tiger".

I'm still kind of learning as I go about such things.

I started off with random pictures of men who looked like one aspect or another of my character, then came across Greek model Theo Theordoridis, who, even though I found him two decades after the tall, muscular, green-eyed, dark haired truck driver started haunting me, he's definitely the way I picture Kyle Benton:

Now - about copyrights. I found this photo on www.fanpop.com (http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/theo-theodoridis/images/29072244/title/theo-theodoridis-photo).  Now, as long as I tell you that, I haven't broken any copyright laws and I can use this picture.  It helps to talk to the model and get permission from them to tie them to your book - and maybe get them a little extra traffic to the sites that have photos, which can sometimes result in offers to do shoots.....

Theo was an interesting person to chat with.

For Teresanna, I haven't managed to get a response from Jarah Mariano yet, but since I'm showing the Kyle I have on Facebook, how about the lovely Tiger Lady herself, Teresanna Montesallo, aka Tanya LaMonte, aka Teran Hodges.....among other names used over 7 years. It was actually a very vulnerable shot that brought Jarah Mariano to my attention on this web site: http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f52/jarah-mariano-41967-10.html

Like Theo, she looks so much like the image in my head, it's scary, like in this wallpaper: http://www.celebs101.com/wallpaper--2-2716--Jarah+Mariano+wallpaper+Wallpaper.html

Then came book two, more models to find, but with Chase Benton, I had the two above to look at, my "fan base" was getting more active, and we found Dylan Griner, Los Angeles model, who seems to fit the bill.  http://www.headshotsla.com/portfolio/male/httpwww-joshuamshelton-com-headshots-los-angeles-dylan-griner-5/

For anyone who wants to know, it was while talking with Dylan that I got my education about getting copyright to use the photo on your book. The lovely photos like this one by Joshua Shelton have set copyrights, usually put into place at the time of the photo shoot.

In short, unless I specifically hire the above people and pay for a shoot for the cover of my book(s), I can't use their images as the characters on my covers, BUT I can, with the right links, say "this is what I picture my character looking like" and, hopefully, drive a little money their way by those who actually have money.  Something tells me nobody wants my pocket lint as payment for a shoot.....

But Dylan and Joshua Shelton, the photographer, were both very interesting to talk to.

But for Aloriah, I knew a local model who needed the money....ANY amount of money at that point, as she was unemployed and having a rough time of it, so I paid her what I could for a photo shoot, and my first actual copyright photos for use came about, with the lovely Belle Louve portraying Aloriah Starbird. 

She even colored her hair for me!  I thought I'd been truly blessed with Belle Louve and the friend who helped with the cover for "The Tiger's Cub"

Then I started writing "A Wild Tiger's Heart".  And I asked for help finding an Italian looking model for Stefan Savoldi - and Damiel Sobieray's photo appeared 16 times in my news feed the next morning.  Again, I was approaching a Los Angeles model for permission to use his photo for a character, not expecting anything more.....but he's done covers before.  He knows people. I dug deep and was able to come up with a photo shoot.

And, armed with a description of Kelly Starbird, Daniel found Patrice Garza, He arranged the shoot with David Wagner, Los Angeles photographer. I have more photos that I don't need to ask permission for me to use...like this lovely pic, the second choice shot when choosing which photo to use on the cover: 

When I sat down at my ancient typewriter in my apartment in 1988 and started writing a short, steamy scene that I planned to submit to Playgirl Magazine just to prove to my mother-in-law that I could make money writing, did I expect to be sitting here in 2014, talking about how to avoid copyright issues with models to represent the characters of your book?  In 1988, the most I'd seen a computer do was some mildly entertaining game play after about 5 hours of typing in commands. I'm living in a science fiction world according to my 1988 self.

I want to thank all the beautiful people above whom I've spoken to and have gained permission to tie to the characters. The conversations we've had have been great fun.

As to the only one whose official permission I haven't gained yet to represent my character.....she's a brilliant, strong woman who happens to meet a sexy trucker with green eyes........

to be continued.........

Crossing my "i's" and Dotting my "t's" - or something like that

As I'm in the process of editing scenes involving the characters from the first two novels as well as the ones I see every day in the "rushes" for the cover art, I find myself going back to the fan pages for the first two books.  That meant a slightly uncomfortable time when I realized something:

When I first found models to represent the characters, I was new to Facebook and simply posted the photos of those I thought looked like my characters, attached the links to where I had found those photos, and then sat back and hoped that the models wouldn't be offended. That was with the first book of the Tiger Series, "Night of the Tiger".

It was the basic means of being able to use photographs on one's web site without having to gain special permission, as one doesn't claim ownership to the photographs when attaching the site where the photograph was found. It allows for use of copyrighted material under the laws of the copyright here in the United States, as it's considered fair as long as that link exists to where the photo was found.

I changed my M.O. slightly when, quite by accident, one of the models I had suggested for Chase Benton found his photos on "The Tiger's Cub" fan page - and liked the page. I approached Dylan Griner via a Facebook message and discovered he appreciated the exposure. He was such a gracious young man, I approached the girl I was thinking of using for Aloriah Starbird and got her permission to use BEFORE I posted her photos. She even pulled in a favor from a photographer who wanted practice at shooting models instead of just locations and nice scenery and provided me with photos of her in character.....

So that was the M.O. I followed with book three, "A Wild Tiger's Heart". When presented with a handsome model in response to a public request on Facebook for an Italian looking man to portray Stefan Savoldi, I approached him as I had Dylan - and got a lot more than "permission to use".  I got a female model who also was willing to represent Kelly Starbird. I got a cover shoot to beat all cover shoots. As I've stated before, I am most grateful for Daniel Sobieray and his involvement in getting me hooked up with models and a photographer from Los Angeles who've made the experience of writing my first book so much more of a blast....

But as I was drifting off to sleep a couple of days ago, I had a little bit of a guilty conscience. I have never technically "approached" Theodoros Theodoridis about using his photographs as Kyle Benton.  True, I joined a Facebook group that encouraged sending letters to him while he was in a Greek prison for cocaine trafficking, but I never really got a response back.  And as for Jarah Mariano, the lovely Polynesian looking model whom I think looks the most like the Teresanna Montesallo in my head, I hadn't even approached her in that small of a manner.

I tried to remedy that earlier this week, separately messaging Theo, who was released earlier this year and has started modeling again in Greece, as well as Jarah.  Jarah still hasn't responded, and Theo responded with this picture:

In some of the messages he gave the group that I belonged to on Facebook as well as some of the videos he's posted on You Tube, I'm hoping this is the sexy Greek model's somewhat silly way of giving me permission to use his photos.  Not a bad average, if so, as that's 5 out of 6 approached models giving me permission to tie their images to my characters - naturally giving my fans other photos that I haven't used to look at as well when the links lead to photo shoots, Facebook pages, agencies that represent the models, etc.

So, my lesson for today for those following along with how to get your book noticed:  Make a fan page on a site like Facebook.  Find models who you think look like your characters. Don't be too shy to write to ask them for permission to use their photographs to represent your character, especially with the offer to direct people to the web sites that are going to get them noticed and will, hopefully, get someone else to think of them for the next modeling job they have that might need someone who looks like that model. You may find yourself with new connections that will make book covers much easier in your future.

Or you may just get a long distance Snoopy kiss from a nice looking model from another country.

Learning Photoshop Elements

When I first got published, I was involved in an extremely small fashion.  Quite simply, for both The Pequawket Valley News, where I was published almost weekly in their poetry section (which they called The North Country Bard), and for the original short story version of "Night of the Tiger", which appeared in the August 1989 Playgirl Magazine's Fantasy Forum section as "Tanya - My Bodyguard", I just wrote the piece, sent it in or dropped it off and there it was in print a short time later.  Playgirl was my first experience with editors, as they changed Tanya from living in a Winnebago to a condo, but otherwise, it was my words.  My concept.

Before I actually finished "Night of the Tiger", I was already starting to learn marketing, even though I wasn't aware of it at the time.  I learned HTML programming from a tutorial, and using what I learned, I put together a web site to showcase my own previously published poems as well as those from some of the friends I had make in a chat room.  As with the poems and short story, I sent the romance novel I had finished off to publishers, and when it was accepted by ebooksonthe.net, I put up a page about the book, including an introductory first few chapters.  I didn't know about programs like Photoshop, so my first attempt at a cover when the thumbnail cover from Connie Foster and Fannie Glass pixilated when enlarged basically wasn't that great.

As I'm finishing what is to be my third published novel, I'm hearing rumblings about this cover vs the other two.  Seems that, by insisting that this one is going to be more artistic and more "my baby" than the last two covers, I've opened a whole new can of worms.  The prior covers are being called "amatuerish", among other ruder things that I won't share here.  Prior covers that I thought much more eye catching were put down by my former publisher and, if they'd had their way, my last published work would have been put out with a cover that was much less "artsy" than the one I finally got them to agree to - under duress.

Needless to say, I'm taking the comments about all three covers to heart, and as I'm learning marketing techniques that I'm hoping will boost sales, I'm also learning another new program in tutorials that will help me to present a concept to the art director for the new publishing company I'm going through so that we can work together to make better covers for future works.

So, going back to something I learned from a co-worker many moons ago, I'm still learning so I don't get stupid.  I have to admit that, with the right tutorials and a little help from those who've used this program, it's actually kind of fun.

What would be my advice to others looking to publish their work?

Don't just sit back and let the so-called "professionals" have too much power over your baby.

Your work is like your blood, sweat and tears.  Don't let someone else who only sees it as a means of padding their own pocket do things that you don't approve of.

Learn things that will allow you to have more creative power and will allow you to go to your publisher with "I was thinking more of something like this" should they try to cheapen your work with a shabby cover.

For myself, that means learning what to do with covers along with the art director of the current publisher, bouncing ideas back and forth that are resulting in something we can both be proud to claim.  Now if only the Photoshop Elements 12 tutorials could also tell me whether or not these new covers will help boost the marketing strategies I started learning before the release of "The Tiger's Cub"....... 

Getting closer to the release/The Cover

As time is flying by faster and faster with me stressing out because I have to complete the editing for the rest of the pre-release things to happen, we at least have settled on the look for the text on the cover.  The final front cover looks like this, and the art director is starting work on the back cover, which, after seeing several other new books covers from several other publishing companies, we've decided will have the second choice photo from this same shoot as the back cover.....

(There is still a test to be made to confirm that the "gold" letters will look gold when printed on the proper paper with the right ink, but I'm truly impressed with how good this looks, and don't regret spending my hard earned cash for the photo shoot with Daniel Sobieray and Patrice Garza.  They really look marvelous, don't they?)

In the meantime, talks have begun for a re-release of the first two books, with only a new "Northern Bard Release" cover to be done on "The Tiger's Cub" and a new cover plus a couple of minor corrections to be done to the story in "Night of the Tiger".  I'll still be using Belle Louve as the cover model for "Cub", since she was able to give us full permission to use her photos and I simply can't afford Dylan Griner, but I'm going to start looking for an Asian/American looking model to be Teresanna/Tanya/The Lady Tigre for "Night".

Suggestions will be welcomed, especially if anyone can suggest a handsome green eyed muscleman to play Kyle in the same photo shoot without pushing my budget limits too hard....

Thank you to all who are still reading my blogs, and I sincerely hope you like Kelly and Stefan.

Melancholy Mornings

August used to be one of my favorite months.  

It meant that school was about to restart, allowing me to see all the friends I'd been missing all summer, even though that also meant the end of swimming lessons, where I had made other friends.  

It was a special month for family birthdays as well.  My eldest sister's birthday, with all the cousins and a bunch of friends coming over for a big bash, was always so much fun.

But as the years have come and gone, it's Dad's birthday that became more important...because I can no longer celebrate with him, give him the hugs and kisses I wish to give, whisper how much I love him and how much he meant to me....

His birth date was always easy to remember: 8/28/28

He was the youngest of nine children and the age difference between himself and his eldest sibling was 24 years.  He was an uncle many times over before he was even born, which was always amusing when a "cousin" made an appearance somewhere and I had to try to explain that to friends whose cousins were all close to our own age.  Of course, because there were so many and they had spread out by the time I made my appearance on Earth, I can't name most of my cousins on Dad's side, much less the second and third cousins.  I've been doing genealogical research for years trying to trace the various lines and have new "friends" on Facebook among the relations I've managed to locate.

Friends and family always speak about his sense of humor, as he was always one to go for the laugh.  His dance style always reminded me most of watching "The Wizard of Oz", as the Scarecrow's loose-limbed dance to "If I Only Had A Brain" was Dad's style.  

But he also had a temper.  It was rare for outsiders to see it, as he would bite his tongue, smile and bury it in front of the people he had to deal with on an everyday basis.  His children and the need to provide for his family mattered more than his own personal feelings, and he would do this rather than find himself needing to find a new job because he back talked the wrong person, but there were times when he would rage and throw things - usually out in his garage, where no one would be harmed except for him when he let the magma out of the well-tamped volcano.

I fought my own raging temper for years until I was able to do as my father taught me.

I also inherited his crooked smile, seen here in an undated photo of him with my mom, I suspect taken while they were dating before their marriage in 1956.

 

After watching him slowly go from this sweet, loving person who would do anything for his family to someone who looked like he'd been in a concentration camp over 18 months when I was supposed to be going out into the world to find my own way, I lost him on July 21, 1980.  My heart has never recovered.

So on this day, when I should have been requesting a day off in order to be able to celebrate Dad's 86th birthday with him, I'm writing a memorial to him while tears flow down my cheeks.  Instead of being able to hug him and kiss him and watch him play with his great-granddaughter, who is so much like him in her cheer and brilliant little mind, I pray that he is seeing her from wherever his spirit resides - and smiling like he always did.

I love you, Dad!

Beginning the Editing Process - With a Protest

Over this past weekend, I finished the rough draft for "A Wild Tiger's Heart".  My husband, hearing me say something to a friend, thinks that I'm done with this book and won't be using the computer much for a while.

Silly man.

I came home after a long day at work, called my sister to get some insight on one of the countries she's visited, but that I haven't had the chance to see myself (and that plays into my story line), and then I started editing....much to hubby's disappointment when he walked in to find me on the computer.

I'm still trying to figure out why he gets all bent out of shape about me spending time on the computer, because when he got home and we had finished discussing how our days went, he fell asleep beside me while watching a television show that he was interested in, but I wasn't.  I didn't change the channel.  I got up and went back to editing.

I also edit when he's out fishing.  Or when he's tying flies to go fishing.  Or when he's watching videos about how to tie certain flies so he can make them in order to go fishing.  Or when he's reading things like The Northwoods Sporting Journal about the things he can do and see when he isn't fishing.

In short, he likes fishing and I like writing.  I think it's an equitable arrangement that he gets to have his hobby and I get to have mine.  Until he gets grumpy about the computer thing and says things that he shouldn't about MY hobb

As I may have mentioned in another post, he and I met in 1980 and moved in together in 1981.  It's been a couple of years since then, and most of the time, we get along quite well.  The times we didn't get along in the early years was when he was listening to his mother say things like "Writing is a waste of time that could be better used doing other things" and accepting that her view of how life should be was the only way it could possibly be - even when he was rebelling against her himself.  The times we still have issues is when he opens his mouth and his mother comes out.

I suppose I could be the good little wifey of the era when our parents grew up, listening to every word my husband says and obeying him like it's the law of the land.

Um, yeah.  Like THAT is going to happen.  Maybe if he'd married that submissive little gal that his mama liked so much because she wouldn't say "Boo".....

I'm not her.

So, as I wait for a Fedex delivery and putter around before going in for another day at the Staples Gym, where they pay me to lift heavy things and put them down (as opposed to the other gyms, that expect ME to pay THEM for allowing me to go in and use their equipment for my workouts), I'll be editing "A Wild Tiger's Heart".  I'll be adding in some of the description from my sister and some friends I've already interviewed or will be soon about the countries my characters are visiting, but I never have.  I'll be correcting the stupid things like I found last night in which I went back during the rough draft to change something, but didn't complete the task, like that sentence in which I wrote something like "She was enjoying the quiet her on her porch."  (I'm still not sure which language the grammar correction app on my program thinks that's acceptable in, but suffice to say that the grammar correction app missed that one.)

And if you see my name on an arrest report for burning the room in my house where there is easily a few hundred dollars worth of fly tying equipment, I'll be editing in the jailhouse while I await my trial.

C'est la vie, as they say in France, which is one of the places my characters are going that I've never been....

A word about Writer's Block...

Someone on Goodreads asked the other day how I handle that ever popular ailment, Writer's Block.

I have a hard time with actually coming up with a constructive answer for that one.  This is how I think of this problem:

Seriously.  The stories basically are just there in my head, the characters running their lines until I can get to the keyboard and get the words down.  When one set of characters either isn't speaking to me or there's some sort of turmoil over where the story is currently going, I see who else is talking and work on another piece for a while.  There's very seldom a point when NO ONE talks, so it's hard to tell how to get past a "block" that never seems to occur.

Now, if a SCENE isn't quite working out, that's a different problem.  That usually calls for a nice pot of tea and some contemplation.  Before the tea is either gone or cold, I've usually come up with a rewording that works.

I highly suggest peppermint tea.  It opens the sinuses and makes it easier for the thoughts to get through the old brain pan.

Just thought I'd share something positive - and I apologize for the rant yesterday.

Right after my rant about the person who told me their dog could photoshop better than the pro I hired, I saw that Zelda Williams has removed herself from social media for a time because of haters.  It's truly sad that people hide behind their computer screens to lash out at others who are trying to make a better world.  So very sad that there are people who have to make themselves feel superior by cutting others down....

Everyone's a critic....

I posted a mock-up of the cover that included the possible title, which still needs to be adjusted size wise and color wise, but shows the font the art director is thinking will work quite nicely.  We were expecting some comments on whether or not that font will work against the background....

Here is what I posted:

*sighing because OBVIOUSLY there are Photoshop professionals out there who are OFFENDED by this cover because I can't afford a location shoot*

Okay folks.  SINCE you don't seem to understand this any other way:

1)  There are all kinds of stories recently about authors who are making thousands of dollars each month from romance ebook sales.  These are people whose books have BEEN in a bookstore, and therefore they can put on their cover "New York Times Best Selling Author", because the New York Times puts you on their list if you can get your books picked up by book stores, thereby having book sales in places OTHER THAN on Amazon.  (And, since the bookstore sales are low, it's becoming easier and easier to get onto that New York Times list PROVIDED you can get a bookstore to buy your book and put it onto their shelves.)

2)  I AM NOT one of those authors who is making thousands.  In fact, if I break a single thousand in sales this year, I will be EXTREMELY impressed.  As such, my budget allowed me to pay for the models and the photographer, who was able to use a little Photoshop magic to make it look like Daniel Sobieray and Patrice Garza were on an Italian street for this photo instead of in David Wagner's studio in Los Angeles.  I get offended when you put down David Wagner's efforts - ESPECIALLY as I can't even think about doing what he did for me.  If you're such a Photoshop pro that you feel the right to put someone else's work down, then show me how it SHOULD look!  If you can't make it look better than the 3D effect I saw when I printed this off in a 5x8 size on cover stock with the inks that the print shop will be using, GO FOR IT - but DON'T be giving me this "you can do better" bull unless you're the one who is footing the bill for this.

In my personal opinion, the only way this would have looked better would have been if I could have paid for the tickets to send Daniel, Patrice and David to Italy to do a location shoot....but I don't have the budget, so quit your whining or show me that I should hire YOU next time.......

3)  The comments should be on the TITLE at this point!  If you didn't pay attention to the multiple cover options over the past several months that we've been working on it, I don't want your belated opinions that are indicating that I should have spent my money elsewhere!  Maybe next time, when I'm asking for a photographer and models for my newest project, YOU SHOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU'RE THE EXPERT AND I SHOULD HIRE YOU!  (And, by the way, I'll be expecting YOUR covers for a redo of "Night of the Tiger" and "The Tiger's Cub", as I no longer have the publisher who is going to "cheapen down" all my hard work.  If you come up with a great idea and can show me that YOU are the expert I need to hire, I'll get the money into my budget to afford YOUR services.)

In short, if you weren't paying attention when I was asking your opinion on the backgrounds and you aren't going to demonstrate your argument by showing me what YOU can do, PLEASE follow the advice of Bambi's little friend, Thumper:

"IF YOU CAN'T SAY SOMETHING NICE (or at least, creatively constructive with proof that you can correct the problem you're pointing out), DON'T SAY NOTHING AT ALL"

Gypsies, tramps and thieves

My husband bought a laptop not too long ago, and Bill Gates' newest thing is to make you have a Microsoft email account that you have to sign into before you can use the newest Windows product.  Since the only account my hubby had was a Hotmail, it was used on the new laptop.  When he clicks the "mail" button on the Windows 8 start screen, it's SUPPOSED to bring him to his Hotmail account and let him see his new emails.

He doesn't use his laptop much because Lenovo seems to have a problem with not shutting itself off when the user is busily checking emails, surfing the web - and even in the middle of typing, as I discovered when trying to help him out by going through his settings to make it stop shutting itself off randomly.  (He's been an HVAC Technician for almost 30 years, but he rarely uses a computer, so I'm more of a geek than he is.  We have a little joke about me being his IT Tech here in our house.....)

SOMEHOW, even with as seldom as he uses it, Hotmail has decided he's having a security issue, and it keeps insisting that it needs to send him a security code so that he can retrieve his emails on his laptop.  (He can access the same email account from my laptop, from our desktop, from his phone, but Lenovo and Microsoft seem to have teamed up to have this "security issue" for him, making him miss a lot of important emails when he tries to check it on his laptop.)  The only problem with them sending him a security code is that they INSIST they have to send it to an email for our former internet provider, which we can no longer access, and that it can't be done RIGHT NOW - it has to happen in a month!

This little minion from Despicable Me has my reaction to that:

http://youtu.be/v0245xP_HVk

So I try to help him out by getting onto the phone with Microsoft.  It was like one of those scenes from a comedy routine, as the man I get on the phone has a very heavy accent and a middle eastern name, and while I'm trying to get them to just help me remove the defunct email account so that his "security code" can go to an email he can actually access, this guy is showing me a bunch of errors in which the Microsoft programs that are supposed to be running in the background are shutting down.  Funny thing, but my Dell laptop has the same programs shutting down in the background.

Of course, this ISN'T a Microsoft issue.  It must be something we're doing on the laptops.  Microsoft, according to every tech from Microsoft I've ever spoken to DOESN'T program in things to fail on system A so that, in a couple of years when they come out with system B, you will go out an buy it to get rid of the issues you've been having with system A.

Of course not.  That's why every IT tech at every company I've ever worked for can tell me exactly which spots Microsoft programmers have programmed to fail.

Needless to say, in order to get rid of this security problem and have the computers "fixed" for the next year, it's going to cost us money.  They can't just correct the email address on the account to allow a security code to be mailed to a functioning email address next month to allow my husband to access his account and actually get the emails that his friends and customers send him.

Do I need to post the minion link again to illustrate my reaction to the amount of money it's going to take for this?

Suffice to say that we aren't rolling in cash.  In fact, after the transmission fiasco with Chevrolet, we're trying to get my husband into a new truck, which means that in the next 6 years, we're going to have even less cash than we have right now.  We're going to be among those die-hards that still have Windows 8 on our computers when Microsoft decides they're no longer going to support Windows 8 because we aren't going to be able to afford all the "upgraded packages" that they'll come up with to fix the inherent problems with Windows 8.  (For that matter, I'll probably still be using the Windows 7 on my Dell laptop, as I can't even afford to put an office program on the desktop we had to replace because it was still running Windows XP and didn't have the memory functions to upgrade to 8, so I can't even do my writing on my desktop computer at the moment.)

SO glad that Bill Gates thinks everyone in America is just sitting on a stack of cash to pay him for this crap he keeps putting out......

*rolling my eyes so hard that I just found where that pea went that I stuck in my nose when I was 3*

Something I keep saying to myself: "I'm getting too old for this!"

I keep trying to remind myself on days like this that I'm only 53.  After 6 days in a row of doing what is called "throwing load" (otherwise known as breaking down pallets on which the product we need to sell comes in), my body is trying to insist I'm 153.

I've bruised like a peach for as long as I can remember, so I'm not at all surprised at the bruises that grace my forearms from the boxes that slipped as I was trying to hoist them onto the conveyances to bring them out onto the selling floor.  What bothers me is the aches in parts that I thought I'd been building up over the past year.

Ten extra hours ages my muscles by 100 years?

Heaven help me if I ever get another full time job that needs me to be hoisting things around.  I'm sure to feel 300 before retirement at this rate.

Theme for the week from Roger Allen Wade: So I says "well it must be your socks"

Every year for our anniversary, my husband and I take a week and go someplace a little "out of the way".

Okay.  I'll be totally honest.  We pick a place that looks remote, drive until we have no cell phone reception, and then drive another 20 miles or so.....

So this year, instead of the "castle on wheels" (a pop up camper), we went with a new tent that has a little screen tent attached.  Rather nice to be able to have a dry spot to walk in and not soak your bedding by opening the door when it rains, especially since we were planning on staying on a beach on a boat-in site.

Did I mention that, every year, we have rain?

That's Maine for you.  Thunder, lightning, tornado warnings (something becoming a bit more prevalent, as we were being told they were "microbursts" before radars became so sophisticated), all coming at you just out of the clear blue on a day when they weren't predicted when you planned this trip.....

So we plan for rain.  Tent with screen room attached.  Screen tent over the cooking area.  Port-a-potty with it's own tent to avoid a walk to a distant outhouse in a downpour.  Lots and lots of other gear, so we aren't totally roughing it, but the plan is to take at least 4 trips to get it all transferred from truck to camp site.

On the way in, we notice something a little strange.  What's wrong with these two photos, taken at two separate intersections?

You know that old thing about "You cahnt get thayah from heyah" we Mainers are supposed to do?  I think this is the source.  (For those who need a hint, how far is it to Gassabias from each intersection?)

We got to our destination.  We tried to get the remote camp site.  They were all full, so we camped in the easier to get to camp site.  There was only one other couple and us on Monday evening.  It slowly filled in all week.  Not the most ideal site, but we know some REALLY remote sites for next year....and it gives more excuses for going out riding around on back roads that take you call kinds of interesting places, like lots of beautiful lakes all around an active logging site.

Wednesday night, we got drenched, but not the "hail, high winds, yada-yada" they predicted.  It blows past by morning, and it cools us to a comfortable level.  Great week to get away from the internet and recharge the mental batteries for another year.

We packed most of the gear last night, leaving only the tents and enough to make a cup of coffee before leaving the campsite.  We got up with the sun and were out of the campground by 6:45 a.m.  We were well on our way, looking forward to breakfast just before hopping onto the turnpike to head for home.  A nice little 4 hour tour.....

But then there was a strange noise from under the truck.  It was a distinct grinding noise that shouldn't have been under the truck.  Pulling off to the side of the road to investigate, we discover we have no reverse gear....

No transmission and still 220 miles from home.....

We managed to creep along until we got back cell service, then the fine fellow who was on call for A-1 Towing out of Bangor came and towed us to the dealership in Bangor that is the sister store to the place we bought it.  My mom came and brought us to a U-Haul dealership across town.  We went back to the dealership, got all our gear, then back to the place we'd left the boat trailer when the tow truck couldn't take it, too.  Eventually, 8 hours later than expected, we finally made it home - fully 12 hours after leaving the campground.

But we figured out why that happened when we were just about an hour from home and it started raining on us.

It's tradition that we have a fierce storm on the way back from our anniversary trip.  You know, the kind of storm that the rain is coming down so hard you can't see the vehicle in front of you.  The kind of storm that eases off just long enough for you to get all the gear transferred to the garage without thoroughly soaking it, but making it so you need to drag it out on the next dry day before storing it for another year.

My advice to you?  Avoid camping in Maine the last week of July.  That's when Mother Nature likes to make sure we stick to tradition.


P.S.  The complete song I quoted from is here:  http://youtu.be/zgvrWlubkv4#aid=P-yAR7SHPHE  (Roger Allen Wade is a cousin of Johnny Knoxville from "Jackass".....*grin*)

Reflecting on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in light of a tragedy

Having a sad couple of days here, but not because of anything that happened to me and mine, per se.  Instead, I'm reading articles about this accident, which took the life of someone I had become friends with during an 8 year stint of working with his wife - and I won't pass on the version that has photos of Brian in action and that shares something his wife SHOULD have the common sense NOT to post......

http://www.conwaydailysun.com/newsx/local-news/114669-accident-071414

The #1 reason why this hits a sore spot is because of a pact my husband and I have had for years now.  His mother passed away in 1989 after battling Multiple Sclerosis for many years, and he had to watch her life slowly go downhill before pneumonia took her from a life that she no longer wanted to live.  My father died of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma after an 18 month battle in 1980, and he had gone to the point that he didn't even recognize family when his blessed release came.

Bill and I have both said that, if there was a diagnosis of one of these "slow death" diseases for us, we would go out and go after that Bucket List with gusto, hoping for just such an accident (and overturned kayak in the ocean, or a slip from one of the many trails we've hiked) to take us out before the real suffering starts.  Brian and I had joked about that and the fact that both Bill and I want our ashes scattered over the mountains we love.....

It's very sobering to see that he really did have an accident and will be scattered at his favorite mountains.

I'm reassessing my life as we speak and how to go about filling some of those "Bucket List" items, as this has shown me yet again that tomorrow is never promised.........

A Cover For My Baby

Those who have been following along know that I've been working with a model in California for a cover for my new work in progress, "A Wild Tiger's Heart".  I really can't come up with enough words to state how truly grateful I am that, when I asked my Facebook peeps for a suggestion for a model, the Universe walloped me with Daniel Sobieray, as he has been a remarkable person to work with.

Not only did he graciously give me permission to use his image for Stefan Savoldi, but he also suggested a lovely lady to be able to approach to use images of for Kelly Starbird.

When we got into a discussion about a cover and the possibility of having him and his suggested model friend on said cover, he made all the arrangements at his end of the world.

When the woman he suggested didn't make it to the shoot, he scrambled and got a substitute, then sent 509 photos for me to chose from and "introduced" me to the photographer, David Warner, so that I have a way to communicate directly with the person who will be putting in the background and doing any needed edits before I send the final image to my publisher, Northern Bard Publications. 

Talk about your hard choices!  If I had my way, I'd have 509 different covers because they were all so good!

So, being brutal, I first went through and cut back the group to 57 that I felt most suggested the characters and the way they interact.  Then, with those 57 in another file, I went through again, cutting out more and getting down to a final 6, which were then introduced to the Facebook community for an opinion.  This is the final choice for the raw image, which indicates Stefan Savoldi's fascination with Kelly Starbird and her lack of interest in him when they first meet.....with model Patrice Garza as Kelly and the marvelous Daniel Sobieray as Stefan.

I'm still in shock about how fast all of this has happened, as I just approached Daniel less than a month ago, and now I have a raw photo that the photographer can put in background and "clean up" for the cover.

Now I'd better get off my duff and finish the story....

And my most heartfelt gratitude, once again, to Daniel Sobieray for EVERYTHING, to Patrice Garza for gamely coming in on a moment's notice and getting right into character for some of the most marvelous photos I've had the pleasure to see, and to David Warner for including some "fun" photos for me to be able to see that they seemingly had fun doing this.....like this photo, that makes me wonder if they had an impromptu round of doing the hokey pokey in the middle of the shoot....

 

For those who still haven't caught on from prior blog posts, I was born well before the internet, before computers were more than science fiction, and when I was in high school, computers took up space the size of my house and could only be programmed with punch cards.  I remember sitting with the guys from "Section 8", a special handicapped area of the dorm I was in, watching them learn how to program Linux into the computers that they were being trained to use.  I remember the old Tandy HX1000 that my husband got me on a trade that only had 256 mb of memory, my very first computer that was mostly good for playing a couple of computer games that one needed a floppy disc to play.

Who would have ever thought in my youth that, at the "ancient" age of 53, I would be marveling over the fact that, through the magic of technology, I was able to "speak" to someone in California on June 9th, arrange all of this without a single snail mail going between us, and will soon have a book out there to join my other two?

We live in a world of magic, and our children don't even realize it yet!

Added on 7/7/14:  The introduction on my the page that holds my poems and openings to all my other works:  http://galadriel_emmons.tripod.com/awildtigersheart.html

Update 7/31/14:  David Wagner sent the final picture that will be the centerpiece of the book - and I'm stunned with how beautiful it is as well as the fact that , when printed off and set about 6 feet back, which is supposed to simulate a customer seeing it in a bookstore window, it really pops and almost takes on a 3D effect.  I'm so very happy that I trusted my instincts and let Daniel, Patrice and David do this cover.  Now I'm psyched to go finish the rough draft and add some extras in the first edit to make the story worthy of the cover.  Here is the final 300 dpi cover shot: