The Road Goes Ever On and On

A small victory for me yesterday - I caught up on my writing! I'm right where I need to be at the start of today.

DANCE PARTY

Of course, I'm not yet finished the book, so the dance party will be relatively quiet, with not too much drinking and an early night. There's work to do.

I'm having so much fun with this book, it should be illegal. I'm sticking in people I know left, right and centre. I'm putting them in places I'm familiar with (hello, Carleton University), and the adventure is just good clean fun. Only two people die - and neither of them are the protagonist!

I think that's a record for me.

Right, I want to get finished writing early enough to goof off and watch Mock the Week. With luck, I won't fall behind again today!

Oh! And before I forget, The Dying God and Other Stories is now available on the kindle! What will hopefully be the final proof of the paperback edition has been shipped, according to createspace.com. I should be getting that early September. With luck, everything will finally be in order and I'll be able hit that important 'publlish' button.

For now, there are two e-Book editions available. The Illustrated Edition, available via the Kindle HERE, and the Unillustrated Edition available in multiple formats via smashwords.com HERE.

I'll still fighting with the uploader at Lebrary.com. With luck, I'll be able to get that up and running soon.

Also, here's an excellent article on genre writing.

Right, now I must dash. Until tomorrow, then!

Bizz

Hair all tossed on end is said to be in a bizz; from the English word Frizz.

- John Mactaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824

Treading Water

Ever get that feeling like you're working like hell and getting absolutely nowhere?

I'm there right now.

I'm working like a maniac, but I seem to be going nowhere. Of course, in actual fact it isn't quite true. The Kindle Edition of The Dying God & Other Stories was updated yesterday, and is in the process of "publishing." I'll let you know when it's "live." As of this writing, it isn't.

The Lebrary.com edition is still up in the air. The Lebrary.com techies are trying to upload the updated version on their end. Hopefully it'll be up today sometime.

I'm still waiting for pay day (tomorrow), so I can order my 2nd proof of the paperback edition of The Dying God & Other Stories. That done, however, I'll be relatively in the clear... assuming I caught all the errors the first time around (and fixed them correctly).

Speaking of the paperback edition, $10.95 will be the fixed price. One person said it was reasonable, and that's enough for me!

Today, since I'm doing a whole lot of waiting about, I'll be researching press releases. Things I need to know include:

What they are.

How to write one.

What to include with one.

Who to send it to.

In short, absolutely everything. I'm such a noob at this self-publishing stuff.

Hello steep learning curve!

Before I move onto today's Forgotten English, I shall leave you with one of my favourite Thomas Bergersen pieces and a quick plug for his new album, Illusions, which is available on iTunes right now. Click HERE to buy it. You won't be sorry. That man is a musical genius (no, we don't know each other at all. I actually genuinely think he's a musical genius). Don't believe me? Play the music below. This song is on the album, I believe.

Now, today's Forgotten English is:

Astrologian

One who professes to foretell events by the aspects and situation of the stars. Formerly one who understood the motions of the planets without predicting.

- Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, c. 1850

Marvellous Music

1. Press play. 2. Press repeat. Follow instruction # 2.

I haven't done a post about music for a while. Most of you know I adore epic music scores. I always have. Yesterday I came across this piece (a shout out to KACSKA16 - the Youtube.com uploader who continually uploads amazing pieces). I haven't pressed the repeat button so many times in my life, I think.

I might have annoyed my neighbours yesterday.

In any case, this piece of music took me away and literally left me breathless. I do hope it's for sale on iTunes, because there is no way in hell I'm letting this one slide through my fingers. I loved it so much, I had to share.

Music is awesome.

It, for example, helped me immensely with the stress of trying to update my eBook files online. So far, the only successful update was on Smashwords.com. So if you're looking to buy an eBook version of The Dying God & Other Stories, head there. That is the Unillustrated Edition, but it's also less expensive. A fair trade, I think.

If you're looking for the Illustrated version of the eBook, I only have a Kindle Edition of that (so far), and there's an issue with Kindle Direct at the moment. I'm unable to access my book. It should hopefully be solved today sometime. Follow me on Twitter (@SMCarriere) or Facebook for at-the-minute news of when it's available.

The same has to be said for my Lebrary.com (it's the same as the Kindle Edition, in case you were wondering) edition. It's just not loading. Or at least, it didn't yesterday. I'm trying again today. Hopefully everything will be sorted out.

As I struggled so much with the updating of my eBooks yesterday, I didn't even get any editing done. I am quickly falling behind. Grrr....

Well, I should get on with it! Much to do, as always. Here's today's Forgotten English:

(Just as an aside, a Neil Gaiman doppelganger just arrived ... he's a courier, but I could swear that he looks like a younger version of Neil Gaiman. Right down to the crazy hair. Anyway...)

Foot and Walker's Line

Person who cannot afford to ride are said to patronize this old-fashioned system of getting there.

- James Maitland's American Slang Dictionary, 1891