COLD, A CIRCLE OF MURDERS, SPRING

Well, here it is, Jan. 5th of the new year and it is extremely cold. Tem is 14 with a high of 21 today. Oh jolly. I am forced to go out to the grocery store as I am out of coffee creamer and if I don’t have the right kind this afternoon, when I am ready for a cup, there will be war somewhere.
I spent the weekend trying to print A CIRCLE OF MURDERS for editing (AGAIN.) I don’t know what I did, but I managed to print the first 76 pages twice. When I came in the office this morning,
the corrected version lay on the printer. I love good ghosts.
Now it is almost 11:15 and I am not dressed yet. Sister will be calling and I have nothing to tell her, so I shall get dressed, fun to the store, mop my kitchen floor, then start reading the rest of the book.
You all take it easy and be good to yourselves. Till next time, 1/2/DHL

COME ON SPRING

THE STONE KILLER EDITS DONE, UPLOADED, AMAZON KINDLE, ON TO THE RECKONING, EXHAUSTED

ALL THE EDITING IS FINISHED ON THE STONE KILLER, AND IT HAS BEEN UPLOADED TO Amazon.com.  Since the completion of the story on July 9th, my sister, and partner, has read this book out loud three times to me in the editing process.  We have  found, if you really want to catch the mistakes and listen to how your story sounds, have someone read it to you out loud over and over.  The errors pop out like a sore thumb as the saying goes.

After I formatted the manuscript for Kindle, and uploaded it to Amazon.com, all of a sudden I was completely exhausted.  Sister feels the same way.  I guess we have been riding our adrenaline since we started this book.  Tomorrow, I’m going out to have lunch with a couple of friends to celebrate the completion of the book.  Next comes formatting it for CreateSpace.  Then on to marketing THE STONE KILLER and writing the next book in the series, THE RECKONING.

I hope everyone has a great tomorrow and a fantastic weekend.  Please take care of yourselves and be safe.   Buy the book, I think you’ll be hooked on the series.

Dreamah

SMASHWORD FORMATTING, HALLOWEEN, SUNSHINE AND A BEAUTIFUL DAY

Jack-o-lantern (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photo of a Halloween trick-or-treater, Redford, Michigan, United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, while my sister is out buying apples so she can make her apple butter, (her home-made apple butter is delicious) I am busy formatting A Circle of Murders to upload to Smashword.  I am also formatting Creating  Kathryn Crown for Kindle and CreateSpace.  Fun, fun, fun.  It is a tedious process, but I will finish both books to be uploaded, I PRAY, by Halloween.

I love Halloween, the night when ghosts, witches and goblins come out to play.  I even have a black cat, who is afraid of anyone who comes in the house.  Halloween is a magical night when the boys and girls dress up for trick or treating.  Toooooooooo much candy.  I’ll buy several bags to hand out,  Hopefully, I’ll have enough children at my door so I won’t have any left because I will be tempted to eat it, and I don’t need to indulge.  I’m not fat, but I can stand to lose a few pounds.  Honestly, maybe several.  That’s why my treadmill is in my bedroom, and yes, I use it.

SO, LAUNCH DAY FOR CREATING KATHRYN CROWN IS OCTOBER 31st!  Our Halloween gift to all you who love books as much as we do.

Here in Colorado, we haven’t had any more snow where I live.  Other parts, higher in the mountains, might have or in the northern part of the state.  But, it has been chilly.  I had to go out Friday.  I was only wearing a sweater, but I had my coat in my car, just in case.  The sun was shining and it was a little chilly because of the wind, otherwise it felt great to me. When I got home, the outside temperature turned out to be in the low forties.  Right now, it is 56 degrees here in the Springs; tonight’s low is going to be 26.  That’s a bit cold.

The front and back yards are looking sad, all brown from the frost we had Friday night.  The elm tree still has its leaves and they’re still green, as most of the trees are around my house.  In town, the foliage has changed to the bright autumn colors and it is beautiful.  Up in the high country the aspens probably have lost all their leaves.  I have not gone to the higher elevations because I’m still adjusting to the change in altitude.  Coming from Florida, which is below sea level in St Petersburg, to a city over a mile above sea level takes several months to become acclimated.   I’m doing better every day.

Well, back to work.  Everyone, have a great day and stay safe and enjoy Halloween.

Createspace

Today I FINALLY reviewed again and uploaded for the fourth time A CIRCLE OF MURDERS manuscript for the POD to Createspace be sold on Amazon.  I have to say this has been an experience.  First of all, the people at Createspace are very helpful and I appreciate their assistance.  I also need to say that when you are uploading any work for an ebook or a POD, you can’t go over the text too many times before and after uploading your file.

As a new self published author, the excitement of uploading the manuscript for a Kindle ebook  was overwhelming.  Even though my sister and I have written as a team for several years, this was our first venture into the publishing realm.  I honestly don’t know how many times we went over the manuscript line by line to make sure each word was spelled correctly, that each comma was precisely placed, all quote marks were valid and paragraphs were in their proper place only to discover after uploading several mistakes sticking out like flashing beacons.  All in all with my sister, myself and friends, the  book was edited close to ten times before it was even formatted for Kindle and another four time for the POD version.  All I can say is that there shouldn’t be one mistake in that book, BUT, I’ll bet you, dear reader, could find one.

I have read books that I have found a mistakes in the text and have wondered how that could happen.  The answer is simple:  as the creator of the work, our minds automatically insert the missing word and ignore that ed or s added on a word where it doesn’t belong.   So all I can say is that if you find an error, please forgive the mistake and just enjoy the story knowing that we worked hard to make the finish product as perfect as possible.   Anyone who thinks being a writer is an easy job, should try it first.  So I wish all fellow authors the best of luck in their endeavors now and for the future.

Again it is after midnight and I need to shut my brain down and get some rest.  Tomorrow I resume my editing of THE STONE KILLER and hope to have that manuscript finished soon.   So, good night for now.