Category Archives: Operation Lotus Sunday

“Operation Lotus Sunday” almost published

This will be a quick post. I’m killing time till I have to go to the Centerton City Council meeting to present a contract for a new project. After that it will be take home Sonic burgers for supper.

Well, yesterday I got as far as that paragraph and had to quit due to pressing things at the office, then going to the City Council meeting. They talked a long time about other things, then about our contract. In the end they approved it, but I didn’t get home until 8:15 p.m. or so.

But last night I completed the uploading process of Operation Lotus Sunday for the Kindle store. I worked on uploading the print version as well, but couldn’t complete the process. I completed it this morning. It’s now in the queue for checking. I hope that will be done by tomorrow, and I can order a proof copy.

So, things are progressing.

[adding a smaller version of the above for linking at Absolute Write]

Trying to avoid tinkering

While I’m waiting on the cover for Operation Lotus Sunday to be completed, I’m working on a short story, the third (and I think final) in my short story series dealing with teenage grief at the loss of a parent. I almost finished it last night, and should do so tonight.

I also spoke with two people who can do covers for my books that are currently in e-book only, but which I want to get out in print. I don’t know what their schedules will be. I think I’ll have one in about a week, but the other could take three weeks. I’m really in no hurry on these as they are not a priority.

This means, however, that Operation Lotus Sunday is just sitting there, waiting for input from me. I could go ahead and format it for e-book and print and have that out of the way. However, as I wait for the cover I’m also waiting on others from my launch team to perhaps give me comments on the book. So I wait.

Even as I wait, I find plot lines and text enhancements coming to mind. I think of a scene in the book, and realize I could have written it better, or provided a small detail that would make it a better scene and thus a better book. Those have all occurred to me when I’ve been away from The Dungeon, and thus away from the official manuscript on the desktop computer down there.

So far, I have resisted making changes. I’ve allowed those thoughts to pass away as I go from place to place, and by the time I get to The Dungeon they are gone. I could tweak the book forever. I could improve the language, enhance the scenes, differentiate the dialog.

But I have to call it quits, and so I will. Look for a publication announcement soon.

What to write next?

Readers of this blog will perhaps remember a time last year when I mused about what I was going to write next. You can see the first of those posts here. I had several follow-up posts over the next weeks.

Well, I’m about there now. Operation Lotus Sunday (previously titled China Tour) is very close to completion. Last night I began what I hope is and expect to be a final read-through. In 30 some-odd pages I found only two minor things to change, which is a good sign that this truly will be the last read. Of course, once the text is complete I’ll be at the work of formatting it for two different e-book sites, and also for a print book. I’m still working with the cover designer, who gave me the first draft but who also had a couple of physical setbacks in the last few days. And, once the book actually launches, I’ll have some promotional activities to do.

But, believing that the best marketing for your published books is to write and publish more books, it’s time for me to plan what will be next. I’m actually pretty sure what the next novel will be: Headshots, the sequel to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. Last October, when I wrote the first chapters of four different books to gauge my interest and energy level, this was definitely in second place. I will be writing some outlines for this soon.

But I’m thinking I may write a couple of short stories first. I have always planned to write a third story in my teenage grief series that began with “Mom’s Letter” and continued with “Too Old To Play“. Once again it will be based on my own experience with that, and will include teenage memories relived in adult years and a poem. I’m thinking this will be next, and it will be titled “Kicking Stones”. The story line has been running through my head for a while. I’m also thinking of another short story in the Sharon Williams series, taking “Whiskey, Zebra, Tango” and turning it into an unconventional CIA agent series. This one will be harder, as a story line is only now coming to me, and I don’t know for sure that I can pull it off. It seems like I have a good character and a good basis for writing a series of stories, but great inspiration hasn’t come yet.

I should probably work on a book to follow-up on Documenting America, on the Civil War, while we are in the Civil War sesquicentennial years. But when I wrote first chapters last October I found this one the most difficult. So maybe that’s to happen in the future, but I think not now.

So, will I soon dive in to Headshots, or are a couple of short stories coming? Stay tuned.

Twenty-two Pages to Go

I’m currently proofreading China Tour—or should I say Operation Lotus Sunday. This will probably be the title.

Conventional wisdom says a writer can’t proofread his own work. The problem is we read it how we want it to be, not how it is. So we read right through mistakes. This can be mitigated by reading out loud. However, even this doesn’t guarantee that the text will be perfect.

On this round of editing, which is mainly a proof-read, I have 22 pages to go. I should finish that today. I’ve been taking a few moments every morning and noon to supplement evening time to proofread. I’m reading it out loud. And I’m not catching that many mistakes. Most of what I’m finding is minor improvements in the wording that will make the narrative flow better. Or I’m adding a comma here and there. Or I’m taking commas out. A few times I’ve found “and” that should be “an” or “of” that should be “or”. Things like that.

One other thing I’m finding is some repetitiveness. I cover something on page 150 that I cover again on page 175, perhaps the behavior of the kids, or some little piece of the spy operation that the same couple discusses twice. I’m also finding a couple of holes, still, in the story. It seems I really didn’t stress the fact that the two couples are on their own, without any help from the CIA or their cooperative Chinese organization. I added some scenes at the CIA bureau in Taiwan, which helps this. Yesterday I added something to a communication from the mysterious Dong Fang about the CIA not being able to get any more assets into the country. I need to find a place for that info to go to the other couple.

And, I realized I never gave much backstory for the tourist couple, Roger and Sandra Brownwell. A careful reader will be able to glean much from their interactions with the other couple, and from a few well-placed words. But I haven’t given each of them a page or two that we could know something about their life before Sept 11, 1983.

I think what I’ll do is finish proofreading today, type the changes as I have them. I won’t print it, however. Then I’m going to look at my wife’s comments on the book, which are somewhat detailed. Then, I’ll re-read some of it to see where I can work in the additional backstory. At that point, I’ll probably print it once more, and both Lynda and I will do a careful reading of it one more time. I’ll read quickly, in two or three sittings if I can, to catch any more repletion. Lynda will read it for another proofreading and to see if she agrees with my edits.

So we draw closer, ever closer.

Things that are Important

Has it really been ten days since I posted here? On several days I had good intentions, and ideas in mind. But they came to me at a moment when I couldn’t post, and when I did post they didn’t come to me.

But much has happened in the interim. Mostly good things. Here’s a summary.

  • The print edition of Doctor Luke’s Assistant is officially published. And the listing on Amazon is consolidated, with the e- and print editions showing on the same page and on the summary listing.
  • My third grandbaby, Elise Marie Schneberger, was born on May 10, weighing in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. Today I head west to spend the weekend with her, and with other members of the family. This is my first granddaughter.
  • Found the missing pictures from our China trip in 1983. I wanted some of these for the cover of China Tour. Plus, who wants to lose photos of such a momentous event? I knew they had to be in the house somewhere and had spent a couple of hours looking. As typical of when you look for something packed away, I was looking for the wrong kind of box. I finally began going through the shelves in the storage room in the basement, marking all boxes on the shelves, and found then in about a half hour of looking. Found a good one to use for the main illustration, which I may add to this post.
  • Completed round two of edits of China Tour, and began round 3 (the final round), which is really just proofreading. Or maybe I should say if all I find is proofreading type changes it will be the last round. If I find any substantive changes needed, then I’ll need another round of edits.
  • My launch team is giving me reports on the book. I’ve heard from 5 out of 12 who have read it completely, and from several others who are some way into it. So far everyone likes it enough to stay on the team. Even my wife read it and said it was good, that she couldn’t guess ahead to what was going to happen.
  • The cover designer has begun production. It’s a somewhat simple cover (said the man who can’t do that kind of work at all) using photos from our China trip. I’m not quite sure when it will be done, but it seems likely before I actually finish all edits for the book.
  • The title will be changing, probably to Lotus Sunday or perhaps Operation Lotus Sunday. One other possibility I’m mulling over is Saving Dragonfly.
  • Yesterday I sold the first paperback copy of Doctor Luke’s Assistant. That earns me $1.17 in royalty, because I kept the price low. It sure feels good to sell one. That’s also my first sale of anything in May.

So there you have the news from Bentonville/Bella Vista, Arkansas. If I had to guess I’d say Lotus Sunday will launch around June 1st. I’ll keep you all posted.

Progress on Two Books

After a week long hiatus, I’m back. Actually it was a little more than a week. What have I been doing to further my writing career, you ask?

A few things. I put out three or four calls for launch team members for China Tour. Twelve people responded. I e-mailed them the book, and outlined the tasks for them. Most of that happened before my week away. Over this week I’ve been getting comments back. So far five from the team have told me they finished the book and given me comments. Based on those comments I’ve been brainstorming and editing.

One common criticism was that the book starts slowly. Those who coach writers say at the very start of the book you should introduce your protagonist and plunge him/her into conflict. The Brownwell’s conflict at that point is marital difficulty. The start seems slow, I agree. Yesterday I may have come across a way to overcome that. While the Brownwells are on the ferry returning from Hong Kong to Kowloon, a meeting of key players in the Taipei office of the CIA is meeting, explaining the need to get the dissident out of China. Hopefully this will stir things up a bit more at the beginning.

Beyond that, on China Tour, I’m working through the book from beginning to end, looking for inconsistencies in the plot, places where the wording can be better, typos, or just any improvements I can think of. I have about 70 pages left. I’m also looking for photos to use on the cover, though in truth I haven’t done a whole lot of that.

Also on the table this last week was completing what was needed for the print edition of Doctor Luke’s Assistant. Veronica completed the cover, sent the file to me, and I uploaded it. It was accepted with no problem. Thanks, Ronnie, you did a good job. So I ordered the proof, reviewed it, and found one mistake in a font size of a running header. I fixed that last night and uploaded the new file.

Today the e-mail came saying the book is acceptable per CreateSpace standards, and was ready to either order another proof or publish it. I decided to publish it. It’s available to purchase right now at CreateSpace, for $14.00. Here’s the link: https://www.createspace.com/4213834. It should be available on Amazon proper within a few days. However, I make a significantly higher royalty on CreateSpace, so if you’re thinking about buying it….

So, now you know why I was absent for a week. China Tour will be my main writing focus until it’s published. I still don’t know when that will be, but I’ll keep you all posted here.

 

To Justify or Not

One website/blog I monitor with some degree of regularity is Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer. Joel is very big on taking great care in the interior design of a book. He encourages people to use a high-end program, such as InDesign, to create the interior. He does acknowledge, however, that the standard Microsoft Word is going to be used by many or most self-publishers, and so he has done some work with that.

One thing Joel encourages is that the book text be fully justified—that is, that the text be flush against both the left and right margins. This leads to decisions and action needed to avoid the odd spacing that comes from justification. When my dad set type for The Providence Journal, he would handle this with hyphenation and spaces of different size, all with a hot-lead typesetting machine. Today Word does a lot of that. You can set hyphenation zones, and you can even tell it, to some extent, how to adjust spaces.

Another caution Joel warns about is eliminating “rivers” of text, often called “ladders.” You probably know what I mean. This is when the white space between words aligns in a mostly vertical pattern between lines. It tends to capture your eyes and pulls you away from reading. This can be solved, says Joel, with careful attention to typesetting techniques, including adjusting word spacing, changing hyphenation from what may be optimum, and in some cases kerning or compressed type on a word or two.

Along the way Joel also talks about widows and orphans—not the people, but the single lines of text at the bottom or tops of pages that are cut off from the rest of the paragraph. You can fix those easy enough, but then you might have a “spread” (i.e. two pages of a book facing each other) with the last lines not aligned with each other. Again, techniques are available to solve the widows and orphans problem without creating the spread problem.

It seems to me, however, that all of these (except maybe widows, orphans, and spreads) are solved by simply not right justifying the text. Let it be a ragged right edge. What’s so awful about that? The spacing between words is constant, as it is between letters. This is the most comfortable reading. When spaces vary between words to allow the right side of the text to be all at the same vertical line, reading can be more difficult. It takes a very skilled typesetter to adjust those spaces and hyphens so that the text justifies and the comfort of reading is not diminished.

It further seems to me that the most important thing in laying out a book is to make the reading easy. Margins, text size and spacing, the presence of page numbers and running heads—all of these make reading the book easier. Right justification makes it harder. So why do we right justify?

My three print books so far [Documenting America, The Candy Store Generation, and Documenting America, Homeschool Edition), are all left justified, ragged right text. I did it that way because it was easier to typeset and because it is the most comfortable reading, with the latter reason being the main one. Full justification is possible with Word, but I decided against it. I don’t even hyphenate words with the ragged right text, which is possible, because I think hyphenated words detract from the comfort of reading. Joel would not approve.

When I was first making my decision concerning this, I made trips to both the library and Barnes & Noble to randomly check books for justification vs. ragged right. I found almost none that were ragged right. I found many that, with full justification, had awkward words spacing, hyper-hyphenation, and rivers of white space. They were distracting to read. The few that I found with ragged right were easy to read. And, to my eye, the text looked as attractive as fully justified.

So my question is why does anyone do justified text? My conclusion is that someone, possibly readers, probably printers, for sure typesetters, thinks is looks better that way on the page. Joel did a guest post at a blog and I asked that question. His answer: reader expectations. I’m not sure about that, however. I kind of think the readers don’t care all that much. Will they go to the bookstore, pick out a book for browsing, find the text ragged right, and put it down as something less than professional? Maybe, but I kind of doubt it. I doubt most readers will even notice.

This weekend I spent a couple of hours reading in Not A Fan, by Kyle Idleman. This is a book were are doing an all-church study in right now, with sermons and life group classes all using the book. I was well into my second or third hour of reading when I suddenly realized that the text was not justified: it was ragged right! With no hyphenation! I’m very attuned to that, and yet I was more than 50 pages into the book before I noticed it. If I didn’t notice it, I doubt anyone else did. This is published by Zondervan; it’s not a self-published book.

So how did Zondervan manage to typeset a book with ragged right, non-hyphenated text, and do it so well that it took someone looking for it over 50 pages of reading to notice? Why is this book selling tens of thousands of copies when it has what some would call an unprofessional layout? You can be sure I’m going to spend some time studying the layout and seeing what I can glean from it. I think I know what it is, but want to study some more before saying anything. The print version of Doctor Luke’s Assistant is in the mail to me right now, and the print version of China Tour is only about two weeks away from beginning production.

Virtual Book Launch Team

The time has come to begin generating pre-publication buzz for my newest book. As I’ve reported on these pages before, it’s my latest novel, “China Tour”. Here’s what I put on my Facebook author page, and on a Facebook writer page I’m a member of. I’ll slowly be adding it other places.

I finished the first round of edits on my latest novel, and am ready to begin putting a virtual book launch team together. My tentative title for the novel has been “China Tour”. However, I’m thinking of changing that to “Smugglers and Spies”. The title is very much up in the air. The one-sentence description is: An American couple’s troubled marriage is put in greater danger when they become embroiled in a CIA operation while touring China. The book is about 73,000 words, or about 255 pages when formatted for editing. It’s set in 1983.

This is the first time I’ve tried to put a virtual book launch team together, so I’m feeling my way. What I thought I would ask of my team:

– Read the book. I’ll supply a Word or PDF copy ASAP. I’d ask that you read it within two weeks, if possible, and give me some feedback.

– Give me feedback about the title.

– Obviously, if you find the book is something you couldn’t associate with, you could back out.

– Within the first month of publication, make three posts about it on-line. This could be at Facebook, Twitter, a blog, or even through an e-mail to friends, the goal being to get some buzz started.

– Once the book publishes, post a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

– After publication, I’ll give everyone on the launch team an official copy, either paper or electronic at your choice. I’m hoping to do the paperback version almost simultaneous with the print version, but the cover will dictate that.

Anyone want in on the launch team? Message me here at Facebook, or e-mail me at norman_d_gutter AT yahoo DOT com. I’ll have the file to you within a few hours.

The offer is also available to the few readers of this blog. Post a comment here if you’re interested, and indicate what type file you want (if I already have your e-mail). Otherwise just e-mail me. If you don’t specify file type I’ll send a PDF. I’d like to get about 20 people on the team.

Change of Writing Plans for the next Two Weeks

I had a meeting to go to this morning at the City of Bentonville Planning Office. As expected it lasted about 45 minutes. The City library is pretty close, and since my colleagues and I took separate vehicles (because they both had other meetings to go to afterwards), I went to the library.

A library is almost as good as a used book store. In some ways it’s better, because it will be better organized. Rarely do I visit a library and wind up disappointed. Today was no exception.

I had two purposes I wanted to accomplish there: 1) see if my inter-library loan books had arrived; and 2) see if they had the index to National Geographic magazine that included the 1970s and 1980s. I went straight to the reference desk, where the lady was alternating her gaze between books and her computer. On her desk were several books that looked like inter-library loan books, and, though most of the covers were obscured by the paperwork wrapper on each book, one looked like the cover of a book I was expecting.

They were indeed both of my books. She had just processed them and only needed to scan the bar code before she could give them to me. It took less than a minute. The books are harmonies of the gospels published in 1988 and 1996. I haven’t done much research into modern harmonies, relying instead on harmonies from the 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s that I could access on-line. These two will help to flesh out my research.

At the reference desk I also learned they had the exact NG Index I was looking for. One more minute and I was at a table, with the index open, looking at the entries for China. Perhaps I should explain more.

We have a ton of NG mags in our basement storage room. When we moved to this house in 2002 I tied them up for transport, and haven’t looked at them since. From time to time I’ve bought a few newer ones, or had them given to me, and put them loose on the shelf. I have a recollection of one or two articles in NG in the late 1970s or early 1980s about the terracotta soldiers buried in Xian, China. We visited those in 1983, and I have a fairly vivid memory of them. One of the characters in China Tour, the tourist husband Roger Brownwell, mentions this NG article and has it with him. I figured, as some last minute research, I should re-read the article. It’s been thirty or so years since I first read it.

Last night I went to the shelves with the mags. Kn0wing only that it would be somewhere between 1974 and 1983, I began looking. What I found was that: many of the strings I tied them with eleven years ago had come loose, making handling difficult; they were stacked two-deep on two shelves, making for 10 feet worth of shelves to go through; the lighting was so bad I couldn’t read the words on the binder (except for the date); and the bundles of mags, such as they were, were not necessarily all of one year—except I found duplicates, so maybe other bundles were all of one year, and I just couldn’t find them in the poor light on the ten feet of shelves. I gave up.

Thirty minutes of on-line searching revealed that the National Geographic Society does not have an on-line index, and it seems no one else had created one. Hence, knowing I would be near the library today, I decided I would see if they had the index I needed. I knew if I could just find the month and year of the magazine I needed I could find it in the storeroom.

Sure enough, I found it in the index: April 1978, with an earlier, briefer article in December 1974 that I should also look at. As well, I found articles in 1982 and 1983 for two of the cities we visited and which are scenes in the book. Tonight, God willing, I should be able to find them and set them aside for reading.

I may not learn anything new in these articles, but it’s absolutely essential that I not include in the book anything that wasn’t true in 1983, which is when the events in China Tour took place. Plus, in these articles I may find a few ideas I can use to enhance the authenticity of the book.

So, since I have a way to find specific NG issues needed, and since I have these two books for only two weeks from inter-library loan, I figure my reading and writing priorities have changed. Tonight I will:

  1. first find the NG issues on the storeroom shelves and bring them upstairs.
  2. second begin reading in one of the two harmonies.
  3. edit at least 40 pages of China Tour. I’m currently through 78 pages of the 250 page book.
  4. if time allows, begin reading the key NG article.

This may be too much for one night, even with leftovers needing only a generous dose of micro-waves before eating, and even dessert prepared. But we’ll see. For sure most other writing projects, either in the works or on the mental to-do list, will be shoved aside for the two weeks that I have these two books.

How great is a library?

Next “Writing” Steps

China Tour is done. As I posted on my Facebook author page, I finished the first draft of the novel on Sunday March 17. The word count is 71,571.

Now I’m letting it sit for a while. Not too long, however. I think about a week. I’m anxious to edit it and publish it. It’s also possible a plot hole or two may need to be filled. Early in the book I may allude to something later in the book, only to find as I wrote that I never added the thing I intended. Those all have to be fixed. My past experience is that the first round of edits will result in more words, as I think of things I need to clarify, or more references to put in, especially in a book in a foreign culture as this is. I suspect I’ll add close to 1,000 words in this edit.

The second round of edits will be for the purpose of trying to reduce the word count. A first draft will almost always be wordy. Too many modifiers, too much passive voice, too many times of not thinking whether a certain word is needed. I don’t know where this will end up. It’s possible I’ll find whole sentences to come out or paragraphs to drastically trim. Those 1,000 words from the first edit may be offset and more in the second edit.

Edits after that will consist more of proof-reading, and incorporating things that beta readers might find. Not that my past experience with beta readers pointing out minor glitches is all that good. Normally I receive, if I’m lucky, general feedback about publishability, though on well over half of the books I’ve given out to beta readers I heard nothing from them at all, not even if they read the book.

So for a week, or two at the most, I’m not writing new material or even editing. I’m going to use this time to do the following.

  • Prepare Doctor Luke’s Assistant and In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People for issue as print books. I finished most of DLA last night, and should finish it tonight.
  • Complete, or at least get well along, on my 2012 income taxes. I’ve made a start, though there’s much more to go.
  • Decide on whether to enter two or three poems in a poetry contest. At $5 per entry it’s probably throwing money away, but….
  • Write a query letter for a magazine article idea I have and sent it to a major Christian magazine.
  • Write and mail a genealogy letter to a cousin. I’ve been putting this off due to busyness.
  • Keep up with blogging.
  • File a bunch of stuff.
  • Work with the cover designer for China Tour.

So the time will be full, just not on new writing.