Category Archives: Writing

Operation Lotus Sunday, Writing

Still one sale at a time

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It was 30 years ago that we were in China, making a 14 day tour of six cities as part of our 30 day Asia tour that included four countries. It was a wild ride. Were we young and foolish or young and bold?

A few days ago I make a post to my Facebook timeline, then shared it with my children, to let them know of the anniversary. I included a link to Operation Lotus Sunday. A friend who read it posted to say it was a good read. Then another friend posted and asked which of my books I recommended for her to start with.

Now that’s a hard decision. How does one choose from among their “children”? I told her OLS would probably be best, but included in that post some thoughts about my other books and why they might or might not be for her. Two FB friends then posted. One, a friend from high school and college, recommended OLS to her. Another, one of Lynda’s cousins, did the same things. Or at least she said she and her daughter read it and “really enjoyed it.”

That’s where the on-line conversation ended, on Sept 18. Then on Sept 19 my Amazon reports showed I’d sold one e-book copy of OLS. Was it the friend who enquired? Could be, or it might be someone else who saw that thread. Or it could be totally unrelated to that thread. However it happened, I’m thankful for the sale.

All of which shows I’m still at the point in my writing career where books are selling one at a time, and (most likely) as a result of personal contacts I make. I wish it were otherwise, but that’s how it is.

Stay tuned.

Writing

I Guess I’ll Keep On

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It’s the 17th of September. So far no book sales in this month. I’m working on my next novel. Plus I’m doing advanced work on a non-fiction book aggregating and publishing some works from the 1820s. Ideas for my next two short stories are beginning to filter through. I may be able to start work on at least one of them soon.

So why does writing and publishing seem so hopeless right now, like I’m wasting my time?

Lack of sales is the main reason. The work is another. This past weekend I wrote 6,800 words on my new novel. That was very satisfying, but also tiring. I did my walks on all days, but had very little time to do things needed, even taking out the garbage, doing typical weekend yard work, or any of a half-dozen other things.

All of this for zero sales. And 5 sales in August, 9 in July, and 52 so far for all of 2013. That’s lower than 2012, with more titles for sale. It’s at this point I ask myself why I’m bothering.

Yet, except for the work, I’m still in, even with the lack of sales. I wonder why. It’s probably irrational behavior I should see a shrink for.

Tomorrow at work I’ll take time for that long-range project, also for creating the better quality figures for my professional essay I’m planning to publish ASAP. I’ll keep plugging away, as irrational as it may be.

Writing

August 2013 Book Sales

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Sales dropped again last month. After selling 20 in June and dropping to 9 in July, I sold only 5 in August. They were of four different titles. I sold two copies of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, one of which was in England.

At Amazon’s Author Central, my author rank has dropped to the lowest level ever (excepting for a one-day mistake caused by some change in Amazon’s algorithms.

Here’s two copies of the table: one at full size and one at reduced size that I can link to in my self-publishing diary at Absolute Write.

Headshots, Writing

Writing and Publishing

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Sunday I got back to work on Headshots, the sequel to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, my baseball/Mafia novel. As I wrote FTSP I didn’t plan for it to have a sequel. My friend Gary Boden pointed out all the hanging plot lines and said it was set up great for a sequel. I realized he was right. The first chapter came out last October, as I was casting about for what to write next.

As I say, Sunday I wrote on it again for the first time in ten months. The second chapter flowed fairly well. I knew exactly what I wanted to write and had thought out the chapter for a while. I added 1700 words to the book, bringing it to around 3,150 words.

Then last night I was back at my computer in The Dungeon, with the book pulled up, ready to add 500 to 1000 words to start the third chapter. Except, I stalled. I’m writing about one of the characters from the first book, and I can’t remember one key fact about her and how I handled that. I wrote what I think is correct, but then thought maybe I’d better wait. It would be too easy to write that and never get around to checking the first book to make sure the two are correct.

I talked about this (via Facebook messaging) a few days ago with a writer colleague, and she asked me how long it would take to write the book. I said that I didn’t know, since I had a lot of other tasks to complete as well. Some of those are writing and some publishing.

On the writing side, I need to finish the graphics for my professional article, “The Learning Curve”. I suppose graphics are writing related, though it feels a lot like publishing. Then I need to create a cover for it and publish it. So writing quickly turns into publishing for this item.

Other publishing tasks on the near horizon are:

  • Make (or have made) a proper cover for The Gutter Chronicles, for both e-book and print book; upload the improved cover to all retail outlets; create the print book and publish it.
  • Make (or have made) a better e-book cover for In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People; upload to all retail outlets; create a print book for this and publish it.
  • Try a different internal font for Doctor Luke’s Assistant and decide if I want to make a change; if I do have the print cover redone and re-publish it. I’m pretty sure I’m going to do this. After comparing books with 12 point and 11 point fonts, I think the 11 point works better.

So there is a summary of my upcoming work. Writing and publishing. This is how it will be forever, so long as I remain a self-published writer.

book reviews, Writing

Book Review of “The Art and Craft of Storytelling”

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I don’t remember where I picked up The Art and Craft of Storytelling by Nancy Lamb. It’s not a used book, so I bought it at a bookstore somewhere, possibly the nearby Barnes & Noble or at a writing conference.

I started this book sometime in early 2012, I think, and read as far as page 118. I found it to be a great resource in exactly what the title says: the art and craft of storytelling. I also found the author to have a good attitude toward new writers. So many how-to-write books, blogs, and conference presentations seem to be far removed from the newbie. Typically the author or presenter is decades into their career and don’t really relate to the new writer. Nancy Lamb does.

I even took time to track down an e-mail address for her and wrote her an e-mail, thanking her for her book and her attitude. That started a brief e-mail exchange between us, and she was just as helpful in those as she is in the book.

At that point in time I put the book aside, other matters pressing me. In late July I was looking for a writing book to read and picked it up. I had forgotten about it in the more than a year since I put it back on the shelf. It looked like a new book, but I found a little marginalia in the early chapters. So I went to the last chapter and read it to see if it sounded familiar. It sort of did, but the book had none of the usual signs of being read through.

I vaguely remembered Lamb’s name and thought Maybe I exchanged e-mails with her. Sure enough I found them, learned where I was in the book at that time, and decided I would read the rest. Feeling kind of crazy, and having just read the last chapter, I read the chapters one by one from the back to where I had left off before. This worked because the chapters somewhat stand alone. On occasion something was referenced to an earlier chapter, but those were easy to work through.

Lamb has a logical approach to her work. She covers many things that relate to how a story comes together, what its elements are. Her writing is clear and helpful. The best part is she hasn’t forgotten what it’s like to be a new author. I like that.

This book is definitely going in my library, and I’ll read it again. I’m sure I”ll get something out of it each time I read it.

Health, Writing

Harder to Multi-task

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I’m concentrating quite a lot on my health these days. I used to use most of my noon hour to write. Now, as soon as I finish eating, I go outside and walk, either a half-mile or mile depending on weather. Once it cools down some I may punch that up to a mile and a half.

Once I get in from my walk, I may have fifteen minutes left in my lunch hour, a perfect amount of time to get most of a blog post written, or edit part of most of a chapter either of my own work or someone’s in my writers group. Alas, I find I have no concentration for either.

In the evenings, after supper, Lynda and I go for a walk, usually between one and two miles. It’s in the upper 80s at this time, so when we get home I go down to The Dungeon, where it’s cooler and I can cool down faster. And write, perhaps a blog post, or get going on a chapter in a new book or short story. Or prepare two other books for their print versions. Except the last few nights I haven’t been able to concentrate. I end up playing mindless computer games for an hour, cool down fine, but am unproductive.

It’s as if the quest for weight loss and better health have taken over my mind, my being, and I have no ability to concentrate on anything else. I suppose that’s the way it’s been a good amount of the last ten years with my writing. And for the five years before that for genealogy. But it’s worse now. Now the health quest is consuming me, and I have no ability to multi-task my brain and do some activities in the other things.

Unfortunately, I estimate it’s going to take me another year or even a year and a half to get to the weight range I should be in. If I keep up the walking and occasional flexibility exercise, maybe add a little strength training, I’ll be in good shape to match my proper weight. Can I go that long with single tasking?

I don’t think so. Somehow I have to come to a point where I can do all the things that interest me, all the things that I need to do, and do them simultaneously.

I think that will be my goal for the rest of this year: balance competing, good activities. I’ll report back later with the results.

books, self-publishing, Sharon Williams short stories, Writing

July 2013 Sales

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Here’s the book sales story for July 2013. Eight sales total. Seven of those were e-books and one a print book. That’s of six different titles. So that’s down from my 20 sales in June, but otherwise is way ahead of what I sold in February through May, and just behind the nine in January. Still not even thinking about bestseller lists.

I added one book in July: “Charley Delta Delta”, a short story. I’ll past in two sizes of my sales table, one easy to read and a smaller one of the size I have to use at my self-publishing diary at Absolute Write.

non-fiction, Writing

What’s Next? A Professional Essay

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Just a few minutes ago I uploaded a short story, “Charley Delta Delta” to Amazon and Smashwords. It’s my twelfth item to publish (if you count the two versions of Documenting America as separate items. Time to move on to something else to write.

So it’s time to decide what to write next. Actually, I’ve already decided. I believe I will write the following, in this order.

I have a professional essay I wrote for work titled “The Learning Curve: 11 Suggestions for Accelerating Your Professional Development”. The essay was written specifically for my employer, CEI Engineering Associates, Inc. It needs some modification for the general market. I began going through it a couple of months ago, and got half way through it. I believe I can have it ready to publish in a week. Except I’ve got some graphics in it, and would need a cover. But they’re simple graphics, and I hope I can do them. So, I would hope to publish this in the first half of August.

This week at work I began writing the second volume of The Gutter Chronicles: The Continuing Saga of Norman D. Gutter, Engineer. In two lunch hours I wrote 850 words. The first volume was a 42,000 word novella in fifteen chapters. It deals with workplace situations, humorous things that have happened to me over my 39 year engineering career. I figure the new one will be about the same, and have about half the chapters planned. I have no schedule for this, but now that I’ve started I think I’ll keep on it till it’s finished. Although, I haven’t really thought ahead to the ending.

The next novel I’m going to work on is Headshots, the sequel to my baseball novel In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I may be crazy to do this, given how the first one didn’t sell, but that’s what I plan to do.

Once I get past them I’ll stop and re-think.

Health, miscellaneous, Writing

In a State of Rebellion

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Over the last week or two I figured out what my problem is. The symptoms are that for the last month I haven’t felt like doing much. I come home in the evenings and just play computer games or read Facebook sites or…similar things.

I didn’t think it was burnout. I completed Operation Lotus Sunday in late May, and did all the publishing things by mid-June and had it up for sale. The before the end of June I had “Kicking Stones” polished and published and “Charley Delta Delta” written and ready for the critique group. I have multiple projects I could move on to next. One of them, a professional essay on learning, is written and half-edited.

Writer’s block wasn’t the problem either, as the ideas are flowing, and any time I did sit down to write the words flowed well. And my lethargy, if that’s the right word, spilled over into other areas. I quit checking the mail for bills, or checking my bill pile for what was due. I quit updating my financial spreadsheet, which was months behind. And at work I quit doing a number of the routine things I’m responsible for, focusing instead on the non-routine things. And I came close to quitting blogging, and updating my Facebook author page.

My problem wasn’t that I couldn’t do what I needed to do, it’s that I didn’t want to do what I needed to do.

Then it finally hit me: I was in a state of rebellion. Not against authority, but against responsibility. I was thinking of the carefree days of youth. I had been diligent for so long in all my work areas (home, office, writing), church, health, etc. that I was tired of being responsible. So I let all my responsibilities go, except I did keep working on getting to a point of better health.

I came on this realization over the last three weeks. To pull out of my rebellion I’ve been slowly ramping up my activities. I wrote a series of blog posts here last week (or maybe it was the week before), and did some posts on my other blog. That felt good to be writing again. Next I tackled my household financial spreadsheet. I managed to get caught up on expense and income entries last weekend, though I still have distribution and balancing to do. And tonight I verified that all checkbook entries are in the register and added the balance. So I think I have a better grasp on finances now.

At work I began to get back to doing those routine things. The last two days have been good as I got caught up on a bunch of training records, getting completion certificates out and managing our on-line training subscription. All that is pretty much up to date, and tomorrow I can tackle some other things.

With those off my mind, I can turn to the responsibility of ordering books to send to my launch team, and for selling by hand. I have a few people who want to buy them. And then I can turn to completing the essay and making an informed decision on what writing project to jump into next.

I’d love to write more, but I’m out of time if I’m going to be responsible about doing all that I must do, so I will end this. While at the doc’s office today I wrote out a schedule of blog posts for both blogs. I have the next two weeks covered, so you should see me here more often.

Operation Lotus Sunday, Writing

The Story Behind “Operation Lotus Sunday” – The Project Planned

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This is the fifth in my series of posts about how it came about that I decided to write Operation Lotus Sunday. Here are links to the other posts: The Story Behind Operation Lotus Sunday – Where I Was.

It was the last day of the 2004 Write To Publish Conference in Wheaton, IL. As I said in past posts, I was trying to answer the question: Am I a writer, or did I write a novel? Meaning, I had one novel written that I was shopping around. Was that the sum total of my book-length writing, or was I going to try to make a career out of writing? Career might be too strong of a word at this time. Did I intend to write multiple books with the idea of making money from that writing?

I think the answer to that question had always been yes, otherwise I would have just gone ahead an self-published Doctor Luke’s Assistant. But my writing ideas, as far as fiction was concerned, were limited. I had the idea for the baseball novel, but hadn’t done much with it. So I was trying to decide.

One other idea that had been running through my head also came to gel about this time, but for a non-fiction book. I had written, a couple of years before, four newspaper guest op-ed pieces. I called them Documenting America. In these I took an American historical document, quoted it, commented on it, and tied it to a current issue. The local newspaper ran them, and I received some good compliments from people who read them. I had thought about making them into a newspaper column that I would self-syndicate, but at this conference another idea came to me: turn them into a book.

I don’t know that the book idea completely gelled this week, but it came close. I had already written more than the first four, maybe up to about twelve, just to show myself that the idea was viable. If I turned them into a book, however, I could flesh out the chapters. The op-eds were limited to 500-750 words, but the material, as I saw it, would be better with chapters in the 1250-1750 range. If I did a book of this, I could do a better job with it.

So suddenly, I had the completed novel, the fledgling baseball novel I’d been thinking about for a year or so, and the new novel based in China. Plus I now had the non-fiction book to write. This was enough ideas for me to realize this was a writing career, not just a one novel wonder.

The last day of the conference I found myself at the same table as James Scott Bell. I had attended his daily class on fiction writing and learned much from it. As we shared what we were writing, I told about the book that had come to mind during the conference. Titled China Tour, it would follow the trip we had made in China in 1983. I would base the itinerary on our trip and the sites on our trip diary. The conflict would come from the American couple whose marriage is in danger, and who become embroiled in a CIA operation while there due to a case of mistaken identity. Their marriage would be under greater strain due to the extraordinary measures they would have to take as a result of the CIA operation.

Everyone at the table said it sounded good. Jim Bell didn’t say much, but he nodded his head as I told the plot, especially when I said I had the trip diary an 1983 tour books as source material. He definitely approved of that.

So, that’s my story of how I came to write the book. China Tour, which was always a placeholder title, became Operation Lotus Sunday just before publication. Sales are slow, but it’s out there. It’s my fourth self-published novel, and I guess I’m a writer.