This week I felt the deluge. All writers have lives and mine took over this week.
Some of your may not be aware that I'm disabled. I'm also writing a thesis, an autoethnography about my story. I've had to take much needed time away from my thesis because there is an apartment complex being built across the street from my home. I've tried to get some cooperation from my local Councillor on the matter, however he doesn't seem inclined to do much more than the status quo, even though, I told him I'm disabled. It was disappointing to be told that construction is an inconvenience to those in the area.
I was hurt and somewhat angered, he knew I had a disability, he was told I had to wear ear plugs at night to keep out the noise from equipment being delivered in the early hours of the morning. The incessant beeping, banging, and pounding during the day sent my symptoms through the roof. I was debilitated and in pain for days on end, all from the careless use of construction equipment. Another solution could have been found, but wasn't.
With all that said, I hardly had the cognitive ability to take on a thesis methodology I had started writing over six months ago. The deadline is looming and the university's registrar's office is less than sympathetic to my cause.
During the last couple of weeks I've also contracted another sinus infection. Uncertain of the exact cause, it was most likely a combination of stopping allergy medication so that I could go see an allergist for more tests (I only stopped for 2 days of the scheduled 5 since, I knew I was becoming more ill. I've since had to reschedule the appointment for another time that isn't during pollen season), which, could have been compounded by contact with the ubiquitous plethora of scented products people wear everyday. I'm only outside my home one or two times a week, but I encounters these products so readily that I usually have several sinus infections a year. It's all very disturbing.
So, I finally got a respite from the noise across the street; they're at the landscaping phase and with the torrential rains this week, they've been off. So I got some much needed quiet time. I was in conference with my thesis supervisor on Wednesday and with the quiet across the street and the medication doing its work on my infection (hopefully it will cure me of my symptoms, but first line meds rarely do the trick for me), I was able to work on my thesis, think coherently, and get some work done. It was a perfect storm that got me a draft of my methodology. I sent it off to my supervisor yesterday, what a relief. I really enjoy my thesis work, however, I need the kind of cognitive function I just can't access when I'm ill. It's all very discouraging.
On the writing front I was able to fix a problem that's plagued me about Gone Home since it went up last Friday. I formatted the book myself this time, since I wanted control over how it looked and didn't want to pay someone for every little change. For this book I wanted a clean table of contents. When I uploaded Gone Home last week I was exhausted. I wanted to meet my Friday deadline and did at 11 pm my time, however, I couldn't figure out the TOC. I dug deep yesterday after finishing the draft of my method paper at 4 pm and sorted out the TOC, no awkwardly formatted page numbers and no strange lines. Hope you have time to take a look.
All of this is to say that Book 3 is on the back burner for now, but I do have cover art to share next week and should have it out to my editor soon. We shall see....
You can find me through the week at kimwelsman.ca or on twitter @kimwelsman. I have a cool new trailer on my website and hope you have time to check it out.
Sunday, 30 June 2013
It Felt Like a Rainstorm All Week
Labels:
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Sunday, 23 June 2013
Busy, Busy—Did I say BUSY!
This week I’ve been busy with editors (for Gone Home), beta
readers (for Going Back), hospitals, Doctors (for health issues), and
formatting (for Gone Home). I can’t believe where the time went. It seems like
yesterday when I was drafting the concepts for this novella and now it’s
finally in print! Yes, Gone Home, Book 2 in the Alien Encounters Series is
finally ready on Kindle and it, like Going Home is only 99 cents! Okay, so
that’s the first busy.
Only 99 cents!
I wanted to give you a sneek peek so here’s
the synopsis:
In
Gone Home, the second installment in the Alien Encounters Series, Peggy goes
back to her home world, Sylax. We learn of Peggy’s life before her Earth
mission. She has a loving Mother, her CK-1 creator, who loves her like a
daughter, even for her PSI abilities. Mother wants Peggy to be a part of the
mighty Docan forest of Sylax’s past, but also wants Peggy to move on and accept
her greater destiny. Will Peggy accept her destiny as a CK-1 child and move to
a life beyond the Docan?
When Peggy arrives on Sylax she is met with
disappointment, and disapproval of her
failed mission, but was it?
Sylaxian
Council Member Sygen confronts Peggy with his concern, and fears that Mitch Christie’s destructive nature could mean yet
another dangerous member on the Council should Earth be invited to join. The
Queen and her second in command, QET Jenkins, want Peggy to return to Earth.
Will Peggy use her prowess to convince Sygen and the Council to welcome Earth
so she can go back?
The second busy task has been my other
novel, which I have been picking away at. Last weekend I went through edit
after edit on an editing device I stumbled upon called Editminion you can work
on passive voice, clichés, adverbs, and more with this clever device, still it is in a beta version. I went through 32 of the
44 chapters of my Lizzy novel. That’s my pet name for my baby, which I have been working on for some time now.
It’s a new adult fiction piece with a female protagonist, Lizzy, who is far
more special than she realizes. It’s called Strange Days on Earth at the moment
and I hope to send it out to an agent sometime this summer once it has been beta read and polished by my editor.
My third busy task takes me right back to
Gone Home and formatting! I think I recently encountered the term authorpreneur
used to describe us indie self-published writers. If I want my novella to look
good on Amazon I have to make sure it’s formatted properly. When I formatted
Going Home I got a terrible underlining problem on my ‘look inside’ feature
that it took Amazon over a month to get back to me on. I was terribly
disappointed, in fact mortified! It was a terrible calling card for my book and
quite offputting. I wondered what person would want to buy a self-published
ebook with all this underlining. I think it may have effected sales and
mentioned this to the Amazon staff, all fell on deaf ears until I went up the chain of command so to speak, what a
nightmare! So I have Amazon’s formatting guide and should avoid all of these
problems before I upload my ebook. With formatting and some advanced marketing
research done the book is ready for you to read. It’s only 99 cents you can
find it here or click on the book cover above.
All of this was done during a sinus infected haze. I hope I don't look back on it next week with disdain, well I guess it's my writer's path, we all take one.
All of this was done during a sinus infected haze. I hope I don't look back on it next week with disdain, well I guess it's my writer's path, we all take one.
Thanks so much for coming by and getting
involved in my writer's path. I hope to see you again next Sunday!
You can find me through the week at
kimwelsman.ca or on twitter @kimwelsman. I have a cool new trailer on my
website, hope you have time to check it out.
Labels:
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writing
Sunday, 16 June 2013
All Good Things Come in Threes......
Sunday June
16th, 2013
The longer I have been away from my blog, the more
it occupied my thoughts. I knew I had to resurrect it when I read elsewhere
that people enjoyed reading about the author's experiences in their blog posts.
The curious thing is I read this message three times. This was the
sign I needed to give me an extra push, and now here I am, back at my blog once
again. This time I'm here to stay.
My writing has kept me busy—really busy. Between the
Alien Encounters Series and writing my thesis there isn't much time
left in the day for anything else; good thing my husband is a full time student
or there would be trouble!
I used to write my story in two weekly segments on
Tuesdays and Fridays, but now I feel I only have time for one segment a week
and will post on Sundays. I want to connect with you, the reader, and I also
want to spend time on my craft. I guess it's a balancing act, one that I miss
and one that needs to be fostered again.
I'm putting the finishing touches on the second
book in the Alien Encounters Series. I think it
comes in just under the true novel mark at about 39,000 words, but still a good
read and worth the money for 99 cents! I should have it ready to go out
the door next week. You'll be able to find it on Kindle. It has what I think is
a pretty cool cover and if you think I'm spot on or totally crazy I'd love to
hear from you either way. Here's the cover:
Please let me know what you think in the comments
section. I would love to hear from you.
So "Gone Home," is almost out the door.
My third novel in the serial, and yes this one is a true novel and not a
novella like the other books in the series, it’s called, "Going
Back." I will reveal the book's cover in my upcoming installment, next
Sunday.
I'm also working on two other series and I'll
reveal those in either next week's post or the post after that. As I say, I
have been busy.
Thanks so much for coming by and getting involved
in my writer's path. I hope to see you again next Sunday!
You can find me through the week at http://kimwelsman.ca or on twitter. I have a cool new trailer on my website, hope you have
time to check it out.
Labels:
Alien Encounters Series,
ebook novel,
Going Home,
Gone Home,
kim welsman,
novella,
science fiction,
writer's path,
writer's spirit
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