Some more progress...

Okay, lets see... minor things really.
I've been free writing a lot, which isn't productive short term. It does however sometimes come in handy, after all, Bootstrap colony, New Dawn, Princess Rescue Inc, and Afraid of the Dark are all a product of my 'what if' free writing, so who knows what the future may bring?

I have also been working on book 6, I've cleaned up some of the raw notes (getting rid of present tense mistakes) and I've doubled, nay tripled (okay almost) it in size. I'm still having trouble with the structure, so I may need to bug someone about it. :)

I also did a bit of pecking in "Alive" another free write what if book. It's solidifying a bit.  Let's just say that.

I also blocked out one of the short stories for 13 Degrees of Separation, and I added a bit to Barkeep. :)

Edit: oops, forgot to mention, I went and started putting the pieces to 13 Degrees of Separation together into the final manuscript. I've added the 7 edited short stories, with 1 outstanding and the other 5 I'm still working on. So far the page count is 262... but I expect it to be close to 450 by the time the others are added.

My 'niece' took a hand at AD. She's been bugging me to have a go at my books for a while. I said okay. I pestered her for an update, she grumbled and growled at me. Then she said something about I have too many ellipses (...) and I ramble. She's fixing it. Um... Okay...

On the home front, dad and crew went to the memorial in New Hampshire. Dad called me at 5am this morning. (Gee, thanks dad. Fortunately for you Baby beat you by 20 minutes with my wake up call) Anyway, he said it was a quick ceremony, with about 100+ people there Saturday.
I'm not quite ready to strangle Baby for his 4am wake up calls... getting there, but not just yet. Soon though if he keeps it up for much longer. Luckily dad will be back on Thursday. Then he can stumble around like a bull in a china shop and wake me up too.
Baby is cute when he's begging for food. It's also funny to feel him trying to whack me with his tail to get me awake (he likes to tickle with it too... and don't get me started on the cold nose!) ... but it's really funny when I'm all sweaty. (hot night Friday) He got all pissy when his tail stuck (he had to tug it off) and then he has to go clean it. :D lol The disgusted look as he sat there cleaning it made my morning. :)
He's also a ball when he's hyper, he may be an old man, but that hasn't stopped him. He's been full of piss and vinegar all morning.

Usually you can set your clock by him, early in the morning, and around 8pm each night, the hyper train comes roaring through, all arched back, curled tail, eyes dilated and full of mischief, running all over the place... The sound FX he does are priceless. (think Chomps) lol

 

And then of course there is the duo together:

You gotta love that haughty expression. :)

 

Oh! I added scene transitions to all the books, those out, and those coming out. I also cleaned up some errors I found and some that Amazon's new Auto-spellcheck feature pointed out. That's a nifty thing.

If you see this:

...*...*...*...*...

That's my version of a scene transition.

I was going a bit squirrely near the end. (it's easy but tedious to do) Oh, if you notice the TOC (Table Of Contents) and links are messed up, that's because I did the fixes in Open Office since I don't have Word anymore. I need to deal with that later.

 

Also, I ordered a TV stick. Or box. The G-box midnight MX2.

http://liliputing.com/2013/05/g-box-midnight-mx2-tv-dual-core-tv-box-is-made-for-android-xbmc.html

This looks like a winner, but I'll know more when it comes in later today. I'm going to have fun playing with it. (I hope)
It's not just for fun, it's also so the family can finally Skype with family back east here on holidays and special occasions... and so I can do some research. (yes, I did say that) You'll know why when you read... um, telegraphing... sorry Rich. :)

Anyway, I'll have fun until Thursday when Edison shuts my power off all day for an upgrade to the system. ALL DAY. When it's supposed to be 96 out. Joy. It's going to be a hot week, more of the 100's for days and days.... ugh.

Seriously. I am so going to be climbing the walls right along side BABY! :P

 

 

Progress report

Over the past several weeks I've been a bit distracted with family issues. (see previous post) I'm finally getting back on track. This weekend was my birthday, I finished the first draft of a short story "A Matter of Breeding" on my birthday.
I also got to meet Thomas on Sunday for the party, one of the great guys who have given up their time to help me with my copy editing issues. Thanks Thomas. Hopefully your lovely latina lass lets you out of the doghouse soon! ;)
Anyway, Thomas got a bit of a sneak peek at some of my thought processes in my writing, as well as a quick look at the concept material I've gathered for several of the books I am working on, along with upcoming books. :)

He and I also talked a bit about Jethro's armor design. Here is his skinsuit WIP 4, textured. I still need to fix a few bugs, and I need to get the rigging sorted out.

This was going to be his full suit, but I think I went a little too far overboard with the Halo motif so I decided to start over with a more bulky StarCraft 2 look later. (You'll see it for the cover of Jethro 2 First to Fight, and most likely it's construction here and in my Deviantart gallery)
We also talked about the shipyard, 3D printing, TV sticks, and some things I'm not going to get into. >:D

Anyway, his trio had a ball playing with the trains and in the pool. I hope to have them (with his latina lass hopefully!) over again soon. Their kids are incredibly well behaved. I am looking forward to introducing them to the rockets the next time they come over. Seeing the kid's faces when they launch one should be fun. Thomas and I hit it off pretty well, he and I are alike in some ways and talking with him was fun. His talks with Jeff seemed... interesting. lol

I have also been testing Natural reader:
http://www.naturalreaders.com/
I wanted to see if it would help me with my editing. Many people suggest (or demand in some cases) that people read material out loud to themselves or have someone read it to them to see if it makes sense. Some writers are now using narrators. I've played with the idea before, but I gave up. I tried it again with "A Matter of Breeding" Sunday and yesterday.
It's an interesting program, the free version has it's faults though. It trips over some words, and it has an incredibly annoying pop up. The program halts every 3-4 paragraphs and it asks if you if you are ready to buy it yet. There is a 5 second countdown before you can hit the later button. That is aggravating.
I know Windows has a built in narrator that this program builds off of, but it's even worse. The voice is horrible. I've also used UltraHal in the past, but the site and software haven't been updated in years. It also has a virus on the site so BEWARE. I warned you.
I'm going to keep exploring I guess, though I'll try the reader one more time with the short story "The Last Round Up." I'll peck at that later tonight or tomorrow. (most likely tomorrow, it's getting too warm in my room)

With the kids out of school and the summer heat beginning, I am expecting more calls to play board games or go swimming. (or both) I am not sure how much that will impact my schedule. (No plan survives contact with the enemy!) Take yesterday for example, we got the call and spent the afternoon playing games with the kids at my sisters. (and everyone had a coughing fit and watery eyes from Jay's spicy pork concoction!)

I have also been working on spinners, rendering them during the morning when it is cool out. I've rendered about 3/4 of the aliens from the Federation universe. (those without fur or feathers) and I've been rendering my 3D Zoids. (those I've finished)
I'm debating retexturing my Blade Liger (or finishing it's textures) and rendering it again. Maybe even animating it.

I'm trying hard NOT to telegraph any story bits (spoilers) here and I am looking into expanding my exposure on the web as recommended by a few people including Rich. (It's hard, I hate having my picture taken! I may use a 3D image of Jethro as a place holder)

Oh! Almost forgot, Brandon finished AD over the weekend, and I'm waiting on Jim to finish PP before I make any more decisions on the editing front. :) I need to look into the mentioned POV shift issues too.

That's it for now!