Of Pumpkins and Formatting

Today is officially the first day of autumn!  I plan on celebrating with pumpkin spice candles and catching up on some long overdue reading.  Pumpkin bread and some good Halloween movies might also be on the horizon.  For now, however, I wanted to share some excited news!  Two things, actually!

1. After Death is all pretty and formatted and review/proof copies are on the way.  I can’t wait to see it!  Especially with the other two books!  It’s going to look so pretty. 
2. I’ve been asked to participate in a series of NaNoWriMo meet-ups for one of the local libraries!  I’ll be talking about my experience participating in NaNoWriMo and encouraging other writers on their journey.  I am so excited!  I’m a big fan of NaNoWriMo.  I used to have this really rotten attitude about it.  I though, “Psh… I don’t need a bunch of people telling me to write a novel in a month.  I’ll write a novel whenever I damn well please!”  But the thing about NaNoWriMo is that it challenges you to try something new, to maybe write a book you hadn’t planned on writing.  And it’s SO much fun.  It’s such a great way to open up your mind and take a chance on something that you previously hadn’t given much thought.  If I hadn’t participated in NaNoWriMo, Boy Band wouldn’t exist.  And guess what?  It’s only been out a few months and it’s done better than my other two books put together. So yeah.  I love NaNoWriMo and I’m really looking forward to meeting with other writers, sharing my experience, and encouraging them to keep writing!

As for my personal work, like I said, I finished formatting After Death yesterday and the proof copy is on its way.  It still needs a final read-through and last minute edits, but for the most part, I’m feeling really good about this book.  I’ve also found that the more I write, the easier the editing and formatting process gets.  At first, it was so daunting and intimidating and to be honest, I was kind of terrified of the idea.  But now, I actually look forward to it.  It’s so much fun to see your manuscript become a real book.  It’s also such a left-brained project.  Sometimes it’s really nice to turn off the emotional, creative, la-de-da side of your brain and just rely on the driven, logic-based, task-oriented side.  It’s not a side I consult very often, so whenever I do, it’s very efficient and eager to prove itself.  And it rarely lets me down.  My right brain is very talented, but it’s so easily distracted and it has to have like ten things to focus on at once or it gets bored and it’s very emotional and sometimes hard to work with.  My right brain is basically Dory from Finding Nemo.

That being said, I think I’m going to head out.  My dad is at the eye doctor again, this time for a consultation for cataract surgery.  Good times.  After that, however, I really want to try and make pumpkin spice muffins.  I also need to get started on a new short story for the next Lurking anthology.  Then I might just learn to crochet.  See?  That right brain is never fully satisfied.

Thursday Update

Hello, friends.

I haven’t been posting very much this week, mostly because I’ve been feeling a bit gross and under the weather and I haven’t really had much to report.  To be honest, I still don’t.  I’ve basically spent the last two days in my pajamas trying not to feel sick.

I did dig out my really old PC, the one that cratered when I tried to upload Photoshop to it like, a million years ago.  Clearly, that was asking too much of the poor machine because it short-circuited and croaked faster than my brain when confronted with Calculus.  My goal was to wipe it clean and just reboot it, and I thought I’d almost succeeded, but it’s still acting up this morning and I’m afraid it just might be a lost cause.

I have a MacBook which I love (and which I’m using right now), but formatting is so much easier on a PC.  At the moment, I’m helping my friend Paula format her new novella, The Conservative Congregant.  I was hoping that I might be able to use the new/old PC, but I think my old one is going to have to suffice.  It probably will.  It just has SO much stuff on it already!

Other stuff on my mind recently:

It’s officially August!  That means that as much as I love summer, I start fantasizing about fall on a daily basis.

It also means, however, that today, we are exactly TWO MONTHS away from the release of the third Cemetery Tours book, After Death, and I am still working on revisions!  I know I’ll get it out in time… But I’m really cutting it close!  My procrastinator ways are really testing me on this one.  But it will get done.  There is no doubt in my mind.

I’m also in the process of gearing up for two months of book events!  I have quite a few lined up for both September and October and I can’t wait for everything to really get started!  Autumn is the time for ghost stories after all.

Anyway, I’m beginning to feel icky and gross again.  Might go lay down.  If you’d like to make me feel better, go read my books.  Your reading power will heal me.

Much love, all!