Busy? Me? Feh.

ohhh, I've been so neglectful of my blogging duties. I've just gotten off my Oblivion addiction, so working on Watching Yute is coming back to the forefront. As much as it can anyway, with other duties in the way.

Caitlin is currently working on teeth #4 and #5, and right on the cusp of crawling. Today I put a sign on the stairs gate to KEEP IT CLOSED! We actually had that gate there for a long time before we decided to try for a baby- it kept pizza delivery people safe from the Lucy. The insane, noisy dog. Caitlin's now getting to sleep pretty nicely most nights.. gives us a little time to actually.. do things. Like update a blog, or for Michelle, work on her scrapbooking business she's started up, or do things with her new mothers club.

The optimist club keeps chugging along. Right now we're working with the Pitt Meadows Lions club, to put together a Chinese newyear's dinner. In the past seven years or so, it was run by the Pitt Meadows society.. but they're kinda tired of it, and called in us. We're not going to reinvent the wheel on our first year. Dragon dancers, buffet dinner, door prizes, draws, etc... It's a big project, but should be a good fundraiser.. between this and the haloween project we did, we'll actually have a decent bit of scratch to work with for a change.

It's been a LONG time since I've drawn anything for the sake of drawing. Not enough hours in the day, especially now that Caitlin's here. Arg, I'm tired. I feel like I have a lot more to say, but my brain has checked out. Say g'night, Gracie.

Norwalk Strikes! And writing updates

Right now baby Caitlin is lying beside me, trying to fight the need to sleep. Or vomit. It seems that at a function of Michelle’s mom-and-baby club, one of the babies present did their best impression of Linda Blaire, projecting vomit down the length of a table. As a result, several babies in the club are now suffering with what the doctor thinks is the Norwalk virus. Whee!
Norwalk tends to have a rep as being really horrible, but the reality is, it’s just a nasty flu. Nasty enough that Caitlin and Michelle (who is now suffering a slightly lesser bout with the virus) played musical beds last night, fleeing a series of infant bile eruptions. Laundry was a constant process with just normal baby issues.
Now it is a war.

Lifehack status: In the hands of the 2nd editor, out of 7-ish.

Watching Yute’s progress has been stalled by a combination of Caitlin, and Oblivion. (Playstation 3 game) But actually, Michelle’s been using the laptop a lot more lately, and my time on my main machine has been occupied a lot by graphic contracts, so it’s just not a good writing timespan. I work in spurts.. and I’m not in one right now.

Lifehack edit copy is here!

The one and only copy of the Lifehack 2nd edition 'edit copy' is in my hands. This means it's not time for me to rally a volunteer edit/proofread team! The book will be passed from editor to editor, each one highlighting any mistakes or other ****-ups they see. Eventually, the mutilated book will return to my hands, for me to go through and make corrections to the master manuscript before the official release.
Whoops! Just now my mother (who was on the volunteer editing crew for the first edition) has got her hands on it- she's pretty fast tho...

Anyone else who wants a crack at the edit-copy of the book, let me know, I'm forming a list. When all is said and done, there's a 'at cost' copy of the finished tradepaperback or hardcover in it for ya, as well as a mention in the forward.

(I'd say a FREE copy, but that's just not in the budget for a huge, world renown publisher like myself....)

Lifehack progress and game pre-order stupidity.

Well, I'll have the 'edit copy' of Lifehack in my hands this thursday. I had it sent to our PO box in the US, saving a pile in shipping and junk.. but It's gotta wait until my wife goes shopping across the line.

I've got my own copy of Oblivion, (game of the year edition, no less) after a couple extra weeks of delay in the Canadian release.. traditionally, Canadian release delays are attributed to legally requiring a french/english cover and manual.. but this delay was a lot longer than usual.

They're smarter about it now though.. Instead of making a whole other package for the bilingual cover and manual, they just take the english US copy, and slap a new wrapper around it containing all the bilingual junk. The face-stabbingly stupid art of it all, is that essentially 0% of games that get treated to a francophone-friendly addition for the printed material... well... they're all english in the actual GAME...

Somewhere is there a player who knows only french, who picks up an RPG game, overjoyed with the detailed french manual, then pops the game in and suddenly knows how to play the game with it's english content? It's a typical example of ridiculous canadian red tape. And it kept me from Oblivion:GOTY for two added weeks. Heh. Oh, the cruelty of it all.

Ironically, if I just ordered form the US instead of doing a pre-order locally, I would have been playing a lot sooner.

Note to self: Never do a pre-order again. The last time was for Warhawk. I did the pre-order online. Granted, Bestbuy had a sale that must have been a mistake, the game priced at around half what anyone else was selling it for... but when you do pre-orders, isn't that supposed to tell the store how many they need? Why then did they have none for the people who essentially made a reservation?

Well, that was OK, it turned out good for me.. futureshop beats competitors prices, and gives ya 10% better... so I got one for my friend, too. They weren't so happy to be selling a brand new game for half price... the irony? Futureshop and best buy are owned by the same parent company.

Edit copy of Lifehack ordered

That's about all I have to say..

been busy spooking folks at the 'Ghost Ridge', but managed to get a little work done yesterday.
(ghost ridge is a volunteer 'haunted house' type event, staged in 2 barns.. one for 14+, one for kiddos....) At the end of it all, the clubs helping run the show split the money. I'm there with my Optimist club, 'natch.

I took the 3rd night of the event off to go to a friend's halloween party. My one yearly excuse to get good n plastered, and I did a darn fine job of it. The world was still kinda spinny at noon today.

Back to the ghost ridge tonight for 3 more nights of 'acting'.....! Then I'm gonna pass out until thursday, when Oblivion GOTY edition gets here... as some point in there, I'm going to get moving on 'Watching Yute' again.

I haven't given many updates on the international students front lately.. but today I got an email from 'Asuka' (from Germany) She's considering coming to visit in the summer...!

Softcore Lesbian Porn without the Payoff...

….was what a certain lawyer-wannabe friend of mine had said about AZU-1:Lifehack. Recently I found a review of AZU-1, that had a similar notion- that it could have done with an actual sex scene.

Le sigh.

Alright, alright, I can understand. A guy reads a book that has a significant lesbian plotline, written by a guy.. and said readers are prone to expecting some girl-on-girl fux0ring. Sorry fellas, I had no intent of writing that kind of thing.
“So WTF did you intend then?” Well, as a male, I think ladies are purdy. Guys? Less so. Ya follow me OK so far? Good. Females are also a little more prone to expressing emotion, (if I can get a little sexist there,) so wouldn’t a lesbian relationship tend to be more expressive?
And as far as that goes, how many BILLION times have we seen the guy/girl scenario played out? It’s been done to death. Regan and Alisia’s situation, (notably with Alisia NOT being a lesbian) gave it a bit of a twist. And then there’s Kris. Who’s just twisted in general.

All that said, I’ve gotten a little ribbing here and there about the lesbian content. Nothing malicious. I was also told I was a little heavy-handed with the gay-rights support in AZU-1. Alright, alright, it came out kinda cheesy and times. This has been streamlined for the 2^nd edition.

The next book, “Watching Yute” also features some lesbians in the lead. Why? Well, revision aside, I thought I’d like to hit the subject matter from another angle, and approach facets that Regan and Alisia can’t. Does this mean a sex scene? Mayyybe a little. MAYBE. A LITTLE. It really didn’t seem appropriate for Alisia.
Those of you chomping at the bit for some hot n heavy gay action in Yute should be cautioned however- there’s also a gay MALE sub-plot in the book. Bahahaha! See the guys all shift uncomfortably? I felt the need to have the other side of the gay coin represent. Don’t worry guys, that sex scene’s only going to go on for a couple dozen pages.

And, Lifehack update:

Finished since last post:

1. Add a couple small scenes and references,
2. Inform the reader WHERE the book takes place in the world, (fictional island nation of Ayguola, east of Australia, west of South America)
   
3. Re-vamp the chapter headers
4. New foreword

Yet to do:

1. 'Finalize' the trade paperback cover
2. Order ONE book for sending around to my new highlighter-equipped editing force (this will be a slow step, as I'm going to send it though as many people as possible)
3. While this is underway, finalize the hardcover cover, and continue writing another project (either Watching Yute, or 'wasn't worth the parking space')
4. When the editing copy gets back to me, go over it, correcting the master manuscript,
5. Take orders, and order the books!

Lifehack revision at 100%!!! Kind of.

I finished my read/revision that I've been counting off percentile from.. But there's more work to be done...

Right now the pagecount is down to 255. (8 bits! whoo!) This is from the first edition's 293 pages due to:

1. Deletion of the 25-ish page extras section, (It was kinda unprofessional feeling)
   
2. Bumping the font down one notch, (It was a tad biggish)
3. Refining paragraph formatting to include less white space

And there were many other format standardizations that I either followed form the industry, or at least made consistent through the book. One good thing about the lower page count is that the cost will go down. The cost will also go down since I won't be setting the sticker price to include a lot of things like retail store costs, or an ISBN. (I don't need no stinkin ISBN)

Of course, the hardcover version will be more than the trade paperback version, but I'm not ready to quote prices just yet.

Just to note- I won't be ordering a mass of stock like I did with the first edition. I'm not marketing much beyond my area, and just about everyone who'd buy a copy already has, so I'm not going to be ramming the 2nd edition down people's throats. When the time comes, I'll take specific orders from people, plus a SMALL handful for my own stock, and what will be my exclusive retail outlet, Heron's Books. It will NOT be available online via Lulu or Amazon, etc.

This is to minimize the impact of being self-published should I wish to attack bigger publishers with the book, and the 2 others that take place in the same world. "Yes, Mr pubisher, I self-published the book, but unless you're really super worried about the Pitt Meadows market, I don't think it's an issue."

Anyway, back to the work left to be done:

1. Add a couple small scenes and references,
2. Inform the reader WHERE the book takes place in the world,
3. Re-vamp the chapter headers
4. New foreword
5. 'Finalize' the trade paperback cover
6. Order ONE book for sending around to my new highlighter-equipped editing force (this will be a slow step, as I'm going to send it though as many people as possible)
7. While this is underway, finalize the hardcover cover, and continue writing another project (either Watching Yute, or 'wasn't worth the parking space')
8. When the editing copy gets back to me, go over it, correcting the master manuscript,
9. Take orders, and order the books!

Then, I can finally put Lifehack to bed.