Tag Archives: boat

Morning Pages Entry – July 25, 2014

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Yesterday was good. Today will be even better. Yesterday was over 3000 words writing in a good frame of mind. Today, I will do even better. Not to put too much pressure on, but I will do better. Either more words or better words. Either will work for me. That’s something to look forward to for sure. That is, the day when I no longer worry about getting a fixed number of words out there, but actually concentrate on the quality of the words. And, that’s not something you can ever stop getting better at. I think, that even the great ones struggled with that. The writing every day, will become habit. At least a thousand words … even on weekends, and not counting this morning pages. While these will always get done, and they don’t take me that long to do, it would seem unfair to include these words. So, I was also thinking, that I should start doing some micro plotting while I’m writing these pages, just to get things flowing, I will have to give that some thought here. Nothing is springing to mind at the moment, but figuring out where to go next with Chaz now having seen a mutation take place before his eyes could be interesting. I was think, that the room would be flooded with a basic controlling drug, so that the General could case the girl to do harm to herself. The girl zombie, that is, that just underwent a transformation into an almost normal human. Maybe, she could do something that scares them a bit, but in a non threatening way. Which causes the General to control her into turning onto herself. That wouldn’t make the General look totally like a psychopath in the process, since that’s not really my intention. I’m looking for bad guys, that are not totally bad, but are more complex. Like bad guys in real life, that believe what they are doing is good, and totally justifable in their own mind … like a psychopath I suppose. Then of course, the General could go on a bit about how having a whole troop of controllable freaks would actually be better for the humans. It would be like having slaves they could do whatever they wanted with. They could fight in armies, or do your dishes. Whatever you needed them to do. The question with going that way, is does it tip my hand too early with where I want the series to go. Probably not. You were going there in the epilogue anyways, so why not suggest at it earlier now. That still works I believe. I read some comments yesterday on the Kindling FB page, which were sort of promising. He was talking about how the zombie crowd will read just about anything. That they were ravenous readers (ha … just like the freaks they enjoy reading about). That’s a cool thought. I do hope they are reavenous, and that my series starts to pick up. And it becomes popular with the crowd of readers. This is a genre, that still has a lot of legs in it, I suspect. Kindle Unlimited is an interesting twist on the whole kindle marketing thing. Early indications are showing, that it’s having positive results for those with books enrolled into it. Something like 15 of the top 100 paid books on Amazon where in KU when it started, and only about a week into it, and it appears that something like 45 of the top 100 are now KU books. Of course, with the first 30 days free in the program, there could be a lot of looky-loos that are just taking advantage of the 30 days, and won’t sign up for real. I should likely throw a book into that ring. Maybe that boating book I was starting to put together. I should finish that one up, and throw it in to see what happens. Could be sort of cool. I liked the cover I had for it too. I am in boating season now, and it would be sort of fun to throw that one into the ring, just for the hell of it. Maybe, I could get it beefed up enough for Emily to look at it. If I can get my word count up that is. Not to worry, I will get there. I’m sure I could have gotten to 5K yesterday, with a little more focus. I was organizing a bit too much yesterday. If I can get to 2500, before we head with with wayne and joyce for lunch today that would be good. Let’s get going.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: boat bayfield WORDSWRITTEN: 3000+ PUSHUPS: 2:15 wall sit TODO: write, lunch in zurich TV: friday night lights BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: none DINNER: big ass salad with shish ka bob meat SNACKS: orange, apple, blueberries, 2 lara bars, 2 naked bars ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 1:00 AWAKE: 7:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – July 18, 2014

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So, it looks like things are going to be eerily quiet around here again. The family has all headed back home to their respective domicilies, and we are returning to a familiar routine. I had a bit too much wine last night to drink, and am now determined to avoid alcohol for at least the next few weeks, or month if possible. I need to get back into a clean food routine. For the most part at least, my food intake was pretty good. It was only the alcohol that got the better of me. Although, I did have some breaded chicken balls last night with the chinese food, and I did have a few breaded chicken bites the other day over at Tony Romas. I know some of the sauces in those foods the past few nights wasn’t the greatest either. But, that’s ok, I know I’m not going to be perfect all the time. I do need, to get my writing gig up to full speed now. That’s where the glory lies for me at the moment. I did have a little excitement yesterday, as my free book “Endings” spiked up and got 166 downloads yesterday, which is pretty cool. Not to sure what it would take to get it to #1 in a few of the categories that it’s ranking in. It’s like #7 and #13 in a few categories. It’s actually above Hugh Howey’s wool free book in one of the categories it’s actually #14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian . Which, is a pretty cool feat I think. Hugh is down around number 18 I think. Gotta love it. I wonder, if there’s a way, I can capitalize on this. I’m sure, I should be able to. I wonder, if I could post it on his facebook page. I am listed as a fan of his, or a follower or something. That would be a pretty cool thing to do. I wonder, if he would allow that? I really should look into that. It would be pretty cool, if you could draw a bit of attention to yourself while your there. So, I suppose, were heading back to the boat this weekend, and a bunch of Jennifers friends are showing up to hang out there. Could be a little hectic, to say the least, but not nearly so much as it was, with all of the family here for the last week. I really do miss them all already though. It was pretty great, having them around for the week. I do need to find a way, to make that kind of stuff happen more often. There’s no reason for it not to be, if you can get the writing cranking out faster and at a higher level of quality. Get the word out there, is what I need to do. Amazon just rolled out there “Kindle Unlimited” program, so we’ll just have to see what that does to things. Basically, people can read as much as they like of the books enrolled into it for like $9.99 per month. If it get’s more people reading my books and buying my books then yay! cool! bring it on! At the moment though, no one is really to sure what will happen. I do think, I need to go and eat something. I am feeling pretty exhausted today. Too much alcohol coursing through my system, and not enough decent sleep. Gonna have to work on that over the next few days. I do need to get back to my up at 6am routine. Get some writing done. Get some paddle boarding done. Get some money rolling into the bank account. That’s what needs to start happening. Oh yea, and need to get to work on the taxes … that’s sort of a big thing to. Need to get that done, before I end up having to do my corporate taxes at the same time. That would really suck. So, go eat … go write … go make a bunch of money, and don’t forget to do it for the love of the writing. For the love … remember! Time for the real deal. We want to start spending more time visiting family, and travelling around the world more. That’s the cool shit, that needs to start happening in this boys life. Get that third book out there sucker … then start promoting the shit out of things.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: home living room WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: none TODO: write, eat TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: cold cuts, cheese, DINNER: chinese food SNACKS: orange, grapes ALCOHOL: too too much wine BEDTIME: 12:30 AWAKE: 8:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – July 15, 2014

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So, yesterday, we got everybody out for a bit of a sail. Nothing too dramatic, but we were sailing none the less at about a knot or perhaps a little more. It was actually an ok sail for having 10 people on the boat. The kids were mostly well behaved. It’s certainly a different experience with them, but one I wouldn’t trade for anything. It’s neat having the kids around. We even got to anchor for a while which was kind of nice. I went around with my snorkeling gear, and cleaned up the bottom of the boat a bit, which wasn’t a bad idea, considering how much crap was on the bottom of the boat when it came out last year. A bigger boat would be nice now, as sleeping arrangements are getting a bit tight. Sam was giving me a hard time, about me making her share the v-berth with Jessica, while I had the whole aft cabin to myself. I just like having all the space to me. So, the book is kind of just strolling along these days, at 30+ free downloads per day, which is ok, and the occassional sale from the second book in the series. I’m pretty pumped to get the third book out in the series, so I can start doing some promotions. Either free, or through facebook ads. There are a few fiverr gigs that look pretty good as well, which is a nice, because the cost is so low. Gonna have to try that one as well. I found a few new threads on kboards that should work pretty good for that. I’m getting a bit tired of hanging out at the cottage colony every night these days. Although, it does have more space for everyone, I’m starting to feel like I’m living in a trailer park boys episode. Especially with all the dogs up there, and some of those incredibly obese people wandering around the place. Yesterday, was a pretty fun day overall though, and today looks pretty good as well. It rained again last night, but seems to have stopped now for the rest of the day. It’s sunny, and cloudy, and a bit breezy. It would be pretty good for sailing actually. But, I have a feeling that’s not likely to happen today. I’m going to inflate the dinghy again, and hope, that maybe I have the last leak plugged, but I’m not overly optimistic. We’ll see how it goes. I did put two more patches on the thing, so here’s to hoping that it’s working. The bailer seems to be leaking as well though. I’ll have to probably replace that thing at some point. Can probably order a new bailer online or something. I didn’t get to paddleboard this morning, and I need to get up on that thing a little more often. I need to do more of that, if I’m going to get my fitness back up to where I want it. It’s my best shot at fitness here this summer I think. The weather hasn’t been really encouraging in that regards though. Still, should learn to work around it. I need to come up with some ideas for the blog, to write about I think. Something, that would be of interest to readers and maybe other writers? Hmmm. Not too sure about that. I do suppose, that identifying my target audience is the first step to go with before writing. Maybe, I could even put up a few writing examples to see what happens. The blog really is, a way to interact with my readers. Maybe a publishing schedule would be a good thing. That’s something to work on. It could be a way for more readers to commit to the series, if they know that there are more books coming. Building a little anticipation and all. Maybe, take a look at other writers sites, and see what you see there. Some seem to cater to other writers, and some just to readers. What do you want yours to be?

TIGERBLOOD: ok DAILYMOOD: sailing good LOCATION: boat bayfield WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: none TODO: patch dinghy TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: nuts DINNER: leftovers – ham, burgers, sausages, salad SNACKS: orange, cherries, strawberries, blueberries ALCOHOL: 4 beers, baileys irish cream BEDTIME: 1:00 AWAKE: 9:00

 

Morning Pages Entry – July 12, 2014

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Well, hey, it looks like I’m not just getting downloads of my first free book, but I’m actually starting to make some sales of my second book. It’s only priced at .99 right now, but I am starting to make sales of it, which is pretty cool. There have been 2 sales in the last few days. It possibly means, that not only has someone cared enough to read through the first book, but they decided to buy the second one, which is sort of cool. Actually, it’s really cool … I think. I’ll take it, as a good sign at this point. I still haven’t started promoting any of the books yet. Once I do start, I’ll just start with the free one, but that’s ok. I want at least the third book to be out there, before I start doing any promotion. That book, should hopefully be over 200 pages, and I can price it at 2.99. Then we should start to make a bit more money off of things. Oh, and the second book, now has a ranking on it, and it’s under 100,000, which seems to be the number you have to break, to at least make a few sales. It’s at 88,670 right now, which is pretty cool. Not sure, if it’s been moving up or down the last few days, will have to check on that. But, it is starting to look like we’re getting a bit of traction, which is really awesome. I do definitely need to get the next one out there and see what happens. I think it will be much better than the other two, so who knows. I’d like for the rest of the books to be 200+ pages, which means, I’ll likely have to do better than 50K for each book. Maybe around 60K. So, I do need to desperately get my word count up higher. Always room for some improvement. So, were back out in bayfield again, with Steve and Marks family. The cottage colony cabins are as bad, as we were thinking they might be, which is a good thing. And, they have full fridges and stoves, which is pretty cool as well. I took, Una and Tristan down to the boat and walked along the beach yesterday while the moms and dads went grocery shopping. I think, they were grateful for the short reprieve from the kids. They are a bit of a handful. I’ve forgotten, how time consuming those little people can be. But, that’s cool. They were fun spending time with. Kids do like the beach. I tried patching up the dinghy a bit more last night, but I’m not optimistic about how good of a patch it was. The store didn’t really have a good patch kit at all, but Wayne of course had everything I needed to try and patch it. We’ll see how good it works. You’d think, that store would have had something decent to work with. All they had was a temporary patch kit, and a grossly over priced set of glue, that I’m going to try and take back later. Pat at the store, is notorious for over charging for shit. She even charged me like 3.50 just for a little piece of material for patching. That’s pretty crazy. So, it’s sort of neat, that I’m starting to get some real sales from the book. Even if it’s not a lot of money yet. I do need to get the next in the series out. I should, likely do up a cover for the third book, and get it up on the site. Or at least put a thumbnail of it in the back matter of the other two books. That would be sort of good. Let readers know, that there is another book coming out in the series. The next big deal, would be to start building a mailing list. There should always be a “coming soon” section in your books I think, which would give subscribers a chance to buy your book for cheaper when it first comes out. That would be a really good idea. I know a lot of other authors do that, and it gives readers a good incentive to stay subscribed to your list. It’s cool, how things are starting to come together and get traction with the books. I just need to blow things up on a much larger scale to make things better. More eyeballs, more sales, and all that good stuff. Time to get back to work.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: really good LOCATION: boat bayfield WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 2:15 plank TODO: get the dinghy in the water TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: cold cuts, veggies, carrots DINNER: pizza (didn’t eat the dough … just the toppings) SNACKS: raspberries, grapes, almonds, 2 lara bars ALCOHOL: 2 beers BEDTIME: 12:00 AWAKE: 7:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – July 09, 2014

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So, the brothers are coming today. Or, at least 2 of them are. Mark and Steve along with their families. I think it’s the first time Una and Tristan meet each other. Ray, Joyce, Jackie, and James are coming as well. I was hoping to have the dinghy and outboard in Bayfield by now, but it appears the van has a fuel leak in it, and it’s booked to go to the garage tomorrow morning before that can happen. Then the battery in it died last night, I think when I was running the air pump off the back to fill up the wagon wheels so Tristan could us the wagon. And it’s making a funny clicking sound when you try to start the van as well. Here’s hoping, it’s nothing too serious, and it’s just the battery. If it’s the starter, I’m not sure how I will get it out of the drive way without a tow. Ahh, here’s to being optimistic. Yesterday, by downloads for the free version of “Endings” my first novel went back up for the first time in 5 days or so, and it looks like someone actually bought a copy of it off of Amazon.com. It’s not showing as free in every country, so that must be why I’m making cash sales off it. Oh yea, and I finally did get a readers review of the book as well. I’m not sure the person actually read the book. It’s a pretty generic review. Makes me think, that the person who wrote it, is just building up some sort of profile on Amazon for other purposes. Like maybe gaming the system in some way and selling the service of reviews later on down the line. At least they gave me a 5 start review, which, I’m sure couldn’t hurt to give the book a bit of a boost. Maybe it will start selling a bit more. Who knows. I still haven’t sold a copy of the second book yet, except for that first one that sold on one of the Draft2Digital platforms. Not even sure which one it sold on, but it did sell for 2.99 so that’s alright. It was kind of a random sale though. Someone probably bought it by accident. So, time to get the third book out there, then perhaps I could start doing a little promotion. Or not. Maybe just get the fourth and fifth ones written. Still need to get my word count up there, if I mean to start making more sales. Any sales? That’s more like it. I like the idea of just writing, and not having to promote stuff. It’s interesting seeing how the first book is starting to get a little traction. More like a trace of traction. And, it is only a free book. Probably, if I can get more of them out there … and at a longer length then thing should get better. Especially, if I could get them consistently over 200 pages. I think, then readers would be more likely to make those kinds of purchases. Then you can set a 2.99 price. That’s where you really need to be at. 200 pages, is likely more around 60 to 70K words, which if you can get your production up, should be doable on the schedule you sent to Emily. I’m sure, she wouldn’t complain about editing 60K or so words instead of 50K Just need to get your word count back up to 5K per day. Haven’t quite gotten there since the week I did it. Not quite sure yet, why I haven’t hit those numbers again. It does seem to be more difficult. It could be because I’m just not so verbose with the writing. My inner critic has more of a voice, and that’s not entirely a bad thing I don’t think. I don’t want to give him too much control. But there’s certainly no reason why you can’t write at a pace that will put you back up into that word count bracket again. It’s just I think a question of getting into the zone, and not worrying so much. Write write write … la la la. Have fun with it. I don have fun with writing these morning journals. They’re not a big deal, and I still do them every day without fail. Just like I’m about to finish this one. I should just launch into my novel, the same way I launch into these. Head first without looking.

TIGERBLOOD: some DAILYMOOD: good (mostly) LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: 1800 PUSHUPS: 4:00 wall sit TODO: write, jump start van, inflate dinghy TV: broad street bullies documentary, magic johnson & larry bird documentary BOOK: none GAME: Vessel, Dead Space 3 EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: none SNACKS: orange, almond butter, apple ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12 & 1 AWAKE: 7:00