what I'm doing

Everybody who writes blogs goes through times where it simply seems there is nothing to say. Although I have been writing in my political blog, Rainy Day Things, it's all 'political' which means controversial.

Rainy Day Thoughts has become, in my mind, like a refuge more than a battle zone. While I believe it's important, for those of us who can, to stay informed and believe our country is basically in a struggle to determine its soul (which is why I have Rainy Day Things), I also feel our daily lives must be led without thinking of that all the time. It's unhealthy to be bombarded or bombard ourselves with negatives. If a person can read the news, do what is possible about upsetting events, which might mean phone calls or writing something, and then let it go, that's the key. Letting it go can be hard but is easier with interesting distractions.

The thing is a person should want those distractions to be positive and helpful to improving their lives. It looks like too many people are choosing things that are shallow and not bringing out the best in those doing the shows or those viewing them. It's almost as though we are becoming the ancient Roman empire in its decline and that's not a very encouraging thought.

The most positive distraction of all is exercising our personal creativity which can be in many different ways. For me, the best of those have been painting and writing. Beginning in March and extending now into April I've done a LOT of writing as I have edited four out of fourteen of my earlier (80-140,000 word) manuscripts. I have a desire to upgrade those stories with the skills and life knowledge that I believe I have today but didn't when I wrote them. You'd think I would have but boy what I have learned in the last twenty years has been a whole different realm from what I had learned in the twenty before that.

So I have been rereading these stories, plan to redo them all and change what is required. Doing this takes me totally away from my own life for the time at least that I am working on them. To update contemporaries involves inserting the place computers and cell phones have come to take in our lives-- especially that of younger people. Can you believe that at one time when you needed to call home when you were out on the road, you had to find a pay phone? It's hard to believe it today.

Besides the ones I had felt were complete but now don't see it quite that way, I had another from the very beginning of writing book length manuscripts. The last time I had looked at it, I put it aside as although I liked the basic plot, felt the characters had potential, I saw the story as shallow not fleshed out, more like a juvenile story than one written by an adult. I wasn't sure it could be brought into anything I'd be proud of writing.

This week it has seemed a little more possible, maybe because of having spent all those hours upgrading three others. I have a powerful urge to see it completed and on my hard drive with its sisters and brothers. I did though decide to base it in the year 1974, which was only a few years after I wrote it, as that was a different time for the influences on our culture. I don't think it'd be the same story today. One good thing about stories based in a historic period, you don't have that problem

Writing really does tell a person where they are in so many ways. My first historical manuscript was begun when I was the age of the female protagonist. When I edited it and improved it (the only manuscript that I paid a consulting writer to help me edit and I learned soooo much from her), I was the age of her mother. Next month when I will likely be looking at it again, I'd be the age of her grandmother. The person I am has changed a lot during those years and it probably has influenced some of how I see her even though she stays young.

When I began this work, it was just with the desire to see the stories in one place and written as well as I could do it today. As I worked on them, I began to consider different ideas. Submit again to publishing houses was, of course one. The thing is publishing houses mostly have niche publishing. Books have to fit into that. Although mine are kind of like one genre, I don't think they totally are.

Publishers operate on a margin and must make money. They figure out where that money is and look for books to fit in. The buyer is the decider although buyers aren't always given all the options they might want either.

The question for the writer is can I fit what they need and still be doing what I need? When a writer fakes what they believe to sell books, I think it shows. I want to be proud of what I write and don't think my stories fit current niches-- which, of course, might mean they are not actually marketable.

That's when I began to think about doing it myself through eBooks. It has the advantage of not being as expensive as printing the books through a vanity publisher. It would let me put out books I have enjoyed writing and think others might like to read but without my making a big investment or having to charge a big price. It has the drawback of no big publishing house behind them, not being in bookstores, and wondering how I get the books seen. It might also limit my chances of ever seeing future books published on paper.

As I researched eBooks, I discovered you have to put together covers for each book. This was both an uh oh moment and an ah ha one. There are ways to get a cover, for anybody who doesn't feel they can do it themselves, but I am assuming that'd be pretty generic (which many are coming out of the publishers also). I'd also have to put more money into books that might not even bring back even the cost of getting them the ISBNs or into the format required for eBooks.

Since I have spent the last couple of years learning how to do digital painting, the creating of a cover soon became an enjoyable activity. I read some tips on requirements. One writer said it should tell the potential reader, within 2 seconds, what the book is about. 2 second is all you get when someone is perusing the covers. It must look good in thumbnail as that is all most readers will ever see if it doesn't attract them further. From a writer that they don't know, they will have to have something draw them to find more about the book even when the price is less than $2. Frankly free wouldn't convince me to download something either. It has to have curb appeal in a computer sense.

Creating covers has been interesting on a level besides the logistics. Basically, although I have written many character descriptions, I have, with only one exception, never visualized these people. They existed only in my imagination, dreamlike images. Creating covers has meant digitally giving them a more physical dimension. In some ways I didn't like that and in others, I did.

The covers I have been creating are different than most I have seen as they are brightly colored and painterly which might or might not be a plus. For some books, it seemed an icon was more apropos, something that represented the soul of the story such as the above rose of sharon.

For any of you who might be interested in creating eBooks also, there is a lot of information online. There are many companies that do the conversion for providers like Google, Amazon, etc. As it stands, if I go the eBook route, I will do the conversions-- actually Farm Boss will-- as it looks like it's not necessary to find a company for that part. The bigger question for me is how does one promote the book, get it seen when it's just one of several million. That's the one I haven't yet figured out and why I haven't decided for sure I want to go this route.

So that's what I've been doing and will be doing. Blogs here will come less frequently for the next month; or if they come, they're going to be photos more than ideas. Usually I have several blogs or more written ahead of where I am publishing. This time, drafts are as blank as my mind. Of course, an idea might come to me as soon as I finish this one up.

We have to make a trip to Arizona for work on the vacation rental property there. Other than some hiking in between jobs at the house, getting inspections done, possibly changing our wireless provider and the telephone set up, I hope to get in a visit with a Tucson blogger(Darlene), but it's not a pleasure trip. It is to get that house up to snuff for future renters which means replacing plants that got frozen and having new carpeting installed in the bedrooms and den. I will try to post when I can but it will likely be more photos than ideas. Someone is looking after the farm and really it's that which has delayed our getting down there. The farm... don't get me started on the farm.

If I decide to put my my stories online, I will let readers here know what I learn about the process-- although I have been thinking of using a new blog that will just be about that so it doesn't bore those who don't have that interest. Blog readers though are often writers which means some might find the process of this all interesting .

Publishing ourselves online is a whole new world for writers with possibilities we never had before. I read that this winter more eBooks were sold than paperbacks. That's where the world is going but the question is how to go along if you are not part of a publishing conglomerate or don't have a famous name already?

In the midst of those questions, I also have to figure out what eBook reader to buy for myself. I am leaning toward either a Nook or getting an ePad kind of device which can read books and do other things. I have reluctance for it to be an iPad as I don't want another monthly bill; but my daughter-in-law has one and it sure is nifty. I definitely need something that can let me read books but would like it to also let me check email and read the news. Kindle is out as I want color.

So don't worry if there's some time between posts. I'll be back to it... sometime.