.

May 29, 2012

Format Wars


(for Lora and Lexa – a plea for compassion)
I’m in the midst of reformatting my first book.  You learn as you go along in self publishing and in learning you go back and revisit some (not all) things.  I got to thinking (as I was reading someone else’s book on Kindle that was badly formatted) about the two format wars that I have had with my two editors and I wondered why I had them.

Both of these ladies are professionals. As such they wanted my final product to look as if it came from one of the top houses, well formatted (both text and cover) with elegant fonts and proper pagination.  The wars I had were not really over the looks of the books (both looked really good when they got finished with them) but over the software and font availability they offered me.
You see, I’m also a cheap, self published author.  I can’t afford the In Design program or the purchase of a $199 font when other, acceptable alternatives are available.  It isn’t so much the finished product that was the problem, it was the fact that in order to change anything I wanted in the book I would have to go to someone that had those programs on their computer to get things changed. 




This thought makes me shiver.  One of the reasons that I am a self published author is because I like to do things my way, and, where appropriate, I would like the freedom to change things, correct errors that both the editor and I miss and then republish the book on my schedule.  This is one of my primary failures, I revisit things.  But it is the advantage of self publishing that I CAN do that.
So, sorry Lora and Lexa, I will always ask for my document back in word format and I will always ask for a font that doesn’t cost more than a buck fifty.   It’s a prerequisite of working with independent authors.

May 9, 2012

Being tossed in rough seas

As I previously mentioned, I write when my characters "speak" to me.  Adelaide (she of The Shepherd's Image) has been talking alot lately and, for awhile I felt that there would be two more books out of her.  Then the other day I got completely fed up with her and decided to work on something else.

Ha.  You know what happens when you start planning something and you are a creative. 

I discovered (after I had plotted in my head a completely different book not starring miss talkie) that what Adelaide has been doing is talking herself out of doing the hard work of reimagining the church.  It's happening in the greater church right now and she was trying not to join into that conversation. 

Well guess what, Miss Adelaide, you're going to have to start thinking outside the box.  You will have to become the church to find out what to do to fix it.  So there.  Get to work.

Questions:  Am I talking to myself?  Should I see a shrink?

May 8, 2012

May 3, 2012

Folding up my pointer

Well, my time as a school teacher is over for the moment.  No verdict yet as to whether I will continue with this but I know it was something that was on my bucket list and which I think I did with relatively little damage to my students.

This was a really great class.  They were responsive and full of energy and attentiveness and almost all stayed until the bitter end.  In fact, when I left they were all still milling and talking!  On to more bucket list things.

May 1, 2012

Christian Fiction or Christian Fiction


A friend of mine and I got into a discussion last night about what really is Christian Fiction.  She considers my books Christian Fiction and I don’t and in talking about it we realized we were defining Christian Fiction in different ways.  I Googled around and found this blog with a wonderful explanation of the different types of Christian Fiction and I highly recommend it to those who are interested in distinguishing the two camps: Decompose