A Little Wind in the Sails

I should have been in bed hours ago. I have a very important meeting tomorrow with JG, the best brains in authoring I have direct access to. Instead, I am desperately trying to put the finishing touches on a couple of works of authorship. One will be posted below. The other will be posted on my health improvement blog on Monday. And I still need a shower. And I should locate some fan fiction web sites. That might help as well.

With that in mind, I will be saying good night and then copying and pasting my first online publishing out of MS Word. That is a warning in case any of the formatting fails. Once I figure out how, I will post the work online in a PDF file and then put a link to it here.

So click on the next link and read on, if you dare.

In the meantime, the sails of the Authorship have a little wind in them. She hasn't set sail, but she eagerly tugs at the ropes knowing the journey is about to begin.

Yours in great hope,

Eliot

Eliot's Note to the Reviewer

Note from the Captain of the Authorship: The following is taken directly from my printed manuscript for the book Grumble. I have placed in braces, that these thingies { }, around additions or adaptations to the original request for this new medium.

While this work {and some of my other work have} has been published online, {looking to} it {and the other literary efforts, each one} is also a work in progress. Thanks to the nature of online media, your critiques and praises can be read, reviewed, applied, and submitted within a short period of time. Also, I hope to gather a list of willing reviewers to get an advance look at Jumble {and other efforts in Authorship including the in-need-of-being-republished Grumble} to speed the evolution of the work prior to publication.

For the purposes of this publication, let's start with four important qualifiers and what they will mean for the review process:

• Great: Do not change a thing
• Good: May need just a little tweaking
• Bad: Needs rewritten or replaced
• Ugly: Remove, discard, or destroy it

I do have three additional ideas to consider when reading the work itself:

• Editorial: Changes in spelling, grammar, font, or punctuation. Ex.: Use "passed" instead of "past", wrong tense in the sentence, is that really supposed to be italicized?
• Thorough: If there is a problem with the flow, description, character development, or other aspect of the writing, please be detailed in your description of the problem.
• Specific: Provide the page number, quote the original line that has the issue, and then describe the issue Ex.: Page 83, "The third piece of information", the phrase introduces the second piece of information, not the third

I would like to emphasize specificity with two examples from my teaching experience that I hope will encourage you towards that end. First, the bad: "Eliot is one of the worst teachers I have ever had." While I feel for this person, having spent money to receive a poor educational experience, I have no way of improving my teaching based on this information because I don't know what he feels I did wrong, what I did right, what I could improve upon, and what is a definite strength. While I did ponder my interactions with this particular student, I could not think of anything I could change because I had nothing to compare and contrast my memories with his review. Second, the humorous: "Eliot is the Superhero of Teachers. Standing between the Evil administration that has laid down their Evil laws to subjugate we the students." He continues in this vein for another eight sentences. This statement even included a picture of a person, that I assume to be me, dressed like Superman with an ST on the chest and one foot resting on what I presume to be a vanquished foe. Even with this delightfully inventive review, I again was faced with the fact that I had no take-away to use to improve my teaching. I was grateful that he felt I had been supportive.

With these qualifiers and ideas in mind, please take some time to review my literary effort. Please provide the page numbers {or date of blog entry} for exact critiques. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Thank you for your time, concern, and consideration,

grumblelives@gmail.com
http://grumblelives.blogspot.com/

P.S.:
I don't know if an author's note is allowed to have a post script, but, hey, here's one anyway.

I would like to provide you, the kind, gentle reviewer, and you, the thorough, harsh reviewer, with a quote:

How do you find out if you’re a good enough writer?

Don’t ask your family or friends. They mean well, but while you may have fantasies of your big future success as a rich and famous author, so do your friends because of how it reflects them. Have you ever spoken to someone who was doing something like acting or singing and thought about what it would be like if they were famous and you could say you knew them?

Well, the second "hey I wrote this book" comes out of your mouth, if they show any real enthusiasm, that’s likely what they’re thinking. They want to be proud of you and say they know you, which is all very flattering. But before your first book goes into the world isn’t the time to be doing something silly like over-inflating your ego. Egos are like tires; you really can put too much air in them.

The other option is that they will read it, hate it, and not tell you because they don’t want to hurt your feelings or the personal relationship you share.

A few will give you some good, honest feedback, but they’ll still hold back because of not wanting to overburden you with too much nitpicking. What they don’t understand is that every grammatical or typographical problem, every story error, every clunky paragraph will be noticed by a reader. And if that reader had to pay money for it, they’ll be upset.

No book is perfect, but before you put it out there, you should make a solid effort to make sure it’s the very best it can be.

Winters, Zoe (2010-11-05). Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author (Kindle Locations 211-223). IncuBooks. Kindle Edition. (emphasis added)

I personally believe that there is more than a few of my friends and family that are very much capable of assisting me in making this literary effort the "very best it can be." I look to you, the honest, caring reviewer to prove me right.

Thank you for your honest, thorough effort to bless my writing and my family,

grumblelives@gmail.com
http://grumblelives.blogspot.com/

Review Version: Tuesday, 12 June 2012

I Just Can't Stop Writing

I enjoy writing. I have no problems sitting down and writing. I have plenty of ideas, a plethora of changes, and a veritable palisade full of books waiting to happen. Towards that end, I have a blog on my weight loss. The primary purposes of my weight loss blog are:

1. Accountability,
2. Uplifting Historical Review, and
3. Recreational Writing.

And since I have manged to write every day for weeks, I think I need to make mention of it here. Please check out:

Never Ceases to Amuse Me

More details in authoring to be forthcoming including serial chapters in a story I am working on. Once I have four chapters ready to go, I'll start publishing the chapters every week.

This writing thing rocks. I just need to figure out how to get it out there. Build some traffic. Enhance my writing skills. Push myself forward to be able to get things done. Maybe I should start with some non-fiction. There is so much out there that just needs to be passed along.

Grumble Lives on! Grumble Lives in me! I must get the experience and training that will yield so much more. But towards the idea of writing something of value, I present two goals for this blog:

1. Weekly updates concerning the process of writing to record ideas, editing to enhance the presentation of those ideas, authoring to develop the well rounded process that leads to being published, and developing a relationship with the readership that they will want to return and read again.
2. Weekly entries of something authored. I know this is something I have said just a couple paragraphs ago, but there needs to be something out on the blogosphere that helps me develop a readership. For more information on this, see tomorrow's entry (Thursday, December 19, 2013) in my weight loss journal, soon to be blog.

The nor'easter catches at the sails of the ship and sends waves slapping at her hull as she stays long held at dock. But the warmth of her heart still seeks adventure among the waves, straining at the ropes by living the dreams of challenging greater waves in the vast ocean.

Adventurously Yours,

Eliot

Effort Towards Progress

Time to start putting forth some effort. Progress only comes from effort. I have a few ideas for literary work that I will work on and post here. Some of the ideas for work involve

• Writing up some of the research within herbs and other supplements through Pub Med
• Short stories
• Poems
• Expansions on any of several longer stories in production

The Authorship strains at the long-restraining ropes, hope overcoming exhaustion. "Away!," She calls. "Set a course, and let's away."

The charts are gathered once more.

Let's away.

Eliot

P.S.: Reminder: Tomorrow is "Talk Like A Pirate Day!" Get your R's ready.

Ahoy! Ye have need, me fine heeled land lubber, of paying special heed to how ye be a-talkin' like one of me hearties. Avast! The bung be free and the courage be pourin' down our throats like Davy Jones be walkin' aboard this very night. So best ye be talkin' aright, right here.

Still Knotted

Post: 8
Books Sold: 0 (currently unpublished)
eBooks Sold: 1 (currently unpublished)
Pages in Grumble: 149
Reviews of Grumble: 1
Pages in Jumble: 110

If you look at the header of my blog posts, you will see only one thing has changed in the great intervening of months: I have added this post. No progress has been made on Grumble. Perhaps life has intruded. Perhaps weakens intervenes. Perhaps fear holds sway. While I feel the need to allow free thought to take flight, that same free thought is only free within the stark confines of my thoughts. The dreams soar while the dreamer weeps, unable to lift his mental thoughts enough to be able to rise physically beyond the minimum necessary to placate my overdeveloped sense of responsibility. I teach. I grade. I tutor. I change diapers. I wash dishes. And then I sit, starring at the mental picture of my dream. A dream that encompasses so much beyond my simple effort of authorship: The opportunity to witness the coming rebirth of the Republican party. The opportunity to witness the continuing chaning attitudes of America. The opportunity to ponder what all of these changes mean for arrival of all arrivals that I expect to witness in these next few years. And each idea that gives flight sees so many images that I spend time trapped with the inability to reconcile my overdeveloped sense of responsibility with dreamer's dream in flight as I did just a few short months ago.

So I sit in my plastic webbed, aluminum tubed folding chair on the wharf of dreams where the Authorship is docked. There is a chop in the waves that has her tugging insistently at the rope, beakoning to let her loose. She has felt my dreams fill her holds and knows those same dreams will fill her sails once I am aboard.

And with a sigh the comes from my toes, I stand, I fold the chair, I sit at the table of reality, pull out some delayed grading, click my red pen, brush an imagined tear from my eye, and let loose the torrent of effort for completing the task at hand.

But she knows I am there. I can hear the waves slap her hull. I can hear the susurration of rigging against rigging as a gentle undertone. I can hear the creak of the fine-honed wood offering counterpoints to the hull slaps. A symphony of beakoning.

And still I sit.

I pray the Master of Tempest and Sea will unleash her, for I have bound her and find myself without strength to undo even one knot.

Review, Revoke, Rework, Same Dream

Post: 7
Books Sold: 0 (currently unpublished)
eBooks Sold: 1 (currently unpublished)
Pages in Grumble: 149
Reviews of Grumble: 1
Pages in Jumble: 110

Grumble has been reviewed. It's electronic availability has been revoked. And the reworking has begun.

It's been exactly one month since I last posted. I figured I must post today to keep things rolling. Plus, I have received my first review. JG just finished talking with me for nearly three hours. His background was definitely something to be called upon. While I write at a high school level, he writes at a Masters level. While I invoke the words of the authors, he knows the authors as his friends. But we have chosen different orders to our attempts at authoring. I seek to be published, and then refine my skills. He seeks to refine his skills, and then be published. His is definitely the smarter way to go. And I think I am going to have learn as much as he is willing to pass along so I can revert to this same path as best I can. And his review shows how much I still have to do. Because of that, Grumble was removed from access. And he is the rare exception to the aforementioned advice of picking a reviewer from friends and family. I learned quite a bit about writing from him. I hope I can remember it all. He assures me that he can write down all of his advice. I'm still wishing that I had taped the information.

We discussed plots, empathy, unwritten contract, tension, resolution, conflict, character development, authenticity, and so much more that Grumble is going back to draft status. We discussed how the writing starts out with "throat clearing". Once passed that, the writing picks up. He even pointed out a few scenes that worked very well and to pattern rewrites after those. And he mentioned problems that I was resolving in Jumble. This means I have much more to bring forward to be able to make Grumble work. There are so many ideas that are running around in my head, I'm not sure where to start recording them to make sure I have them available.

Under Authenticity, I need to write more of Stanley's awareness of his architectural surroundings.
Under Character Development, need to develop scenes with Stanley and his wife. Need to resolve inconsistencies like Stern asking about shoes and then later being able to narrate the battle. Need to much better explain the use of the word grumble.
Under Rules of the Realm (my term, not his), I need to create more detailed understanding of the rules of magic in this realm, his specific concern was the introduction of magical talismans near the end of the book. The role of that specific talisman is okay. The information surrounding talismans needs to appear earlier.
There are several misunderstandings that need to be resolved, such as the role of Pilgrin.
He had mechanical advice. Look to remove as many adverbs as possible. Look for phrases that start with "that" and challenge their existence. There is usually a better way to write it. For example, instead of "He ran quickly up the street," say, "He bolted up the street." I thought I had been doing that in my own analysis, but I need to analyze much more.

I wish with great fervency that I had written down or audio recorded this information. There is so much more we discussed. I pray with great energy of the soul that he will be able to remember all of the information. He was an exceptional source of information.

He said there are ideas that are definitely sell-able. And that there is a high level of writing.

And while he disagrees with the term, I feel well and truly mentored. I wish him well in his own authoring endeavors.
It is time to turn the Author-Ship around and head back to port. She will ever be at the ready. I am in need of going ashore and rolling up the mental sleeves, applying the intellectual elbow grease, and doing the work at hand of taking the low level work I currently have and elevating it into a better piece of work.

I will be sure to keep people apprised, especially as the reviews go forward and the revision ensue.

Dreams of the Open Ocean Fill the Sails of Possibility Still.

Dreams! Ahoy!

Navigating the Navigation Charts

Post: 6
Books Sold: 0 (currently unpublished)
eBooks Sold: 1
Pages in Jumble: 110

So while tied to the shore, but unwilling to leave the Captain's Cabin, I pour through information while attempting to chart the course. In this case, it means I've started the Kindle eBook Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author by Zoe Winters. I would like to thank her for her book. She is a practiced author and it shows in her work. It means that I not only have high hopes for the information itself but also high hopes to be entertained and instructed in the art of authorship. Here is a break down of what I have learned about me and my efforts so far:

• Chapter One: Starting With the Right Attitude
• The New Viability of Self-Publishing
• The author has quite a way with words and is a delight to read. But I haven't really learned anything here that I didn't already know from my IT experience. The following items are things I was reminded of.
• The instant access the Internet provides has long changed so many aspects of our life that it's difficult to remember how it was "back in the day". Self-publishing is no exception.
• Whether it's the description in The Secret or any of a variety of books on business management or being an entrepreneur, you must have a vision of what it is you want to accomplish. I have this vision and have even created a picture of it. I have shared the vision and picture with my family. Authorship is only one important part of it.
• Failure is Part of the Process
• My wife, at the end of my last stint of unemployment, informed me that in our nearly 14 years of marriage, we had been unemployed for a total of 44 months. I didn't view that as a failure, but instead as a trial. There were things I needed to learn and I hope that I have learned them.
• At this stage, I am not worried about rejection. I have been rejected by potential employers (AKA: Not hired), current employers (AKA: Fired), students (in student surveys), and numerous other situations. Rejection and failure are stepping stones. The thing that tends to make them scary is that those stepping stones are frequently suspended in midair above a gaping maw of a chasm. Having been bounced around, I know I can survive the crossing, one way or the other.
• As much as the author successfully espouses the virtues of being an independent publisher, an "Indie", I would still rather make it in the traditional route so I can have the background support of a team than trying to assemble a team myself. If it were an analytical chemistry lab that needed a team and I was to assemble it, that would be different. That team I'd like to put together and be responsible for. But an editor, a cover artist, graphics designer, etc. That team would need to know more than I do and I don't know how to determine that they know enough to trust their decisions. Does that make sense? Here is the author's viewpoint:
  
  By this point, I have a complete cognitive disconnect when it comes to the idea that an outside corporation should determine which creative endeavors should or shouldn’t reach the general marketplace. The concept doesn’t even make sense.
  Winters, Zoe (2010-11-05). Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author (Kindle Locations 118-119). IncuBooks. Kindle Edition.
• Fortunately for me, and this was another important reminder, I am secure in myself and what I am doing that I know that failures are a part of getting through life.
• The 150 Copies Boogeyman
• This was a completely new concept to me. And if I had skipped this section, I would have been the better for it. I had no idea that there is a living rumor that 150 copies sold marks some measure of success.
• Being a numbers guy, I have no intention of using some magical moment in the number of books sold to say that book is a success. Authorship is an ongoing process. I'll measure success by things like being able to focus full time on authoring. For a given book, I will consider receiving ten times as many good reviews as bad reviews as an outstanding success. Three or four times as many good reviews as bad reviews as a success. I enjoy the writing. I look forward to the challenge of going from completely unknown to slightly less unknown. I want to be able to have a steady flow of publishing and purchases. 150? Really?
• Developing Realistic Expectations
• In this section, I developed the suspicion that I have been working backwards. I worked to develop as many quality chapters as possible and then ran out of time for my own personal deadline. I had decided that I needed the book published (if not thoroughly finished) prior to marketing it. This is not the point of this section of the first chapter, but that is what it hinted at.
• Other than that, my expectation is that publishing would require a great deal of effort.
• The main thing I learned from the intent of the author is that there are ways to publish your book and you cannot expect great success quickly. There are many steps involved in publishing that include involving others around you. The number of books sold is not a good measure of success. The input of others is also not a good measure of success. More to follow.
• Chapter Two: Success Predictors in Indie Authors (As far as I've read so far)
• Being an author is being the head of your own business. I like this idea very much. I want to be my own boss. And there is no mystical, magical way to accomplish this.
• You need to be a good writer
• Because good is subjective, the author needs to develop proficiency. While I believe I have achieved some level of proficiency, I am still waiting for feedback to that effect. And towards that end, I have created a review version PDF to be able to provide to people. More to follow.
• Zoe Winters brings up non-fiction at this point which served as a reminder that I should probably get working on non-fiction book ideas as well from H.P.'s suggestions.
• At this point, she makes some interesting points about reviewers. I will discuss this more when I discuss the review version PDF.
• The author recommends finding reviewers:
• Authors at least one step above you in writing proficiency. This will wait for now.
• Members of the target audience. This will be easier since I can provide my oldest kids with copies to share with their friends.
• Agents and editors in the hopes they provide a personalized rejection letter so that you can grow from the experience instead of a rejection form letter. This, too, will wait for the time being.
• You need to have the ability to separate yourself from your work
• Need to locate the right gate keepers to be able to determine when the book is ready to be released. Not sure who that will be for me at this stage.
• I know I am not the best person to be proofing my work. While I do employ the draw manuscript technique, I can miss many of my own mistakes. After all, I made them in the first place, there's no reason why I can't make it again, this time while proofing.
• I like her idea to assume that there are problems with your work and find someone that can bring light to those problems.
• You have to be a self-starter
• I have to work aboard the Author-Ship every day. At the very least, there is writing and editing to be done.
• I like this one because I like making plans and lists and I know how to keep to them.
• You have to be organized
• Track responsibilities. I'm big on personal journals or Outlook tasks. I've made my own personal journals in Excel to help me track steps and the like. You should see the one for job searching with it's multiple tabs for tracking people, positions, resume templates, deadlines, and more. I'm thinking of switching to Project to better track steps towards goals. Now, if I could just locate my installation disk for it.
• I like the reminder that disorganization could lead to lost opportunities. That means being thoroughly and thoughtfully organized has even more power in my life. Just ignore the piles of papers on either side of the computer. That's not disorganization, that is a personalized form of organization.
• You have to be in it for the long haul
• This is very good advice. There is no quick riches.
• Keep working. Get involved in the Indie community.
• You need the ability to blaze your own trail and forget the naysayers
• Blazing a trail, been there, done that. Most of my failures here came from not mapping out the pathway very well. Uncertain terrain and unexpected changes led to early defeats that wasted too much time and too many resources. Knowing this, I am eager to learn while pushing forward at the same time.
• And I'm not worried about any of the naysayers except the one in the back of my mind. Sometimes, the external naysayers give me the strength to overcome the internal naysayer.
• You need to be a good money manager
• This one is one with mixed success. I've been having trouble making ends meet, but doing okay. Then our fridge died. So I borrowed some money from my mom, added in my own money so I could buy a display model fridge. Only when it was all said and done, I'd spent too much. Turns out that the majority of the bills in any given month are due between the prior paycheck and the next paycheck. Bad planning. This advice is going to be important, especially since the time behind the authoring is a valuable investment. I'll need to protect myself and my family.
• I learned that there is an expectation of needing to spend money to become published. This is interesting.
• I like the advice that when there is money to spend, spend according to realistic expectation.
• You need the ability to determine the difference between quality and crap
• This was very important because it referred to not only the author-ship, but also the reviews. As the author puts it:
  
  And while you have to be able to take criticism and advice, you also need to know when someone is trying to rewrite your book as they would have written it, ignoring your voice and style in favor of their own.
  Winters, Zoe (2010-11-05). Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author (Kindle Locations 332-334). IncuBooks. Kindle Edition.
• What has me worried on this is not whether I can see quality, but the level of quality I will have access to me, from me and from those assisting me directly (like my cover artist) or indirectly (like CreateSpace).
• You need to have passion (I haven't finished reading this section yet)
• Before I read this, I didn't think that the process of becoming a published author as a combination of creative ability and business acumen.
• I like the idea of being involved in all of the details of the business and the authoring. I am very much looking forward to this process.

So that is where I have read to so far. I am hoping that these notes will work as a measure of how far I have to go and a source for easy review so I can remind myself of the steps I am performing, the steps I have performed (not necessarily completed), and the steps I will be performing soon. I do hope that this blog will one day be a means of communication for the readers that want to read more of what I've written. But the reality is that I have a readership of one, me. And in the nature of the advice Zoe Winters has provided, I am seeking this online tool as part of the organization.

And as another part of the organization, I have taken the time to create a review version PDF. The idea is that I can quickly get this into hands and hearts of willing reviewers by electronic means. I am hoping to be able to afford to print it as well so that people can make notes directly on the manuscript. We shall see.

The stiff breeze of optimism still pushes against the bare masts, begging for the sails to be unfurled. I am eager to proceed, but there is more to glean. Plus, the Captain's Wife has asked for the playroom and parlor to be rearranged. Can't do that while I'm at sea, now can I?

Armoire Ahead! Steer to port! Avast! We are caught in the Straights of Loose Toys, whose current carries us between the island of Tonka dump trucks and the atoll of Legos. All Hands On Deck! Prepare for Action!