This week's goals were:
In the late 90s and early 00s, a casual stroll through the internet could spawn dozens or more pop-over and pop-under ads. Browsers helped us fight against intrusive pop-up ads.
Today, we're in a similar situation to what we faced in the early 00s except this time, our browsers have betrayed our trust.
Last week, I forgot to set any goals for this week. That meant that everything I got done this week was a huge success. 😹 Most of what I did this week is the kind of stuff that doesn't make me feel like a writer, though. I did a lot of promo work, trying to make the best of the holiday week for those of us in the U.S.
Smashwords (the vendor I use to get my books out to the places I don't have accounts with) has an upcoming deadline for anything that needs to be done / ready in time for the Christmas season. That means if I want to get book 2 published in time for the holidays, I need to prioritize finishing book two and getting the audio recorded.
Since I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing for book 3 yet, book 2 might not have the “next time on” section like Death In Transit has. I'm not so committed to the bit that I would delay the release of book 2 for that.
If I get any proper writing in, great. As long as I get those bits in too!
The captain was laying on his back on the floor. They hadn't seen much of him since they'd started the trip but Jesper recognized him all the same. A little tubby. Hair thinning up top. Thick, unruly mustache and a few days of stubble. He was breathing. His lips had turned blue and his eyes looked like they were bulging a bit.
“Damn!” Jesper said.
“Quiet! Please! I've never done this with a human before,” Nassadra said. She ripped the captain's shirt open and pulled an instrument out of her bag. She injected him with something and then pulled out a complicated looking device.
“God, I hate this part,” Jesper said quietly. He had to stay. He knew he did. No one else had run into the fray. He looked around the cabin, trying to find anything that might ... help in some way.
He found a button for the public address system. He pressed it.
“This is Jesper. Don't rush the control room. Nassadra is trying to save the captain from ... I guess a heart attack? If there's any additional qualified medical personnel aboard, please make your way to the forward compartment. Otherwise, stay out.” He pressed the button again to stop broadcasting.
“Proximity alert,” the ship said.
“What?” Nassadra said. She pulled the cloth off her head and sat up.
“Proximity alert.”
“What's that?”
“Unidentified vessel is coming close to us.”
“Call them.”
“Unknown command. Please consult the ship's manual which can be located —“
“Shut up!”
A voice came over the channel.
“Don't you worry about us. We're here to take something that's ours. If you cooperate, you won't have a bit of trouble, Sanders.”
“This isn't Sanders. This is his first officer. Sanders is indisposed and he didn't say a thing about having a visitor mid-trip. Break away immediately.”
“No, I don't think we're going to. You'd better cooperate.”
The call disconnected.
Jesper turned on the PA.
“We're being boarded by pirates. Anyone who doesn't feel up to fighting should lock themselves in the passenger compartment. If you can fight, I may need your help. Until this situation is over, don't do a shipwide broadcast.” He turned the PA off and set a passcode to lock out the ship controls.
Juan made his way to the back.
“Yeah, you should probably go with them.”
“I'm going for my knives,” Juan turned back and gave him a disgusted look. “Don't get in any fights without me, pretty boy.”
Death In Transit is now available across ebook stores including Smashwords, Kobo, Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Everand, Thalia, Vivlio, and Fable.
Not sure yet? Read more about the cast in the announcement post.
The passengers of the Scampering Pete are on their way to Oshang Daro. If they had more money, they probably would have taken another transit. When the captain of the ship takes ill, five passengers rise to the occasion. Each were looking for a new start and the opportunity presented may be just what they were looking for. Assuming they can survive it!
Death In Transit is now available across ebook stores including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Thalia, Smashwords, Vivlio, and Fable.
| Character | Background |
|---|---|
 |
Jesper Klausen left a backwater world to join the military at a young age. He quickly climbed the ranks but, after time, realized a terrible truth about his service in the military. He spent some time as a mercenary but something about it didn't seem right for him. He's going to Oshang Daro in the hopes of finding a new life! |
 |
Nassadra is a Verushian. Her people have traveled the galaxy for as long as anyone can remember but Verushians are secretive about their culture. After a long mission, she's looking for a change. |
 |
Greis is a Duwgian trader with plenty of space smarts from a life spent traveling in the seediest parts of the galaxy. He's visiting Oshang Daro in the hopes of starting a new business venture. The adventure and opportunities start long before the ship lands! |
 |
Lia Conway was just getting started in her career at a prestigious engineering firm when wanderlust and frustration lead her to take an unscheduled vacation to anywhere in the galaxy. |
 |
Juan Emanuel Rodriguez Galanis's tongue is as sharp as his knives. Unfortunately, his knives are packed away for the journey. He's older than he looks. He's not looking for home. He's trying to stay one step ahead. When things go wrong, he finds himself falling into an awkward harmony with other passengers trying to right the ship. |
Last week, I mentioned needing to get my audiobook account and also publishing the book in all the places. Actually publishing the book turned out to be a lot more complicated than I expected. KDP took me two days. I ran into one teensy issue on KWL that took me five minutes to solve. And I'm pretty good at D2D for ebooks at least so I got KWL and D2D done on Wednesday.
Some of the vendors went through quickly. I'm technically waiting on some of the library systems to accept but, as of this moment, the ebook is available in most places where the ebook can be available.
I didn't set a wordcount goal for the week. Which is good because I don't think I wrote anything on The Novel.
I did a teensy bit development work on a book I'm giving the nickname Fallen Angels.
Image by Anat Zhukoff from Pixabay
I like to watch music theory videos from time to time. Hell, sometimes I just like to watch people who know what they're doing as they do those things even if I have no idea what they're doing. I do use the theory videos, though.
I took piano lessons when I was younger. It involved a fair amount of music theory. I might have carried it on further but I was more interested in composing than I was in playing the kinds of things music lessons tend to focus on.
The kinds of things my teacher taught me in piano lessons didn't really stick because I didn't see how they applied. It's kind of like learning programming from a book without actually sitting down with a compiler (or interpreter) and trying things.
I recently watched a video from Aimee Nolte on why the verse to Yesterday had to be 7 bars long. It's a great video. Aimee noodles around, approaching the topic from different angles and comes to a conclusion of sorts but the journey is more than where you end up. Much like with the song itself.
One thing Aimee mentions in her video is that verses are usually eight bars. Seven is extremely unusual. Perhaps a weakness of my own musical education but it never occurred to me that most verses were eight bars. I compose regularly and I have no idea how many bars my verses usually are.
The members of The Beatles weren't classically trained. A lot of times when you listen to their songs kind of knowing what you're doing but not knowing that, you can wonder, well, “why's there an extra beat in this bar?” Or “why did they do this that way?” Sometimes they did it intentionally even though they “knew better.” Maybe even every time. I'd like to imagine they would have made the same choices even if they had more theory under their belts. Even though it was “wrong.” Doing it right wouldn't have made the songs better.
I'm not here to add to the hagiography of The Beatles. I won't pretend that ignorance is a virtue either. But sometimes you're better off playing with the tools of music, language, or whatever you work with rather than trying to fit all the rules in your head and create something perfect. I tend to use my studies to explore new areas and possibilities. Like my most recent noodle in G dorian.
An attentive listener will notice 'verse' is 6 bars long. I suppose it's possible that songs in ¾ tend to have 6. Another thing I don't know, though. 🙀
I ended up focusing more on my degree than writing this week. I also did a bit of writing on other projects. Progress on The Novel was just about 1500 words.
What I need to get done this coming week is the creation of my audiobook account and the formatting and uploading of the first ebook to KDP, KWL, and D2D.
Image by Gianni Crestani from Pixabay
It's interesting watching a technology that felt new to me (even though it was quite old at the time I was using it) suddenly get renewed attention.
I still remember the first cassette album I owned. I'm sure it wasn't literally the first cassette tape I owned and I'm not sure whether I bought it with my allowance or if it was a present. I would name drop it but it turns out not all the artists from my youth listening to CCM became queer affirming. Some of them became pretty rancid!
The album meant a lot to me at the time. It's hard to think of that album without hearing the slightly imperfect warble of the tape speeding up and down just slightly as it played in my headphones.
This week has been difficult for me. I've got lots of stress. The money situation isn't hot. It's also been a relief. The better candidates won in my local election. For the most part, the elections that we saw this year have had a vibe to the winners. We're still in the midst of a shutdown, impacting not only government workers but people who rely on government services. A combination of extreme short-term thinking and grift in the tech sector mean that jobs are hard to come by and extremely unstable.
I don't really want to focus that much on politics here but politics have real world impacts and I'm a part of that real world impact.