writing update

I've had several good writing days in a row which has netted me a word count of 78,284 on VN2. I was aiming for around 85k but this is going to be at least 92K to 95K. But I have some stuff I know I can toss in the interest of word count if I have to.

Veteran's day

It's a holiday for many (sadly not me!)- but remember what the day is really for.

Thank a veteran today. If you have a friend who had a son/daughter, husband/wife serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, thank them for the sacrifice they made as well. There is nothing harder than worrying about someone you love being in harm's way- I know as I did it for a year myself for my son.

So today, think about it and say thank you.

VN2 back on track.

I got VN2 moving again- yeah for me. Broke the 67K mark.

This upcoming weekend I'm house/cat sitting across town. My only stipulation- I have access to the wireless. This means I get an entire weekend to write in complete peace. And occassionally entertain the cat. And they are going to pay me for this no less. Well golly.

talking to the crickets

I got my sales in for this past month and well, it sort of knocked the legs out from under me. I had a super month before that, but October was, well, pathetic for lack of a better word.

It hasn't been for lack of trying- I've certainly put myself out there on the blog circuit, purchased some advertising, had a few friends who have massive readerships on their blogs/journals talk it up. And the reviews have been very good- what few there have been.

I guess that's sort of the hook. The first month or so and I pulled in maybe five or six good to excellent reviews- then nothing. I can speculate on why, but that's all it is on my part- speculation. Sadly, if you aren't being reviewed, readers are less likely to find you. I

try not to worry too much about this, but yesterday it sort of clotheslined me. And it got me caught up in a lot of self doubt and tied up in knots. I'm sure if I'm not making money, my publisher isn't going to be jumping up and down in anticipation for anything else I offer. I'm nothing if not realisitc. With VN2 in the home stretch and two more novels from my Lost and Found series in the wings, I can't help but get depressed over this. Try as I might, I can't help it.

I'm going to continue to work on getting Lost and Found out there. I'll buy some ad space at Romance Junkies. And I've started to email GLBT bookstores all over the country to see if anyone would be willing to take bookmarks/book cover cards to stuff in customer bags or put in view on their counters. Other than that, I'm not sure what else to do.

Writing updates

I've made some decent progress this weekend, but on the wrong novel, LOL. VN2 got sort of shouldered aside rather aggressively by Mark and his story of when he was in Vietnam- with Ryan.

So that's what I worked on this weekend because Mark started out nattering at me all week, then when I tried to ignore him, he started to get down right pushy. In the end, he won and Firebase October is now started and rolling. I will not let it derail VN2, that will remain my main focus. And yeah, I didn't make my end of October deadline but I'm still going to push hard on it. Maybe by Thanksgiving. We'll see.

So this is where we stand now:

Gwenna Project: VN2 (Nate and Ian)- Word count 64,110K.

Gwenna Project: Firebase October (Mark and Ryan)- Word count 4,436K.

If I were to set VN2 aside and focus just on Firebase October, I have no doubt I'd have it done in about two months or so, much as I had Lost and Found done. This one, for whatever reason, could write itself. But I'm going to finish VN2 first. Period.

Exhibitionism?

Lost and Found is now on the Barnes and Noble catalog- minus the cover art. I'm trying not to worry too much about this but I know how my luck runs and the cover art will likely never make it. Any way, as with Amazon and other places, the usual warnings come with it for language, explicit sex, m/m but this listing had an extra one- exhibitionism.

o_O

I admit, that caught me off guard than I laughed when I thought about it and yeah, Josh is all that. Now I just grin when I think about it. What the hell, right?

I stalled a bit on VN2 but that's more my doing than anything else. Firebase October on the other hand, my prequel to Lost and Found has been screaming at me all week to work on it. Mark is very insistant. So yesterday I sat down and wrote out the entire beginning. I've come to the conclusion that this particular story would write itself if I simply sat down and went at it. It's set entirely in Vietnam and that's what I know. But I've promised myself that I will finish VN2 first and I will.

Why so complicated?

Okay, sort of a rant here to no one. This past weekend I spent the better part of an hour in a particular website looking for something and finally gave up, unable to find it. The website was a mess, with no rhyme or reason as to where you would need to go. It also has a complicated forum system of some sort that left me frustrated and bewildered.

So here is my question- Why do websites and/or blogs have to be so damn complicated and unfriendly? Seriously. Doesn't anyone subscribe to the old addages of "Less is More" and "Beautiful is Simple"?

So you are a rocket scientest of HTML. Your point being?

I don't see the point of having a webpage with a ton of content, if no one knows how to find the content they are looking for. The home page is a hodge podge of pictures, affliations, cute quotes, and any other piece of flotsam and for whatever reason, the webpage owner thinks this is attractive. I think it's a headache. The other part that goes hand in hand with this- it's delibrately designed to make you go through large portions of the site in a scavenger hunt to find a specific link to what should be right on the damned navigation bar to begin with. If you are so worried people aren't going to explore your website unless you delibrately hide content, it's time for a redesign in my opinion.

And okay, since I'm bitching here, let me add that a splash page with some fancy "Flash" presentation that takes forever to load is going to have me back spacing out and going somewhere else. Sure it can be spectacular. And a butt pain on slower servers.

This seems to be a problem with blogs as well, especially the clutter factor. Now I admit, I've got some links on the side of my blog, but my entire page isn't pictures, quotes, affliations and anything else I can cram on there because blank space seems to be offensive. I've gone into blogs and had a hard time finding the post for all the clutter on there.

It can be the most stunning piece of design out there, but if your audience can't navigate it- what's the point I ask? I applaud anyone who can keep it simple and clean and easy to navigate. If nothing else, have someone who is not that internet 'saavy' take a look. If they can't get around, it stands to reason a large part of your audience can't either.