Sunday, October 26, 2014

New Author Photo

I'm sometimes not sure whether these crazy smartphones are a blessing or a curse. I love playing with the camera and then manipulating the resulting "selfies" with my graphics program. Graphics programs are very good at hiding a multitude of flaws. Don't like that double chin or those crows' feet? Blur them and use the sketchbook feature, and get rid of the real-life color in favor of black and white, which looks oh so much more artsy. I'm liking it. :-)

Back to writing now. Enough Fun with Graphics for today!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Stepping in the Flashback Zone

Sitting at work day in and day out, mostly doing repetitive manual tasks it's not at all difficult to memorize, my mind wanders. This is why I like working in manufacturing so much. Most of the time, my hands are busy and my mind is free to go off on its own. "Wot larx, eh, Pip?"

Now that Book I is complete and published, I have begun work on Book II, which will be subtitled (I think, at least) "Sins of the Fathers." Since the day when I first saw the cover for the book, back in 2001, I really, really didn't like "To Walk in Newness of Life" as a title, but it was too late to change it, and I couldn't think of anything better, no matter how much I wracked my brains at the time of publication.

NOTE TO READERS: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE THE PAPERBACK COPIES PRESENTLY AVAILABLE. THEY ARE OUT OF DATE, AND I WANT YOU TO READ THE BEST, MOST CURRENT EDITION POSSIBLE. FOR AWHILE, THAT MUST BE VIA KINDLE, UNTIL I FIGURE OUT MY BEST OPTION FOR PUBLISHING HARD COPIES. IF YOU HAVE NO KINDLE, FEEL FREE TO E-MAIL ME, AND WE CAN DISCUSS OTHER OPTIONS.

Anyway, as I have been working through the re-edit of that second book, all sorts of interesting ideas are popping into my head, and as I sit at my station mucking about with wires and small electrical assembly parts, whole scenes are forming in my mind. Bare bones ideas are noted on scrap paper during breaks, and carried home to the computer at the end of the day.

Neal being Neal, these scenes are memories that come back to him in various situations. Very much like me, his mind often wanders to the past, and to things that actually occurred, or to things that he wishes could have occurred.

Some of these scenes are terribly inappropriate to be thinking of at work, but as far as I know, none of my co-workers is able to read minds. Thank God, because "oh, the  places you would go!" Yikes!

So, in short, it may be awhile yet before "Sins of the Fathers" is ready, but it's coming, and it will be bigger and better than the original. Guaranteed.

Thanks for your patience.