Today was a tough day, but I managed to get what I needed to get done. First, my wife and kid are sick, and I'm on the rebound from whatever I had earlier in the week. I'm still a little under the weather but operating at about 90 to 95 percent. Thanks to everyone for your well wishes.
For reading, I started volume nine of IDW's TMNT. I'm still not sold on this new arc, and I can't figure out if the series has jumped the shark for me yet, but volumes one through seven are still possibly some of my favorite comics of all time, so I owe this one the opportunity to read the whole thing.
I also received the final, final art for year of the rat. The designer did a good job with the art, but there were some issues with the proportion of the character compared to the first two books in the series. We have rectified that, and now I am awaiting the final version with typography. I expect it tomorrow, which means that I should be able to publish the book this weekend. I just want to dedicate the proper time to doing it. I will also be publishing a compilation anthology of the three books. I am not going to publish that on Amazon this time around. I will publish it on Kobo, Apple, Google Play, and other places that allow me to price the book higher without being stuck in the $9.99 pool. But yes, The Chicago rat shifter series is officially coming to an end.
I also took some more classes in the cover design course I'm currently enrolled in. I had to do a homework exercise which involved spending a decent amount of time on stock media sites. I finished up the assignment today, which was very illuminating as I think about designing my own covers.
I also did some research on MidJourney today. I stumbled across a great article by Derek Murphy that nicely summarizes the issues at hand with authors and cover designers. Derek's article is required reading, and it captures all the issues I've been keeping my eye on. I was delighted when I read the article that I didn't miss anything. Derek and I are aligned and how we are viewing this evolving technology. That's assuring for me because Derek is a great cover designer and someone who I consider to be a forward thinker in the indie publishing space.
Read Derek’s article here: https://www.creativindie.com/midjourney-ai-for-book-cover-design-how-is-this-legal/
For data analysis, I have an interesting angle today. Yesterday, I finished my short story ” Hanging with Uncle Funky.” The story is set in 1974. I've never written and historical peace before. I wanted to make sure that I got the 70s stuff right. I recruited a beta reader who was an adult in 1974 and remembered the year fondly. I asked her to review the story and flag any anachronisms or things that didn't feel right for the time period. She turned the story around pretty fast, and she flagged five anachronisms that I got wrong. However, she didn't find any deal breakers (at least I hope!)
The beta reader also suggested a couple of touches to make the story come alive. Nothing significant, but welcome suggestions all the same.
Overall, I calculated that out of the story, the five issues represented five words that I screwed up. Five words divided by 5000 words is 0.001 percent, which means I got this mostly right. Like I said, I sure hope so.
I'm going to be submitting this story to magazine editors, so I at least owe this story some due diligence.
I put together a chart of the anachronisms I missed as a reference when I write another story set in a different time period. This means that hopefully I can follow the same steps I followed with this story and it will yield me similar results.
Check out my interview with Caryl Westmore on her show “Write the Book Inside You.” We talk about estate planning. Caryl is a South African who has a really unique angle on self-help. It was a great conversation. View it here: Watch on YouTube
For production, I hit my quota today. I’m currently at 4600 words. Boom shocka locka!!!!
I finished reviewing the productivity book, and I sent that to my editor along with the two short stories I wrote over the past week. I expect my editor to have the stories to me this weekend or early next week. At that point, the productivity book will go to a proofreader, which are probably take another week or so.
I also started writing the Indie Author Bestiary II. This is going to be a unique book that I may not be able to dictate. I'm going to try a few sessions to see. As I mentioned yesterday, the book is told in the second person through the viewpoint of a 3rd person character…
Anyway, I've got some writing to do. My goal is to start growing my surplus again since I had to eat into it over the last few days. Upward and onward. Have a good night.
YTD Word Count: 59,450
Plan: 1,252,000
Words Over/-Under Plan: 9,950
Days Ahead/-Behind: 3.62
Projected Annual Word Count: 1,457,400
Projected Decade Word Count: 14,574,000
Deadline 12/31/2023
Days to Go Until 12/31/23: 473
Word Count Average: 3,303
Average Pulp Speed: 2.0
