Category Archives: Pets

T-Minus 10 Days!

Hidden Memory Status Update!

As of today, December 4th, there are less than ten days until the official release of my first book. Also on today’s agenda is sending out a reminder to my ARC readers that they should be downloading their copy so they read it in time to get a review posted in that first week of release (hopefully).

For the last week, I have been looking into creating some social media images to post in advance and on the day of release. Right now, I am playing around with Canva’s free version. You can see some of the preliminary results as the cover image for this post as well as here:

Posted on Instagram with hashtags. One like from a random person? I call that a win!

I’m enjoying the program so far. It is easy to use and does a great job of providing a color palette that coordinates with any images I upload rather than making minor adjustments constantly until it is what I think looks good enough.

Paperback Version?

Yes, I am now also looking at the paperback version process, and it is just as complicated as I imagined it would be. As I don’t think I’m going wide distribution at this stage, I’m probably going to use the KDP cover creator to use my ebook cover and use a solid color for the spine and back. I might get fancy with a future release, but I have already spent a fair bit of money on this whole endeavor.

The other piece I waffled on was trim size. I usually bought mass-market paperbacks, so all of the books on my shelf were pretty small. If I went with that size, it would mean more pages and, therefore, more expensive to print while simultaneously appearing cheaper. Online guidelines are somewhat helpful, but this morning we went to the local bookstore (B&N) to see what fantasy authors are publishing trade paperbacks at these days for both trim size and price.

Based on my quick assessment, this is either 5”x8” or 5.5”x8.5” with a price range between $11.99-$21.99. The higher end of that range was for well-known or currently trending authors and series. I have decided to try 5.5”x8.5” and $12.99. We will see what the author test copy looks like once I put it all in the system and order one. I think I also need to purchase a barcode for this ISBN to put it on the cover, but that will be part of my final paperback research.

In Other News

We are going to have five weeks between the D&D game this week and our January session, so I’m in the process of setting up a little Jeopardy trivia game to play via Discord between sessions to keep info top of mind for everyone. I have set up the questions and the reward system. It is just for fun, but I’m hoping everyone finds it engaging and informative!

Our little tree is up. I wonder how long before one of the cats swipes the first ornament off.

We are hosting a little potluck for my immediate family in a couple of weeks. It is something we do every year to include my grandparents. We skipped it last year for obvious reasons. Everyone is protected now and being very careful, so we are moving forward with it for 2021. It will be good to have our little group together again.

Next week for the blog, I’m debating talking more about the imminent publication or sharing the next installment of my dream story. Time shall tell! I hope you are all having a great holiday season so far!

Cat Loaf

I recently learned the term “cat loaf,” and it makes me chuckle every time. I waited diligently for one of my cats to assume the position so I could take a picture for you. It took a while because it was sunny today, and cat loaf is not a sun-lounging pose.

Little Cat is now officially out of the kitten phase. She is still high energy, but she has taken to more lap-sitting over the last month or so in the evenings. Big Cat has no problem with her using him as a full-body pillow—after all, she can serve as a heated blanket for him—but he grumps at her when she starts grooming him while he tries to get his 23.5 hours of sleep a day.

My husband calls her “the president of the Big Cat fan club.” She will be playing with us, and all of a sudden you can hear his collar move in another room. Little Cat tears off, completely forgetting about us and whatever toy was in play, to find her best friend in the whole world. We think it is adorable. Big Cat probably still wonders why we thought it was a good idea to bring such a pest into his domain.

I’m glad we had friends who stopped by to help watch the cats while we were in Florida last month. Big Cat’s old-man digestive system means he needs more than just a dish of kibble left out for him. They both survived our absence with no issues other than an odd litterbox complaint, and we are cruising along.

My nephew plays outfield like my sister did as a kid: playing with dirt piles.

This weekend is all about sports and working on the next book. We stopped by my niece’s soccer game in the morning and then my nephew’s baseball game in the afternoon. Tomorrow we attend an OL Reign game with some friends. Between all of that, I’m working on the rough draft of the next book. Next week I submit book one for pre-order. I have the backmatter all set to go in the draft that will be uploaded, and I will be seeking ARC (advanced review copy) readers toward the beginning of November.

Next weekend I will share more publication information (I hope), as I believe once I have a book available for pre-order, I will be able to have my Amazon Author, Goodreads, and Bookbub pages as well because I can claim my “live” book. If all of that goes smoothly, I will share some details. If it doesn’t then I might end up sharing problems and having to just tell you “I’m working on figuring out what went wrong.” Fingers crossed!

Business of Publication

I mentioned last week that my book is out with beta readers. While that is happening, I’m working on the administrative steps related to the business of publication. A handful of months ago, when I was looking into beta readers, a friend passed on a publication checklist. It includes a comprehensive list of steps with many links to help learn about the requirements or where to go for the best information. My friend received the checklist from author Lee Hadan. While I’m not going to share all of the steps in the list here, I will share a few with some supplemental research on the items added. 

First up: writing that is not part of the story. 

  • Book description.
  • Frontmatter/Backmatter.
  • About the author.
  • CTAs (including copyright).

I worked on my “blurb” earlier for getting beta readers and have done some additional work on it since then. This link has the information on book descriptions I found the most helpful for my fantasy novel. There are other sources in the checklist, but I did not feel they related specifically enough to my genre. 

Frontmatter and Backmatter include everything before and after your story, including “about the author” and copyright pages, but I decided to call them out separately. I found this link helpful for the overarching structure and as a rough guide for me to select from for inclusion. It explains the purpose of each section and when they would be used for reference text versus fiction or such. I looked at the link provided for the “about the author” section in addition to reading through a lot of those pieces in books I own. 

For copyright (CTAs), I heavily leveraged the link included in the checklist. It includes example copyright information and states that self-publishing authors can use them as templates. 

Next up: business purchases.

  • ISBNs
  • License/DBA

ISBNs are standard and you need one for each version/type of book you publish (audiobook, paperback, etc.). Bowker Identifier Services is where you purchase and register ISBNs in the USA, and they have package deals. As for a business license or DBA/Trade Name, I highly recommend researching your state and local municipalities. Many states have a sales tax that you will need to pay as the publisher, and this is based on the sale price, not on your royalties. I’m still following up with my city, but I have my state information now. 

Now I’m working on Amazon-related information like search keywords, but I will save that information and those links for next week. To sign off today, I will say, “Happy Birthday, Little Cat!” Her birthday is actually at the end of July, but I missed it last week with how busy things have been lately. 

I’m a year old now!

I hope this information is helpful to some, and thanks again to Lee Hadan for being willing to share her checklist with aspiring authors!

Murder Mystery – Cat Edition

I walked into my living room to see Little Cat’s feet flopping out from under the blanket covering the footrest. My first reaction? Big Cat needs to learn how to hide the bodies better. I naturally took a picture for evidence and went hunting for the perpetrator.

After endless seconds of searching, I found him cleverly hiding in a place no one would think to look. He glared out at me from the Cat Cave, and I backed off to avoid the killer’s claws and fangs. Accepting my retreat, he promptly went back to his post-murder napping.

“I am unamused.” – Big Cat

Do not fear cat-loving friends. Little Cat’s feet twitched chasing mice in her cat-dreams moments ago, and Big Cat’s frighteningly large claws only come out when he is playing with toys. They are still healthy and begrudgingly getting along as we approach Little Cat’s first birthday later in the summer.

In other news around the house, I decided to spend money on an electronic notebook. I have wanted one for some time now. It is frustrating to have writing notes for book ideas scattered around in different paper notebooks and different places around the house. I have trouble finding some of them again, so I wanted something I could easily write in, save, file, and sort.

I went with the reMarkable 2. It has a 30-day free trial, so I figured I was not risking too much if I hated it. No, I did not do a lot of research on all the options available. I did look at reviews and feedback on this one, so I did half the research for my decision-making purpose. So far, I like it. The ballpoint pen option is my favorite style, and the stylus feels pretty natural.

I have not tried the convert to text feature yet. I like it looking like notes, so that might be a situational feature for me. This week we FINALLY have our D&D reboot, so I might get to try connecting it to a screen in that session to share drawings. (I will probably be sharing how the reboot goes next weekend!) Preliminarily it looks good for keeping it, but I will let you know if it angers me and ends up getting sent back.

Lazy Weekend

This past week was relatively relaxed, and that carried into the weekend. My nephew’s baseball game had a time change that was not well communicated among the opposing team’s parents, so only two players were on time. Instead of a game, they ended up playing against those two along with a handful of parents in a game/batting practice.

My husband and I did not hang around for that. Don’t judge us. It was colder than expected, and we are just the aunt and uncle. He did wave to us, so he saw us there supporting him. We do want him to have the support he can take with him as he grows up.

Sunday, we scheduled a homemade pizza lunch with my sister and the kids. I had purchased some pre-made crusts earlier in the month. We cooked up some topping and shredded a variety of cheese. Of course, my niece only wanted cheese. My nephew was daring enough to add some chicken to his half. I thought they turned out pretty good for a fun and relatively easy meal.

Mine has ALL the toppings!

Beyond that, I have been at my computer most of the weekend. I am editing book two while waiting for this round of readers to finish up book one for me to run through it again. Book two will pass to my alpha readers once I finish this revision.

Between chapters, I also put in some Dungeon Master time. I am running Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and we are rebooting the campaign in June now that everyone in the group is vaccinated. I am reading through the book again and updating Realm Works with some additional notes. My DM style is to have a lot of prep and helper files to try to make the world real for my players. It helps me with improv in-session by having potential options at hand when the players do something crazy.

I am excited to get started again. The reboot session in June will not be new material. We want a refresh of the first session a year ago. I have planned some mock encounters to get everyone back in the RPG habits. There will be so much side chatter getting to visit again that introducing new material would only frustrate me. Instead, it will be prep, practice, recap, and hanging out. I will be sure to share some of the mock encounter antics after the session!

Big Cat, Little Cat, and I all hope you had a great weekend. Until next time!