Writing Updates and the Undead

So, I abandoned my blog for a while so I could focus on writing and growing an awesome beard. Don't ask me how blogging interfered with my beard growth...it just did. I'm now back to give you some updates of awesomitude.

I finished my first and second drafts of my novel. I am now tweaking it a bit, fixing some minor little mistakes, and adding in a few things that come to me in the middle of the night. I've woken up at 4am three or four nights in a row with some detail that would make the book just a touch better. It has been exhilarating and obnoxious.

Some of you know I've decided to self publish. I'm not even going to try the traditional publishing route. I think ebooks and indie publishers are the wave of the future. If you really want all my reasons, I'll do another post about it.

The major problem with epublishing is you need to completely reformat your book to make it work. This process is not simple, easy, or fun. I was a little overwhelmed by the whole concept of redoing my novel with html, so I thought I'd do a trial run first with some short stories.

But, as I focused on my novel, those short stories didn't get finished. I started to worry. I needed some practice before I did my novel. I dug through old folders and found what I needed.

A few Christmases ago I wrote a gag zombie guide for my friends and family. I still had it saved on my computer. All I needed to do was remove any reference to people I know directly and all the stuff about St George, Utah. I added a few more pictures, hand drawn of course. Then I started the reformat process.

Agony. That is the word. I formatted it and put it on the previewer. Nothing looked right. My pictures didn't appear. My fonts were too big or too small. Spaces popped up in the wrong places. I had nonsense bits of code that didn't translate into words. I formatted it again. Nope. My pictures all looked black. My font sizes still insisted on doing strange and forbidden things. I tried again. Better. Again. Better. One more time. Pretty good. I saved the whole thing as an epub file.

Then I made a cover.

I think it turned out pretty well considering I don't have much experience doing much more than my silly cartoons on here.

I am now proud to say my zombie guide is available online for real people to buy. Check it out now if you're interested, just 99 cents may save your life someday.

Here for Amazon's kindle.

Here for B&N's Nook.

Very soon, I'll have it available in print for $6.99 and I'll keep you updated.

I am now pretty much ready to get my novel out there. I figure about a month for me to reformat it, get a cover, and get it out there. I'm not above asking for help to spread the word. Please, my blogger friends, lend me your blogs. I am hoping to do a few interviews, guest posts, and talk a bit about the book or the characters for you. If you are interested, let me know.

I will be grateful forever and I'll work out some incentive as we get closer. I'm thinking a couple signed copies of Zombies at the Door and a couple of my novel, The Crystal Bridge that will go out to a randomized few people from those who help.