A slight delay, and some irritation

     Well, I was hoping to get my second book up this weekend, but it looks like it won't happen.  Reason:  I'm trying to buy a car.  The money for formatting and a cover photo will most likely go towards a vehicle inspection.  As long as it's for a good cause, right?
     Speaking of vehicle inspections, I was supposed to have one.  Of course, the owner didn't show up with the car.  Sat at the mechanic's for thirty minutes before running some errands.  The car still wasn't there an hour later, so I decided to go home.  Tried to call the owner of the car, but he's not answering his phone.  Nice.  I guess that's what happens when you end up dealing with guys around twenty.  Oh well, moving on.
     Getting seriously impatient about a guitar I bought last fall.  The headstock was completely broken off when I bought it, but it was a total steal and the only way I could afford a Les Paul.  It's Epiphone, but still, a Les Paul is a Les Paul.  So, finally having the money to fix it (thanks dad), I dropped it off with a repair guy.  That was over three weeks ago.  The headstock is back on, and the stain he put on the neck to cover the funky spots is drying.  The jack is broken, though.  After he gets everything fixed, he'll do a full setup for me.  Crossing my fingers that it will be done soon.  I really want it back.
     I think that's it for the day.  I'll let you know when I get my book formatted, but it's all dependent on cars right now.  Thanks for reading, whoever may be out there.  :)

Scheduling ...

     I need to do it.  There always seems to be too many things I need to do, so, of course, I don't get any of them done.  But I'm working on it.  So, yes, it's been too long since my last post ... again.  Sorry 'bout that.
     Mom had been gone for the weekend, so my dog has slipped into a puddle of despondency.  Poor thing.  He lays down at the top of the stairs, waiting for her to come home and looking completely pathetic.  Right now he's on the bed, but still looking pathetic.  He's been extra goofy and excited when I come home the last couple of nights.  Redirecting that energy, ya know.  I know that, when she finally does get home, he's going to completely freak out and be a menace.  Just as long as I'm not in his way.
     My nephew has become a fan of the tenth anniversary performance of Les Miserable.  A big fan.  Huge might be an even more appropriate word.  He's watched it about six times in the last two days.  And he's six.  Yeah.  He really is the weirdest, most interesting, and eclectic kid I've ever met.  He knows more words to Raconteurs songs than my sister does.
     Next week will (hopefully) be an interesting one in my attempt at being a successful writer.  I have another book that's almost ready for upload to Amazon.  Just needs one last read.  I have a picture that I want to use for the cover.  Just waiting to get paid at my regular job so that I'll have money for formatting and the right to use the photo.  Crossing fingers for an upload next weekend.  Oh wait, it's Sunday, isn't it?  Why do I think it's Saturday?  I guess that would be an upload this weekend.  This coming weekend?  Whatever.  In about a week.
     Well, that's about it for now.  Just one last thing:  if you haven't check out The Black Keys new album El Camino, do it now.  It's awesome.  Watch this; you'll love it.

Darn you, Australia!!!

     I am an admitted lover of tennis.  Current favorite player: Rafael Nadal.  I'm in the minority on this in my house.  My mom loves Federer, and my sister has decided to pick my player's main opposition, Djokovic. 
     The Australian Open was played over the past two weeks, ending on Sunday.  Well, Monday actually.  They're twenty hours ahead of where I live, and all of the big matches are played at night.  Unfortunately, that means that I've been living on East Australia Time for the past week.  The mens' final was an amazing marathon, that I stayed up for.  The whole thing.  Went to bed at 6:30 yesterday morning. 
     What's the point, you ask?  The point is that it's currently 3:57, and I'm wide awake.  Good time to work, I guess.  Re-editing what will probably be my next book on Kindle.  It's been a while since I last read it.  Has needed just a few little tweaks here and there.  It always surprises me when I find spelling mistakes.  I mean, between first draft, all the edits, me and my sister, it's amazing that there are still bad words.  The other bad thing (besides the time, I mean) is that I just headed into the climax of the book.  Looks like I'll be up a while longer.
     So, I poured myself a little more soda (decaf), and finished my ice cream break.  Time to get back to work.
     Speaking of ice cream and soda:  I really need to give the stuff up.  I've had enough persistent health issues without filling my body with junk.  February 1st seems like a good day to clean up my act.  Gives me a little time to put encouraging sticky notes everywhere and say goodbye to Diet Mountain Dew and things like brownies.  Just hope I don't go too overboard.  :)

Big gap, and author interview

     Yeah, it's been a little while.  Too long, really.  It's been a rough year, and it's not even February yet.  Anyway, things are looking up!  My author interview got posted today, on my birthday, no less!  http://jeanzbookreadnreview.blogspot.com/2012/01/author-interview-kirsten-zeller.html
Too cool!!  Hoping it will boost my sales a little, maybe get me some new followers on my blog and facebook pages. 
      Just finished putting the little edits into my second book.  I'm going to try sending it to some agents, but it will be just fine if no one picks it up.  I'm kinda funny I guess.  I love that my book is on Kindle, but I still want to be published traditionally.  Something about walking into a book store and seeing it there on the shelf.  I dunno.  Anyway, tallied up my words today and found out it's pretty short.  Might be too short for most publishers, so I won't get my hopes up.  Got a title.  Now I just have to come up with a cover.  Could be tough.
     Well, look for more posts, hopefully on a fairly regular basis.  Again, sorry about the gap.  Talk to ya later!

I'm live!!!!

Loaded the book last night; they loaded it this morning.  YAY!!!!!  So excited.  It's free to Amazon Prime members from the 6th to the 10th.  Please leave a review.  Good ones are awesome; intelligent critiques are just fine.  Part of my job is to learn where my weaknesses are and work on them; part of your job is to point them out.  ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Life-With-A-Vampire-ebook/dp/B006TOMC1Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325806985&sr=1-4

Squeezing things in, the last week of the year

     Apparently, my family had some bad luck stored up at the end of last year.  Knowing that it was running out of time, 2011 decided to have my dad hit a moose, my mom get stuck in a driveway and scrape the side of her car on a tree, and kill the transmission in my sister's car.  Nice.  Actually, it started when that employee gave me his cold as a Christmas present.  *sigh*  Such is life, I guess.
     Slaved for days over my book, editing and re-editing.  When it was formatted, my double spacing between sentences turned into single spacing.  I'm a double space kinda girl, so I spent about, oh, six hours doing that.  Stayed up until four on a couple of days to get the sucker knocked out, then passed it to my sister for a final final edit.  She did that all of yesterday, so yippee, we're done.  Except ...
     We sent the book to my sister's kindle last night and found a few interesting things.  The website I had been editing on uses a format that's slightly wider than the kindle's.  My dedication lines were too wide, resulting in a bit of strange rearranging.  I also have some blank pages here and there at the end of chapters.  Hmmm ...  No idea how to fix that.  Sent an email; hopefully the format gurus will get back to me soon with a solution. 
     Other than that, it looks great.  The cover is a little dark on my sister's black and white kindle screen, but it still looks good.  I'm sure it will look awesome for those of you who have color.  Anyway, if things go well, I'll be uploading to Amazon at the end of the week.  I'll let ya know when it's out.

That was fast

     This post is a day late, but I'm not surprised.  My wonderfully subtle co-worker gave me his cold ... only twenty times worse.  Just in time for Christmas, no less.  So, I've been pretty miserable this past week.  Another upside to being an author:  I can take days off and not worry about the money I'm missing.  Anyway ...
     On Wednesday, I bit the bullet and payed someone to format my book.  Wrenched the money out of my bank account, sent of the document, and waited for an email.  Nothing.  Okay, whatever.  It was kind of late.  Next morning, I check my email, a few websites, still nothing.  Alrighty then.  About an hour after booting up the computer, I check my "work" email, and there it is.  They're done already.  What?!  You are kidding, right?  Nope.  Went to the site, checked my document.  All nice and formatted, no more weirdness.  Awesome!!! 
     Of course, being the paranoid person that I am, I need to read through the thing again, just to make sure it's as perfect as I can get it.  Then it's upload to Amazon!!  Should be interesting to see what happens after that.  Hopefully something will happen.  Just have to wait and see (not something I'm good at).
     Cover!!  Here ya go.  Hope you like it.

Thanks a million to Richard and Ashley Buxbaum at Antiques on Old Plank Road for letting me use it.  Not sure what I would have done if they hadn't.  :)