Tag: Writer Beware

Like a house finch

I sometimes feel exactly how this fledgling house finch looks.

Fledgling male house finch at the hummingbird feeder
  • What am I doing?
  • Is this edible?
  • Where’s Mom?

Maybe it’s the thunderstorms and fireworks we’ve had all weekend long. I should go out and weed the garden, but the grass is up past my ankles, and it’s far too soggy for that. For today, I’m letting the jungle continue.

Even so, I’ve made a fair amount of progress on the revision this week, and I’m pleased.

The next challenge, of course, is weaving the new scenes back into the narrative. I have a dual-timeline narrative (because I can’t make things easy on myself; I suspect when I stare at the manuscript, I look like the house finch above), and I pulled the two narratives apart to work on each separately.

Always a thrill ride, this writing thing.

Speaking of this writing thing: writers, heads up!

If you don’t already follow the Writer Beware blog, head on over there. This week, Victoria Strauss breaks down clues to spotting an email scam. If you publish your work, eventually you will end up with one (or many) of these in your inbox. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that.

That’s it for this week. Today I plan to read while expressly ignoring the jungle.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Pink sky at morning

Our surreal pink sky this morning

Woke up this morning to this amazing pink and golden sky, accompanied by some thunder—but no rain, no storms (not yet, anyway). It was surreal and quiet, and the entire sky, east and west, was painted in this incredible glow.

This week, I think I finalized the covers for both The Pansy Paradox and The Capstone Conundrum. The latter was simpler since the books are part of a series, and many of the design aspects remain the same.

I’m not quite ready for a reveal. I’m still letting it rest while doing other things, like playing around with all the new features in Vellum.

I love this application, and it just keeps getting better and better. Also, my decision to invest in a Mac Studio was a good one. I really was working seamlessly between Photoshop and Vellum last week.

The only issue is switching back and forth between Mac and Windows. I use shortcuts for both, and mixing them up just might be a thing I do often. Then again, working to keep them straight could be good for my brain. Who knows.

Up next? Well, my proofreader returned the manuscripts. After reviewing all the comments, I’ll create the final Word versions and drop them into Vellum and start formatting the interior for both the ebook and print versions.

In other news, over on Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss highlights the possible class action suit against Anthropic (for training its AI on pirated books). You can read that post here. Yes, some of my books are in that database of pirated books, and yes, I’m thinking about joining the class action.