Fumblerooski

This article is up for free for two days on amazon if anyone cares.

FREE lance artist

i hope 2 potentially hire one soon to design cover for where are our children and others.

Confessions is now gone...

A copy of Confessions sold, which was a shock to me considering how poorly it did as a free download. It only was downloaded 40 times in a two date stint. Waiting almost surpassed that being the second time I've offered it for free.

Anyway, I wanted to resubmit the article under a new name Fumblerooski, new cover, and a reformatted back part of the article showing my charts. I was compelled by the sale to do it sooner than later and got it finished this afternoon. The more improved version should be available tomorrow afternoon for any future down-loader  The content and my opinions remain the same that the NCAA shorted us College football fans with their version of a playoff.  

Life's Interesting

This weekend is my wife's birthday and I'm running around, getting stuff ready for her get together. The car was acting up, I can afford a newer one but don't want to have to right now. I believe it was a low quality fuel in it, or at least I hope so.

Anyway, I had a few minutes to poke around on the computer and guess what I saw: I MADE MY FIRST SALE. Do you guys know how irrelevant this is in comparison to my wife's birthday, and the potential to have to spend thousands on a newer car, but it felt SO good.

I thought I'd share the moment...

Where are our children

I am close to staring on second draft of my novel.

Maybe...

Maybe i will slow back a little. One thing that disappointed me was that Confessions  felt rushed. I know I tried to sync my work with Warren Sapp's release. I need to step back and put good work out. I can do this. I need to concentrate less on quantity and involve more quality into the process. Plus potential customers may feel they are getting more for there dime with a 20000 word novella against a 7500 short story. Remember, some authors are selling their novels for $.99. I've said it b4. I'll say it here now, I'm not going to do that. I'll do the free trail, but putting a novel together and selling it for that price is something I refuse to do.

Anyway back to this novella idea. Four stories a year is plenty. It's enough to place on the website and to feel that I'm utilizing my talents. It is also enough to feel that I'm doing something other than working the JOB and working this. I need to bring back quality as I've said.   

learning as i go

I find it interesting that I can be both mildly surprised and very disappointed at the same time, but here i am. First the good news. I'm surprised that Waiting is still being downloaded after already being showcased for free a little over a month ago. With last month's downloads I'm nearing 200 total. Again, that might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, and mean nothing at all in sales but interest is interest. I'll give myself credit for a nice blurb and good stuff in my preview. Back to this a bit...

Confessions hasn't done ANYTHING. After some reflection I think I know why. Again, I know this but I've refused to give into this notion, YOU MUST CATER TO WOMEN AND CHILDREN if you're going to sale anything. Confessions doesn't do that. I'm limiting my audience with this subject matter.

Back to Waiting. IF I DO WHAT IS NECESSARY, and use female protagonist, and slide away from SF I may be able to draw readership, perhaps even some PAYING readership. Or at the least, I'm going to get a better judgement to where my storytelling skills are,

more in a bit...  

Apology

I downloaded Confessions this morning, and apologize for the chart glitched toward the end of the article. After this free period, I will go in and try to line those things up better.

Update

Confessions has been downloaded 16 times in the states total, which isn't too bad when I realize it's bound to do better during the prime time hours still to come, especially as the west coast folks get home. I might actually see this article drive itself into the 100 of downloaded sports books before I hit the sack.

I didn't expect Waiting to do much but it's been downloaded 4 times. I thought it was kinda neat to see it in the top 5 sales in both Great Britain and Denmark. Again, maybe the prime time hours will do something for it as well.

I learned something today. Kindle either is not sold or not supported in Canada which surprises my some.

Anyway, thanks four all who have and who will download either short. Thanks.

I need to get it myself just to see if that sophisticated formatting worked out. 

Reviews...

Just remember readers there is no stronger show of appreciation on a reader's part...than a review.

Thanks Everyone

I am thanking everyone who downloads either one of my short works over the next 48 hours. I don't make a dime during this period. And like I have expressed before on these pages I may NEVER make any money doing this.

But the important thing for any independent writer is READERSHIP. As a writer you want all of that work of creation, research, and editing is rewarded with someone actually reading (and hopefully) enjoying your work.

The next 48 hours are important to me. They are important in hopefully drumming up paying readership, but to get my product out there for all to see. I'm not going to quit regardless. I've convinced my self to stay with this no matter what. And yet, an impressive showing over the next 2 days would do tons for my confidence. Waiting stayed in the top 100 free SF downloads for 3 days last time and it felt GOOD to me.

I honestly feel my work is on par with many of the independent authors who are publishing and selling on the Kindle. I BELIEVE THIS with all of my heart. But as they say the proof is in the pudding. The next 48 our indeed crucial.

Where are our Children?

My novel IS coming.

As soon as the Tebow article is published the NEXT thing on my agenda is to work on the polished draft of Where are our Children. I finished the first draft in 2010 but haven't worked on it sense. I've been reading the PDF on my kindle the past few days and like every other time I've read passages I come to the same conclusion: This is a worthy piece deserving a rewrite and being published.

For all of you that don't know this is a very bland description of Children. A FBI Special Agent, Christopher Prince was kidnapped in the early 1980's during what would become known around the world as the Atlanta Child Murder's. Now he leads the investigation when these kidnappings begin again.

Xavier Prince, Chris half brother heads a brotherhood called A House in Chains, bent on retrieving these children by any means necessary.

Serena Tennyson leads Pandora. They will unleash Whirlwind, a offensive against a House in Chains that will shock the world.

I'm estimating this rewrite taking anywhere from 30 to 90 days to complete.

More later...      

Where is my Timmy Tebow

I had over 7500 words of my Tim Tebow article written before I quit on it. My plan is to go back and pick it up using the Q&A method that I used in Confessions. I really can see a scenario where this is finished before the end of August. I could have this published by Sept 1.

The big question is will I use the Confessions titles or individual titles. I'm leaning towards going back to the traditional titles including renaming Confessions after the free promotional days have passed. 

Question and Answers

I enjoyed presenting Confessions as a question and answer type of document. I am the one who is asking the questions, of course, if anyone wanted to know. The ideas was to question my playoff format from a hard core college football fan's point of view. I hope I hit on a lot of points. I am passionate in my belief that the NCAA came up short of giving fans a TRUE playoff. Is it better than the BCS we are living behind? Of course it is, but an improvement for the sake of improvement isn't enough. I thought the organization should have worked harder to get it RIGHT. 

Promotional Peorid

Both of my works: Confessions of an Angry Sports Fan and Waiting are available for free download today and tomorrow on Amazon.com. This is a wonderful opportunity for readers to see if they enjoy my writing style in both a non-fiction and fiction format. Confessions is my first stab at the world of non fiction. I LOVE sports so expressing my opinion on various sporting subjects makes sense.

I did want it to be a little diferent. And writing it as a normal article, essay, or the like just felt STALE. So that is the reason for the confrontational question and answer session with a fictional questionare. I felt the questions and challenges to my plan were fair. I think I will use this format again. Any feedback would be appreciated. 

Waiting

Waiting will also be running the promo simataneiously with my newest upload for 48 hours also. These will be the FINAL free offerings for Waiting. Enjoy. 

Confessions of an angry sports fan: Volume 1

My new Ebook article will be posted on Amazon.com within the next 12 hours. I had uploaded a copy late yesterday but tinkered with the blurb and the cover. I will be offering it free for a two day period. I would love to hear some feedback.

This is the ebook with my take on a TRUE college football playoff. It weighs in at nearly 13,000 words, and I'm pleased with how it has turned out. I present it as if it were a question and answer
session with a college football grilling me on my opinions about the coming playoffs and what I would have done different.

It was a lot of work, but I had a blast doing it. Enjoy!

Second Draft is coming along

I'll be completing the NCAA second draft by tomorrow. I'm hopeful that the formatting doesn't put it on me and I will have this puppy ready to upload by this time tomorrow.

Finished 2nd draft

I feel great. With the back matter NCAA came in at over 10,000 words and I really like it. I will make all the effort I can to edit this piece over the weekend, format it and design a cover for it Monday and have it up and published by Tuesday morning.

Monday WILL be busy as I place that cover over my advertising sites using Backpages for the first time as well.

Dang, time to get ready for the JOB.

New pics tomorrow?

There may not be an act in the world I hate more in the world than taking pictures. Yet, me and the boy and the camera will be here, so why not present or more friendlier face than the one posted right now. 

Plans for next week

I feel great even mentioning this: If I finish this second draft b4 the JOB kidnaps me for the weekend, I can edit over the weekend and hopefully submit this for publishing Monday morning. I always give Amazon 12 to 24 hours to place a new item on their site. My ultimate goal is to place Waiting back in the free category for Tuesday and Wednesday and have the new one there as well piggybacking off of Warren Sapp's release on Tuesday. When people google Sapp for Warren's book my name actually appears magically before his.

I think I can do this.

I think I can. 

NCAA Report

It's late. But the NCAA writing went better than expected today. I completed over 5600 hundred words with my one more hefty section still to write. Even after a careful edit this weekend I wouldn't be shocked to see this run past the 8000 clip which will be just about right for publishing.

Doing it like a blog has done the trick for me. It made it more personal and not so detached. I will have to lessen the number to 50 down from 100.

Tebow update

One reason I got so discouraged the other day, was seeing someone had published a similar Tebow article to mine with almost the same title. Is it my fault they beat me to it? Probably. Still didn't mean it didn't hurt a little especially with the article appearing to sale pretty well.

The obvious difference of course it his article was praising Tebow's religious messages. Mine steered more towards on and off the field football with a little religion mixed in.

I'm not sure how relevant my article is AFTER the regular season starts. But I will think long and hard about if I will finish this article using my 100 formula. It just might work...

Non Fiction

This 50 question or 100 question thing is working pretty well for me. I think I will adapt it and use it for writing these articles about sports. I think I like the feel of something that is alot less formal. My writing flows more naturally.

One article a month is a fine equilibrium. It gives me a chance to find, research, write, rewrite, and publish an article without being overwhelmed with work. Don't ever question this IS work. It may not be slaving at the JOB but its not serving the web, watching movies, or napping either.

And yet that one a month is still 12 posted works by this time next year. Something to say that I accomplished. I believe that I can write well enough to sale at least some. The more stuff I have posted the more I become real to readers.

Writing this as a 100 question has been a good idea for me. Maybe...just maybe I can still have an article posted on or before the 21st.      

Where are our children?

As any reader to this blog, my plans change by the day, if not by the hour. For now I've lost my fictional voice. I don't know how to get it back. No matter how much I outline or template a story I can't see it through. I won't say never on this front but for now fiction is out except...my novel. The first draft is done as I've stated before. I seem to have success with rewrites and I'm interested in what could become of "Where are our children"if I completed it.

Rewriting it might not be as big of an effort as even doing "Waiting"because the first draft is on my kindle. Easy Access. No back and forth. No trying to read my handwriting. I think I can do this. Right now the plan is to attack 3 chapters at a time. I haven't finalized the how, I mean George R R Martin method, traditional, or even John Sanford quirky short paragraph styles that I thought worked well in "Waiting".

My biggest fear was working on something exclusively that could take anywhere from a month or six months without seeing readership. Be brave, Gary. Be brave. I think it is a wonderful story. I think its a poignant story. I'm going to write it and take give it the time and voice it so richly deserves.

The time I truly deserve.

the ncaa playoff

Man, if y'all only knew what I've gone through in the last 24 hrs. I practically gave ALL of this up. I even deleted this blog. I threw all of my physical notes away. I deleted all of my Internet means of advertising. To be honest I don't know if I'll be able to recover most of it. I was really lost. Scared. I doubted my ability and voice. I still don't KNOW that I can do this but I have tried and that's a step in the right direction.

Anyway, I've done over 3000 words on the NCAA playoff today. I'm trying a new format on it totally, trying to bring some fun back into it. Less templates. less planning. Just writing from my previous notes. It seems to be working. I'm enjoying it some. I've got to find some JOY in this if I'm going to continue.

More coming...   

Series of short stories?

Strongly thinking of using the Waiting Storyline as a universe of what would have been stand alone short stories. Faith definitely could work as a tale of the expanded universe bringing back Amadeus, Jonas and introducing a new female lead character and Amadeus daughter who was mentioned in the first story. My problem would be designing covers for these stories. 

And to avoid confusing readers (and myself) all of these tales would take place in the Dominant (our Universe) as a result of what Trinity accomplished in the Recessive Universe by restoring the timeline.

Even my Avenging Angel stories could be told from a Core run Station post war, but again what could I use as covers? I have no artistic talent whatsoever and I would be limiting what I could use. And yet, the thought of building my own universe and having continuity is very intriguing.

Thoughts over the weekend

Faith Is going to get my full attention and my intent to finish this month.

Sept: One Avenging Angel tale; One Stand alone called Alive

Oct: One Avenging Angel tale; One Stand alone called Dead Mexicans

Nov: One Avenging Angel tale, One stand alone called Imperfections

Dec: One Avenging Angel tale; One Stand alone called Hard Rain


2013: 16 Avenging Angel tales and four yet to be named stand alones.

I've abandoned the idea of using titles like Avenging Abagail, Avenging Beverly...for this reason. A lot of the stories I've come across have more than one victim in them. I am limiting what I can write by using the titles. What I can do is use some of the song titles, book title, and movie titles that have moved me in the past. I'm still strongly leaning towards using the black and white photos that I can take myself to keep a consistent theme going through these shorts.


Oh yea: Almost forgot about my novel. The first draft featured 90 scenes, and I attend to keep and expand all of those scenes. If I can rewrite 3 scenes at a time then this novel will be ready somewhere between now and early 2013. The tough thing about working on this novel is I see nothing for my work until its finished while the short stories bring results quicker. At some point during this venture I HAVE to find comfort in the PROCESS or I'll need to quit.

I went into a beautiful Barnes and Nobles while I was in Chicago, and enjoyed looking at all of the books. It reminded me about how difficult and special this process of writing and publishing is. People have more outlets for their reading pleasures than ever before. I have to come to the realization that I may NEVER sell any of my shorts or my novel at a high level no matter how hard I work at it. The enjoyment must come in the creative process, and seeing my work and name in (e publishing) ink or this will drive me crazy.

The JOB isn't fun most of the time. The economics of the world around me isn't fun most of the time either. I have to be able to balance all of this as well as my beloved family with this writing or give this up FOREVER.

I've always had excuses before but they don't exists any more. Anything I choose to write can be published within 12 to 24 hrs. I have a little talent. I have lots of organization. I need to find some damned courage to see this through.       

Chicago Trip Recap

A truly wonderful trip. I saw the good, bad, and ugly parts of the city and the people who inhibit it. I'll post a few pics of the city, though my camera gave me fits and I missed more shots than I took. I totally am I took the time to study the L system over the last few months it proved to be well worth it. And for all who care I don't know how u use this system in Chicago without the app that shows u the arrival time of the trains, it was very accurate.

As a sports fan it couldn't get any better. The truth is that Wrigley Field is a dump. And yet, it is a dump that is beloved by people from around the world and I'm glad I got to see it. I understand this better than ever though since I've visited, why the city council doesn't want 2 shut down Wrigley even 4 one year why they renovate. They don't want to loose a quarter of the fan base if they play at US Cellular home of the White Sox which is a superior ballpark in every way.

As 4 the people, Chicago folks weren't overly warm, but what can u expect from people with millions of others and thousands of outsiders in your face all the time. Their are tons of homeless and mentally ill  who hand around downtown and on the L but for the most part don't cause tourist any immediate threat.

The weather was a tad cool for me, which reminded me why I couldn't live up North. They don't call this place the Windy City for nothing as it lived up two its reputation all weekend with wicked gust of wind and chilly nights even in August. Sunday was the nicest day but again this comes from an old Florida boy.

I'm back

I had a wonderful time in Chicago. A LOT MORE tomorrow including some pics

ChiTown Eve

I'm much 2 grow 4 this type of nervousness. I haven't actually been this giddy in years. I guess I deserve this a little. I haven't taken official time off from the JOB in over 9 years. And I haven't been on sports road trip since before I got married in 1999. This time tomorrow I'll be at Wrigley Field smelling the ivy (and urine) from what I've read.

Anyway, I'm going 2 try to put away the JOB, the economy, and all the other things that trouble me and enjoy myself thoroughly. Who knows if and when this chance will come again?

But I won't forget about writing. I'm going to try 2 finalize where I go next especially with the Avenging series. I want 2 publish sth before the end of the month.

More later...   

Day off (kinda)

Took off from JOB 2ay and 2morrow. Tried 2 get some outside things done, nothing much on my writing front.

I'm always thinking about it though. Angel and Roxanne are really coming into focus 4 me. There are certain rules I'm going to use in telling these stories and getting them together in my head is a bit of a chore.

I almost forgot that I did accomplish more with my Power Point than I expected. What was important to me was to be able to use a black n white photo as my complete background and place title and name on top it. I did it 2day and felt good about it, no need 2 fool with photoshop. That program is just short of rocket science to me. I don't think I'll be incorporating the silhouettes into the pic but having humans in the shots would be nice. My trip 2 ChcTown this could provide tons of nice shots especially at night.  

what to do with the remainder of 2012?

Debating. Debating. Debating. I guess u get the picture. I'm probably not going forward with the articles. I WANT 2 make money. I WANT 2 see my name in the top 100, hell the top 10 of Amazon's list. But it feels like selling out. It doesn't feel real.

I love fiction. I love characters. I love a poignant ending.

I can't do that with articles.

Again, back to what to do with the rest of 2012? I have 8 or 9 shorts that could be done and published to go with Waiting, starting the Avenging Series in 2012. My original idea was to publish 20 per year for 5 years.

Going to work on my template's before my trip and have my decision made b4 I return.

more later...

Back to Writing

I feel more certain than ever that the Avenging Series is the thing 2 do. I did a template 4 it 2 day. I'm very comfortable with what I've come up with. I'm even leaning towards using a female detective partner, Roxanne Sanchez has my POV. The question is do I present her through 1st of 3rd person.

Why not use Angel as the point of view? First, I think it enhances Roxanne's character. Angel is going 2 b fascinating to the average reader regardless but I don't want Roxanne lost amongst the scenery. Using her as the POV also keeps Angel at a mysterious, dark distance.

home at last

16 hr days are tough but the JOB is done 4 a good bit. Chicago's trip is coming Friday. I'm probably more nervous than excited because I wasn't sure this day would ever get here. White Sox, Cubs, Solder Field and United Center I'm on the way!! 

One Last thing...probably

One of the guys from the JOB is going to help me with adobe Photoshop to help me design my covers. Again, I'm looking 4 a noir look with a black n white photo of structure's within my city with the silhouettes I've downloaded appearing somewhere n the pick.

Avenging...

Although its looking less n less likely I'll be getting any prose work done 2nite, I did get some template stuff done. I'm going to change the title of my series to Avenging from Killing. I've decided to use a detective for all the stories who I'm leaning heavily towards calling Angel. Avenging Angel. Get it!!

Anyway, the female names that I was going to use still come into play. Except Angel will be looking into solving their murders: Being an Avenging Angel.

I'm working out rather he shoulf be a city detective or a private one. If he is a city cop he would need a partner who WILL be female but beyond that I don't have any idea.

The Avenging aspect has more of a positive conotation than the killing does but that's not the only reason for the change

Again, I like the idea that I discussed in one my post yesterday about being a little more singularly focused in these stories. I think this happens 4 me now, while still being entertaining and literate.  
  

happy 6th

I want 2 work on parts of 2 sections 2nite but not sure its going to be possible. My goal is 2 have the second draft done b4 i leave 4 Chitown then comeback, give it a quick polish b4 publishing on 14th but way things are looking it's going 2 b close.

I Was Wrong

i redesigning my killing series. I think each story needs to be tighter, maybe closer to 5000 words in length, more singularly focused, weeding out the extra characterizations and scenery. I'm working on it now.   

Tebow Update

I believe I've got a nice article up into the end of Part I, but Í admit I'm getting tired. I finished half of my first section of Part II but I've got a ton of editing. It feels like I'm straying from the subject in hand. Some rest should help me with that evaluation.

Like I've said here before, one of my biggest failures in life is a lack of patience. I want this article posted on Amazon so badly but I've got to be more patient. I'm getting frustrated that NO one has purchased Waiting. I'm confident that the Tebow article can help generate some sales for my first short story.

The original idea was to post Tebow's article and The NCAA Playoff one of the same day to help both of them make sales by feeding off of each other. I hope I can stay with that idea.

Editing

Getting ready to fine tune Part I.

Tebow's looking good

no, no I'm not talking about the player. I am talking about my article on Tim Tebow. I finished the second draft on both the introductory and Part I which dealt with Tebow's shortcomings on the field: His long delivery, his risk of injury, and people's overreaction to what they feel is leadership because he is such an emotional player.

Tomorrow will be a test. The second part of this article is the media's fascination with him. I'm at nearly 5000 words already and this section seems to be the longest of the three.

I have to say I'm proud of what I'm accomplishing with this. The Introduction, for the lack of a better word, was a bitch. Some of it was due to hadn't written any original prose in years. Secondly, it was more of novel and short story type of prose that takes me sometime to get going. These articles are more factually based. The sentences are more direct. They are less complicated. I had an easier time with that 4000 word Part I than I did the 1000 word Introduction.

Anyway, even after editing this thing it will easily fall into the second largest piece of writing I've ever produced. My first draft of my novel Where are the children? clocked in at well over 140000 words. The only thing that comes anywhere near this is a novella I did once called Don't Cry for me.  It was a novella on the genocide in Rwanda that I wrote about 10 years ago. I don't have a copy of it anymore. I don't know if I can revisit the horror of the real life Rwanda or what I put the lead character through in that ever again. But I guess until they throw the dirt on you, you'll never know.          

Confidence repost

Like I said I struggle with confidence whenever I start writing prose. Anyway tebows article I got 2 a real sloooooow start

Anyway I finished the first part and I thought it read real well. I didn't want to stop but I promised the boy id run him to skate park.

Would love to start and fin entire 2nd section but that may be askn too much of myself.

Anyway more later...

Is this thing workn

Don't know if my phone or app itself is acting up

tebow's 2nd draft

the all important 2nd draft is underway...wish me luck

Outlines

Okay, so u didn't ask but lemme explain when I say I've completed 20 outlines in a hour or two. These outlines are more in the lines of a template. Yea, there's that word again: Template. It means everything to me while I'm writing.

Templates give me a consistent place to go next when I'm doing fiction or non fiction. For fiction its just a matter of getting my characters and motivations down, while in non fiction I can concentrate on word usage and sentence structure.

Anyway, I finished 20 more tonight. Wasn't planning to but circumstances have me up late. I really want to get 2 bed so I can start on that second draft on Tebow but I know I'm going to be pushing it mentally and physically if I don't get some rest. 

Boy, am I jumping around

Back to August stuff:

Tebow's article will either be called  The Gospel According to John or Saviour- with the subtitle being how Elway saved us from Tim Tebow. I'm probably going to use a generic cover for this one. Tebow is so popular I don't want to risk using an image that someone, somewhere has used before.

The NCAA one is set in stone: Fumblerooski: How the NCAA dropped the ball on the upcoming football playoffs. I really like the cover for this one as well. PowerPoint really takes the work out of this process.

Note: To correct something I posted a few days ago: The Fumblerooski wasn't a play in the FSU-Clemson game but Miami-Nebraska a few years earlier. My bad. I speak specifically to this event at the onset of this article.

Sept

Do I actually speak about publishing this far ahead. Why not? I think my commitment here can only aid me, even putting a little pressure on myself to get stuff done.

I spoke with a co-worker about having his daughter pose for one of Sept's scheduled article. The article is tentatively called Little Monsters: Amateur athletics gone mad. It's my take on how amateur athletics from youth leagues to the college level has gotten out of hand. I picture a cover with a younger girl in softball gear with the eye paint, wearing a too serious look-if not a snarl imbedded on her pretty face.

I'm really struggling with a title for the second one which will be about how I believe the NFL may have gone to a level of no return. I love NFL football, but I don't like much of the direction on and off the field where it's heading.   

Let's talk about writing and publishing

I'm leaning towards publishing both Tebow's and the NCAA playoff articles on the same day. Tebow's will be done first but I like the idea of each article having the other to piggyback off of.

It's a strong possibility this will occur anywhere between 8-13 and 8-17. I'm not sure I'll use Amazon's promo on both or either yet.

I will admit right here that I want to use Warren Sapp's release of  his tell all NFL book to aid the sales of my articles. Sapp is releasing his book on the 21st. If you'll put "Sapp"in the search under Kindle books my name actually appears ahead of his. I need to take advantage of this.

Faith, I would think should be ready anywhere from 7 to 10 days after two articles.    

A bad day gettn worse

One of my templates for "killin" has come up missing. I've looked on my computer and all around the house for a written copy and have come up empty. It's not a tragedgy by any means but I've created a little more work 4 myself.

Morning

I need to be in the bed, but I'm going to outline 20 more stories in the killing series. Rough, Rough night and early morning at the JOB.

Sometimes I feel I don't have a friend in the world.

I'm not going to burden u folks with my problems. it's too many people who want to work and cant.

I'm ever thankful 4 what I do have.

Sometimes though I feel that I deserve better than the hand I've been dealt.

Anyway, I don't know if I'm going to make any money from this stuff I've been doing over the past few weeks. But it does give me something to do, something to occupy my mind. And God knows I need something to occupy my mind...   

The JOB

Lifes tough on a workn man especially when u giv a damn

Damned Busy

I've been a little busier than I expected, but I think the results will be well worth it. The first drafts of both the Tebow and the NCAA playoff are done. I also completed like a mini outline for each that I can only explain as vital to making the rewrite a whole lot easier. I'm a little nervous at the prospect of all the headlines and links that I'll be trying to create. Staying with fiction only would be so much easier, but I think this is going to work and generate some readership.    

Fins

Ncaa playoff 1st draft is done

Done

All done with what I wanted to accomplish today. At the JOB, time permitting, I will do Tebow's conclusion, Playoffs Introduction and conclusion.

Ncaa playoff

Got to shake the sleep out of me, get some chow in me and finish the third section of my first draft about my proposed football playoff.

Really tired

I've been workn on faiths blurb when work has allowed it. This ss has all the potential 2 b somethn soecial. Hope I'm up 2 writn it.

Tired

Done with prose 4 tonight. Will do section 3 at home afta I get up. Then opening and closing 2 morrow night. A lot of stuff done n pass few days. I feel great

Success

I don't know I have tons of fiction to write but if the articles hav a larger readership. Non fiction traditionally outsells fiction

Faith

Fin outline on faith 2day. I'm seein the scenes pretty clearly now. I always use hollywood models 4 my chatacters. Kate winslett is my visualaztion of the pov mary.

Pub schedule

Leaning towards publishing tebow and ncaa article on sameday. Hoping they can feed off each others potential readership. Then faith following near end of month

Fumblerooski

The first draft is coming along faster than I thought. If things go well I may hav most of it done 2 night. A bit worried bout formatting this and tebow article. A little skilk and a lot of courage will c me thru

Fumblerooski 2

...now its the title of my article about how the ncaa fumbled ball n creating the new playoff format. I have a radical but logical system that I've thought about 4 years. More coming....

Fumblerooski

I'm aging myself here by titling this article 2 amazon on that word. It was a fake punt by fsu years ago that turned tide against clemson at death valley. More comin...

Pics 2

Got a few 2 c effect. I'm going 2 put these babies on computer 2 c effect

Tim Tebow

I ran across this article I did on Tim Tebow and some important stats and outline on the coming college football playoff.  I kinda ditched these ideas because even standard formatting gave me such a headache when I first published "Waiting."  To make this read better I needed to center some things, use more bold and italics, and create more empty space.  I think I've gotten better at that and may give this another go. I'm a huge sports fan and I've been told I missed my calling in that regard. I could publish 10 of these articles and still hit a stand alone short story or two before end of the calendar year (I just outlined and made a cover for Faith yesterday.) Then I could start fresh in 2013 with 20 "Killing stories" outlining them along the way. I have 10 for sure outlines already done, with story ideas coming in everyday. I wonder if anyone wants to hear what I think about Tebow? The title was tentatively called, , , "The Gospel According to John: How Elway saved us from Tim Tebow, his media cronies, and a insufferable fan base." Anybody out there got any thoughts?  

Pics

May take some pics after taking care of some family business. I plan to use these pics as my book instead of the generic ones I found on the net. No worries about copyright or if anyone else has them already. 

Marketing

I have adds posted on Craigslist, US Freeads, Reddit, and one in several cities on Backpages as soon as August work is done. It's all the marketing I'm preparing to do. My opinion is the best marketing is stories piggybacking off of each other. I'm suspecting it will take 6 months and a dozen shorties on Amazon to start sales upwards. I'm only going to worry about what I can control which is the quality of my product.  

Kindle Covers

WOW. What a difference a few hours can make. I bought the wife a digital camera for Christmas a couple years ago, we thought it was broken, so I got her another, then we found out it was nothing ever wrong with the first one. Anyway, she's giving it to me on long term loan, and I go an idea for taking black and white pics of settings in my stories. I remember Elmore Leonard trade paperback covers a few years back had a unique, "everyday" feel to them. I'm not a professional photographer but I think I can catch some worthwhile shots.    

Running off at the mouth

I've never been a big talker. I guess I'm running off at the mouth today because I haven't been so excited about writing in years. My stuff is going to be read by read by somebody. I'm not going to get rich by doing this, I may not sell much, I may not sell any, but through Amazon's KDP plans and promotion somebody is going to read me. (I just wish they post a review, that would help :) Oh, just as a reminder, because I can post from my smart phone these entry's will look very different when I'm away from my laptop. The young will be very familiar with it because they text like it's going out of style. And your dear Gary, can only do so much with these fat fingers and texting on a cell. Just wanted to mention it...    

"Killing preview"

I'm going to try to post those cover previews of the first two Kindle Singles. I may tinker with these during the month, but this is the gist of what I'm trying to present. 

Faith

I'm giving this standalone some seniority. I've had this in my head for a number of year, almost as long as Waiting. I've found a little confidence. The characters, the story, all of it is really coming together even as I type this. I'm going to work on the first draft when I return to the JOB 2morrow night. Wish me luck.

Lets talk about "Killing" (part 3)

 My last post on this stuff for right now. I'm a big time Treky. Big Time. I've enjoyed all of the series for the most part, with DS9 being my favorite. What did it for me on that series was storytelling, characters, and continuity. There's that word again. Continuity. I want people to feel like they are in familiar territory when reading these shorts. I think the late, great, Robert B Parker did this better than anyone else in the literary world. I'm going to present familiar characters that will appear from time to time to give that continuity. Again, I'll be using Jacksonville as the backdrop, an are I lived at for 40 plus years for a setting. The POV character changes with every tale but some of the background folks will return for frequent visits.   

Let's talk about "Killing" (2)

Onto one of my other favorite shows is Battlestar Galactica. The new version that came out in the last few years. Let my digress a second and give tribute to Ronald D Moore the head honcho over that operation. I learned so much about storytelling from that man. Anyway, on to his creation. Have I mentioned I like gray characters? How about this, I love stories with a darkness or edginess attached to them. And that's what 5 years of BG provided for me. I want to present that in my stories. I want to be uncomfortable writing them, reading them. Very little has given me this feeling in entertainment since. Chris Nolan's Batman movies have. George R R Martin's A song of ice and fire does. James Swallow, an underrated SF writer does. I want to present characters like this. I want to present situations like this. On to the final page on this if you are so inclined... 

Let's talk about "Killing" (part 1)

Other than sports, I haven't watched a whole lot of TV in the past 20 years. However, I want to incorporate 3 of my favorite TV staples into this series of short stories.

First Law and Order: I'm talking about the original, not the solid spin offs which I enjoy but not nearly as much as big daddy. I want my readers to feel as comfortable as I did watching that show. This is what I mean by that. I didn't discover the show into the mid to late 90's. It was already heavy into syndication on TNT by then. I liked the idea that if it came on at 7pm and I walked in at 7:30, I would just about know where the plot should be. I liked the first 30 minutes were committed to the police procedural, and the later half to the lawyers. I also liked the idea the good guys didn't always win. Keep that in mind reading anything be me. I believe in gray characters. I believe in endings ending as they may and not always happy. Anyway, my Law and Order comparison is about consistency, continuity, and familiarity that I want to present in each of these stories. The covers will mirror each other. The story lines will be presented in and around my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. Duuuuuuuvallll. There will be regulars who appear in numerous stories. They will be close in length. OK time for a restroom break and we'll talk about this some more...           

Oh yea...

...I'm not NEARLY as mean or unapproachable as my profile pic suggest. I'm just not a picture taking type of guy. lol

workin

I'm amazed at what I've gotten done today. Amongst it all, outlines for 10 killing stories along with their covers that I design myself using powerpoint. They aren't anything special but I'm striving for some things with this series: Entertainment of course, consistency in storytelling, presentation, and good writing (much better than what you will see in my blog.These are the first two that I'm planning to publish before the end of August after a stand alone I'm tenatively titling Faith. More on that e-story in a later posting.

Waiting's final call

This is the long story on my short story Waiting, then I will put this baby to bed. I wrote this original tale back in 2003, yea that long ago. It was originally around 7000 words. Gom Publishing ran a contest for SF and Fantasy the following year. The catch was the entry's could be no more than 5000 words. Ouch. I had to carve 2000 words off this thing without loosing story. Let me tell you that was a monster. Anyway, Waiting placed 4th amongst a 1000 or so entry's. Fast forward to this year. I've only written about 4 short stories and a first draft of a novel. Several crashed computers later, Waiting and my novel were all I have left. A few readers had told me they liked the story but the science lost them. I thought I'd add as much as of the original text that I could remember into this Kindle entry and boom, pow, bam, here we are. I'm pleased with the finished product. The expansion me to explore the three main characters more deeply. Trinity's and Amadeus' daughters were last minute entry's. I hate black and white characters. I love gray. I  adore gray characters, and Amadeus wasn't that. He was the Hollywood evil guy who did evil stuff just for the sake of being evil. Jonas grew to become more ambivalent. Most of all I hope I got the sceience in the SF right. Explaining the Windows effect was a beast of an effort. Anyway, enough Waiting, time for newer better things. I hope to publish two or three works in August. I'm working on these products right now. . .I mean after I finish this post. More later...

A change is a coming

I'm changing this to my primary blog this morning.

August

My goal is 2 publish 1 standalone and introduce my killing series before the end of august. I gotta fit this n between the JOB family and a trip 2 chicago.

Waiting downloads

I know its just downloads and not actual sales but to see my name in the top 100 of anything is fulfilling. People n the uk and denmark hav uploaded this thing. WOW. Thanks 2 all who took the time to spend on me.

"Waiting" Numbers

"Waiting"has moved into the top 2100 in free downloads on Amazon.com, and is up to #91 in SF. Those numbers may mean nothing to most people, especially since they don't give me any revenue, but it means everything to me. I appreciate every reader. I would love to hear back on the formatting. I have to admit it gave me a headache.

Hey there

I created this blog to announce my new ebook releases from Amazon.com. I run a more extensive blog over at garysapp.wordpress.com.

"Waiting" is available

My short story "Waiting" is an E-Book short story available at Amazon. com for your kindle.



A Short Story: Approx 8000 words

Amadeus of Alpha Centauri governs Artemis Mining Station. He is charged with overseeing the traumatized populations of Earth and Mars who are sentenced to slave in the mines. He does so with a devilish charm and an iron fist.

Trinity of Earth is a member of an insurgency, who are launching a desperate, explosive ploy to evict their sworn enemies out of the Core forever.

Jonas of Proxima heads the investigation into the bombings. If he follows the evidence to its logical conclusion, he will lead all three of them to a tragic endgame.

Yet, if the truth is exposed, the waiting will be over, and billions of lives will be lost.

Note: This item will be available at no cost 7-27 thru 7-29.