Monthly Update (Dec, 2019)

Current Status

Completed Class & Short Story

The Write To Publish course provided by The Write Practice (https://thewritepractice.com) has been completed along with the completion of the short story. 

Posted to Blog

The short story was posted to this blog: http://www.normalmatters.com/stuck-on-stupid/

It was not published on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com), as had been the initial intent.

Not Published

Why was the short story only posted and not published? Two reasons, although, depending on one’s perspective, they could also be called two excuses! 

Social Media Extent (too much)

Use of social media to the extent recommended by the course was more than I was prepared to embark on at the time. Social media activity, at least to some extent, is planned for some future date. Yes that is a vague statement, so may not in fact happen. Suffice it to say I’m not ready for it at this point in time.

Initiative (Lack of)

Not publishing the short story was also due to a lack of initiative on my part. Related to the social media shortcoming described above, I did not take the initiative in reaching out to established authors and bloggers in order to create relationships and grow my public “presence.”

I do plan to take action on this one in the near future. I know that’s vague too, but really, I will!

Short Story Content

The short story itself is entitled Stuck On Stupid (http://www.normalmatters.com/stuck-on-stupid/) and tells of a childhood experience in the life of Andrew, a university archaeology professor in Unbending, the tentative title of my book currently in progress. 

The story introduces Andrew and his two older sisters and is one that deeply affects who they are as the adults described in the book.

Current Plan

Book Work Continues

Work on my book continues. Note that the creation of a book includes more actions than is perhaps first expected. They are:

• Initial draft
• Editing
  • initial self-edits
  • proofreading 
  • copy editing 
  • line editing
  • developmental editing
• Presentation 
  • cover art
  • formatting (for print or ebook)
• Marketing (before, during and after publication)
• Publishing

Progressing (Slowly)

Progress on the book continues. It is currently in the editing phase. An initial copy edit has been completed. Some developmental changes are known to be required and are currently in work.