Slog, Slog, Slog
I am kinda kicking myself for not doing all of this reformatting weeks ago when I knew I’d be pulling the Hidden Empire, Olympic Cove, and Two Thrones books out of KU. But I had assumed that formatting a book with Vellum would be a matter of uploading the .docx file, going in and cleaning up any goofy pages, adding the Vellum-sized cover and appropriate links for a given ebook platform, and I would be done. Maybe an hour of work per book at the most.
I did not know that for whatever reason Vellum would hork on how Word formats the occasional italicization here and there and apply italics to the entire damn paragraph. Which means I have to upload a book’s .docx file, then start going through it and scanning for any out of place italics.
And you know that while I’m doing that I’m also keeping an eye out for spelling/grammar/punctuation goofs (because no matter how many eyes were on a given book there is always a handful of mistakes that got through the editing process) and fixing those. All of which takes way more time than a single hour.
No, I cannot hire someone to do this for me. That would be lovely but Nic doesn’t have that kind of cash. So I have a most joyous week ahead of me, tra la.
I Am Astounded
Crystal Blade Episode 20: Oh, The Places You’ll Go! is live at Kindle Vella. You know the drill.
And while we are on the topic, I was astounded today to get an email notification that I had earned a Vella bonus for April. I honestly don’t know why—I didn’t start earning money until this month, and of that I’ve made a grand total of $1.08 from my two loyal readers (I know who you are—love you oodles).
I can only assume that the bonus is because of my like-clockwork posting schedule of M-W-F since I started posting Crystal Blade. And considering how much I’ve actually made on the story so far, this is a very, very nice bonus indeed. I’m sortakinda tempted to do the same thing with High Tide and Hurricane Warning, to be honest, but since the books will be the last two books in the Olympic Cove series I worry that readers wouldn’t know what the hell was going on.
But I will think of all that tomorrow at Tara. In the meantime, I’m gonna bask in the glow of my bonus and prep next week’s episodes.
The One Time I Didn’t Put The Car In the Garage…
I didn’t mention this before but we had a massive hailstorm roll through my area on Friday. All the weather services had said, “Yeah, you’ll get some rain maybe, maybe a little thunderstorm, no big deal” so I didn’t think anything more about it until I was out in the garage and suddenly it sounded like someone was emptying a rock hopper onto the roof.
I hustled into the house and looked out in astonishment at our apparently boiling pool. We were getting hail the size of quarters, and apparently east of us they were getting hail the size of ping-pong balls.
But the truly astonishing thing? No cracks in either of our windshields. Oh, I mean, our cars are ever so slightly dimpled here and there now, but a lot of that will pop right out with hot temps. No, the thing I was most worried about was taking a big ol’ crack in one of our windshields from a hailstone. But that didn’t happen, and the house roof seems okay from what we were able to see. I’m sure there are dents up there, but we won’t know if there’s a leak until we get a wet spot somewhere on a ceiling. *shrug* Not gonna worry about it right now.
One cool thing about the hailstorm, though; as the hail started melting the surface temps cooled to the dew point, causing the air to saturate, condense, and form one hell of a layer of fog. We had thick sheets of mist covering pretty much every green space in the area. The athletic fields over on McDermott looked like something from Ireland and I half-expected to see the Fellowship strolling out of a cloudbank.
I Have The House To Myself
To my surprise I learned today that Ramón would be heading off to his D&D game today (since they started meeting in person again this has stopped being a weekly thing and now depends on the other players’ schedules).
So did I tear through the house like a Tasmanian Devil cleaning everything? Did I crank out 3K on Crystal Blade? Did I at least put the cross bars that have fallen off two of the back yard fence sections back up?
No. I went out to coffee with my editor like a civilized woman of a certain age, then came home and finished a jewelry commission (faceted golden rutilated quartz in a marquise cut, and I got to build my first double gallery and V prongs for it). Which turned out wonderfully. I’m very happy with that because I was sure I’d accidentally melt something or have a prong fall off.
Look, sometimes I need to step away from the computer and cross-train my creative side on something completely different. Kristine Kathryn Rusch just did a brilliant blog post about this very topic, and I agree with all of it. Making jewelry, quilts, or other crafts keeps me fresh and helps me with my writing, believe it or not. I’ve tried going cold turkey and doing nothing but writing before, and you know what happened? I would up with a massive case of writer’s block. Crafting is literally part of my writing process now because it acts as a space where I can mull over things while my hands are busy.
And if I can sell the results of those mulling sessions? Even better.
Mother’s Day Approacheth
Crystal Blade Episode 19: At Her Majesty’s Pleasure is now live on Kindle Vella. Go read it already.
So yeah, Sunday is Mother’s Day, not that this has any real onus on me since my mother is currently sitting at the heavenly poolside dandling William Holden in her lap, but I know it’s an important day for a lot of mothers and their kids. If you fall into one of these categories I hope that the day is pleasant, stress-free, and provides you with everything that makes you happy.
In other news, all of the Olympic Cove and Two Thrones books, as well as Stealing Dmitri, are now officially out of KU and I fully expect to see my Amazon income crater until I can get Crystal Blade out. Still, I think I’m doing the smart thing by taking most of my series out of KU (I’m leaving the Paladins of Crystal books in there because KU is tailor-made for Why Choose readers). I’ve already seen a significant jump in wide sales of the Esposito County Shifters books and omnibus, better than they had been selling on Amazon, and I’m hoping that as I set the other novels wide I’ll see improved sales on all those as well. Maybe not enough to offset the KU income loss, but hey, that’s what Vella, audiobooks, and selling print books from my website are for, right?
This Is Why I’m Not an Editor
Still working on Shadow in Vellum to get it ready for wide release, and the focus it requires to pay attention to each line and not just skim is challenging. It does not help that the Orange Lump has decided to plant his butt outside my office door and meow mournfully until I find out what’s wrong (in this case his kibble bowl was empty. I ask you). I’m also still finding the occasional spelling or grammar goof, arrgh, so at least those will be cleaned up.
After that, I have to work on Crimson, and after that I have to prep the Olympic Cove and Two Thrones novels for wide release because they all leave KU tomorrow. Plus I still need to work on Crystal Blade, get started on recording audiobooks, and write something for my future Patreon. Did I mention the custom jewelry commissions or the cover art commission?
I totaled it up a few days ago—I am, in effect, running not one, not two, but three small businesses (the jewelry/quilting/whatever sideline and the cover art gigs count as businesses) in addition to being an indie author, plus I’m taking care of a house, four cats, and a husband. I mean, no wonder I’m exhausted.
On the plus side I’ve made enough from my assorted income streams so far to cover 1/3 of the HVAC repairs, which is nice. If I can get the bulk of it covered before June 9th I shall be be well and truly pleased with myself.
It’s Wednesday. You Know What That Means
Crystal Blade Episode 18: That Escalated Quickly is now available at Vella. Help a writer out and read the story, okay?
In other news I’m busily plowing through Shadow of the Swan in Vellum to make sure the formatting is accurate, and I have to admit that this story holds up well. I probably went a little overboard writing in a Victorian style but it’s still fun and engaging, and The Crimson and the Black is a pure romp. When I get around to working on To Love a Wild Swan I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with Louisa’s cousin Nessa and her unwilling Seelie Sidhe fiancé. I’m still toying with the idea of giving him a boyfriend who also takes a fancy to Nessa, but I’m not sure how that would fly with readers of this series.
Then again, Fyodora is pan and there was a FF love scene in Crimson, there are gay and lesbian couples in the supporting characters, and nobody’s complained about that. I think it might be fun for Nessa to join an icily handsome Fae and a (literally) hot djinn in a menage.
The Hidden Empire Titles Leave KU This Week
This includes Shadow of the Swan, The Crimson and the Black, and “A Gentle Fall of Snow,” which means I have to put them into Vellum, go over them one last time because the formatting from a Word doc to Vellum does not always transfer perfectly, then upload them to Smashwords/D2D and Google Play.
I already know that my writing income is going to go down for the next few months as a result, but ultimately I think this is the best, smartest thing I can do for myself and my career. Putting all my eggs in KU’s basket might have been profitable for awhile, but that isn’t the case any longer and I really don’t like the idea of waking up one morning to find that my account has been frozen because the ‘Zon found one of my titles pirated and that technically goes against their exclusivity rules. I’ll just have to nail my butt to the chair, get Crystal Blade finished and out there, and get to work on High Tide and Hurricane Warning, simple as that.
And if I can somehow squeeze out a couple of audiobooks and get the damned Patreon started, that would be lovely. Lord, I need clones…
I Do Love a Productive Monday
- Got Crystal Blade Episode 17: Loose Lips Sink Ships up at Vella
- Finished editing Blade Episodes 21 and 22
- Got them saved on Vella so I have a full two weeks’ worth of episodes to post every M-W-F
- Started working on Blade Episode 23 and got a goodly chunk of it done
- Did a very necessary food shop
- Swept and vacuumed the downstairs
- Finished shaping a double gallery setting—next up is building V-shaped prongs and attaching those and a bail
- Made dinner
- Updated both blogs (sorry about the delay with this one’s posts)
All in all, I feel like I successfully adulted today.
Don’t Do This
Bench injury story—feel free to skip if injuries squick you.
So I was sawing some swirls out of a sterling silver spoon today (really ornate silver spoons are 1) surprisingly cheap and 2) great sources for decorative bits that I can use on jewelry) and the saw blade broke.
Now, this happens regularly—jeweler’s saw blades are very fine, less than a millimeter wide and a tiny fraction of that in depth. Unfortunately, this time the blade broke while I was bringing the saw down and I drove the upper blade fragment through the nail on my left middle finger, right next to the cuticle. Ow.
Since I’ve injured myself at the bench before I knew what to do. I squeezed the fingertip gently to get the wound bleeding freely (this helps flush out anything that might have been driven into the nail bed), washed it thoroughly, put on some of the good antibiotic ointment I got last year at the hospital, and bandaged it. It’s making typing a bit of a challenge but I think it should be okay—none of the saw blade got left in the wound. If it swells or turns funny colors I’ll head into the doctor and get them to look at it.
And yes, I had a tetanus shot five years ago so I’m good on that. I was talking about it with Lyndon later on and he said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but to be honest I’m surprised you don’t have more injuries from making jewelry.” It helps that I’m careful and precise, but sometimes things slip and you wind up slicing open a thumb or stabbing a nail. *shrugs* It happens.
Nicola Cameron Writes 