I like writing. In fact, you could say I love writing. There is something about putting words onto paper, words I decided to put together all on my own. While actually generating content is the best part, a close second is the planning and thinking that go into these posts before I ever start to put together sentences.

Yes, I really do think before I right.

This is even more important with larger works than, if you part me, just a blog. When I was younger I was a doodler. I think most of us where. Even in High School and early in college I filled the white space of my notebooks with swirls, swords, robots, and dragons. Somewhere along the way, though, I stopped. My notes started to look orderly and, well, ordered. Neat rows and lines of information, with the occasional change in color, Eventually, even that went away.

Last year I learned about something called Sketchnotes. There wasn’t a lot of how-to information online, only that some people were taking their notes as images, with a few words tossed in. The “creator” was actually pretty text-heavy, compared to some of the notebooks I was seeing online. Since I am a huge fan of pen and paper, I wanted in.

I bought the Sketchnote Handbook (the library copy was out, and had so many hold on it waiting seemed ridiculous) and started reading. There still wasn’t that much “how-to,” but there were tips and suggestions. A lot of it was repetitive encouragement – don’t worry about the quality of the drawings, capture the big ideas. Since it was time to renew my paramedic license, I decided to try sketchnoting some of the courses.

Okay, so the imported colors are a bit off, but you (hopefully) get the picture. It was fun to draw and highlight, and the app (53’s Paper) was easy to use. No layers or other things to deal with, just put what you want on the screen.

I’ve been in EMS for almost 20 years now, so I don’t really know how much the note taking really helped, but learning about visual think led me back to Mind Maps. I tried using these years ago for planning, but it just didn’t catch on in my head. Now, though, it felt like time to revisit the idea. I got ahold of Tony Buzan’s book from the 60s and read it. Then I read parts of it again. His version of mapping was clearly a study technique, but it was something that could be adapted for other uses. So, I got ahold of a mindmap app and made one for the next book, “Beginner to Overlander.”

Still a work in progress, but it turns out I can import the whole thing into Scrivener as a ready-made outline.

In other news, Sidelines is just about clear of beta readers, and I don’t actually have that huge of a re-write ahead of me, so that’s good. It’s beautiful sunny day, I am sitting on the deck, so it’s time to get to work.

Going Interactive

Last summer I re-wrote my travel book – Pain, Curiosity, and a Bear – into one volume (instead of the three it was initially). This was more of a chore than I thought it would be when I started, but I hadn’t been happy with the books – formatting and a surprising number of errors, mostly my fault for having terrible work flow. I wanted to get all that cleaned up, and the chance to make it a single book was also nice – especially since I could cut the cost to something affordable. Just about what the cost of a single volume had been before.

But I didn’t do an eBook. There was an eBook covering the first part of the trip, Going North, but I was tired when the print book was done and there are always other projects that need to be done. So, no eBook. It’s sold so/so, and I wondered if an eBook would be more appealing. I am more likely to blame my lack of marketing or promotion, since it’s sold well at shows.

Anyway, late last year I got a MacBook. My old PC laptop just wouldn’t consistently run anymore and attempts to just replace it with an iOS tablet were falling short of what was needed. This meant I now had access to iBook Author, so naturally I didn’t do a thing about it for months.

I was shopping books for something else, and discovered interactive books. These are eBooks with embedded video, music, photo galleries, all kinds of stuff. They were fun, a different experience than eBooks are (which are different than regular books). Right now, they seem to be iBook specific. The format definitely is, and I don’t know (yet) what happens if you try to export an iBook into another format. I did take a class at an Apple Store, but frankly the instructor didn’t seem much more familiar with the software than I already was. she admitted I was the first “real” writer who’d come to one of her classes, and many of my questions had taken her off guard.

So, I am now playing with iBook Author, have moved the text from PCB – Americas into it (this is actually not that easy to do), so next I get to play with the special features that make iBooks, iBooks. I’ll share.

I am also thinking about starting up a couple small writing/critiquing groups. There had been some in Milwaukee, but these have moved to some sort of pay-to-play thing that I am not a fan of. Not without knowing what I’m getting. There are too many free critique groups to pay for one, at least only. I guess it’s kind of like porn. There’s so much free stuff online, why pay? I guess the paid stuff is supposed to be better.

Anyway, I am not starting a local porn group.

 

Freedom Apples

Yesterday (as I write this, there will be more time before it’s posted) Apple released a letter explaining why it wasn’t helping the FBI with investigations into terror suspects (specifically the San Bernadino mass shooters) by installing a back door into iOS, allowing them to read encrypted data. They were clear to point out (and appear to be honest about it) that they have complied with all the legal information requests that have been made, and only stopped when then felt they were no longer being asked to help with a specific investigation (and a single person’s rights) and instead being asked to develop something which could compromise the information security of everyone using their products.

I read the letter. Over the last year I have moved entirely into the Apple ecosystem, and really enjoy how it all works together without constant twerking, reinstalling, or system maintenance that PCs/Android require. So, this mattered to me. I liked what Tim Cook wrote, and agreed with what he had to say.

I travel a lot, and am not discriminatory about my Facebook friends. I like to have people from all over the social, geographical, and political world, since I think it gives my Facebook wall a nice diversity and allows me to (occasionally) engage in good conversations about things which otherwise wouldn’t happen. This also means that I get a lot of different viewpoints on things I see other places on the internet. In this case, there was a clear break in opinion on the Apple letter.

One set of people felt as I did – that there has to be some level of privacy and the companies that provide our electronics (and end up with the data from them) have a responsibility to protect our rights. Another felt that the government (the FBI in this case) should have access to that information when they want it, and those companies provide them with access.

What prompted this post was one Facebook comment (since deleted, as far as I can tell) commenting that all the detractors from giving the government access hadn’t lost anyone to terror acts, and they would feel differently if they had – if they had the choice between freedom and death, or life and some reduction in privacy, they would take the loss of privacy.

Edward Morrow said “We are not a country founded by fearful men,” so this comment (from an American, as near as I can tell) made me wince. The comment also generated a flurry of posts, supporting or refuting the statement.

There is another quote, this one from Ben Franklin – “Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.”

Best Intentions

I know, I keep saying I am going to restart this blog, and then I don’t. I really have been busy, I got married in January. I have a new book coming out – here’s the cover –

Just to show I haven’t been idle. And I really am going to start working on this blog regularly. I mean it.

Sidelines is the story of me and my (now) wife, how we met and how she faced down cancer. that was only a few months after we met, and I was stunned at the number of her follow breast cancer fighters found their boyfriends/lovers/husbands leaving them during their treatment. Seems like we should be better than that, but I guess we aren’t. Well, I guess I can drag back up the average. She also has a book coming out, and the two books are meant to show the two sides of cancer – the patient (I know many cancer survivors don’t like that word, but…) and the caregiver (a clinical term for the friends/family who help the patient during treatment. I don’t like it, so I understand the patient thing a little).

The book is half way through a revised draft and then it’s time for beta readers. I am hoping that will be next week, so I need to get cracking. I have also been keeping up another blog – The Minimal Motorcyclist – trying to get people to travel more and for less. It’s harder than you think.

I have also started journaling again, but will save that for a future post.

So it’s been a long time

I don’t really have anything critical to say. I’m working on NaNoWriMo again, and restarting this, most personal of blogs has bene on my todo list for so long I don’t remember when I added it. But there are only so many hours in the day, and when (like today) I was exhausted from a long weekend and slept for 10 of them there is just not enough time to get to everything on the list.

The writing is going well. I started an LLC to cover the motorcycle books and speaking, and it’s turned a profit. Profit is nice, it pays bills and makes me think I’m not wasting all my time way from the day job by working a second job.

That is something I still struggle with. Writing as a job. Like many writers, I love the writing park. It seems like I always have something I want to be working on, so long as it’s stringing words together. But that is only supposed to be about 40% of the whole writing job. There is editing, marketing, promoting, writing other things (like this blog, and the two others) which are part of the job, but not as much much as other other part – the part where I write things however and whenever I want.

Speaking of which, I have an early new-years resolution. To get articles into magazines. I don’t even care which magazines, just in print for moneys. Free copies are nice, but they don’t pay bills, and I want to be able to pay bills.

This year’s NaNo is a little different. I am not returning to Super City, but instead writing a story of a man who meets and amazing woman just before she is diagnosed with breast cancer. They go through all that together, but it’s mostly her. Okay, it’s almost totally her, and the book is supposed to reflect on the powerlessness of the ones around the cancer patient to do anything. Really, though, they do a lot. It just never feels like enough.

Okay, so it’s not really fiction. It’s actually the story of my and my wonderful partner-in-all-things Sue. You can read about her fight here and she has promised to write a book as well, though I haven’t seen her working on it. I do work a lot.

Both other things on my todo list, big things I should say since there are also a lot of  “little” things on my todo list, are motorcycle related. Since Ten Things You Should Know Before Buying an Adventure Motorcycle continues to sell well, so am working on four other “ten Things” books about motorcycle travel. It was supposed to be a quick little project, but it’s dragging out. Not enough hours in the day.

The other thing is rebuilding my website The Minimal Motorcyclist. Through poor planning and being on the road a lot (since travel is fun) the original website was erased. I’m taking this as a chance to rebuild, but it’s a lot of content. I like writing, but I like to do other things too, and finding enough hours….

Wow, there really is a theme here.

So, I am going to get back to work now and stop ranting about not having time to get my work done. Especially since I could be working on those things instead of ranting. I guess that is what “work ethic” is called.

I was always weak on ethics too.

So I’ve Been Busy

I won’t lie. I can’t really, not only is it against my nature but there isn’t much point. I’ve been really busy, and I haven’t been doing a very good job of keeping up any of the three (now three!!) blogs I want to be writing. It’s not an excuse – I don’t have to make excuses online either – but it is the reason and there is that whole  being honest thing.

What have I been busy doing? Well I worked o finish and publish the next Super City story, Under the Radar (now available on Amazon), and cleaned up and republished Pain, Curiosity, and a Bear as one volume. I also spent a lot of time last year working on a traveling budgeting book which, in the end, I just didnt like that much. I’ve decided all that work would be included in a new, larger travel book called The Minimal Motorcyclist – which I am slogging through drafts on. This has led to a couple other personal realizations. I am a terrible proofreader and editor. I want to be good, I really do. There is probably some online program I am work through to get better, but the truth is I am just not that great. The good news is I have the support of my wonderful partner in life Sue to help – she is a excellent proofreader and I am shamelessly abusing her skills on my future works. So that’s good, I think.

Sue, for her part, has spend most of 2014 an the start of 2015 battling breast cancer (I know, I’m making her proofread. She says she likes it, it gives her something to do). Her blog is here, and I think it’s a pretty good read. She is much better now, and getting better all the time. This summer we are going to travel places together and it’s going to be awesome.

I’ve also moved blogs from WordPress to GoDaddy, something which was harder than I’d been expecting, and resulted in Traveling250 being down for a few days (and my not even noticing, since it was working fime for me). I think everything is sorted out now, time will tell.

I’ve also revamping my writing situation. This is being done on an iPad mini with a bluetooth keyboard. I don’t know how well it will work, long term, and wordpress has again changed their editor (which might cause me issues once I start traveling). But this is much more easily mobile than most of what I’ve been trying lately and I’m optimistic. Time will tell here too. 

Squarepressed

You might have noticed the site looks a little different. This is my old wordpress site, which I’ve moved back too after learning squarespace didn’t want my money any more.

I like to travel. I like to travel a lot. I try to keep up my other blog (www.traveling250.com) while on the road, and this single feature is probably the most important thing I need in a blog. Sitting on a beach or in a forest and writing down thoughts is actually nice (so long as it’s not all that happens in the beach or forest).

Squarespace frankly sucks at this. It seemed like it could, and there were reports that it could be done with the mobile app and other fixes. I spent some time trying to make it work. I liked how the website looked, and the eCommerce features were nice too, but I couldn’t manage to get posts done when on the road, and that made keep up the blog almost impossible.

I had made a frustrated comment on Twitter, and squarespace offered to help. I explained what I was trying to do, and included a comment that these features were ones I had gotten used too while using WordPress. The reply was essentially “good luck with your return to WordPress then.”

So, my writing and travel blogs (the travel blog never officially moved and posts were appearing in both places) are back on WordPress. After the (very) lovely design of the squarespace site I am going to have to redo this page so it’s less…drab.

In the mood of continued experimentation, I might try a third party host so I can keep the improved eCommerce options. That will have to wait a bit since I am trying to get the complete Pain, Curiosity, and a Bear finished and in print before the HU events in September. That isn’t much time, so I will have to spend a lot of time staring at text on a screen and formatting. I’m trying to be excited about that.

The weather is so nice too.

Migrations

I’ve had this site hosted on WordPress since I started it, back in 2012 (so long ago, I know). I fell in love with WordPress while I was traveling (www.traveling250.com), since it was so easy to update from the road, especially when I only occasionally had access to the internet (good offline blogging tools).

This site was always intended to be more concerned with my writing, rather than travel. For a while I was thinking my non-250 trips could go here, but in truth it has just never really worked out that way. Traveling250.com has become more than just my little bike travels, instead becoming something of a hub for minimalism on motorcycles. This has become all but my struggles (and occasional triumphs) as a writer.

So, some struggles. As much as I like WordPress, it isn’t the best for selling things. Now, I know I could use the WordPress software to host on a server somewhere, but I am not that technical. For the .PDF files it’s okay, but other formats (ebooks or stickers – I have stickers now) it just couldn’t easily handle. So, after hearing how much better it was I’ve decided to move this blog to Squarespace, sometime in the next couple weeks. The homepage will change and you will be able to buy stuff directly from me, if you are so inclined, and there will be more variety of content available (I hope).

I’ve been working on this for a few weeks, learning the new interface and trying to get the store set up (the blogging tools are straightforward enough). I had a problem at once with the Pain, Curiosity, and a Bear PDFs, since they are all over 200mb (usually not by much, but still over), and Squarespace has a 200mb limit to digital file size. This isn’t a limit for WordPress, and for a while I thought about skipping the move, but trying to sell through WordPress has just been a nightmare, so I am going to press on.

This blog is (obviously) still on WordPress, but expect the change in the next week or so. Once that is done, I’ll be posting shorts and character bios from Super City, as Under the Radar publication approaches. Exciting things! I am also working on my next motorcycle book, which I will talk about later.

Blockage of Writer’s

Well, it doesn’t happen often, but I am dealing with some serious writer’s block on my current project – another how-to motorcycle book. I have a fair number of notes and was super excited to start on it as I was wrapping up Under the Radar (currently still off with beta readers), but now that I’m sitting at the keys and ready to get cranking – nothing is cranking.

This is very unusual for me. My head usually doesn’t stop and I struggle to stop things from pouring out. I ‘m not having much difficulty with this blog, for example. And, when I am not at my computer I still have ideas and words bouncing around in my head. I just can’t get them out and still maintain any sort of cohesiveness.

Okay, so my writer’s block might be a little different. I can spew all kinds of stuff out, but it doesn’t hold together or even make much sense on re-reading. Not “no one will understand what I am trying to say,” but “I have no idea where I am going with this.” My notes and thoughts are all nice and clear, but the draft is neither.

Since I am not used to having this problem I struggle more than most with overcoming it. It’s been bitter cold here, the advisories only just lifted, so I’ve been inside a lot. That isn’t unusual in the winter and it wasn’t a problem for UtR, but there is such a thing as cumulative effects, so I’m planning to get outside for a while and see things that have nothing to do with writing. Hopefully I won’t be annoyed at myself for taking the time. That happens, sometimes.

I’ve heard good things about Under the Radar so far, but I haven’t heard back from everyone, and the more critical (as in, people I don’t know) haven’t gotten back yet. Jeanine Henning is again doing the cover. She did an amazing job with The Fall of Awesome so I’m already excited.

The sun is out, and the temperature has crawled, writhing and complaining, back into the positive side of the ledger, so I am going to try to capture some fresh air.

I Need a Flurry

Not a furry, that is something completely different.

Under the Radar is finished, well finished enough for beta readers. I am still looking for a couple, by the way, so if you’re interest post a comment and I’ll be in touch. It is off with some already, and I am going to get it sit for the month of January while their working on it and I am getting the cover sorted. Audio will have to wait until there’s a final draft, but I’m planning to use the same producer as I did for Fall of Awesome.

In the mean time it’s off to the next project, and outlining the next Super City book. The next book is non-fiction, and I’ll share more about it later. I’m thinking the Super City book will be an origins for the Super Squad – the interdimesional battle that stranded Incredi-Girl here. Mainly because I want to write about Rapid.

It’s a strange time, as it usually is when I move from an active part of a project to a passive one (waiting for readers to get back to me). I have a huge emotional drop and getting motivated to move on is hard. I sleep more, don’t want to go to the the gym, drink more soda. Of course, the sudden dumping of snow and frigid temps (5f as I type this) might also have something to do with it.

This will be my last blog for the year, and I haven’t thought much about resolutions. I guess I can list those later, once I actually have some. I am also moving from WordPress to Squarespace, mostly to improve my ability to sell copies of my books here. I am new to Squarespace, so it’s going to take some time. And, well, I have a lot to learn to make it work like I want – I’m already having issues to be honest.

Reading over what I’ve written it’s clear I haven’t actually done much since last week. Clearly I need to improve, to find a flurry of energy and production this week and get myself back on track.