meomeoim

I can't be everything to everyone. When I blog, I have to think about who I am writing for. Is it for readers? Is it for other writers? Is it for myself? Because how answer that question affects what kind of blog I write. I used to just say whatever I wanted to say, because nobody was reading it. I had free reign to be inappropriate and silly and sometimes to vent and complain. About anything I want. Because who cares? It's not like anybody read anything I said. Now just writing a blog, I have so much to think about. There are still so many things I want to say. I want to talk about my path as a writer. I want to talk about how grateful I am for my readers and some of the really neat, inspiring fan mail I get. I want to talk about my books and the exciting things I have coming up. And sometimes, I just want to talk about Christian Bale and Batman. But I haven't defined what kind of blog I want this to be. I think mostly because I have defined myself as one thing I want to b...

I keep trying to think of something inspiring to say to go with this blog. Something about how indie authors can make it and you shouldn't give up on your dreams. About changing tides and control being in the hands of the writers and the readers for the first time. But in my mind, I'm really just thinking, "Holy hell. I can't believe this happened."  I don't have much  else to say about my December sales, except thank you. Thank you! B&N sales are tricky because Yesterday & Today's sales aren't included in the monthly total, so I tried to put the three spread sheet things together as best I could. Smashwords has reported some sales from November, which I subtracted off of the total. But they've only reported sales from Barnes & Noble through 12/25, and I know I've sold books through them in the last 5 days. So this number is actually a bit low. My total sales for the month of December as of 8:30 PM, 12/30/10 are an absurdly even 99,...

The subtitle of this blog could be titled "How Google Alerts Are Ruining My Life." It's too easy for me to find misinformation about myself, and I can't help myself. I have to correct it. I'm compelled to set the record straight. So be prepared for a long-ish blog where I say things. Okay, first of all, I'm not "averaging" 30,000 sales a month. To be honest, I'm not "averaging" anything. I've only been at this for going on 9 months, and every month has been different. I'm not going to post my monthly sales totals (mostly because I'm lazy but also because December isn't over yet).  But if you were to average out my current total of books sold over 9 months, I'd average about 15,000 books a month. Second, my agent isn't why I'm successful. That's not saying anything bad about Steve. But he is my agent - not my publicist. He has done no marketing for me. He and his foreign agents have negotiated deals with f...

Look. Ascend is coming out, you guys. And it's coming out soon. How soon, do you ask? I'm going to be sending it out betas this week. I'd wanted to send out betas last week, but because of things I'll explain later on this week, that didn't happen. Then once I hear back from betas, I'll start sending out ARCs, and I'll release it shortly after that. So that's what's happening. And later this week I will explain why it was delayed. Again, I'm sorry for the delay. But it's really only going to be pushed back about a week or two. So... it's not so bad. Really.

I write books, and I always knew that I would someday. Like most of people that aspired to be a writer, I knew that meant that I would need to get an agent in hopes of someday getting a book deal with a major publisher and then see my paperbacks in real brick and mortar stores. (At least that's the ideal). That's what it took to be a real Author and making a living at it. Along the way, I heard horror stories of authors ripped off by scam "publishers" like Publish America, and how many published authors still worked day jobs to break even, and how many literary agents have more than one job, and how with the recession, they're publishing less and less books. Basically, I heard it was going to impossible to ever make a living at writing books. But again, this was the only viable option. Because the only choices are writing and querying, or giving up. Or self-publishing, but everybody knows that self-publishing is the kiss of death. Only terrible books that could ne...

I've got a couple things I want to cover. Stuff about Letters to Elise at the top, and some news at the bottom. Letters to Elise went on sale yesterday, and it's already garnered five 5-star reviews. It's only $.99 at Amazon and Barnes & Noble . Here's what some people are saying about Letter to Elise : "I didn't realize how little was told about Peter in the series, he was very vague. This novella was beautifully written, and you got to see the side of Peter you normally don't. In the ' My Blood Approves' series, he just seems so quiet, and to himself. But it's also told in Alice's point of view. In his novella you got to learn so much about him, his past, and his love for Elise."  - Jenn (Amazon review)   "I was not sure how I would enjoy this book knowing it was mostly going to be told in the form of letters, but I am so glad I read it. It was written not only in the form of letters but also in recollections and ...

I'm on vacation right now. I'm counting this as a "pleasure" blog and not a "work" blog. And also I'm bragging. Why am I bragging you ask? Because I got to read Dark Tomorrows by J. L. Bryan before it's released. You may ask yourself, "What is the significance of this? Who is this J. L. Bryan you speak of?" And the answer is: my new favorite author. I read his book Jenny Pox , and whiled I loved it, I wasn't sure if that work alone could qualify as a "favorite" author. I think it takes two books for me to be sure (except for Alan Moore but The Watchmen is the most brilliant thing ever.) But Dark Tomorrows is brilliant. It's sorta like a literary Twilight Zone . I've only had a chance to read the first three stories, but they were really fantastic. I only meant to skim them to get an idea of what he was writing, but once I started to reading, I just kept reading. I'll give a more detailed review later, because I...

So yesterday I posted a blog about the release date from Ascend going from "soon" to "I don't know when." Thank you to everybody for you comments and support. It really means a lot to me. I felt really bad and nervous about postponing the release, and I'm really appreciate your response. I also understand your frustration over the situation, and I am sorry for that. There seemed to be some questions, though, and I thought I would clarify a few points. #1. Ascend will be released. You will be able to read it at some point. I guarantee that. I just don't the day yet, and I can't even speculate right now. #2. Letters to Elise will still be out. I actually uploaded it yesterday morning, so it should be for sale within the next 24-48 hours from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. #3. This does not effect the release of Honalee . I'm currently thinking a late January release, but I will let you know more the closer we get. Good news to follow on thi...

Hi. So... the thing about Asend is... I'm going to hold off on publishing it. Indefinitely. It's not because of issues with the book or because I don't love you guys. Because I do. And this feels really, really mean of me to do right now after telling you it would be out soon. And I really wanted it to be out soon. I did. I still do. But stuff's going on right now. Not bad stuff. Stuff that's good for me and the Trylle Trilogy in general. Possibly really good stuff. But it means that I need to hold off for now. I'll explain more if/when things are concrete. But right now, I just have to apologize. I am sorry. I really am. Ascend will be out at some point. I can promise you that. But I don't know when. And I love you guys. So... I am sorry. But that's all I can really say for now. EDIT: Ascend will be out by January 15th. The day I posted this originally, I was offered a publishing contract for the trilogy. They wanted me to hold off on publishing the th...

I'm just finishing up some Letters to Elise stuff, and hopefully, that should be out sometime next week. Meanwhile, I've got some Ascend stuff up now. Hopefully, that should be ready for betas sometime next week. But for the fun Ascend stuff, the first chapter is now up. You can read it: here . I also have the soundtrack up for it. You can listen: here . This song didn't make it on the soundtrack, because I couldn't find it, but it so would've if I could. It's a song that would fit perfectly with a scene that I won't tell you about now. But I will. In the future. I love Oceanship a ton, by the way, and you should all listen to them.  That's all I have for now. I have much work to get back to. Peace out, yo!

Okay. I have two awesome and important videos to show you. Well, one is important. People have been asking me a lot lately, hey, why are you selling so many books? What is your secret? And I keep thinking, there is no secret. And here is the important part of the story I forgot to mention in previous blog posts: There is no magic hand. Smashcut to me December 2008. I'm making no money. My life feels like a dead end. I'm writing books. Nobody cares. And I say, why isn't this working? What am I doing wrong? If you're me, and I am, you spend a lot of time thinking about how neat Mark Hoppus is and listening to a lot of blink 182 and Fall Out Boy. That led me to this youtube video, which contains the single greatest peice of advice I've ever gotten from anybody about writing, and it wasn't even about writing. So I watched this video late 2008, and it was a wake up call for me to quit whining and get off my ass. You can watch the whole interview if you want, but the ...

On several projects I've had to develop portlets using WPF that are deployed to a Websphere Portal environment, but the options for executing in a development environment are a little limited. I can choose Websphere CE, Websphere Portal or Tomcat, and my first choice is usually Tomcat because it has a small footprint and fires up quickly. But in some cases I need to test some portal specific features like wiring or portlet configuration, and this requires a portal server. Websphere Portal is great for a production environment, but running it locally is not practical since it takes so many resources and has a long startup time. Running JBoss At one point I was really under pressure to get some work done and I finally gave up on Websphere Portal and turned to JBoss Portal Server (looks like that project has been merged into project Gateln). Unfortunately WPF doesn't have a configuration option for JBoss so I had to roll my own. Step 1 The platform definitions that show up in the...

What I'm Doing Monday is a Meme that I just made up because I wanted to take a break, and I was bored. It's a list of things that I'm currently enjoying at the moment that you might also enjoy. What I'm listening to: Band of Horses, the Black Keys, Bon Iver, and Ryan Adams. What I'm reading: Third World America by Ariana Huffington and Palo Alto by James Franco. And also Rachael Ray's cookbook, but that's for supper tonight. What I'm watching: I have the Indiana Jones trilogy on my DVR, and I hope to start watching it tonight. What I'm playing: Donkey Kong Returns on the Wii. What I'm working on: I'm reworking the ending of Honalee , and I'm getting Letters to Elise and Ascend ready for release.

So far, feedback on Letters to Elise has been mostly positive. I think I'm going rework a bit of the opening, Maybe cut some. Or something. But that's on track for a Christmas release. But onto good news/bad news. I'm pushing back the release of Honalee . I'm having issues with the last quarter of the book, and I need to rework and figure it out. So it might be a little while. But the good news is - I'm moving up the release of Ascend ! It will be out by the end of 2010. That's all I can say for now, but they'll be more info about it as it gets closer.

Letters to Elise is getting ready to come out. You know what that means? That's right. Beta time. In case you don't know, a beta reader is  (according Wikipedia) a person who reads a written work, generally fiction, with what has been described as "a critical eye, with the aim of improving grammar, spelling, characterization, and general style of a story prior to its release to the general public." But with Letters to Elise , I'm going to bit a more specific about what I'm looking for because it's different than my other books. As I've explained before, it's less of a narrative. There's not a plot in the true sense. It's letters Peter wrote to Elise and a few journal entries. And also - I'm not sure how this will play to My Blood Approves enthusiasts. I'd like to get a few readers on both sides of the spectrum - those that are 100% Team Peter and those that are 100% Team Jack - to see how it plays to both sides. And some people that...

Hey, let's not talk about me for a minute. I'm reading Land of Ash right now. It's an anthology of short stories by David Dalglish, David McAfee, Daniel Arenson, John Fitch V, Michael Crane, and Robert Duperre. The premise is simple: The Yellowstone Caldera erupts, covering the world in ash, and that's the unifying theme between the eleven different stories. It's all about survivors, and how they deal with total devastation in a land covered in ash. I read Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King a few weeks back, and I like Land of Ash better. Not that I didn't like Full Dark, No Stars - because I really did. King is a master of the underrated medium of short stories and novellas. But I still enjoy Land of Ash more. So far, my favorite is "Shelter" by David Dalglish. It's about a father and his small child holing themselves up in the house after the ash comes. There's something so simple and bittersweet about it that's perfect. That's n...

Hi. I know many people visiting my blog today were directed from Joe Konrath' s blog (thanks for the shout out, sir). A lot of people had very kind things about me and my books, and I thank them for that. If you haven't read Joe's blog, you can check it out: here . And if you're interested at all in writing or publishing in the near future, I suggest you check his blog in general. He does a much better job of explaining things than I do. I like to pretend that it's all magic, and leave it at that. But somebody asked for proof. Even though I know I don't have to give proof, I don't like insinuations that I'm a liar. I'm many things, but I'm not a liar. So I'm posting what proof I have. I didn't take screen shots on the sixth or seventh, when I actually reached the 10,000 mark. But I did take them just now. Here's a screen shot for Amazon: (I think you can click on it to enlarge it - or I hope you can) Here's a screen shot for Creat...

Today's blog entry will redirect to an article I've written on IBM's WPF wiki site.

I still have signed paperbacks for sale (no boxsets yet). My Blood Approves has sold out for now, but I'll be getting more in soon. Check out the paperbacks: here . My dog is almost three years old. When he was a puppy, I bought a pair of pink gel headphones. They were $9, and I spent almost a half debating whether or not I should buy them. I had hardly any money - as in I lived on ramen because I could afford it. But I wanted my headphones so I could listen to the radio on my phone. I liked to listen to Back Track USA on Saturday mornings when they play 80's and 90's music, but the only way I could that was on my phone, and my phone requires headphones to listen to the radio. So I finally caved and bought these headphones, because I really, really like music from the 80's and 90's. I came home,  used them once. Then I left my dog (then a puppy) alone in my room with my headphones while I went to the bathroom. When I returned, the headphones were destroyed. I was s...

Alright. So the boxsets aren't ready yet. But I do have some paperbacks laying around the house, so I'm selling signed paperbacks through PayPal. I have another shipment of books coming (hopefully this week), so I'll be able to add more, and then the boxsets should go up later this week. But anyway - here's some books. There's a limited supply on all of them, but I'll be getting more up soon. They're all $9.99, and I priced that shipping at $4.95 because that's how much it costs me to mail stuff in a flat rate priority mail envelope. Which is how I roll. Okay. Here's what I've got so far: Signed copies of Switched Signed copies of Hollowland Signed copies of My Blood Approves

A few months ago I was exploring the possibility of integrating IBM's Lotus Sametime instant messenger into an installation of Websphere Portal 7 and I had to test some cross domain javascript . As we all know, modern browsers won't allow a javascript request to access a domain which is different from the current. In this case the javascript provided by the sametime proxy server (running on a different node) contained relative URLs, like /stwebapi/.... . Now this is not an issue when running in a production environment because we have a Webseal reverse proxy, but if you need to debug some code on a local machine then you're out of luck. The browser won't issue cross domain javascript requests. Using Apache as a Reverse Proxy Turns out that with a few configuration tweaks I can use apache as a reverse proxy. I added the following lines to the bottom of my \Apache2.2\conf\httpd.conf : ProxyRequests Off Order deny,allow Allow from all ProxyPass /stwebapi http://ghprd01:90...

I have a confession to make: I'm a workaholic. I never thought of myself that way. In fact, I always assumed I was lazy. Most people could probably attest to this. But when it comes to things I love, I am downright obsessive. I'm addicted. I have no idea how moderation works. I understand the concept, and that apparently everything is better that way, but I'm an all or nothing kind of gal. And I love love my work. I love writing. People have asked me, "Are you afraid that you'll run out of ideas for books?" The answer is, "Heck no. I'm afraid I won't have time to work on all the ideas I already have." Writing to me has always felt very... immediate. If I have something, I have to get it all out right now, before I lose it. And if I don't get it out right now, sometime I do lose it. And that's sad. For me, anyway. But the moral of this story is that I have more things coming up than I know how to deal with. I have two books coming out ...

Sometimes I need to watch a movie with Christian Bale. Usually, I go with American Psycho or The Dark Knight, but sometimes, I want something different. Back a few months ago, when I did not have means to purchase DVDs, I had to rent them when I wanted a change of pace. I love Reign of Fire . It came out on July 12, 2002, which happened to be my 18th birthday, so it was the ultimate Birthday Movie, and it has Christian Bale and dragons in it. And, I believe, a Black Lab song on the soundtrack. So all in all, for me, it's pretty special. Anyway, I went to the video store (of which we have one in town), and I got The Prestige (brilliant and underrated - watch it if you haven't seen it yet). But I couldn't find Reign of Fire . This led to frustration on my part. So I searched all over the story looking for something else to satiate my Christian Bale fix. They had 3:10 to Yuma , but I'd just seen it, and they had Public Enemies (which also came out on my birthday but I di...

Websphere Portlet Factory (WPF) has been incrementally adding dojo features to their product over the last few releases. I recently assessed the dojo rich text editor to see how it compared to the features in sharepoint 2010, and found that it has a few tricks that can trump it (at least in the context of my evaluation). Hidden Plugins The dojo rich text editor builder provides several check boxes to enable a number of tools on the toolbar, but some sleuthing in the factory\dojo\dijit\_editor\plugins directory revealed some more tools. Dojo's rich text editor provides a plugin mechanism to add tools to the toolbar so I decided to experiment with FullScreen.js . Since we don't have a check box for this in the builder, I'm going to add it directly using javascript: <span name="richTextEditorGoesHere"/> <script type="text/javascript"> gcps.assessmentWidget = '<%= IDGenerator.getCurrentID(webAppAccess, "inline_widget") %>...