All the books have reached their destinations, and I received confirmation from two recipients about their safe arrival. Now is the time to bear down on the standard print editions for the rest of the series. I’ve gotten a start on the Queens River Loop. The process is just tedious. I created a copy of the large print document and I’m taking it section by section to resize the text. But since all the pictures have been placed in specific positions, I have to go and set them up so they’ll flow with the text as I resize it. And once the text has been resized, I have to go and place all the photos in new positions to account for the smaller text taking up less space on the page.
I thought about doing a smaller version of the Hike with Me books, but then I looked up the information and the size of the book doesn’t affect the cost – just the number of pages and whether it’s in color or black and white. I mean, I guess I could do a small version in black and white, which could then be reasonably priced and put in expanded distribution. And if it were in expanded distribution, then it would be possible for a library to get it. And maybe I could put in a coupon code for a free or reduced price ebook download via Smashwords so that I don’t feel so bad about not printing the beautiful photos in color.
But that line of thinking is a distraction. I shouldn’t let it derail me from getting the standard print size versions complete. The only thing that I should allow to derail me from that task is if I get a story idea. And I did get one last week for the first time in a while.
It was interesting; I had an idea, started free-writing the possible consequences, and then the voice of the character popped up and I started writing that. It’s a bit of a weird story because it’s essentially a monologue. But I liked it, and Ambrose (when he figured out how to access it) also enjoyed it. I’ll submit to a market just for kicks, because, as I wrote, it’s kind of weird. But it’s worth a try.
I was up late Monday night with a spot of tummy pain. Sometimes it feels like my bowels are blocked up and it makes me feel like I have to pee every five minutes. I’ll go to the bathroom, come back and lie down and just as I’m starting to relax, I get the pee alert again. I’m kind of proud of myself for getting up at 5 am the next morning, because I was super tired but did CrossFit at 5 am anyway. But I also don’t want that to be a normal thing. I like sleep.