Working on a task list

I roughly planned on adding some words to the Yak Guy Project today. I'm having a lot of fun with this one, but it's the middle slog right now. I know what the next big piece is, but I have to move characters into place. Plant little tidbits that will be important later, and take the time to do it right.

Lorelei, the Muse, has been haunting me blessing me with her presence again. She gave me three new story ideas. I added them to a list of possible short stories. Sometimes this keeps them silent for a month or two. The simple act of writing down the idea keeps me from dwelling on it.

I've adopted a new method of always having a short piece going on. I need to start another one, but I like to use less productive hours on them.

Last night, I received the last of my beta reports. This completely changed my plans for the next few days off. I worked through The Playground, and made some important adjustments. It didn't take much, but by clarifying small issues, it makes the larger issues more clear. I toned down my first chapter a bit. It was off-putting because the victims in this story are children. There is a fine line between making it stick in a reader's mind, and going too far. It's also impossible to get it right for every reader. I'll probably revisit this chapter a few more times.

The betas enjoyed the story and all said some incredibly nice things about it. One even said she thought it was my best work so far. They liked the cover too, and now I'm all fired up again. I tend to have a love/hate relationship with my manuscripts, but it's great to love it again right before publication.

I went through the posts I prepared to announce the book to the world. I did some minimal tweaking, and those are ready to go. I need at least one excerpt and will remedy that after this goes live.

Now I need to get back to everyone who volunteered for the street team and assess what role they'd like to play. As volunteers, they get first dibs at the stuff I prepared, any Lisa Burton visits, and Lisa's promotional posters. I need to write one letter, then copy and paste it to everyone. I refuse to share email addresses, so this means one letter to each volunteer. Copy and paste is a useful tool under those circumstances.

I wrote a blurb to accompany the cover reveal. This will probably be the first thing for the street teamers. Once I organize that, I can move toward actually publishing the book.

My use of the preorder function on Experimental Notebook worked well. I'll probably do that again for The Playground. If I push myself, I might have it published this weekend.

Lisa Burton Radio is pretty popular. I sent out a bunch of questionnaires this week, but I haven't seen them back. I already have some posts in the pipeline, so it isn't time to get nervous yet. Getting the inquiries is kind of exciting.

The Idea Mill Posts aren't getting the love they used to. Maybe people are getting used to my shtick with these. They have regular fans, but maybe I should start running less of them out. Food for thought.

The Amazon giveaway is tanking. It isn't drawing nearly the interest I expected. I'm okay with giving copies of Will O the Wisp to those who entered, but it doesn't look like Amazon works that way. While I think it's more fair to give the books away, Amazon will hold them if there isn't enough interest. I may have to hold another giveaway, but can use the books I've already paid for. The second attempt doesn't cost me anything extra, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. If I'm giving away three books and only have three entrants, they should each get a book. Sadly, it isn't up to me though.

Here's a tip. Set the odds of winning really low if you try this – signed, your Guinea Pig.

The giveaway is still running for a few more days. Here is the link Win This Here Book! Get in on the contest. Tell your friends, heck tell your enemies too.

The rest of my day will be spent choosing an excerpt of The Playground to share somewhere. I'll write one universal letter to send to the street team, and may even get those sent out today. Then there are my reading commitments. I need to get on with those too.

I need to put some thought into a revamp of my “about me” page. I have enough books out that maybe talking about each of them is too much today. I can use more general terms and one link to my author page. I also have to rebuild my sidebar, but that's all planned out. The two most recent books get individual slots, and the rest go in the slideshow. No sense in doing that until The Playground is on pre-order and the cover reveal is over.

Tonight I may start another short story. This Fall, or late Summer, I'll winnow through them and delegate some to Macabre Macaroni posts, and the rest to a second Experimental Notebook.

This post is long enough, and break time is about over. I'm pretty excited to get The Playground out there, and hope you're excited to read it.