A little bit of work, a little goofing off

I managed a bunch of work on future Lisa Burton Radio posts. I have things in the works from the first questionnaire being sent out, to a final version that will go live Thursday. There are multiple exchanges between those bookends, and Lisa has some great guests coming up.

I wrote and sent off a requested guest post. This is more for me than my host. I get to promote the 99¢ sale for The Playground. I only noticed today that the dates I chose are from the 7th to the 11th. After that it goes back to its regular price. Seven and eleven, no superstition going on around here. No siree.

I wrote a fun Lisa Burton post, complete with new artwork that will go live tomorrow morning. WordPress is pissing me off with this one. This seems to be a random thing, but if I include a picture in a post, everything south of the picture doesn't format correctly.

I want a paragraph, followed by a space. Seems pretty simple doesn't it? WordPress insists that I don't really want my white space in the post. I've run it through both editors, multiple times, and it looks worse now than when I started. Now it looks like there isn't any spacing above the picture either.

The funny thing is that it looks perfect in the editor. It looks incorrect in the preview. Tune in tomorrow to see what fun surprises WordPress has in store for me. If I get up early enough, it may accept some edits after it posts live.

Funny, after writing this far, I see it's doing something similar for everything south of the link to my book sale. I wind up with a strange arrowhead and a tiny little tab after the link. I'll fix it, but I must check to see if it works correctly.

Karen posted my three quotes on her blog today. I have a hard time talking about myself. Ask me about my books, plot, characters, and I'm golden. Ask me to be myself, and I freeze. I'm glad she gave me a few days to come up with something reasonably intelligent.

We went to the new Captain America movie this afternoon. It's almost pure action, but there are some decent character moments in there too. Scarlet Johannsen changed her hair color on me, but I'll get over it. Also someone please get that Winter Soldier/Bucky guy a bottle of shampoo and a haircut. Oh, and Stan Lee stole the show. Cheers for him.

In other news, John Snow is alive, his sister fights with sticks, everyone else is posturing for what comes next. One little Stark brother is learning about the past so we get all the back story. One Stark sister is missing in action. The remaining Stark is in big assed trouble along with that Tonks chick from Harry Potter.

I also received a wonderful five star review for Wild Concept. It looks like the 99¢ sale for it delivered something. Maybe the occasional sale is a good thing. I have the same hope for The Playground. A few reviews might really nudge it along.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Back to the grind tomorrow.

 

Saturday Out

I went through my critiques and made some good changes to Will ‘O the Wisp this morning. There was pretty universal agreement among the group about where I could improve things.

I had a pretty common thing happen to me regarding the story this week. One of the cool things I came up with for the story occurred in a television show I saw this week. This happens to me all the time. I write something months ago, and it winds up in a show or movie before I can publish. I’ve heard I’m not the only one, and not to change a thing. My story is different, and it will have to be what it is.

We’re a couple weeks behind around here. We wanted to see the new Captain America movie weeks ago, but wound up with other commitments. Today was our day.

I thought it was a really good movie. In a series type story, the one where the good guys fall is regularly the best one. The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite of the Star Wars movies. The story here was my favorite part. That and Scarlet Johansen.

I like a good action movie, but that was the worst part of this film. The camera was in constant motion during the action scenes. Quarter second point of view angles, lots of blurs and shaking cameras. I had to look away, because it made my head hurt.

I know this is the cool new thing, but I hate it. It distracts me from the story. I don’t know if I can make a comparison to writing. All I know is pulling someone out of the story is bad.

I wound up drowning my sorrows at Old Chicago Pizza. I finished my Mexican beer tour and got my tee shirt. The beers were all very similar, and all pretty good. They aren’t my style, and if you’ve ever had a Corona you’ve got the flavor down. I’ve been drinking craft beer for quite awhile. Compared to good craft beer, they’re kind of like making love in a canoe. (Think about it for a second.)

I still have some editing and publishing type work to do, but it isn’t nearly as much fun as writing a new manuscript. I tend to hit it pretty hard, and never feel weak when I step away for a bit. I may work on a few things tomorrow, and I may not. The next two weeks at work is going to be hectic. If I have to use the weekends to just wind down, so be it.