Amazonian Ancient City

Scientists have discovered an ancient city in Eastern Ecuador using LIDAR. The Light Detection and Ranging technology (LIDAR) was used to map 115 square miles of Ecuador’s Upano Valley, along the foothills of the Andes. They found evidence of a settlement named Sangay, which could have been home to as many as 100,000 people.

 

One scientist remarked that this discovery changed the way to think about Amazonian cultures. Instead of small groups living in huts, at least some of them lived in complicated urban environments.

 

The system discovered at Sangay connected various urban centers. The road are nearly straight and contain right angles, which would be difficult in the Amazonian terrain.

 

We don’t know much about the people, archeologists also detected traces of fields where they likely grew maize, beans, sweet potatoes and cassava. And at the end of a hard day, they probably enjoyed a kind of sweet beer called ‘chicha’.

 

They have dated Sangay to have been active from 500BCE to possibly 600CE. The LIDAR scans have revealed various platforms, plazas, streets, and drains. But one unique aspect of Sangay is the complex road system that extends nearly 6 miles.

 

I am always interested in such discoveries. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more information about Sangay.

Formatting Manuscripts

Finally, I got some actual instructions from Draft2Digital on how to prepare a manuscript to be uploaded for publication! Their instructions are vastly simpler than what I had to do for Smashwords, but I have made some mistakes that would make the finished ebook come out wonky.

 

For instance, I placed 4 hard returns before each chapter heading, to push it down a nice distance on the page. But now I know that 4 hard returns in a row will be changed to a page break. I don’t want that, because I already put in a page break to get the new chapter to start on a new page. It would wind up with blank pages before each chapter if I don’t go through and remove 3 of those hard returns.

 

I also carefully created a Table of Contents. But their software will create one for me, so I need to yank mine out.

 

There are other places where I’ve got multiple hard returns as I tried to get the front matter somewhat symmetrical. Now I have to spend a few minutes figuring out how to place the front matter pleasingly on the page without using a bunch of hard returns. Because just 2 hard returns in a row will be converted to a section break, which I don’t want cluttering up my title page.

 

There are 60 chapters in the book I’m trying to get published. It will take me 2 or 3 days to go through and straighten those out. Another day to figure out the title page, and time to work on a couple other pages that have a picture involved. And I’m still in the middle of classes that take up far more time than I thought they would. So, it’s beginning to look like this book might not go on sale until August 1.

 

Still, I’m making progress, however slowly.

 

Not Enough Time

I wish there were two of me. Identical twins who can finish each other’s sentences and know what the other one is thinking.

That way, maybe I could get some things done.

I’m not sure how I got myself in this predicament. There for a long time, I was over-busy arranging my hubby’s doctor appointments and seeing that he got to them, that he had his medicines, that he had food to eat… in other words, I was his caregiver.

Then, suddenly, I started having my own health issues, and I was juggling appointments for both of us, researching my new diet, keeping track of my own medicines… I was now caregiver to both of us.

Consequently, I didn’t get much business or writing done. Oh, if I had an odd hour free in any given day, I would edit a chapter or two of a book that was waiting to be published. In the evenings, I would try to write. For the most part, writing was the only pleasure I had.

Then I discovered online classes, called challenges. They involved watching a short video (under 10 minutes) and following the simple instructions. Homework probably took 10 minutes or less to complete. I was very happy with the results of the first one I took, and it only lasted 5 days.

Then I signed up for a 2^nd one, which sounded even more intriguing than the first had. I think that’s where I made my mistake.

This challenge lasts for 5 weeks, with new videos to watch each week, and new homework to do by the end of the week. And it wasn’t just 1 video to watch, but multiples. If you have to watch 7 or 8 videos at the beginning of the week, that time adds up, even if most of them are under 10 minutes. And then there’s bonus videos to watch, at an hour or two a pop. There were Q&A sessions (2 hours ea) every Thursday afternoon, which I never got to join because of doctor appointments. Deep into week 3, I am now behind on watching 3 Q&A sessions. This challenge is sucking up every spare moment I’ve got and demanding more.

I’ve thought about quitting the challenge. But I really want to learn the subject!

It’s only 3 more weeks. (We get a few extra days at the end to catch up.) So I guess I’ll keep doing the best I can. Maybe I don’t need those Q&A sessions, or the hour-long bonus videos.

I’ve got a book I’ve been trying to get published for the last 2 weeks. Maybe, when we get back from our appointments tomorrow, I will publish it before I return to working on this week’s challenge.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big Sale Coming!

MoonPhaze is excited to announce that most of our books will be available as part of a promotion on Smashwords for the month of July as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! This is a chance to get our books, along with books from many other great authors, at a discount so you can get right to reading.

You will find the promo here starting on July 1, so save the link:
https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/

Please share this promo with friends and family. Not to mention the avid readers in your life!

Thank you for your help and support!

Happy reading!

Writing Ups and Downs

I’ve been working on a short story the last couple of weeks. The guidelines said a minimum of 3,000 words, which is a little less than most shorts I write, but I thought I could do it in about that many words.

The first week, I thought I would never get to 3 thousand words! It seemed like I wrote and I wrote, and the word count barely moved.

Now I’ve reached 3k, and it seems like the story will never come to an end! I’m so close, and yet I’ve got to go through so many details before I finally end it. I rather dread working on it, but if I don’t, it won’t get done. It’s not going to write itself.

I just noticed the deadline is August 1^st, so I’ve got some time. But I can hardly wait until I can revise the rough draft into a 2^nd draft. I’ve already seen places where I’ve used too many words, scenes that could be shortened.

I think my problem is that I’m not sure of the subject matter. But they wanted stories where a zombie presence is the new normal. So I’m writing zombies. I’ve only ever read one book about zombies. I used to watch the Walking Dead, and that scared me half to death, some episodes. It’s a fine line that I’m walking to be writing about zombies.

Well, I’ll be that much happier when I get it done and can submit it. Then I can return to working on my longer Work in Progress, which is waiting impatiently.

PS. I finished the zombie rough draft Wednesday night. The word count is now 4,500 words. I’m taking a couple days off from it before I start revisions.

Publishing Made Simpler

A few months ago, I made some changes to one of John’s books, and then I tried to republish it. Unfortunately, I made some errors in the formatting as I got ready to republish it, and when I sent the new manuscript to smashwords’ publishing software, those formatting errors were obvious. So I listed that book as ‘unpublished’, thinking it wouldn’t take me long to fix the formatting errors.

I was wrong. Whatever I had done wrong, it was there to stay, so I had to remove ALL the formatting and then put correct formatting back in. Usually, this takes me about a week, if I can spend most of my time concentrating on it. But I couldn’t focus on it like that. John’s health wasn’t good, and then I started having my own health issues, and months went by where I couldn’t focus on that book at all.

But I kept picking at it, doing a chapter here and there, and I finally got the formatting done. I was ready to republish!

Meanwhile, smashwords and Draft2Digital merged. I was notified that Draft2Digital would be doing the publishing, and smashwords would only be a storefront. My first thought was a sarcastic, “Great, now I have to learn how to format books for Draft2Digital’s publishing software.” I have to admit that I procrastinated looking at Draft2Digital’s formatting requirements for a few days. I didn’t want to go through and reformat that book again.

But I finally took a few minutes to look it up, and their requirements were vastly simpler than smashwords’ had been! I was still ready to republish!

It’s always good when a new process is simpler than the old process.