Never Enough Time

I’ve retired from my day job. I should have plenty of time to do whatever I want, right?

So, how come I don’t?

I think back to when I was working, feeding the family and trying to hold the house together. I managed it. My house didn’t look like any you see in a magazine, because there were always things that hadn’t been put away, and dust accumulated far faster than I could wipe it away. But there was food, usually hot for supper, and I tried to keep the dirty dishes from piling up too deep in the kitchen sink.

In the evenings, I almost always multi-tasked by writing while watching tv. Which is not easy to do; you either miss what’s going on in the tv show because you’re concentrating on the story you’re writing, or you stop writing to follow the tv show. Knitting while watching tv is much easier, as long as the pattern isn’t too difficult. Sometimes, I did that.

On weekends, I ran errands and cleaned house. Seemed like I never had enough time to get everything done.

I don’t work 40 hours a week at a job anymore. I don’t have to spend 45 minutes driving to work every morning and 30 minutes driving home (don’t ask me, it must have been the traffic flow), or ride a bus for an hour each way every day. I should have plenty of time!

Hmm. Yeah. Guess what. I don’t.

The thing is, I dusted off a few hobbies I used to do long ago, added a couple hobbies I never had done before, and... the days are not long enough!

It doesn’t help that the errands have multiplied as well. Because I have diabetes, the doctor wants to see me every 6 months to see how I’m doing. To see how I’m doing, he has to have some lab work done. In Omaha, the lab was in the doctor’s office, so both could be done at the same time. Here in Florida, the medical labs are separate from the doctor’s office, so that’s 2 trips every half year. I have to see a cardiologist, who is not in the same building. I have to see an eye doctor twice a year. And because I’ve had kidney stones (thanks to the mineral-laden water one drinks in Florida), I’ve been seeing a urologist every 3-4 months.

Because I suffer from depression, I visit with a counselor once a week, and see a medications monitor once a month.

Not enough errands for you yet? I go to pick up prescriptions 3-4 times a month. Yeah, I’d get them all ‘synchronized’, except it seems like every couple of months, one of them gets changed. My husband has his prescriptions ‘synchronized’, but every single month, at least one of his ‘hasn’t come in yet.’ Why don’t they know they need to order it a day or 2 earlier so he doesn’t have to make a 2nd (or 3rd) trip?

And because I have diabetes, I’m supposed to exercise 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week.

My tiny business needs tending.

The bills need to be paid, which requires moving money around between credit unions.

The HOA insists we keep the lawn and landscaping in good shape.

The dog wants some attention.

The house still needs to be picked up and chores done from time to time. Thankfully, my husband does quite a bit of this.

I have one day a week assigned for each of my ‘major’ hobbies. (Sunday is my ‘clean office’ day, which is a never-ending battle in and of itself.) Most weeks, I find very little time to devote to hobbies. I try not to beat myself up over that, but... it does get to me.

Of course, it might help if I could get my body straightened out enough that I don’t sleep 12 hours a day. Or take 2-3 hours to ‘wake up’ after I do get up.

Well, now I’m just dreaming!

Bring the Green!

Have you read the ‘Green New Deal resolution that’s been introduced in both houses of Congress? Nope, me neither. First, I wouldn’t have any idea where to find it. Second, if I did find it, I fear it would be written in ‘Congress-ese’, which I expect is nigh on impossible for laypeople to understand.

But I was fairly certain it did NOT say we had to get rid of cows, as one news anchor claimed.

So, when I ran across an article that attempted to explain exactly what was included in this resolution (not a bill, a resolution), I took the time to read that.

It makes great sense to me. I agree with it completely. Basically, it states that since climate change is not only real but already effecting the population of the US, costing us time, money and even heath dangers, that it is the responsibility of the administration to do everything it can to assist and encourage changes to infrastructure, social norms, and a whole host of other things to help all of us deal with those climate changes. Nowhere in it does it even mention cows.

What kind of assistance could the government provide? Where do I begin?

We started looking at installing solar panels on our roof decades ago. But at that time, they weren’t very effective and lasted about 10 years, so by the time they ‘paid for themselves’, you needed to replace them. Plus, we were in the midwest, where there were NO companies who offered solar panels or knew how to install them. We got solar panels installed on our roof within a year of moving to Florida. But we still had to take out a loan to do it, and we may never get any of the cost ‘returned’ to us by the government, because we don’t have enough income.

Here’s the first few ideas I have on how the government could ‘encourage’ this change to our infrastructure (moving our electricity needs to solar panels and/or windmills): Make arrangements for homeowners to get loans for solar panels (windmills) at a really low interest rate. Encourage (or require) power companies to start replacing their fossil-fuel-powered power plants with solar panels/windmills and batteries. Why not encourage businesses to install solar panels/windmills on their roofs? Or the side of their building? There have been some wonderful innovations in solar panels; I understand one guy even figured out how to embed solar ‘panels’ in roads, so... why aren’t we taking advantage of these things?

We’d like to get an electric car, but they aren’t any good if you plan to drive more than an hour or 2. And it’s not like you can pull into any gas station and ‘fill up’ when your battery gets low. When I first started looking at electric cars, it seemed you could drive for 4 hours, then you had to stop and ‘recharge’ for about 8 hours. Assuming you could find a place to do that. About 3 years ago, I heard that ‘high-speed recharging’ only took 45 minutes, but while the Kansas City area had nearly a dozen ‘stations’ where you could recharge, it only had 1 place where you could recharge quickly. Some of the theme parks in Florida offer recharging stations in their parking lots, but I don’t know if you pay extra to get one of those, or how long it takes there.

Why aren’t gas stations hedging their bets by installing recharging stations? Investment in solar panels/windmills, a couple large batteries and the recharging equipment could make road trips so much easier for those trying to help save the world. Motels could offer to recharge your car while you catch some zzs. Rest areas could also offer a recharge while your kids and pets are running off their pent-up energy and the family has a snack.

How many people would be buying an electric car if they knew they could get it charged up while they were out and about, rather than ONLY in their garage? Parking meters could become charging stations, so that you could fill up while you shop. Why not put solar panels and (tiny) windmills on a car, to help it go another mile or 2 down the road before you have to recharge?

There are lots of ways to help ‘encourage and assist’ efforts to save the world, and by extension, ourselves. We just need to stop thinking things like, “That isn’t how it’s done.”

The Secret

This year's World Science Fiction Convention was in Spokane, WA. The layout of the convention center made absolutely no sense. You entered on ground level, only to take an escalator to the 2nd level, where you could find registration, the dealer's room and the art show. From there, you could do one of 5 things:

·       Take an escalator down to one set of rooms,

·       go down a few steps to a down escalator to another set of rooms,

·       walk down a long corridor, turn left, follow a hallway to an (inadequate) bank of elevators to get to the hotel lobby, which you walked across to another set of rooms (I never personally made this trip, although I did try, once.),

·       don't turn left but continue down that long corridor to a down escalator to another set of rooms, or

·       walk past that set of rooms to take an elevator up a floor to yet another set of rooms.

Rumor has it that there were even rooms in another building that one had to go outside to get to.

Even with a map in the pocket program book, convention center staff were stationed at corners so people could ask, "How do I get to X?" We got our exercise!

There were wild fires in Washington, one of them north of Spokane. The city wasn't threatened, but on Friday, the smoke was as thick as heavy fog. Even inside, you could smell it. Played heck with people's sinuses.

But the thing I will probably remember most was The Secret. I heard it in a panel given by authors, and one of them quite nonchalantly stated, "I hate to give away secrets, but we authors don't come to conventions to see our fans; we come to network with other authors and people in the business."

I was shocked!

Now that I have thought about it, I wonder, Then why do they attend the smaller conventions? I mean the smaller, regional conventions where they may be the only 'known' author attending. No editors, no agents, only small press publishers. What would local authors and small press people offer?

I suppose networking is networking, and you never know, the person who is completely unknown this year could the Big Item next year. But still, the fan is in that mix somewhere, right?

How can you sell books if nobody wants to read it? If fans aren't important, why are newbie and wanna-be authors advised to produce the most excellent work they can, because "Your first book is what sells (or doesn't sell) your next book."

Okay, maybe this 'Secret' doesn't say it all. Maybe it was just my personal wake-up to use conventions, not just to have fun, but to network with like-minded people. That's not an easy thing for me to do. But I can talk to people, one or two at a time. Time to give it a try.

Monopoly Money

Once upon a time, there was a young man who wanted to sell books. He created a website and negotiated deals with the big publishers to put their books in his warehouse. It took him a few years, but he built up his business to the point where he was the first place people thought of going when they wanted a book.

Meanwhile, more than one national chain of book stores went out of business.

At some point, this young man realized changes had occurred in the book market. People also bought electronic books. The big publishers were resisting going electronic, considering it a fad, but lots of small publishing companies had sprung up. Some authors were their own publishers. These small companies and individuals not only embraced e-publishing, they were also able to create paper books by using POD printing.

The young man thought, “People are spending money on e-books and POD books. If individual authors can set these things up, then I can, too.” So he became not only a book seller, but a not-so-small publisher of e-books and POD books. His company grew even bigger.

The big publishers finally, reluctantly produced e-books, but they charged virtually the same amount for the ebook version as they did for the paper version, despite the much lower cost of production. When the young man saw that, he demanded that they lower their e-book prices. Or else! Some did, but one did not, and he punished them terribly, by not selling pre-orders for them, and by letting their orders languish for weeks before they were sent out to the customers.

Some authors and small presses thought, “I’m all for lower prices on e-books, but this guy is throwing his weight around.”

One day, the young man thought; Since he had the capabilities to POD print, a warehouse, and people to mail books to customers, it only made sense that he do all the POD printing. He ‘negotiated’ with the various POD companies, making arrangements for them to ship their printing jobs to him (and pay him) to print.

Upon hearing of this, some who had been ready to use his POD/e-book services thought, “Whoa! Now he’s trying to put POD companies out of business? He wants exclusive rights to sell your e-book for at least 3 months? This guy is not only a bully, he wants a monopoly!”

In a round-about way, I’m trying to explain the reason why I (and MoonPhaze Publishing) will not be working with Amazon. Even though not being listed on their site is likely to make it harder to sell our own books, we cannot condone their practices.

Since we don’t know which POD publishers are still independent, or how long they can hold out, we’ll have to have a number of books printed and store those we haven’t yet sold. And we need to get a move on, because we have a book due out in January.

To hear all the news about this small publishing company in Omaha, Nebraksa, Become a friend of Moon Phaze on facebook

Or even better, send an email to us at MoonPhazePub@hotmail.net asking to sign up for our monthly e-newletter. We’ll tell all about our next book, what our authors are doing, where you might see them, etc. And since we are a small genre fiction publisher, we’ll even tell you about some good genre books we’ve noticed published by others!

Exploration

I've heard NASA has awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to provide rides for astronauts to the space station, starting in 2016/2017. I figured something like this was coming, because I knew that

1) they discontinued the shuttles because Congress won't let them do more than one project at a time. I guess that's one 'transportation' project, because there's been loads of science projects done at the same time.

2) they were paying Russia a b**tload to carry astronauts to the station, but recent events in Ukraine have made that arrangement tenuous.

3) private companies have already been given contracts to take supplies and equipment to the space station, including mice and other lab animals, so why not people?

I've also been thinking about the history of exploration, of people moving into new and unknown territories. Most of it happened before any notes were kept, before the only government was tribal hierarchy. But from what I can remember of world history, there was a pattern to exploration and settling a new 'unknown' territory.

The pattern seems to be that a government would send people out to explore. Sometimes the ruler would accompany his army, such as Alexander the Great, but in other instances, the government merely provided the means, such as for Christopher Columbus.

Alexander may have been 'seeing what was there' for himself, but his great venture was more about conquest than exploration, and the lands he went were already well occupied and settled, so there was not much in the way of resettling.

But in the case of the Americas and Australia, there was still plenty of land available. And people set out to claim their own little piece. (Yes, this was not voluntary in the case of Australia, I know that.)

The point is that governments may have 'found' and 'explored' unknown territory, but businesses and individuals then did the actual moving in. Yes, it's more dangerous to leave Earth for a space station, the moon or another planet than to sail across an ocean of water. But as a government agency, NASA has done its job in producing a space station, exploring the moon and is now moving on to more distant territories.

It's time for (some of) us to move out there to start homes and businesses.

A Comparison: Megacon vs Planet Comicon

Ten days ago, John and I went to our first Planet Comicon in Kansas City. For the past several years, we have spent time at this point in the year in Orlando, where we attended Megacon. Both are 'comic' conventions, but - as always - each has its own flavor. I could not keep myself from comparing them, and I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

A comic convention is, to my mind, a giant dealer's room first and foremost. A huge room, it contains dealers selling t-shirts, toys, models, comics and all sorts of retail items; artists showing and selling their artwork; authors selling their books; fans selling their craft items; fan groups looking for new members; media guests selling autographs and photo shoots; and at least one school trying to drum up new students. If I had to guess, I'd say Planet Comicon's dealer room was about the size of a football field. Happily, they did have some empty chairs lined up against the one empty wall, and I was not the only person who used those chairs. Megacon's dealer room is even larger, with more of all of the above types. There are no chairs along the wall to let your tired feet rest for a moment. I managed to get about halfway through Planet Comicon's dealer room on Friday before I wandered off to see what else was going on, and on that day, it was not horrendously crowded. Megacon's dealer room is always packed with shopping sardines, on any day, and I can't stand being in it for more than a few minutes at a time.

Planet Comicon also had a gaming room, 4 rooms for panels, and 1 room for large panels (panels, for instance, with the media guests tend to have a huge line forming in the hallway at least an hour before-hand). Megacon has a lot of rooms, of various sizes; rooms devoted to gaming, to anime, to costuming, to assorted and sundry other subjects. The largest rooms with the stages are for those panels with the media guests, of course, and there, too, you had better arrive early if you want a seat.

The food vendors at Planet Comicon were mostly brands I had heard of, and their prices were a little high, but not ridiculously so. The food vendors at Megacon are brands I had never heard of before, and their prices are sky high. The one time we bought something from a Megacon food vendor, it didn't taste any good, so we tend to fill our pockets with simple snacks and refill our water bottles from the water fountains.

After a long day at Megacon, one has to walk back all the way through the west wing of the Orange County Convention Center, find your way outside, take your bearings, and then - walk to the furthest end of the colossal parking lot to find your car. I always felt I was hiking back to Nebraska. If I had a similar thought at the end of a Planet Comicon day, as we made our way to our car, at least Nebraska wasn't nearly as far a hike!

Any comments on comic conventions you've attended?

Surprise!

Even though I have plenty of projects I am currently trying to work on, the back of my mind has been entertaining itself fitting bits and pieces together into another. Over the last few days, I've caught a glimpse or two of what it was working on.

The setting is dystopian. Huge corporations do whatever they want to do, in order to make another buck. The rich higher officials of those corporations are hardly even aware of the workers who actually do the work, and don't give it a second thought when given the opportunity to cut jobs, ship jobs some place where they payroll would be cheaper, or even replace workers completely with automation. They own so many politicians that laws don't get passed without their approval first. In fact, politicians don't get elected without their help. Meanwhile, the middle class shrivels as prices go up and salaries stagnate or even shrink. It gets so bad, even those families who manage to keep two full-time jobs are homeless. City streets - and even small towns - become war zones because working hard and being good people doesn't get anybody anywhere. They have to fight to keep what they have, and fight even harder to get what they want.

What is going on? I don't like dystopian works; I find them depressing, and I fight my own depression every day, so why inflict more of it on myself? I don't like books/movies/tv shows with 'a cast of thousands', as I find it impossible to sort out who is whom. I don't like political intrigue; it all boils down to greed, and I like to think that some people have other motivations than that. I hate the idea that working hard gets you nowhere.

This plot had everything I hated. Why would my subconscious even consider such a story?

And then it dawned on me. It wasn't. I'd been paying some attention to the nightly news lately, and my subconscious was on overload: Welcome to the modern world.

Finding Shiney Bits

I read a lot of newsletters. I mean, a LOT of newsletters. Some are to help me write better, some are about the publishing field in general, some give me lists of potential markets, and some are about marketing.

Unfortunately, when I had my knee replaced this summer, I got behind in that reading. Since then, I have slowly been catching up.

The good thing about being behind is that I can get through them a little faster. Whenever I see a list of classes, I don't check the titles to see if I want to take them, I check the start date. If the classes have already started, I skip the entire list. When I see a contest listed as a potential market, I scan for the deadline. If it's passed, or only a few days in the future, I haven't got a chance of making it, so I skip reading the rules.

The bad thing about being behind is that I miss a lot of opportunities; that class that might have been perfect for me, a contest that was right up my alley. I also feel a bit rushed, because I'm trying to catch up. Is everything I'm reading out of date?

Nope. The information on writing better is still applicable. The insights into the publishing field are still there, can still teach me about How Things Work, rather than me being completely in the dark. These are the Shiney Bits, the reason why I read these newsletters. And I look forward to the day when I catch up and can find even more Shiney Bits in the form of a class to take, a new market to try, a contest I have time to enter.

How about you? Do you find the Shiney Bits in your life before you throw out the dregs you don't want or can't use?

Practice What You Preach

I read a lot of e-newsletters. Some give me tips on how to write better, some give me clues about markets I might submit to, and some try to tell me how to market my work, once it gets published. Most of them I can read fairly quickly. But one of them I read this week... !

I don't remember which newsletter I was reading, possibly one on marketing, because the article seemed to be on what type of website to make announcements, timing and the type of announcement. After almost every website type/announcement type that it listed, the author expanded by saying you should edit, edit, edit everything before you sent it off into the world. The reasoning was that if you make an impression on potential readers with poor grammar, spelling and punctuation, they aren't likely to look up your book and buy a copy.

I have to agree with that sentiment.

A lot of people never learned these things in school well enough to know how to follow the rules, and therefore, they don't think it's really important. Texting, when it required hitting the same button a number of times to get one letter, further eroded people's ability to spell, it seems. But as long as the idea gets across, anything goes these days, right?

No, I can't agree with that sentiment.

I have re-worked and proofread and edited enough to be pretty familiar with most of the rules of the English language. It doesn't bother me to get a text on my phone with 'u' for 'you' and 'ur' for 'your'. I consider that a kind of slang.

But when I'm reading something that purports to be informative and professional, I expect it to be well edited. This particular article in this newsletter was NOT. Here it was, expounding on the idea that everything you put out there should be edited, and the author did not appear to know the difference between [its] and [it's], or where commas belong, or how to spell.

Now I'm left in a dilemma. Do I believe this author was knowledgeable in the field and take the advice offered? Or write the article off as a waste of time because the author couldn't be bothered to take his/her own advice?

Open Letter to Internet Advertisers

I can understand why businesses would take advantage of the opportunity to expand their customer base to those on the internet. I even understand that doing so means there are ads trying to gain the attention of every internet user. But the increase and insistent proliferation of those ads - interfering in every aspect of my use of the internet - is really beginning to P**S me off!

Example 1 - Every time I try to sign in to check my email, I am instead rerouted to a request to take a survey. This despite my browser being set to prevent pop-ups. That is like stepping onto my porch to retrieve my snail mail, and being accosted by someone demanding I take their survey instead. Or trying to call a friend for a chat, and finding myself talking to an automated survey that only responds to answers to its questions.

Example 2 - Whenever I play an on-line game, I have to wait through an ad. It wasn't so bad when one viewing would get me to the game, but recently, I've had to wait through that ad for EACH level of the game. Really? That's like reading a book and having to wade through an ad between the chapters.

Example 3 - Every website I visit anymore has more ads than content. And if my cursor wanders over one of those ads, that ad enlarges to cover most of the screen. And far too often, the means to close that ad is hard to find, or possibly non-existent. That would be like driving along a highway and being unable to see any scenery because the billboards are lined up to completely block the view.

Well, I grew up with television ads interrupting my shows every few minutes. I guess I need to learn to tune out these new types of ads, too. I already don't watch the ads for the games, I close the surveys without taking them, just like I close the ads that get accidentally enlarged. But all of these reactions take time away from my life. That's why I get so mad.

You advertisers need to find a way to get the business' messages across without wasting the time of the people you want to be customers. How you do that is your problem. Ours is to find what we actually want to get to on the internet.