Yet Another Sunny Day - Breakthrough!

In Memoriam - Blackitty

     We will be glad of all this sunshine when el nino hits.
     Just 'cause I haven't been posting doesn't mean I've been idle. I've written something nearly every day, even if it's just a sentence or two. A family member's health problems have required nearly all my time and wiped me out. And I've had to handle it without the comfort of a warm kitty. Our beautiful big sweetheart disappeared one morning 3-4 months ago.
     It's taken me 2 1/2 weeks to recharge my energies, and the chapters I was working on didn't help. My hero was trying to overcome drug addiction, and some not-so-nice folks strapped him to a bed. To write this passage, from his point of view, I had to live through my feelings after a bad fall--lying in the ER, endless waiting, nobody coming, morphine, helplessness, weird dreams, surgery, a rehab facility, inability to move... I dreaded writing it and could only manage a short paragraph or two a day. My trusty line editor said I'd done a good job. Now my hero is back on his feet, confronting enemies, and taking steps to move on.
     Today I had a huge breakthrough!
     While tinkering around with dates and moon phases in the World of Elakand calendars and timelines a bunch of plot lines wriggled into place and I was able to outline the last six chapters of my novel (working title: Troubadour's Quest; probably will end up as The Dark Lady's Troubadour).

Too much of a good thing

     My writing has been creeping along slower than a seasick snail. (Love the alliteration!) It's been a period of staring at the screen and writing and rewriting the same paragraphs over and over and feeling guilty for not progressing on the book. A few days ago I realized that my hero and heroine are confined in a place of utter luxury, unable to go anywhere, and all their needs and wants are fulfilled. It's a stasis where they have no motivation to change or move ahead. In other words, death for the story. In writing this, I see that I have to introduce an element of discomfort and danger to bring about  progress so I can finish it ...
     And so it goes in our lives. Without some problems, without a sense of "want"(ing) to motivate us, we go nowhere...

New Book Cover: Redux

Yesterday I drank my coffee, dusted off my hands, booted up my computer, and went to tackle the cover upload again. Open Firefox (check). Log into Create Space (check). Find Dashboard/Replace Cover (check). Browse (check). Choose file ...
How come all the Print cover art files are greyed out? I just uploaded one yesterday. I squint at the file menu and see that the other Print covers are .PDF and this new one is .JPG.
Merde!
Back to Square 0 and contact the artist.
The gods do not want me to use this new cover!
Or maybe it's Mercury Retrograde or something.

New book cover - Aarrghh!!

I really love the original yellow and red cover on DARK LADY'S STONE with Loriano playing to the Stone with the image of the Lady. Many people have commented favorably on it, but many others said it wasn't a good cover and would turn readers off.
So I finally got a new one to see what will happen and went to upload it to Create Space. It was endless frustration! I think The Gods are firmly against that new cover! Or maybe it's my resistance to change. First I couldn’t figure out where, on Create Space’s setup/ cover screen to input the new file. So I phoned them, and their representative quickly pointed it out. (Why I hadn’t seen that in the five times I’d looked???) So I hit “Upload cover." “Browse.” And I got a message to update Adobe on my browser. I don’t WANT Adobe on my Safari! Why did I get Firefox & Chrome except to have a browser with Adobe? And why do I need Adobe to upload a .PDF anyway? I kept hitting "Later" and "No." Create Space wouldn’t let me proceed. Update Adobe or else!
Back to Square 0. Open Firefox. Log into CS again. Find Cover Setup. Hit Browse. Choose File. I choose the file. Hit upload. And it starts loading—Ta-Da! Two-thirds of the way through a message flashes: Upgrade Firefox. Screw it! I hit Later. And thank the gods my cover file keeps loading. When it finally finishes it looks just like the old cover. I go back to my folder, double-check my artwork files—and it is the old cover!! And furthermore CS is reviewing my submission and I can’t make further changes until they finish. 
Aarrghh!