Writing a book is fun, and not easy when one has memory problems related to Korsakoffs Disease

To those of you who are waiting for Sexton Sand, I apologize. I'll have it out soon. This time I mean it! I have built myself a computer and it's pleased with me. By that I mean it hasn't crashed since I put in this new hard drive and updated my drivers.
   Now I find myself in a little bit of a difficult position. It's no secret that I have Korsakoffs Disease--which involves some painful neuropathy I manage with vitamin supplements, and some holes in the memory that plague me in small ways. I don't say that as a complaint. It's a fact, and usually no big deal. I manage it.
  Writing a novel is a long process. It's a long work, even if it's a short novel (and mine aren't short.) Remembering basic facts is important. I haven't run into it yet, but I've read and heard from other authors that readers will call them on errors in the story. I try to avoid errors in the story. For the reader, the book will be (lord, hear my prayer) one seamless piece...that starts at the beginning, middles in the middle, and ends at the end. In the case of Sexton Sand, it won't end...but will become the start of the 5th book in the series.
  I've been mostly away from writing Sexton Sand while building myself a computer, a task I can now say with a bit of pride is done.
    So... I have but one more little thing to do before I write the ending of this book, polish the draft, and publish it. Note: I'm not putting a date out there. I've been pissing myself off with missed self-imposed deadlines.
   I started retyping the manuscript again. I'll make a few minor changes, I suppose, but the main purpose of retying it is to come as close as possible to finishing the draft as a seamless work.
   I owe my readers that much. See the links at the bottom of this blog to order your copies of the first three in the series: Sexton, Sexton Sand, and, Storm Clouds Over Sexton.

Buy Sexton books from these places

If you're looking for paperback books, you'll find the best deals at Authors Den or Lulu. I like the covers I use on Authors Den a little better than the ones for the paperback as Lulu. Prices are about the same from either place.

www.authorsden.com/davidjsteele

If you're looking for hardcover, Lulu is the only place that has them. I have 2 different hardcovers of each book. "Casewrap" means the cover is printed, and "Dust Jacket" means there is a cover over the cover.

www.lulu.com/spotlight/Misticuf

If you have a Nook, you'll need epub format. Your best bet is to buy directly from Barnes and Noble. They converted the files to epub, so I know they look nice. Search for Sexton Chronicles in the Nook Book section. Epub files are also available from Lulu, and from Smashwords...but I trust the conversion from Barnes and Noble more than I trust the conversion Smashwords did.

Sexton Chronicles books, ebooks, are available in the Apple iStore, as well as wherever you buy books for the Sony Reader.

If you have a Kindle, the Kindle Store at amazon.com is your best bet. Smashwords sells files for Kindle, but I trust Amazon's conversion for Amazon's Kindle more than I trust Smashwords to do the job.

Here's the part I can control, the part I can promise you: I promise to give you the best adventure I can.

I wonder why they're called royalties

I've never received a lifetime award for anything and I hope I never do. I haven't lived a lifetime yet! ...How do you like that? I'm digressing before I start. That should be as impossible as receiving a lifetime achievement award while you're still alive.

I don't know why the money paid to artists for the sale of their work is called a royalty. If you know, I'd appreciate it if you would post it. I'm curious.

...But that's not really why I'm posting this tonight...

What I really want to say is that I'm delighted to report that my first ever royalty check is on its way to me. In addition to wanting to cheer out loud (which, by the way, I have done this evening), I feel like reflecting. It's long been a dream of mine to write and publish books. By publish I mean writing a book (in my case it's plural and getting plural-er by the week), getting those books for sale to the public, and receiving income from sales.

When I get that check next week from Lulu Enterprises, Inc., it will be the fruit of that dream. I really don't know how the term "royalty" came to be when it comes to paying the artist a portion of the sales price. I think it's an interesting word to use for those payments. I also think it's really cool that it is the work, not the writer, that is and will generate those royalties. If I get hit by a truck tomorrow and killed (which, btw, I aim to make sure doesn't happen), the royalties will keep coming. The books will generate income as long as people buy them.

If you're a writer and you're considering publishing, my advice to you is not to stop with eBooks. I've blogged about those before and I haven't changed my mind. It's a growing portion of publishing. For now, and for the foreseeable future, just so you know...the money is in print books. I have to sell 3 Kindle copies of Sexton to make as much as I do from one paperback copy of the same book.

I'm looking forward to getting that check. I hope it's the smallest royalty check I ever get. I'll know without remembering. Before I cash that check, I'm going to make a copy and frame it. I'll treat it like...wait for it...royalty.

Depending on how you count, I now have 5 or 6 published books!

The quibbling is about Green Goblin/Bouffont Vert. One is in English, and one is in French. It doesn't make a bit of difference to me how anyone counts them.
I'm excited about my latest publication, a little book entitled Just for Fun: A Little Sexton, and Some Other Stuff. I published it kind of as a lark. I have a couple of short stories that won awards in college that have been dormant for far too long, and a partial Sexton manuscript that might be of interest to fans (if, Lord willing, I have some of those someday--you know, fantasy-loving-trivia-bugs-of-the-sort-that-think-Elvish-is-a-real-language-and-not-a-Las-Vegas-showperson-impersonator.)
What I'm really excited about in the book is my journal from Peru. I was there for 9 weeks in 1987 and it's a good story even if it is nonfiction. The cover could be a photo of the place where I almost drowned saving a guy from drowning in the Urabamba River. Peru is a lot more stable now than it was then, but it has always been a beautiful country.
You can take a look at the book if you want (and buy it!). I have a preview set up at the bottom of the page.

Opening salvo of Sexton (Sexton Chronicles)

Saturday October 22, 1983

  He stared at the bottom of the ravine and waited to shoot his friends. Some of the enthusiasm he felt when he took his position was gone. Tom Benton hoped this BB gun fight would turn out better than the last one. Last time they wandered around the woods, or hid, or both, and no one shot anyone before they ran out of time. He wasn’t going to let that happen again. The air was cool and crisp. He could hear cars on the road a quarter mile to the west as he listened for any sound of his friends…nothing so far. He could hear leaves move along the ground in the stiff breeze, and the dry swaying of twigs on the bare branches overhead. He looked at his watch: three o’clock. The fight would end in an hour.
  He reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He didn’t smoke, but planned to use the cigarettes as timers. He pulled out one of three packages of firecrackers from the back pocket of his jeans. The red paper wrapper made more noise than he wanted when he opened the package, but that didn’t bother him. His preference would be to use the noise to direct his friends to his advantage, but if he had to take a few shots to get the action going, he wasn’t opposed to the idea. Shooting people was the point of this game; the rest was simply buildup. He thought for a second, then decided to leave his rifle behind. The trap would work best from the bottom of the ravine. He would be vulnerable when he set it. Without the rifle his only option would be to run if they saw him.

This is a review written by Jeffrey Miller, a writer and teacher of writing. I've linked a couple of his blogs and strongly encourage anyone to visit them. Before you ask...yes, he's a friend of mine. I can assure you, however, that neither of us would say anything about the other guy's work if we didn't mean it.

His review is available here:

http://jeffreyalanmiller.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/sexton-a-world-away/