Tag: day job

Eleven Hour Shift

~ petefordwriter ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday was horrible. Not the working-at-home-because-of-snow part—I have no problems staying focussed on the day job, it’s quieter than working at the office, and coffee and snacks are close to hand. In fact, it was all just fine until knocking-off time. I had an errand to run as soon as the work day was over, and I was clearing half a foot of snow off the car when my phone rang. It turned out that a new release of a web application, that had been installed at 3pm, was having problems. It turned out to be some weirdness in the database server, and somewhere along the line it cleared itself and everything started working. But by that time I’d been working for eleven hours pretty much straight. I missed a Facebook release party (too busy arranging some dinner) and then slept heavy for something like ten hours. It’s mid-day and I still feel like I’m barely awake.

Anyway, on to the important stuff. The sequel to Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia (which in future I’ll refer to here as GB2) is coming along quite nicely. The first draft of the timeline was sent to my editor last week. The ending still isn’t set in stone—there’s a section that describes where all the characters are and what needs to be resolved, and I have a couple of ideas on how to wrap things up. And my editor will no doubt spot many scenes that need work.

But that’s on hold for a little while. I think I mentioned, a few posts back, that a steampunk short story I wrote for Xchyler Publishing‘s Around The World In 80 Days anthology contest made the cut; it’s scheduled for release at the end of May, I think, but the deadline for copy editing is just a few short weeks away. I should be getting something from my editor in a couple of days, and as soon as that happens I’ll be getting busy with getting that story into shape.

For now, I’ve decided to take a weekend off writing. I finally broke down and went back to playing World of Warcraft, after an absence of, I think, well over a year. At that time I gave up on it for a number of reasons: that I don’t like doing dungeons with people I don’t know (because, to be honest, even with a group as small as five players, you can guarantee at least one will be some twit who forgets that it’s a game and takes it way too seriously—it’s supposed to be fun, guys, not a chore); that even creating new characters, exploring the same areas and going through the same quests was getting somewhat old; that they seemed to be dumbing the game down; and that the Mists Of Pandaria expansion appeared to pander (har!) to kids, paving the way for a Hello Kitty Island Adventure expansion. But the thing is, it’s still by far the best MMORPG I’m aware of, and after such a long time away from it I’m seeing some things afresh. It’s still loads of fun.

So, I’m going to grab a cup of coffee and go play for a little while, then maybe park myself with a book for a bit. If you’re a WoW player and you happen to be on the Shu’halo realm, and you see a level 19 Alliance Pandaran hunter running around Redridge Mountains or Duskwood with a pet fox, just /yell the magic word “Gunn”. If I yell back “Bohemia”, you found me <grin>.

Until next time, gentle reader . . .

Happy New Year!

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Hello all! And a Happy New Year to all my followers.

Yes, I know I’m a few days late with that. The holiday ended up being a break from pretty much everything that didn’t have a direct connection to Christmas-related family things, right through from the day I wrote the previous post here, until New Year’s Day. So I was cooking, and helping with tidying and cleaning the house, on the days leading up to Christmas Day itself, then doing other things such as entertaining visiting family for the following week. That included driving number-one-son down to Denver to buy computer parts, and taking a long walk along the Devil’s Backbone (if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen the pictures I posted).

When the holiday was officially over, Thursday, I was back in the office and of course that meant I was immediately swamped with the backlog of work that had built up while I was out. And on top of that, I’ve been helping a new guy get started, since he’ll be taking over from me on one of the projects I’ve been involved with for the last few months. Thursday and Friday ended up being pretty hectic because of all that. Then yesterday it was time to take down the tree and do some other cleaning up that took my wife and I until around 1am—so we don’t have to worry about any of that today, but it did mean that my plan to get some book work done went out the window.

So I’ve had little time for Twitter, Facebook or Google+, and no time for blogging, and I’ve made no progress at all—not so much as a scratch—on the Gunn & Bohemia sequel, beyond a few scribbled notes about a few changes I want to make to the timeline, for the last two weeks.

Today I begin getting wound back into all that. I have those notes about the timeline changes, and I’ll be getting busy with that shortly. Also, beginning this week, I’ll be doing more to promote Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia—although I’m not quite sure yet how I might do that. One thing that’s for sure is to try to get readers to post reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and so on.

Before I sign off to get started on the timeline, though, I do have one piece of excellent news to report: The short story I wrote for Xchyler Publishing’s Around the World in 80 Days anthology competition was accepted! Yay! I received the contract papers just the other day. I expect to be able to begin editing work on that shortly, and it should see the light of day in early Spring, I think.

On that note, then, it’s time to refresh my tea mug and get busy. Until next time, gentle reader . . .

Some Progress

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Things are still busy on the day-job front—I’m still playing catch-up with the work that didn’t get done during the government shutdown. But the worst seems to be over. Today I got the code I’ve been working on to a point where I can’t really test it any more by my lonesome; that’s now in the hands of another guy who’s writing the code that will send data in for processing.

So, I’ve finally been able to spend more than a few minutes on some writing work. I was able to finish a short story and submit it. And I have to report that Smoke & Mirrors—the novel I was working on before Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia—has been put back on indefinite hold. It’s like this, you see . . . I was working on it, going through the scenes I’d already written, polishing them and in some cases tearing them out completely, and making notes of new scenes to be slotted in. But as I was doing that, I was also thinking about ideas for Gunn & Bohemia II. And the more I thought about that, the more obvious it became that I would have to stop work on Smoke to get those ideas written down before I forgot them. Those few notes became the beginnings of a timeline, and so on.

The upshot of all that is that I’m now working on G & B II pretty much exclusively. I have the backbone of the main story, and the beginnings of some side plots. I’ve met my characters, and although some can be considered old friends there are some new faces I have to get to know. And I even did something I don’t usually do at such an early stage: I’ve written a scene. I couldn’t help myself. This one scene has been rattling around in my head for a week or more. It wanted to be written. No; it demanded to be written, and it wasn’t going to let me rest until it was done. So I wrote it. Now, it can sit quietly until its time comes, and then it can be edited and slotted into place. Or torn down and rewritten, or torn out completely, if it doesn’t fit in by the time the rest is ready to be written.

And so, work continues, not rushed but steady, as I figure out the various threads of the story and get them down in note form. It’s going to be a while before I’m ready to begin the real writing; based on the time it took me with my other full-length stories, it could be anything from six to twelve weeks, depending on how much time I get during lunchtimes, evenings and weekends. It’s times like this that make me wish I could pack in the day-job and write full time. Perhaps one day, eh?

Which brings me to a few words about Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia. It’s had a couple of good reviews, and I expect to see more over the next couple of weeks; press releases have gone out, which—fingers crossed—will spur a lot of interest. Sell sheets are out in a handful of places, and I’m planning on hitting up a few more. And one thing happened that was pretty big from my perspective: I actually signed my first paperback copies! Two of them, in fact, within a few minutes of each other. The feeling that invokes is difficult to describe.

And so . . . it’s 9:30pm on a Monday night, and I have a 5:15am start in the morning, so I’m going to wrap this up and watch some TV. I was working to the sounds of Pandora earlier today, and The Lord of the Rings soundtrack was quite heavily featured. To the point that I now have an irresistible urge to watch all three movies, special edition length. Without further ado then, it’s time for The Fellowship of the Ring.

Until next time . . .

Busy, busy, busy . . .

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Time for a few updates on where I am right now . . .

Day Job Stuff

When I got back to work from the shutdown, I expected my project deadlines to have been pushed back a bit. Wrong! The project I was working on when everything stopped had an end date of last Wednesday—and that didn’t change. Which meant I had about four days to complete a job that was originally scoped for three weeks. It was a tough few days but, thank goodness, I hit no serious roadblocks (apart from one technical problem, which was quickly sorted out thanks to a colleague who’d been down that same road before). Effort estimates usually include some wiggle room in case of problems, and this one was no different, but everything came together on the last day. It made for a pretty stressful start to the week, but I was able to put that behind me on Thursday.

Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia

The book seems to be doing well. I know I’ve made some sales (I won’t know precisely how many for a while), and I’ve seen a couple of reviews on Amazon (one on the US site, and one from the UK). So far, people are saying good things. And I haven’t even got into any real promotion yet. I’m barely started into arranging some things to get the word out—a blog tour is a strong possibility, as well as a signing or two locally. I’m hoping to get some progress in those directions this afternoon.

Around The World In 80 Days

The short story I wrote for Xchyler Publishing’s Around The World In 80 Days anthology contest is complete, as of a few days ago, and in shape to be submitted, as of about an hour ago (I started an editing pass last night, and finished up this morning). It is good. Without wishing to sound all conceited about it, I have to say it’s definitely one of my better short stories. I just hope it’s good enough—each of Xchyler’s contests seems to get more and better submissions.

Smoke & Mirrors

The next full-length story is coming along apace. This is the one I put to one side in February or March, and now Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia is out there I’ve been able to get back to it. I’ve redone the timeline somewhat, and I’ve been editing the scenes I’d already written, working forward to the point where I’d had to stop. I’ve recovered the momentum, and the voices and personalities of my characters, so when I reach that point (which won’t be long now—I’m almost there), I should be able to carry on and pound through to the end. My plan is to have a first draft no later than the end of November, and get it into shape to submit sometime in December. Fingers crossed.

Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia II

Yes, a sequel is in the works. I have the basics of a storyline, but I’m still thrashing out details. That’s about all I can say at the moment.

That about wraps it up for now. I have my weekly online chat with the family coming up in a few minutes, so I’d better grab a coffee and get settled. Until next time . . .

A Status Report

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I’m back at work, now that the shutdown is behind us, and I can get back to where I was before the whole thing started—which is turning out to be pretty hard, actually. Two weeks is more than long enough for me to have pretty much forgotten where, precisely, I was with each of the projects I was working on. That, plus a number of distractions as other people have come to me to ask questions—so that they can remember where they were with their work, too—has made today pretty much a wipe as far as actually getting any work done. It’s going to take a couple of days to get back into the routine.

Also, I’ve become completely unused to getting up early. I allowed myself a couple of extra hours this morning, mostly because I wasn’t certain that the office would actually be open at the usual time. Even with that extra time, I feel exhausted already. So I decided to take a few minutes out to write this, and get my mind off the other stuff for a bit.

Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia was released last Saturday, and I know I’ve had a few sales already, and I’ve had one four-star review on Amazon. If you’d like a copy, check out the Fiction page by clicking the tab at the top of this screen—the links are all there. It’s available as an e-book for Kindle, Nook, and Kobo. Paperback copies can be ordered from Amazon only as I write this; hopefully Barnes & Noble should be making print copies available soon, too.

Yesterday I finished a new, improved draft of a steampunk short story, which I’ll be submitting to Xchyler Publishing’s Around the World in 80 Days anthology contest at the end of the month. That’s going on the back burner for a week or so, then I’ll give another polish pass before the submissions open.

Next up, I’m getting back to work on Smoke & Mirrors, the full-length steampunk story I put to one side a few months ago to make way for Gunn & Bohemia. The plan is to get that finished in time to submit.

Enough blog for now; time to get back to work. Until next time . . .

Seven Days and Counting; Shutdown Shenanigans

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GunnBohemiaTwitterHeader

Yes, gentle reader: a week today, Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia will be released, woo hoo! This is of course a big thing for me, personally; my first professionally published book. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been worth every moment and I’ve learned a lot along the road.

We’re having a release party on Facebook (sign up by clicking here) – Trivia quiz! Prizes! It’s going to be fun, so come along and join in! I’m working on some trivia quiz questions, and I’ll be there to answer questions about the book and other things I’m working on.

The Shutdown . . .

If you’ve read my bio, you know that my day job involves working for the government (I’m not a fed, though—I work for a commercial company that does work on contract). So, Monday was business as usual, then Tuesday it was all stop. I’ve been able to work on some documents unrelated to the government projects, and that’s all. Starting this Monday, that stops, too—it looks like I have to start burning up my vacation hours until this is all over. Here’s hoping it gets sorted out soon.

Of course, since I’ll be on vacation, that means . . .

Writing!

Two projects are front and centre right now. First is a short story for Xchyler Publishing’s Steampunk anthology contest. I’ve got about 2,500 words down so far, and I’ll be getting back to that after posting this and getting coffee. The plan is to have the first draft finished no later than Monday night, but we’ll see how that goes.

As soon as that’s done, I’ll be getting back to work on Smoke and Mirrors (that’s just the working title), which must, must, must! be finished before December 31 if it’s to be in time for the submission deadline.

So I’d better get on with it. Coffee, come to daddy.

Until next time . . .

Psst… Wanna Read My Book?

~ petefordwriter ~ 1 Comment

. . . Well, you can! Advance Reader Copies of Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia are available as PDFs for a short time, and you can have one in return for an honest review posted on Amazon, Goodreads, or your own blog. Xchyler Publishing might want to quote you, too. Interested? Click the Contact tab above, fill in the form (make sure to include a contact email address that I can pass on to the marketing director at Xchyler, who will be sending the ARCs out) and submit it. I’ll take it from there.

While I’m blogging, let’s have an update. Last week was a nightmare—flooded roads Monday, family member in hospital Tuesday and Wednesday, then water in the basement Friday; laid over that was a slew of day-job technical problems that had to be fixed. Despite all of which I managed to finish proofreading Gunn & Bohemia. What a week.

Today, working at home while waiting for guys to come and dry out the basement carpet. They didn’t show up until 2:30pm, but when they did they got on with the job.

On the writing front: I’ve been working up a short story for Xchyler’s next Steampunk anthology contest, which opens for submissions at the end of October. I have the whole story in my head; next step, write it out scene-by-scene.

But that can wait a bit. Today’s been busy and I feel the need to wind down. Time for dinner and telly; I have an urge to watch The Dresden Files if it’s still listed on Netflix.

Until next time . . .

Expect Big Things

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The last couple of weeks have been completely, absolutely insane. At work, the seeds of this were planted a few weeks ago, when one more senior developer decided to move on (for unusual reasons, too: he passed his bar exam, and he’s gone off to be a lawyer). With him gone, that left just one SD in the place: me. And as problems came up on one system or another, I’ve been drafted in to fix said problems. A few weeks ago I worked exclusively on one system; today I’m consulting on two systems, fixing problems on a third, developing a fourth from the ground up, single-handed, and I’m expected to spend half my time on a fifth project starting next Monday.

At the same time, on the Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia editing front, I’ve been spending every evening and weekend working on that. Hence the lack of posts here, since if I had time to blog then I had time to edit, and the editing had to come first.

And it’s all been worth the effort. Sunday I finished a major edit of one scene that my editor-in-chief had pointed out as having serious issues, and then yesterday I finished the last two chapters. So, all I’m waiting on now is (1) feedback from those changes, and (2) proofreading. On top of all this, the editor-in-chief had her own problems—car, phone, and Internet all pfft! gone at much the same time, just when things were getting heavy. Frankly, I’m amazed that everything is still pretty much under control, and—at least from where I’m sitting—apparently on track to meet our deadlines and get the book out the door on the scheduled release date.

Other essential bits are all done, too: the back cover blurb is finalised, as is my Bio page and the acknowledgements. And . . . we have a cover! Yes, the artwork is done. Things are happening; all is finally coming together, and I’ll be reporting developments here.

In other words, Watch This Space and Expect Big Things. Over the next couple of weeks I should be announcing the cover reveal and the official publication date, and I hope to be posting a bit more often in the run-up to the release. Exciting times indeed.

Until next time, gentle reader . . .

The Peripatetic Programmer

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A busy few days, one way and another, hence the shortage of blog posts.

At work, I am still The Peripatetic Programmer—moving stealthily from project to project, leaving behind no trace but a trail of fixed problems. Possibly, the other developers catch sight of me as I melt into the shadows, then they say, “Who was that masked man?”

Or not. It’s Friday, it’s been busy week, and I have to say I might be a little punchy.

On the writing/editing front, I sent back line edits for Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia, Chapter 1, a couple of days ago, and I just sent what I hope will be the last copy edits for Chapter 6 about half an hour ago. Which means, at this moment, it’s all in the hands of my editors; my line editor has Chapters 1-5 and 8, and my copy editor has the rest. I could get markups back at any time, of course, but it does leave me with some time to work on the as-yet-untitled fantasy short story I’m planning to enter in Xchyler’s next anthology contest. So that’s probably how I’ll be spending this weekend.

Right now though, time for a relaxing evening. A blog post, perhaps a little blog maintenance. We’re planning a quick trip out to the local bookstore in a little while. Later, crack a can of beer and watch an episode or three of Person Of Interest. Nice.

Have a great weekend, gentle reader. Until next time . . .

The Tenth Day

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Tuesday morning’s post was, shall we say, a little premature. At the time I thought I was in for an easy day and an early out. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

There was a slow morning, then I helped interview a couple of people, and then there was a meeting about a new project.

And then the used food hit the ventilation; a system that’s been in production for a while had developed a problem, and the people who’d developed it are no longer with us. I got drafted.

It seems I am now the resident Developer Without Portfolio—able to move stealthily from project to project, jump tall buildings in a single bound, etc.

Well, I fixed the problem. Problems, actually—there were three, it turned out. It meant a working day of eleven and a half hours, but considering that I had to pull apart a web application that I’d never been involved with and knew nothing about (I don’t even know what it’s for, really, even now), dig into its guts and figure out what was suddenly wrong with it, I don’t consider that half bad.

On top of the work I’d done at the weekend, by Tuesday night I’d worked nine days with a few hours on Sunday afternoon as the only break.

Yesterday morning, which was Wednesday, I was ready to get back to editing work on Chapter 10 of Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia. Except that I wasn’t, really. I worked on it for an hour or so, then like a racehorse that’s decided it’s had enough, my brain started refusing fences. After nine days of brain-busting, I needed a proper rest. The Tenth Day ended up being a well-deserved day of rest.

One thing I’ve learned: when editing, if I reach a point where I know I should be able to see what’s needed, but I simply can’t, it’s time to stop. If I push it, all that happens is that I have to give up on it anyway, then when I start again the next day, it’s looking back at me with red eyes and yellow fangs, daring me to grapple.

So I stopped. I saved what I’d done, backed it up, then stretched out on the sofa with a coffee and watched The Ninth Gate, then Total Recall.

A night’s sleep, and this morning I got back to work, and things are much, much better. Chapter 10 is done, gentle reader, and I’m eight pages into Chapter 11 (which is forty pages long, so there’s a way to go yet).

I have four more days after today before I have to go back to the day job, so I’m going to take it easy; get the work done, but not push so hard that I burn out. Four hours a day, maybe five, then stop. And for now, for today, I’ve stopped.

And it’s time to stop blogging, too. I need a coffee, and another movie.

Until next time . . .