Late Morning/Midday, Wednesday, March 20, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire
Hi, everyone.
Well, it might be spring – both in the meteorological and astronomical calendars – but it still seems like winter here. Currently, the temperature is 38°F (-3°C) under cloudy conditions. With humidity at 56% and the wind blowing from the southwest at 5 MPH (9 KMH), it feels like 39°F (4°C). The forecast for today calls for mostly cloudy skies and a high of 46°F (8°C). Tonight, we can expect a mix of light rain and snow. The low will be 23°F (-5°C).
It was snowing shortly before I sat down at my desk to write this, but it was but a passing flurry.
Ah. Spring in New England….
On Writing & Storytelling: A Quick Update About Reunion: Coda
Although I have not begun to write Chapter 14 – I’m still stuck on how I want to start it – and the novel still needs two or three more chapters until I can write “The End,” I’ve already started some parts of the pre-publication process.
The first thing I did yesterday was to create a poll to determine which cover design I will use on the print (hardcover and paperback) and Kindle e-book editions when the time comes to publish Reunion: Coda. There were five choices altogether; they were:
- Moonlight (Jim & Maddie/Manhattan Skyline at Night)
- Love Letter & Flower
- Jim & Marty Kissing/Manhattan Skyline (Two Timelines Cover)
- Sunset (Jim & Maddie/New England Hills)
- Jim & Marty Kissing/Manhattan Skyline (Two Timelines, 2.0)
As of this writing, the Moonlight cover is the top choice, having received 8 votes (50% overall). Sunset is in second place with four votes (25% overall), and Jim & Marty Kissing/Manhattan Skyline (Two Timelines Cover) is in third place with three votes (18.75% of the vote). Love Letter and Flower only received one vote for a piddling 6.25% of the vote, and the second Jim & Marty Kissing/Manhattan Skyline cover received 0 votes.
The poll is still open for voting, so if any of the five covers floats your boat, please…click on the poll in yesterday’s blog post!
The second thing I did might seem premature. Still, I decided to put a copy of the Reunion: Coda manuscript in my Kindle Create app so I could begin the tedious and often confusing process of prepping the novel for publication on Kindle Direct Publishing. Yes, the manuscript is still unfinished, and I have not written any of the “front matter” bits that most books have. You know…a foreword (which I plan to write), an acknowledgments page to thank everyone who has helped me in my author’s journey, and an introduction to the novel. I did, however, create a file that contains the latest draft of the novel (13 chapters, including the prologue, plus a copyright page, the epigraph, and a title page).
Because I remembered my oft-frustrating experiences using Kindle Create to format and upload Reunion: A Story to Kindle Direct Publishing last year, I decided to work on some of the formatting issues (the visual theme, which determines the look of the published novel, for instance) that are the most time-consuming to do. I thought this would take only an hour or two at most; I stopped working over five hours later! (I began this task sometime after 4 PM; when I finished for the night, it was 10:32 PM.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time describing the process. Suffice it to say that even though this time I knew (more or less) what I was doing, setting up the manuscript in Kindle Create was a demanding (but necessary) task.
Action This Day
Needless to say, I won’t be fiddling with Kindle Create this afternoon. I need to start writing Scene One of Chapter 14, so I’m hoping that Calliope, my Muse, happens to be in the general vicinity of my writing room and whispers “sweet somethings” in my ear that will inspire me.
I’ve already devoted some time this morning to making some edits to the manuscript, so I plan to at least brainstorm the beginning of Reunion: Coda’s 14th chapter. It’s a “Jim and Maddie”-centric part of the story, so I must write in first person, present voice rather than in first person, past (which is used in “Jim and Marty” chapters). I don’t know how much writing will come out of my afternoon writing session, but I will give it my best shot. I need to push on with the manuscript, so….
Well, that’s all the news I have to share with you, so I’ll close this post here. I need to go eat lunch and rest for a while before grappling with Reunion: Coda, so…see you tomorrow!
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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