I am impatient. Overly so. And in the world of writing I’m starting to learn that is NOT an asset.

Over the weekend, my two primary goals were:

1. Finish edits on The Venus Diary
2. Finish a work project that is due this week

#2 was accomplished by Sunday evening, and I’m happy to say it turned out very well.

As for #1…we did get what we thought were the final edits complete, but as I started to read through the proof copy, I discovered additional changes I wanted to make, including one section where I decided to move a chapter into a completely different spot.

That is going to require some additional rewrites to recreate the linkage. It’s the right choice to make, but it’s time consuming, and I was really hoping to get this book to the publisher by end of week.

However, as David continually reminds me, this isn’t something I can rush. If it needs to be changed, change it and move on to the next thing.

The other thing that frustrates me is that book sales are much lower than I would like to see. For writing these books I ask so little in return :-). Buy the first book ($12.99 at amazon.com isn’t bad to support your friend Heath), tell all your friends, write a review on amazon.com, and send my ratings soaring! (and get a discount on the 2nd book!!!) And if you don’t like the book, then tell me why so I can improve upon my next ones!

But the point of this note isn’t to gripe, it’s just a status update on where I am with the 2nd book in the Princess Carrina series for Young Readers. The Venus Diary will finish edits in the next week or two, and then will be off to publishing. It’s looking like availability some time in the middle of May, which still meets my goal of “Spring 2008″.

Aside from that, I’ve started the publishing process on Homo sarcasmus - Best of the Blog Volume 1.0, which contains a mix of fun and whimsical posts from years past, and I’m toying around with a poetry compilation of three books, including never before published poems and pictures drawn by the author. Those will likely come out within the next couple of months while David starts reading the final book in the Princess Carrina series.

Cheers!

Marvelous and wonderful things often happen when the night is cold and the moon is shrouded in a deep and winding fog. A light mist of rain can even set the mood for magical and spiritual events.

On my night, the night when these marvelous, wonderful, and according to the barometer, magical things would happen, my luck brought me here to this deserted and lonely place in the middle of the park.

Thus begins the latest short story by author Heath L. Buckmaster. The Peregryn takes us on a cold and mystical journey, when the unnamed main character receives a strange letter in the mail. The letter reveals the presence of a watcher, a stalker perhaps, who wants a meeting in two days, and offers mysterious services.

This short story is now available in softcover, eBook download, and amazon Kindle editions.

So Barnes & Noble small press division declined to purchase my book for stocking in their stores (until I get some local or national press coverage basically)…I was sad for a few minutes, but I’m moving on.

One of the things they mentioned in their “rejection” letter was a recommendation to use their self-publishing company which gets the book listed automatically in their stores for customer request (still on-demand vs. on the shelf).

Well I took a look at that option which led me to some other self-publishing locations besides the one I currently use, Booksurge. The first one I found was Lulu. In less than 20 minutes I had my book interior and cover uploaded and available for purchase. I was able to use the same PDF that I used with Booksurge, with only one minor change to the margins. The cover design system was SIGNIFICANTLY easier than Booksurge, because I could do it in their WYSIWYG editor.

With Booksurge I have to wait for them to send me a markup, but with Lulu, I see it right there on the screen. Very impressive.

The big drawback, however, is that if you come in with your own ISBN, you can’t take advantage of ANY of their distribution options beyond the Lulu marketplace. So basically, all you’re doing is listing it for sale in one more place. That is a problem for me, and really doesn’t accomplish much at all since the book is already on amazon.com. (however: I am exploring the Lulu hardcover options, and if the quality is good, I may bring back the hardcover version of Box of Hair: A Fairy Tale, just with a different publisher)

Next I tried Wordclay. This turned out to be a no-go, because you can’t custom design your cover without paying. You can’t even upload your own cover art that you have already designed. You MUST choose from one of their stock covers, which is a showstopper for me. At least with Lulu I could upload my own cover image.

So I guess it’s back to Booksurge again for the next book in the series…this doesn’t bother me TOO much, even though I’ve had a lot of printing issues with them lately and I’m now on my third account manager and second publishing contact. We’ll see how it goes. In the mean time I’ve made a short story available as an ebook download on Lulu. Refer to this post for more information.

As some of you in the states may know, yesterday, 18 February, was President’s Day.

If you’re not familiar with the origin of this…holiday…here’s a little snippet from the source du jour:

Presidents Day (or Presidents’ Day), is a commonly used, but erroneous, name for the federal holiday officially designated as Washington’s Birthday. It is also the official name of a concurrent state holiday celebrated on the same day in a small number of states. It is celebrated on the third Monday of February. [Link]

Yes, you read it right. It’s a false named holiday. It started as a celebration of our “Founding Father”, but then through a failed initial attempt to combine Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays, the retail industry stepped in and made the decision for us. President’s Day would celebrate ALL presidents, and it would be a shopping day for everyone who works at a company that recognizes the federal holiday (basically anyone but retail).

What that furthermore means, is that everyone who works retail is working on the 18th, while everyone who doesn’t work retail is SHOPPING on the 18th. It’s a win-win for everyone, in my opinion.

Now, I did not do much shopping on the 18th - only grocery shopping because I wanted to prepare a special dinner in celebration of yet another fake holiday. Instead of being a retail whore, I accomplished two primary things while I was at home on the 18th.

First, I solved our 4×4 Rubik’s Cube, which was not much of a challenge since we pretended it was a 2×2 and only scrambled it in groupings. I solved it using the exact same process as one uses on a 3×3 cube, but I was none the less impressed with myself.

Second, I finished the last edits on a short that I wrote last year, called The Peregryn. It will be available on the Amazon Kindle, and in downloadable e-Book format.

Third, ok so I did more than 2 things on the 18th, I did about 25% of the initial edit of the humorous adventure story that I wrote back in 2006. It’s around 58k words, so it’s taking me a bit longer to make the first pass, but I’m hoping to have it ready for publishing by end of year.

In other book news, David is actively editing The Venus Diary, and I hope to have his first round of edits incorporated by mid-March, in preparation for publishing by end of April. I have also submitted the first book in the series, Box of Hair: A Fairy Tale, to Barnes & Noble, Borders, and a local children’s book store for possibly inclusion in their brick & mortar locations. We’ll see what happens there.

So all-in-all, I worked on President’s Day just like many of you out there. But I did celebrate by cooking a yummy steak dinner, complete with asparagus and a festive salad.

Happy Birthday all ya’ll, except for he who must not be named.

I have just finished reading The Hermetica - The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs, which is book 3 in my 52 in 52 series.

The book is by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, and is supposed to be an insight into sacred writings from around 3000BC by an Egyptian sage Hermes (which is actually the Greek interpretation of Thoth).

Thoth, who is attributed with the creation of hieroglyphics was also thought to be the architect of the pyramids.

The book is a translation of some of the ancient writings, combined with other sacred texts taken from the Stobaeus, the Asclepius, and the Nag Hammadi Hermetic Texts.

For the most part, the translations read like many things you would find the Christian Bible, especially is Psalms. They are songs and praises to the lord, in this case, Atum (the Father), or many of his creations such as the “Cosmos”, the “Mind”, mother Earth, and man.

In essence we learn that Atum created the cosmos is “his” own image. Cosmos then created everything else in it’s own image, and the purpose in life for all humans is to learn to know Atum. Pretty much identical to much of the Christian belief system in that our purpose on the Earth is to come to know God in all his/her elements.

Having done quite a bit of other reading on ancient Egyptian religion, this was really not much different. It clearly shows that many Christian premises about the nature of god, the universe, the divine, and humanity, came directly from civilizations that came before the BC/AD changeover.

There is a big focus on destiny, and only doing what is necessary - possibly the foundation of the predestination belief that is in many Christian denominations, and there is a lot of use of “the light” of the world, which mirrors much of what I heard growing up in the church.

One thing I did find interesting is that the teachings were supposed to be secret, and if you learned them, you were not supposed to share them with anyone else. Atum would share them directly if “he” felt as though you were worthy to learn them. This is very unlike religions of today which freely share their beliefs with anyone who will listen.

Overall, it was an interesting read, but again, it felt like I was reading the Christian Bible, only these writings were 3000+ years prior. I wouldn’t say I got a huge amount of insight from the book, though - there are many other Egyptian history books that have been more enlightening, so to speak.

So that is book 3 for 2008.

Heath L. Buckmaster, author of Box of Hair: A Fairy Tale, sat down for a moment to talk to us about the book, the delightful cover art, and a little about the exciting sequels, The Venus Diary, and The Dragons of Tarnack that will be released later in 2008.

(Young Cicero - image from wikimedia commons)
It seems like there are many people out there who set a New Year’s Resolution to read 52 books in 52 weeks. While that is admirable, I’m not sure that I will have time to devote to reading that many books in 2008…especially since I will be publishing two, perhaps three more books this year.

But, I do want to jump on the bandwagon and see what I can accomplish.

So far I have read two books during 2008 - Tales from Earthsea, and The Other Wind, both by Ursula K. Le Guin. They are the last two books in the fantastic Earthsea series, which includes: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu. I have read the series multiple times over the years, and it’s one of my absolute favourites in the sci-fi/fantasy genre.

I will try to keep up to date on what I’m currently reading, and the next books on the list - a virtual bookstack, if you will. That way I can share with you books that I have really enjoyed or really not enjoyed. I would also like for you to share with me and other readers some of the books that you are currently reading - you can do that by commenting on this and future posts!

So what’s next on my list?

The Hermetica - insight into where many Christian ideas came from

Allan Folsom - The Machiavelli Covenant (if you haven’t read anything from him before, start with The Day After Tomorrow - absolutely incredible book with an ending like no other, and Day of Confession, and The Exile)

Steve Berry - The Templar Legacy

Steve Berry - The Alexandria Link

Steve Berry - The Amber Room

I know it’s heavy on Steve Berry all of a sudden, but someone loaned me the books from their collection and I want to read them and return them in a timely fashion (and I’ve already had them a couple months).

So there you have it - what are you currently reading and what do you recommend I add to my list? You can also check out my book recommendations (it’s a short list), for others that you might add to your own list!