Updates, Even Though Events Don't Warrant

I dropped my phone on Monday. This is nothing new. I drop my phone all the time. I'm a klutz. This time, though, I dropped it on the concrete sidewalk and it fell in such a way that the bumper I had on it did no good, and the screen cracked.

So, I'm sitting here waiting for my new phone to finish configuring itself, and I thought I'd write a quick update post.

Item 1: The first day of the October session of my Better Projects class was today. I thought the class went well. I am always really energized and happy after I finish giving a class. I suspect this tells me something about what I should focus on in my consulting business. I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with that message, though.

Item 2: This has pushed me closer to deciding to offer an online version of the Navigating the Path to Industry seminar I've given a couple of times in my local area. Exact timing, pricing, and other details are still to be determined, but if you want to be sure to hear about the seminar if I decide to offer it, enter your email address on this form.

I'll be honest: the number of response on that form will influence my decision about whether to offer the class, because I'm human and I like money.

Item 3: Today, I finished assembling the text and images for the next Annorlunda Books release, which will be called Missed Chances: Short Love Stories with a Hint of What Might Have Been. I still have quite a bit of work to do before it is ready for release, which is a shame, because I'm targeting November 3 for a release date. I think I'll make it, at least for the ebook format. I'll make it for the print book format only if I don't have to order a second proof- i.e., if there are no major mistakes in the first proof I order. Right now, I have a solid potential interior file for my proof uploaded, but no cover (that's coming later this week or over the weekend). I am 75% of the way through converting my file from the Word document needed to make a print version to the HTML document needed to create the ebook. So, not bad, but a lot of fiddly bits left to do.

Last night, I finished reading through a print out of the book, and was reminded that I really like the stories I picked for this collection. They are five public domain stories- so all old. (To be in the public domain, their authors have to have been dead for at least 75 years.) But they are all really good, and I think the book is fun to read. The stories I chose are:

• Aunt Philippa and the Men, by L.M. Montgomery
• The Kiss, by Kate Chopin
• The Victory, by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Mystery of Wilhem Rütter, by Helen Hunt Jackson
• A Florentine Experiment, by Constance Fenimore Woolson

Since they are public domain stories, you could go read them individually elsewhere. But they are not collected into a single convenient volume anywhere else!

This is the book I'll be giving away to everyone who is signed up for the Tungsten Hippo weekly digest by November 1, but I'd also be happy to sign up a few advance readers, too- as usual, if you're interested in being an advance reader, there's a short form to fill out.

Item 4: My kids have their Halloween costumes. They will be Tinkerbell and Cleopatra. Petunia wants to be Tinkerbell because she got a large light up Tinkerbell wand at Disneyland and she wants to take it trick-or-treating. Pumpkin wants to be Cleopatra because she read a biography about Cleopatra and really got interested in Cleopatra. She has been saying she wants to be Cleopatra for Halloween since summer, at least.

Item 5: I have made zero progress on packing things up in the old office/guest room (a.k.a. Petunia's future bedroom). This is a problem, because we were sort of planning to paint it this weekend. I should set myself a goal of getting my shelves cleared off tonight. 

This means that I should stop using the ongoing phone set up as an excuse to goof around on the internet and get back to some sort of work- either finishing up the items on my work list for the day or packing those shelves.

More updates will no doubt be forthcoming in the future, even though events probably still won't warrant them.