tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50081617063516822312024-03-12T19:39:12.449-04:00 A Writer's Chronicles The Official Blog of William D. Richards, authorW_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.comBlogger120125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-738444794411522202022-10-25T19:15:00.000-04:002022-10-25T19:15:01.262-04:00Returning to LifeI’ve been away from my blog for far too long. Some family tragedy and serious health issues really brought me to a standstill. Stress is a nasty predator of productivity.As my energy flagged, I had to focus more and more on less and less in order to get things done.The blog fell on the wayside pretty quickly.For those waiting for books, fear not: there are more books coming.Oracle hit W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-89043814762912634382019-03-07T10:37:00.002-05:002019-03-07T10:37:43.847-05:00Game Changer
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Three days ago, March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that creators must wait until they have a registered copyright before they can sue for copyright theft.
In short, this means that your W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-82553120339942702652018-02-06T11:50:00.002-05:002018-02-06T11:52:42.608-05:00Farewell Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin, 10/21/1929–1/22/2018
Words are forever immortal, but the writers are not.
I always wanted to meet Le Guin. Just to shake her hand and thank her for the stories she wrote that I always enjoyed. Over the next few days, there will be far more eloquent testimonials written by friends and colleagues who knew her and are far better poised to talk about her influence on writing W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-34133778152991359602018-02-06T10:46:00.003-05:002018-02-06T10:47:39.198-05:00Late To The Party…An Interview With William D. Richards
Things got busy during December and January, and I totally forgot to post this link:
J.D. Byrne: Author Interview – William D. Richards
Author J.D. Byrne has set up a series of interviews with various writers and posted them to his website. If you’re curious about who I am and the writing process, this is a nice place to start.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-21958696298003272942017-10-03T10:28:00.000-04:002017-10-03T10:35:16.389-04:00The Glitch
I’m trying to chase down a possible problem with the Kindle version of Aggadeh Chronicles Book 2: Dragon.
I’ve had three complaints where the reader got to a certain point in the book and it just cut out.
I was unable to reproduce the problem using two Kindle models and an iPhone—all I had to report was it takes 20 minutes to flip through the pages from beginning to end. I do know in two of W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-74799315353798005012017-09-13T15:24:00.001-04:002017-09-13T17:44:15.205-04:00Status Report
Since the launch on July 1st, I have sold over 2,400 copies of both Nobody and Dragon. I figured I would be lucky if I sold 2,300 by the end of the year. So to exceed that goal in just over two months came as a pretty pleasant surprise for me.
Where did the number 2,300 come from? That was how many copies I had to sell before I could afford to buy a new computer. Three years of borrowing time W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-52080032168076650622017-08-11T23:59:00.000-04:002017-08-13T22:07:38.950-04:00The People You Work With
No matter how hard the job or onerous the task, it is the people you work with that make the difference. Retail is a pretty tough business to work in. It may not be the hardest or worst of jobs, but it is long hours of constant energy trying to help customers find the solutions they are looking for.
The team I work with at Lowe’s in North Attleboro are what make the difference through the long W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-7978561294424285132017-07-05T00:23:00.001-04:002017-08-11T23:59:41.049-04:00That Embarrassing Moment…
…When you take another look and discover a mistake in the book after it has gone out the door
For those of you who bought Dragon already, you might want to do an update.
The way you tell first editions is by the mistakes!
What happened?
It was a mistake I knew about. I intended to correct it before pushing out the files for sale. But I forgot. This is why you don't do W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-26782942125262076942017-06-14T22:03:00.001-04:002017-06-14T22:03:28.635-04:00Dragon & Patronage
There’s just a small amount of editing to go on Dragon. For the most part, I’m pretty much done except for some rewriting in some sections. With that, it’ll be off for the second round of edits and proof reading.
If nothing major is caught, then Dragon will be ready to go! If something is found, I have adequate time to fix it to ensure my deadline of July 1st stands.
The past two-and-a-half W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-12004363475064479682017-01-20T14:08:00.000-05:002017-05-09T23:21:39.521-04:00Politics
It is just past noon and Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. A president who rode his way into office on a platform of bigotry, ignorance, and falsehood—one who holds the truth in such contempt that he would contradict himself numerous times in the same day, over and over again throughout his campaign.
Trump was not elected on his merits, he was elected W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-2551361964098647002016-11-04T13:05:00.000-04:002017-01-04T14:49:19.726-05:00VOTE!
There are two things that are wrong with American politics and what is so wrong with this entire election:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jason-chaffetz-vote-defend-endorse-trump
Read the above article. If you don’t, then nothing I say below will make any sense whatsoever. In fact, because this is what I think is wrong with American politics, I’m just going to post the source of my W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-37994863283513127062016-09-22T11:32:00.001-04:002017-01-04T14:48:46.455-05:00Deadlines…
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” –Douglas Adams
So– I have some egg on my face.
Back in August, I set myself a deadline for a September 21 release. (For those wondering, yes I do try to target the Equinoxes and Solstices. Not for any superstitious reason, but because it is scientifically fun.) I figured with 60 days, I’d have plenty of time to wrap W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-91318039932712471692016-04-21T15:11:00.001-04:002016-04-21T15:12:40.567-04:00"Farewell Sweet Prince"The year 2016 has been a rough one for music. Not long ago, we lost another great genius: Prince. Prince Nelson brought more to us than just his own music. He also wrote and priduced music for others, as well as brought new talent to the industry. He was as important behind the scenes as he was being the scene. So, my website will be purple for the next few days to honor a musician W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-65723382375362796292016-02-09T22:18:00.000-05:002017-01-04T14:50:14.204-05:00Definition of Success
Claude Fortehomme recently penned this blog entry making the claim that Amazon stated “only 40 self-published writers are a success.”
In her definition, “success” means having sold more than a million copies.
She further states that there are “hundreds of thousands that don’t.”
Well…duh!
I know many writers who haven’t sold a million copies of their books yet. However, they are W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-74465849014779615032015-11-19T10:59:00.001-05:002015-11-19T12:19:24.980-05:00Writing…My writing assistant hard at work…
Yes, he snores.
W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-67940009854641703892015-07-08T21:06:00.000-04:002015-07-08T21:06:56.833-04:00Goodbye to a Friend
“It was good to see you, Bill. Catch you later!”
Those were my last words to a friend. Days later—yesterday—he was gone.
It was sudden and fast. A car crash. His car struck another.
Something that made no sense to me. Bill was not the reckless type. Then, finally, a little more detail became known: he was in apparent cardiac arrest when the accident happened.
There is the possibility that heW_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-13126445228513875902015-07-02T22:28:00.002-04:002015-07-13T10:12:11.227-04:00Kindle Unlimited Evolves
Kindle Unlimited (KU) changes again.
For those who aren’t in the know, Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s attempt at entering the subscription reading service. It is a fantastic deal for voracious and avid readers: all you can read for $10 a month. If you buy more than two books per month to read, then KU is a good deal for you.
For the authors, the carrot on the stick was that they would be paid W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-44470770176493715802015-06-23T10:23:00.000-04:002015-06-23T10:27:43.719-04:00Taylor Swift vs. Apple Over Compensation
It’s funny how quickly things can change.
When Apple upped and announced that they were not going to pay artists for music streamed during the three month trial period, I immediately thought that was patently unfair. Here, the wealthiest company in the world, was essentially funding its business plan on the backs of the artists who were barely scraping by on the few pennies that trickled down W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-26191317960080810362015-03-11T20:07:00.003-04:002015-05-12T22:05:05.663-04:00Reviewed! (Maybe)
British author Mark Lawrence put out a challenge: have self-published fantasy authors submit their books to be reviewed by highly respected bloggers who write about fantasy and review books.
The structure of the challenge is to have ten reviewers be assigned 25 books each. From those, they will select one favorite to be submitted to the final pool. Once ten books have been submitted by the W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-32203984652276559602015-02-26T11:29:00.000-05:002015-03-11T21:30:32.067-04:00Readers Rejecting Ebooks? Not Quite…
“DIGITAL NATIVES PREFER READING IN PRINT!”
Or so the headline claims.
It’s a good article. Read it. But keep in mind there are some very misleading points in the article.
The headline should have been: “Today’s College Students Prefer Printed Textbooks Over Reading on Computer Screens.”
That would have been far more accurate and much less misleading.
The article implies strongly that W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-46934882847670541542015-02-03T21:37:00.000-05:002015-02-26T11:48:44.212-05:00SFWA Now Says "YES!" to Self-published Writers
At long last it has finally happened: the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has voted to allow self-publication and small press credits to be accepted for membership and associate membership in their organization. The final vote was 6 to 1 in favor of changing their bylaws.
Self-publishing writers can now apply for membership or associate membership into the SFWA.
W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-73849246988450266122015-01-15T14:25:00.000-05:002015-02-03T21:37:39.495-05:00Self-Publishing is Hard
I discovered writing when I was nine-years-old. A fourth-grade creative-writing exercise by my teacher, Lark McGuire, was an absolute epiphany for me. And I mean the Biblical scale kind of epiphany, where the rest of the world fades away and you are standing in beams of heavenly light while angels are singing kind of epiphany. The more I read, the more I wanted to write. By the time I reached W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-69080282052441783692015-01-13T22:53:00.004-05:002015-01-15T22:10:46.064-05:00Fuzzy StarLadies and Gentelmen, I give you Comet Lovejoy…
What makes this especially fun, since I first spotted the comet with binoculars a few hours ago the comet has clearly changed its position in the sky.
If you aren't sure, it is the fuzzy green star. In the wide angle view, it is roughly 2 o'clock to the big tree in the center. Just above the two stars that make up Taurus' knee, forming a triangle W_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-7261321739600214582015-01-13T00:00:00.000-05:002015-01-15T22:09:40.232-05:00Wanted: Working Tools For a Novelist
I am done with word processors.
I need a novel processor!
I am not writing a business office document. I am not writing a letter of communication to a colleague. I am not writing a pamphlet. I am not writing sections, I am writing chapters. I have front matter. I have afterwords. Author’s notes. Indices. Footnotes. A book title. Page numbers. Particular formatting that I need for print orW_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008161706351682231.post-70898335378276259102015-01-12T20:30:00.001-05:002015-01-12T20:38:45.115-05:00Shakin' It in New England
We had an earthquake this morning. A 3.3 on the Richter Scale. Sure, my friends in California and Japan might chuckle at this, but for here in New England it is a novelty.
Boom! Yeah.
The epicenter was in the southwest corner of Sterling, CT and shook a number of homes in the area for several seconds. A friend of mine who lives fairly close to the epicenter commented that her fish definitelyW_D_Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099519910715677370noreply@blogger.com0