And So It Begins…

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began its lawsuit against Apple, Inc. over an alleged ebook price fixing scheme between Apple and seven book publishing companies. The publishers settled and paid hefty fines up to as much as $75 million. Apple stands alone to fight stating they did not collude to fix pricing on ebooks.

The DOJ’s case seems to hinge on one particular email sent from Steve Jobs to James Murdoch of HarperCollins Publishers, where Jobs wrote:

“Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99.”

Sounds pretty damning to me!

Unless you read the text of the original email and get that line in the context in which it was written. Then it doesn’t seem quite so clearcut about the intent. It does come across as more of an example or statement of opinion than it does as a conspiracy to set pricing on ebooks. Still, Jobs is suggesting a price-point in that email.

The DOJ states they have a lot of evidence to support their allegations against Apple. Either way, it is in the court now and will be on public record. The next couple of weeks, we’ll see where this goes.

For me, it brings forward the issue of what to charge for an ebook. The publishers want people to pay the same for an ebook as they do for a hardcover book. Personally, I think this is being greedy.

The setup costs for an ebook are the same as it is for a hardcopy book: editing, typesetting, etc. But the production and distribution costs are not. While hardcopy books have materials, warehousing and distribution costs, an ebook has nothing. Once that file is saved onto the server, there are no more costs with distributing that file.

And before purists pounce upon me pointing out the electricity costs and equipment costs of the servers needed to distribute the ebook file, let me point out that the infrastructure to distribute the files already existed as the distributers were selling files for applications, music and movies. An ebook is just another file stored on the server’s hard drive and creates no further overhead or investment to distribute that file.

Once an ebook file is on the server, its production and distribution costs are $0. No need to purchase ink, paper, create new printing plates, trucks, gasoline, etc. Until the file is deleted, it is there for sale to anyone who wants to buy it. And there is now no longer a reason to allow a book to go out of print. Because unlike a printed book, a file costs nothing to store and takes up no physical space. A warehouse can cost millions. An entire library can be stored on a $10 flash drive. There no longer is a reason to say, “This book isn’t selling anymore, so we’re going to stop printing and storing it to save money.”

Once sales of an ebook have covered the setup costs, each sale is 100% profit. Well, okay, if you sell it through a distributer, the distributer is going to take 30%–35% of the sale price. But there are still no further production costs to that ebook file.

That’s why it irritates me when I see companies pushing ebooks for $13–$15.

The publishers claim that they must sell at these prices in order to stay profitable. Then why aren’t they selling the hardcover books at $50 and softcover books at $22?

A bit closer to the truth is the argument that the publishers don’t want to “devalue the book” to the customer. Their concern is having done to them what Apple did to the music industry: set the price of songs to 99¢ per song. That pretty much destroyed the pricing model the music industry: $20 per song. (Based on one good song on a CD and 12 tracks of absolute crap. Forcing the consumer to fork over $20 just to get that one hit song.)

Apple now offers top list songs at $1.29 per song on iTunes Music Store. Most people consider this a fair price for a song.

There is something to be said about undervaluing a product. You need to make enough money to bring home a livable income.

The author Dean Wesley Smith published this piece on pricing ebooks fairly.

For me, the key word is “Fair.” The customer should get a good value for their money.

There is another side to being fair: compensation to the author for two to three years of no income while writing the book.

Which brings us back to Apple and their agency pricing model.

Basically, Apple did not and does not set the pricing on the ebooks sold through iBookstore. Apple leaves that to the publisher.

I chose my price at a point that I thought was fair to both the customer and myself. At no time did I receive an email from Apple telling me my price was too low.

Right now, Apple pays a straight 70% royalty on every ebook sold. Regardless of price, even at 99¢.

If Apple loses the DOJ case, it is possible they may change their terms and force authors to go with a minimum selling price or they get half the royalty payment. This is how Amazon handles this. With that other distributer, you can sell your book for 99¢ if you wish, but they’ll only pay you a 35% royalty. You have to sell it for $2.99 or higher to get 70% royalty on the sales. That makes for a very strong incentive for an author to keep an ebook priced $2.99 or higher.

Where do I think Apple could get burned? On the “Most favored nation” clause in their pricing contract, whereby a publisher agrees not to allow their goods to be sold at a lower price through another distributer. If Distributer-A puts the ebook on sale at a 15% discount, then the publisher must ensure that the ebook is sold via Apple for the same price. If the publisher doesn’t, then they could be in violation of their contract and Apple could terminate the contract and withhold all unpaid monies. In a way, this clause could be used to facilitate price fixing by forcing the publishers to keep the same price across the board and not allow any retailer-specific sales to happen. This means no variation in pricing and no competition and no choice for the consumer.

Naturally, these are only my wild guesses at what may transpire. I can only offer layman conjecture, rather than professional commentary on this matter.

I don’t think ebook prices are going to really change all that much, regardless of what the court hands down to Apple and the DOJ. Consumers will eventually steer the pricing. If publishers and distributers try to push pricing that consumers are not willing to pay, then the whole market will eventually collapse, as it has done in the past.

If they push unfair pricing, they open the door for newer, smaller publishers to get a chance to get their foot in the door. This in turn, will drive the market toward lower prices, so long as they aren’t being artificially propped up at a higher level as the DOJ is accusing of Apple and the publishers.

Fan Fiction

I’ll admit, I am not a fan of fan fiction. 

I’ve seen fan fiction where the writers truly have talent. I’ve seen novellas written by fans that could truly stand on their own. Truth be told, some of these should stand on their own. The writers should write to the publisher, ask about licensing to produce a book in the world of a given series of fiction and/or offer their manuscript for consideration. I’ve seen other fan fiction pieces that paled in literary comparison to essays I wrote in the fourth grade. (Not a kind remark, trust me.)

I myself have read stories or watched movies where I would love to write a story of my own in that world. Something about the setting or the world just really grabbed me. To ply a character or a plot line into a series I enjoy whets my appetite. Often, such stories inspire story ideas in me.

The problem is, using someone else’s characters or world violates that person’s copyright. If I tried to sell such a story without permission, I’d get myself into a heap of legal trouble. Hence, fan fiction can never see the light of day.

I know the effort that goes into creating a story. The work that goes into creating the rules of the world that the fabric of the story is woven. That each character has a unique backstory supporting and driving that character’s motivation and actions in a story.

All that effort, plied on something that will simply be placed in a back drawer, or a file that will be stored on a backup drive and forgotten, just breaks my heart. The writer puts in all that effort and can never gain from that effort.

That’s why I am not a fan of fan fiction. I see so many people who truly do have a talent for writing, yet their efforts go to waste. It did make me wonder why someone would waste their time like that.

A friend of mine is a fan of fan fiction and she put forward some very good arguments. For one thing, she pointed out that it was good practice for writing. Second, it was a way to indulge in trying to work out a plot line that didn’t occur in a series, or one that the writer wanted to go in a different direction than was portrayed in the original.

“More importantly,” she stated, “not everyone has the ability to pull an entire universe out of their head like you do for such a story to exist.” Writers of fan fiction piggyback their story ideas into a universe that someone else already created, making it easier for them to try out their story ideas.

Touché.

Truth be told, how many times have I wanted to walk the decks of the Millenium Falcon or the Enterprise? Burn thread on the back of a mighty dragon? Or ‘tesser’ through time and space from world to world with no more effort than thinking about it?

When a writer is inspired to write a story, often the seed for the idea is inspired by another story. Romeo and Juliet becomes West Side Story, Cinderella becomes Cinderfella, Pinocchio becomes Data. This has been going on since humans began telling and writing stories, and will continue on into the future.

Even Aggadeh Chronicles has elements that were inspired by other stories; including Shakespeare, mythology, some fairy tales, and a video game. One key element in my story was the interaction between humans and dragons. Dragons in my world only interact with a select number of humans. So much so, that to the humans, anyone that a dragon will interact with is considered to be elevated above all others, even to the point where they could be considered a successor to the throne. This idea of exclusivity grew out of when I read Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea series. In it, her protagonist, Ged, spoke with a dragon and that marked Ged as a great wizard. In my world, there is a reason dragons will only speak to certain individuals. (As that will eventually be revealed in the next book, I won’t give it away.)

My advice to people who wrote fan fiction has always been to look closely at what it was in the original story that drew them to write their own story. Then remove the elements that were part of the original and replace them with your own and make your story original rather than a spin-off. This is pretty much what authors do when they derive a story idea from some other source. Pare that story down to the bare essentials, the primal foundation that you wanted to write about. Then, create the details from your own mind and create a unique story.

Now, my whole argument that fan fiction was wasted energy because it could never be published without permission and licensing from the originators, has just been blown out of the water! Amazon just announced a fan fiction publishing service that gives fan authors the channel they need to write and actually publish their fan fiction!

The upcoming service is called Kindle Worlds by Amazon Publishing. While not active yet, Amazon will soon be opening the service for submissions.

Amazon Publishing negotiated licensing from several franchises that are popular among fan fiction authors. This licensing allows Amazon Publishing to publish pieces written by authors based on those franchises. So, at last, a fan fiction writer can actually have his or her piece published and collect royalties! At last, those who wanted to pursue the notion that Bella should have gone furry instead of parasite can now have their story published for real on the Kindle. What if Apollo discovered that Starbuck was actually Adama’s lovechild?

Royalties on the sale of fan fiction are split between the fan fiction writer and the originator of the series, which basically covers the licensing fee. This is an easier solution on an amateur fan fiction writer, who ordinarily would be unable to afford a direct licensing fee from a publisher.

Naturally, there are some limitations to be aware of before you jump into writing your fan fiction.

You have to remain true to the world in which you are writing. Crossover titles such as Harry Potter and the Pretty Little Liars are probably not going to happen. But maybe Hermione’s Secret Diaries could work. Also, you will have to keep your story within the guidelines that the originator sets for the series. This is the same thing that a professional author would have to deal with to write for a franchise like Star Trek or Star Wars. 

The world you want to write in must be one of the franchises with which Amazon Publishing has an agreement. Currently, only a number of Warner Brothers franchises are available. Amazon says there will be more coming.

Last, when you submit your manuscript to Amazon Publishing, you are granting Amazon Publishing exclusive world rights for publishing your material. This agreement holds for as long as the copyright is valid. In other words, if you write a magnificent masterpiece that turns out to be a big hit, Amazon is the only channel that can sell your book until you willingly expire the copyright and make your work public domain. Of course, once you make your title public domain, anyone can publish it without having to pay you royalties.

Still, this could be a good way for a wannabe author to test the waters. From what I gather, the service is geared more towards short stories and novellas than full-blown novels.

I’m sure more detail will be available when Amazon activates the service.

Of course, this begs the question: would I license Aggadeh Chronicles into this program? Possibly—when I’m done writing all the stories I have for this series.

FINISHED!

FINISHED!

Many friends of mine in the writing industry are having a good chuckle over that statement. They know the reality of it.

The manuscript is finished. But it still has to go through the meat grinder of editing before it can be declared a book. This entails pulling out all the notes everyone has written pertaining to the various chapters, and going through it all and fixing the errors and problems they found. Then, I have to assemble the manuscript as a whole and it must be read through again to look for continuity errors, apocryphal scenes, story flow, etc. Then it must be adjusted again, and read through again in order to ensure I didn’t introduce new errors while fixing the earlier errors. It’s like a tennis match with the manuscript bouncing back and forth until there is nothing more to do with it.

THEN it becomes a book. Sort of. Once the narrative is fixed and ready for reading, I then have to construct it into an ebook. With The Pirate Arc, I discovered that discrepancies appeared in how the ebook was rendered aross the various ebook reader platforms. Because the file I created renders fine on each of the units I own, I can only surmise that the various distributors applied some sort of post-processing that altered the formatting of the EPUB. Amazon annoyed me the most, because that is precisely what they did.

I need to do a little experimenting to figure out what I can do on my end to avoid this issue from happening when Nobody is released.

What a strange mood to be having—almost surreal.

I really started developing Aggadeh Chronicles around 2008. The idea had been bouncing around in my head for longer than that, but it was 2008 that I started writing out the notes for it. By the end of 2009, I had a story that was significantly more complex than I thought it was going to be when I started writing it out. After a long conversation with my brother, he echoed what was bouncing around in my head: that I should break the story into multiple books.

So, 2010 saw me start rewriting my notes and beginning to write out the new outline and narrative for Nobody, the first book of Aggadeh Chronicles. It was my hope that I would have Nobody completed and ready to go by the summer of 2011.

It didn’t work out that way. Life has a way of happening, and sometimes what it brings you is serves as a huge distraction from the course you’re trying to follow. Also, I am not a multitasker by any measure. Trying to do other things other than writing were constantly distracting me from actually getting any writing done. Oh, sure, I’d get a little done here and a little done there, but nothing that would really amount to anything.

I realized that if I wanted to write a book, I would have to go all in. No more working part time jobs, looking for full time work, or trying to start various businesses. The economy pretty much killed off any chance I had of succeeding in any of those ventures.

I looked at my situation. No employment prospects before me. The T-shirt shop I was running with friends was pretty much destroyed by the economy; our customers were primarily civic and charity organizations, two groups that were slammed by the economy. No money, no T-shirts.

I did have fairly significant savings set aside, so I looked long and hard at my situation and realized in that moment, I had the opportunity to make a go at writing. No job. I had enough savings to last me for a couple of years without income.

What I expected would take a year-and-a-half has actually taken three years. As I said above, life has a way of getting in your way sometimes.

The biggest problem was the knowledge that I was running out of money. My original plan was to get the book out while I still had at least enough money in the bank to make minimum payments on bills for a year, so I would have enough time to work on Plan-B in case sales of Nobody flopped. (Keep note of this paragraph; there is an inside joke about this in Privateer when I release that book.) 

I’ve gone way past that point. When Nobody is released in a few weeks, I now only have enough money to last until the first check gets paid out from royalties. I’ve no buffer left. No Plan-B. I have always told people that writing a book is a huge gamble. I really have gone all in on this project. As in a poker game, it’s time to show that last card…

So, after three years of this, it was such a strange feeling when I completed the last sentence and it slowly hit me that I had just finished the story.

And I do mean slowly.

It took hours for the feeling to sink in. I wrote it, put down the computer and walked away from the desk. Took a walk to stretch my legs. Went out to run errands. Had scheduled obligations to deal with in the evening. I said I am not a multitasker, so all this business kept me from really contemplating the significance of completing this task.

When all was done and I finally had the chance to head home and sit quietly, only then did I have the chance to ruminate on the fact that the book was done.

Only then did the reality of it hit me.

312 pages, 17 chapters, containing 104,162 words.

It’s done!

I am no longer writing a book. I have written a book!

Right there in front of me is the entire manuscript. Ready to go [get edited].

I don’t have to write anymore. I have nothing more to do. After three years, that is a strange sensation.

This also means that the release is coming soon. An exciting and terrifying thing. Exciting, because my book will finally be out there at last. Terrifying, because my offering is going to be laid on the altar of literature and I can only hope that readers accept it.

When I put out the excerpt of the first six chapters, I got an enormous amount of positive feedback from people. Heck, I even got fan mail!

For the moment, a brief pause is in order. The lilacs are blooming, it’s time to go sniff the flowers.

A Silent Protest

There was an uproar in the media about the remains of bomber #1 being brought to my town of North Attleboro. In all honesty, if the media had just kept their mouths shut, there would have been no controversy at all. The whole thing was a non-issue.

Instead, they turned the solemn and private celebration of the life of a young woman who fought and succumbed to cancer into a media circus with helicopters and news vans orbiting around the Dyer-Lake Funeral home. Then, as the grieving family members exited the funeral home, they were confronted with reporters sticking microphones into their faces and asking them, “What did you think about them bringing the body of •••••••• •••••••• to the funeral home while you were having the service for your family member?”

Now, stop and think for a moment: the grieving family didn’t even know that •••••••• ••••••••’s remains were in the building until the media shoved microphones and cameras into their faces and proclaimed it to them.

Next, the media were pointing fingers at Dyer-Lake Funeral home and saying, “How dare they honor bomber #1 by receiving its remains?”

I have some news for you: it’s their job to do that! They were not honoring the bomber, they were doing their civic duty to assist the state in moving the remains. As any member of the police, fire department, the military, and many other public services can tell you, sometimes in your duty to God and country you are asked to handle distasteful problems and people that no one else wants to touch. (Trust me, that’s an understatement. Just ask Mike Rowe. Listening to his comments is well worth your time!)

People complained about doctors treating bomber #2. Again, that is their duty is the treat the sick and wounded. Not to pronounce judgement and sentence on people.

So what can people do?

Actually, the media had the answer in the beginning. Laughably, because they couldn’t pronounce the names of the two bombers. So the media simply referred to them as “suspects 1 & 2” or “bombers 1 & 2.” This is what we should be doing. Do they deserve the honor of having their names spoken by you? Do they deserve to be turned into celebrities and have their names become legend by the law-abiding public?

No, they do not.

Remove their names from the American lexicon. Simply refer to them as inhuman objects: bomber 1 and bomber 2. (The lack of capitalization is intended.)

Anonymize them. The names of the bombers should never be raised above those of their victims. Leave the bombers to be lost to obscurity, never to affect the flow or a change in society ever again.

I will never use their names. Not even in use to describe removing the residue from the lugs of my boots after stepping in animal excrement. They do not deserve such elevated status in civil society.

Instead, let them be forever marginalized in failure. Forgotten in silence, never again to bother society and civilization with their existence. Shun them and leave them alone in their shame.

Instead, look to all the people who heroically stepped in to help those stricken by the violence. Exemplify those who have turned to helping rather than harming others such as the students of Boston College who today did a fund-raiser for the victims of the bombing called A Walk to the Finish. The walk was five-miles-long, representing the last five miles that many of the Boston Marathon runners were unable to finish because the race was called off due to the bombings.

Instead, when you are having a bad day, don't use that as an excuse to ruin someone else's day. Hold open the door to let someone else through. Let that car cut you off rather than try to teach the driver a lesson in civility. Be the example, not the complaint.

Instead, watch this video as an example of how real people should behave. Russian drivers get such a bad reputation due to all the bad videos, this makes a good example of how it should be:

(link by way of tywkiwdbi)

Cooperative Business and the Kobo

On Thursday, I attended my first live author event at Annie’s Book Stop in Plainville, MA. Of course, as an aspiring author, I don’t appear on anyone’s radar. So, it was more of an educational opportunity for me to go and get an idea of the dynamics of what might or should go on at such events.

 I got a better education out of it than I expected.

Ann, the owner of Annie’s Book Stop in Plainville, is a friend of mine. Her bookstore is the prototypical small bookstore. New and used titles sold side by side, avid readers coming in at any time of the day to pick out their next read. Her store has survived the arrival of the megachain bookstores and has outlived at least two, Walden Books and Borders.

Annie’s Book Stop has thrived because Ann has eschewed the luddite attitudes of some of her peers—some of whom don’t even accept credit cards as payment. While maintaining the feel of a local bookstore, she has kept a careful eye on the book market and the trends that come and go. One of those trends was the coming of the ebook.

Many have touted the coming of the ebook as the end of the independent book seller.

Amazon.com can be credited with really giving ebooks their opportunity to finally get a foothold in the market. While ebooks have been around for many years, it wasn’t until Amazon.com made a go of it by bringing a reliable ebook reader to market and giving it a true and broad library for reading that ebooks finally were accepted by consumers.

But Amazon.com has also been considered by many to be the enemy of the independent bookseller. Cutting prices to often less than wholesale, Amazon has forced prices to the point where many small booksellers simply can not compete. Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader used a proprietary format which could only be purchased through Amazon.com. This effectively locked out any direct competition. This also meant that libraries built up by consumers would not be compatible with other ebook readers, negating any chance that a better ebook reader could lure readers from the Kindle platform.

Barnes & Noble stepped into the ebook market in 2009 with the Nook. Where Amazon’s Kindle used a proprietary format, the B&N Nook focused on the EPUB file format for ebooks, an open format developed by an approved standards association, the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). The Nook represented the first real competition to Amazon’s Kindle.

Then, in 2010, Apple entered the fray with the iPad, a tablet computer as opposed to a dedicated ebook reader. Rather than go the proprietary file route, Apple chose to adopt the EPUB file as its native ebook format for the iPad.

These three platforms became dominant in the ebook market.

Amazon aggressively tried to corner the market by locking customers into their platform. Ebooks from B&N and Apple, both using EPUB files, meant that an ebook purchased from one would work on the other. That is, so long as Digital Rights Management (DRM) hasn’t been implemented on the given EPUB file in question. Apple, has merely used ebooks as a lure to get customers to purchase the iPad, and seems to have no interest in creating a monopoly. Apple has encouraged producers and publishers not to use DRM, even though it is an option.

Either, way, locking customers into a platform using DRM or proprietary formats means that those customers would only be able to purchase their books from a given and controlled source. It also locked independent booksellers out of the competition.

Then, enter the Kobo…

The Kobo is an alternative ebook reader. It uses the same screen as the Kindle. So the visible quality of the text is equal to the Kindle series.

Rather than trying to lock customers into their platform, Kobo Inc. decided to take a different path. They decided to follow a cooperative business model.

And this is where Annie’s Book Stop comes into the picture.

While Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and to some degree Apple, are pretty much closed eco-systems in ebook sales, Kobo opened the door for independent booksellers to sell ebooks.

Kobo created a program so independent booksellers could connect to the Kobo library to sell an ebook. Of personal importance to me, the independent bookseller gains a profit from an ebook purchased from Kobo through the independent bookseller’s site. This, instead of creating a walled-garden approach to selling ebooks. Kobo has decided to share the wealth with independent booksellers. I get the impression that it isn’t a large percentage of the sale price, but it is something. This is unlike the other ebook retailers, who basically leave independent booksellers out in the cold.

This gave Ann the opportunity to have her little bookstore tap into the potential of ebook sales and move her business into the 21^st century. Thusly, Kobo has given independent booksellers a way to remain relevant in the modern book selling markets.

For this reason, if asked what ebook reader would I recommend, I would say the Kobo. Instead of trying to corner the market and squeeze everyone else out, they are creating the opportunity for others to enter the market.

So, I recommend if you are using an ebook reader or tablet computer that can render EPUB files, you should consider buying that ebook through one of the independent booksellers that are partnered with Kobo. This way, the independent booksellers have a chance to make money off the ebook market. Ann invested in creating a web site so her store could do just that.

Look around your local area for an independent bookstore and ask if they are selling ebooks via Kobo. It does mean they may need to set up a web site. But it is a good way to help support local and independent bookstores that otherwise may be left in the dust of the ebook revolution.

Status on Nobody

So far: 96,250 words. In a 9x6 hardcover book, that means 287 pages at 12pt print.

To do: adding two more chapters to the story to round things off a little better. Plus a few other small parts to add to the book.

The end result should be between 106,000 and 110,000 words, making it roughly 310—320 pages long.

If I really push, I should be done with the two chapters by the end of this week. This means I put Nobody into final edit next week.

I give it about three or four weeks of scouring over the returned editing suggestions and rewriting the mistakes. Once that is done, the ebook gets constructed which takes me anywhere between a couple of days to a week.

Then the book as a whole gets reread by editors to look for any other mistakes, continuity, errors, etc.

At that point, if there are no glaring errors or continuity problems that stand out, I’ll package it all up and Nobody gets released.

Idealistically and not being very conservative, I’m looking at a possible release date of May 25. Once I've reached a point in editing where I know it is going to be complete on time, I'll open Nobody for pre-order online.

Look for the Helpers…

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping,'" – Rev. Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers Parenting Book.

I first found out what happened in Boston after I came in from a walk. The first image I saw on the television was of the second explosion being replayed by the news.

My first thought was, “I sure as hell hope that was just a stupid prank.”

Then the report mentioned that two people were confirmed dead at the time.

I knew it wasn’t a prank.

I’m not going to discuss the horror, the anger and rage, the injured or the tragic losses of the three families who lost their children. That’s been played out on the news enough times for all to see.

But I want to point out something that could be plainly seen in all the news clips. That no one on the news seemed to be commenting about as the event unfolded.

Even as the debris was still falling from the explosions, people were rushing in to assist and help the injured. Bill Richard—the father of eight-year-old Martin Richard who was killed in the blast—credits the immediate response of rescuers and medical personnel for saving the lives of his wife and daughter who survived the blast.

While the smoke was still rising from the explosion, police, organizers and bystanders were pulling down the barriers so emergency medical people could run in and attend to the wounded. Racers who had just run 26 miles, stepped up and helped carry away victims.

A number of the racers ran another two miles from the finish line to the hospital to donate blood. One of the surgeons from the hospital was in the marathon, he simply ran straight for the hospital and got right to work.

“Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Those words, Mr. Rogers attributed to his mother, Nancy Rogers. In times like this, they are truer than ever.

There are so many other examples. In Utah, when bystanders ran together to lift a burning car off an accident victim. In Mississippi, motorists pulled over to rescue two women from a burning car.

This is Boston.

This is America.

This is what we do.

As far as the people who perpetrated this act and those who are either hiding them, helping them, or not turning them in, their lives are pretty much over. Until they are captured and brought to justice, every waking and sleeping moment of their lives will be spent continuously looking over their shoulders, wondering when the moment will come when justice catches up to them.

When it does, they’d better hope that it is the police and not someone from Southie…

The End is Near!

March certainly sucked as far as productivity is concerned—as my previous blog entry indicates. I am happy to say that matter is now behind me and well under control with a very low dosage of medication to stop the irregular heartbeat. I’m back on track and working furiously away at finishing Nobody.

The end of the book is truly in sight! The narrative will soon be wrapped up and I’ll enter into the final edits. 

As far as my plans for a March 21 release…. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. (Go read the link in the first paragraph above.) I’m pretty certain I can get this done and out in April.

For those of you who have been waiting so patiently, thank you. For those of you who haven’t been quite so patient, bear with me. It’s just a little bit longer.

It is said the first book an author writes takes the longest. In my case, it’s been about four years. Which, it turns out, seems to be the average. Does that mean it will be another three or four years for the next book in the Aggadeh Chronicles to come out?

Hell no! I expect I’ll be able to produce book two much more quickly. I’m setting the target of summer 2014 for book two. (See the second link above and find a few grains of salt to go with my intended schedule.)

Looking back, I was making no ground writing Nobody until I got serious about actually writing. I set aside all other projects and most other activities and went all in with writing. Only then did I finally begin making headway. I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be a multitasker. I do well when I focus on just one thing. When I find myself doing more than one activity, I get bogged down.

In just a few months, one of the biggest draws on my focus and energy will be coming to an end. So, at last, for the first time ever, I’ll be able to focus wholly on writing. This other task, in my opinion, slowed down by nearly two years getting this first book out. Without this, I’ll be able to ramp up my production and work faster.

And, my phone won’t ring a dozen times a day anymore. Each time the phone rings, I’m looking at a delay of one to two hours before I get back into the flow state of writing. In fact, I won’t have to answer my phone at that point.

Learning from those mistakes, I’ve got a better idea now how to maximize my productivity. No more extracurricular activities for me!

Where does the story go from here?

For one thing, many people have expressed an interest in Nem’s back story. Who is he? Where does he come from? Why does he know all this stuff? How come he can’t use magic, yet he seems to do things that appear to be magic?

That’s one of the key points in the Aggadeh Chronicles. To reveal who Nem is just a little bit at a time. A piece here, a piece there. The reader should be as in the dark as to who Nem is as the characters are in the story. The reader should get to know him as do the characters in the story.

We know Nem is from a place called Aboria. We know he can talk to dragons—or rather, dragons will talk to him. We know he has an unusual sword called Dragonclaw. And we know he is well educated.

For that matter, who is Ophelia? Why does she keep dreaming about Nem?

Eh? What? You mean Ophelia hasn’t been mentioned yet? Of course not, because those chapters have only just been added to Nobody. Ophelia appears in the preface, which was not included in Nobody (The Pirate Arc).

You’ll be seeing, or dreaming with her, soon.

Back to work…

Matter of the Heart, Followup

After a couple weeks of poking, puncturing, and scanning, the diagnosis is finally in thanks to an event monitor: Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs). While certainly annoying and distressful, they are not dangerous.

Normally, pretty much everyone gets the occasional PVC. Drinking too much caffeine, stopping after intense physical activity or just being startled can trigger the occasional extra thump that people feel from a PVC. In my case, the PVCs were going on all day. My heart was throwing in extra beats where there shouldn't be any and not resetting back to normal rhythm. The resulting inefficiency was leaving me breathless and fatigued, and was giving me symptoms of a mild heart attack. 

For now, I'm on a low-dosage medication to keep the PVCs from happening and to see if that manages the situation. While only on my second day, I think the medication is working. It's nice to be able to get through the day without feeling that double thump or fluttering sensation in my chest.

Of course, the fallout is that I'm a couple of weeks behind schedule now. Kind of hard to write when the computer is at home and you're laying in a hospital bed. I think what I will do is once I begin the final edits, I'll make Nobody available for pre-ordering.
Pricing for Nobody will be $4.99 for the ebook, but will be on sale 20% off for the first few weeks at $3.99. My way of saying thanks to all the people who purchased Nobody (The Pirate Arc) over the past couple of months.

A Matter of the Heart

One thing that really gets your attention is when your doctor calls you at 9:20PM and says, “Go to the emergency room NOW. Do not drive yourself, have someone else do it!”

I’m a writer. Therefore, I sit in front of my computer a lot, tapping away at the keys. Mindful that this is not exactly a healthy activity, I make it a point to get up periodically and move around. I go for daily walks which I jokingly refer to as “my commute.”

Everyone gets an occasional heart palpitation, when your heart skips a beat or gives a double thump. Some people it hits a little more often than others. I happen to fall in that category. Over the years, I learned to ignore it. Ignoring it came back to bite me on Wednesday.

I had noticed that I was experiencing these palpitations more frequently the past couple of months, but my conditioned response to ignore them made me push them to the back of my mind. It wasn’t all that concerning. I was pretty healthy. I only drink lightly, I don’t do drugs, overeat, or have an unhealthy diet. I exercise regularly, walk a couple of miles each day. I wasn’t all that worried.

There were a couple of odd episodes in the past several weeks where I noticed I was a bit short of breath. It was easy to dismiss: I just walked up the stairs, was moving things around, etc. But with that in mind, there were a couple of situations that were not easy to dismiss. I was bowling a couple weeks ago, and found myself a bit breathless while we were all chatting. Another when I was driving around with my father, and for a while all I could do was give short quick answers.

The incident when bowling was really the only indication I had that something was wrong. It did make me think. The problem was, I didn’t have much time to mull over it.

Wednesday morning I noticed I was a bit short of breath. Sometimes when you get up in the morning and get moving right away, you might be a tad winded for a moment while the body ramps up to meet your activity level. Only, this time it didn’t stop.

And I noticed I was getting heart palpitations. And they didn’t stop. For the rest of the morning, all I kept feeling was “thump…thump…………thumpTHUMP………………th-thump.”

Through all this, I was short of breath, a tad light headed, and I was getting a slight headache. It is important to point out, at no time did I ever have any chest pain.

And on it went.

I spent an hour-and-a-half cleaning the Lodge building for the meeting that night, and felt a bit winded.

I got home, sat in front of the computer and relaxed a bit and got to writing.

And still I felt winded.

I checked my blood pressure—hypertension runs in my family so I do watch it—and it was normal.

I still had the palpitations and felt winded.

By the afternoon, it finally began to occur to me that something was not right. I called my doctor, who pointed out that palpitations were not worrisome, but suggested I set an appointment for the next day to for a check.

I sat and relaxed and tried to ignore the palpitations as they were really annoying me by that point. I decided something wasn’t right and I wanted to get hooked up to an EKG so I could catch whatever was going on.

I checked my blood pressure, and now it was 165/114.

NOT GOOD!

I called my father and asked him to drive me to the emergency room.

In the end, the palpitations were starting to subside. My blood pressure, was amplified by my stressing over the symptoms I was feeling. The decision to do something about this was a great stress reliever, and I’m sure that took a lot out of the system that was causing my distress.

At the ER, when someone walks in complaining about a potential cardiac issue, they don’t play around. I was hooked up to an EKG as quickly as possible and they drew blood for a number of tests.

The EKG reported that my heart was healthy—it did spot one or two of the palpitations which had really subsided by that point—and the blood tests came back negative.

Deciding that the episode was over, and all indications showing that I was fine, I was sent home. The next day, I went in on the scheduled visit with my doctor.

He noted the results from the emergency room that he had received and decided it might be wise to do another blood test to double check. He also noted there were a couple of tests that were not selected, due to the lack of symptoms that warrant such tests, and added those. Another EKG in his office showed no abnormalities and I was sent home with the suggestion that we arrange for a more complete test with a cardiologist, just to be sure that there wasn’t something going on.

It was that extra blood test that was the key. In that test, the enzyme troponin showed up. Troponin is an indicator of heart damage caused by a heart attack. Because I didn’t complain of having any chest or other pain associated with a heart attack, they didn’t bother to look for that result in the first round of tests. Basically, I had a very atypical presentation for a heart attack, showing no pain.

So, several hours after my appointment with my doctor, my phone began to ring very late at night. I ignored the call. I just don’t answer the phone after a certain point at night. Especially if it is a number I don’t recognize. It was 9:20PM.

Then the phone rang again.

I ignored it, but then I noted it was the same number that rang my phone the minute before.

Then my email chimed in with a phone message from the previous call.

It was from my doctor.

I immediately called back the number.

“Go to the emergency room immediately. Don’t drive yourself, have someone else drive you over. I’ve already called them and they are expecting you,” said my doctor.

Now that’s a wakeup call!

The extra blood test he wanted to do and considered a long shot came back positive. It showed a potential false positive of troponin, indicating that there may have been heart damage.

Several minutes later, I was on my way to the hospital.

All the tests that were going to be done over the next few weeks were all crammed into one morning: blood tests, stress test, echocardiogram, high definition EKGs.

§ § §

In the end, it was determined that I did not have a full blown heart attack. But something did happen that caused my heart enough stress that it leaked out a trace amount of troponin, which was caught in that blood test.

What exactly caused the arrhythmia has not yet been located. I still have more testing to do to find it. So I’m wired up to a small heart monitor that I’m going to wear for the next month in the hope it will catch the next arrhythmia event.

By catching the erroneous signal causing the arrhythmia, they can better determine where it it being generated from in the heart. Once that is determined, they can then use more precise and invasive means to locate the exact spot using a catheter. And then, they can short out the node that is causing the problem, curing it.
One thing to remember: the number one reason heart attacks are so deadly? Denial. Often people try to dismiss the discomfort as indigestion, a light cramp

The good news in all this is my heart is actually in pretty good condition. So, all that walking has certainly done me good.

Now, I just need to stay healthy and catch this arrhythmia so we can move on to the next step.

…And get caught up on the writing I have missed over four days because of this. I’m trying to keep to this last deadline.