A Quiet Apocalypse

Have you ever been to your local twenty-four hour super center late at night? I’m talking like 2 a.m. when most of the world is asleep. Somehow when this happens to me I find myself in the sporting goods section looking at tennis balls. I don’t play tennis.

Inevitably you wind up in a corner of the store and you are all alone. Not just alone in the aisle, alone in the whole store. You can’t hear anything and that white noise of a busy store we are all so used to is magically gone. I start to worry that maybe the store closed and they didn’t know I was in there. I missed the sign saying it was inventory night and they would be closed from two until six. 

As I walk through the store I peer down each aisle. I’m not sure if I want to see someone or if I fear seeing someone. I seriously consider putting my things down and just walking out of the store. Then the unknown causes my mind to race. What if the building was evacuated and in my tennis ball trance I missed the announcement? What if there are armed robbers rounding up the other shoppers and employees so they can steal anything of value? The possibilities of the unknown far more frightening than anything I can see with my eyes or hear with my ears.

This is the feeling that inspired me to write The Seamus Chronicles. I enjoy stories about asteroid impacts and nuclear Armageddon but what if it was a quiet apocalypse? No explosions, no epic battles and no widespread destruction. As the survivors travel around seeking resources and other survivors are they hopeful or fearful that they will find someone? As a stay at home dad I also wanted to write an exciting and suspenseful story that would still receive 5 stars on the +Alyssa Auch cleanliness scale.

A quiet apocalypse wouldn’t be boring. Even if the only survivors were scientists trying to rebuild the planet in a positive fashion they would have to deal with what the bad guys left behind. Even on their deathbed a bad guy could leave real problems that unsuspecting survivors need to deal with. Running, jumping and struggling to survive can happen without guns and violence appearing in every chapter. 

What do you think? Could a quiet apocalypse create a pit in your stomach?

A bad, good day

Have you ever had one of those days that didn't go the way you expected? You know the type of day where nothing from your to-do list gets checked off? The day you get an unexpected bill in the mail. Skipping your workout wasn't even a question. Instead of cooking a healthy meal you ordered out. Yeah, one of those days.

I've had plenty of those days. What often amazes me though is that the night after a "bad" day, while I'm brushing my teeth, I look in the mirror and I smile. I'm not happy about having a bad day, but I'm okay with it. Tomorrow will be better.

Yesterday I had the opposite happen to me. I had a "great" day. It was almost the day I visualize when I think about my perfect day (except for a few missing digits in my bank statement). I exercised, ate healthy, followed my calendar, checked off to-do list items etc. I even cooked a healthy dinner and got the family to my daughters school play early enough to casually mingle with other parents.

I worked hard. I did what I wanted to do, I did what I was supposed to do and I did what I had to do. And I felt like crap. There was no smile when I brushed my teeth. Instead I was worried that the results from my carefully planned actions would not be what I hoped for. I was concerned that my best effort wasn't good enough. Somewhere inside I was hoping that maybe I was coming down with something.

When I woke up this morning I didn't want to follow my calendar. I had no interest in having a "good" day, why would I. But as I sat and drank my first cup of coffee I realized something. Bad "good" days are important. They help form habits and set the stage for success. Even if I didn't recognize it at the time, doing the right things for the day and living the life I want to live will help make my good, "good" days better. So I opened my calendar and figured out what I had to do.

Today I'm having another "good" day. I think that when it is over I will look back on it as a good, "good" day.

How is your day?

Vacation and a Profit/Loss Update

It's school vacation week here in New Hampshire. As a stay-at-home dad first and a writer second that means I'm hanging with the kids all week. I'm writing early in the morning before they get out of bed but I'm cutting back on the rest of the #indieauthor tasks I usually do while they are at school.

My editor continues to plow through Annihilation and has been sending me chapters at a time. The book is so much better with her help. However this means that it is still not published so it is not making any money. That keeps me squarely in the loss column. Details are at the botom of the post.

I actually kind of  liked my Fiverr cover from the first go round but thought it could be a little better. So I threw another $5 into the pool and got a second cover. Then I watched a replay of +Guy Kawasaki and +Shawn Welch APE'ing a few books. The art used on my covers was not original and my guess is that the designer did not have rights to pass on to me for commercial use. As I result I posted the job on Elance and have a professional designer working on the project. When the transaction is complete I'll include it in the loss column.

The other expense I incurred was a barcode for the print version of the book. I hadn't origianlly planned on doing a print version but some of my reading in the last two weeks has led me to change my mind on that topic. I'll do another post on the subject but the barcode cost me $25.

Starting from the last update on profit and loss I have spent $295 on my book so far. The breakdown is as follows

• $265 itemized earlier
• $5 for second cover from Fiverr
• $25 for a barcode from Bowker

I'm still not including some services that I know are technically expenses related to my book. I still contend that I would have them even if I weren't trying to publish.