After praying about and deciding to move down the path of self publishing, I’ve been doing some actual work trying to make that happen – bought a book, downloaded a bunch of tools, had a few false starts (automated conversion is for the birds, guys).  I was pleasantly surprised to find that most, if not all, of the skills required for creating an e-book are well within my current skill set – XML, regular expressions, META-INF – terms that are my daily crust, in a way (my day job).

So, I’m presently in the process of trying to “compile” the sample book and try it out on a well-known site’s previewer.  I’m in what I like to call a “compile loop.”  That’s where you’re running the tools across the files you’ve created, and they are coming up with errors telling you that you’ve done something wrong.  Is this a bad thing?  No, not if the tools tell you what you did wrong with any level of specificity.  Find an error, correct it, go again.  Find an error, correct it, go again.  It’s not frustrating; it’s progress in the computer world (eventually, you’ll run out of errors).  Doesn’t mean I’ll like what I see when it does compile, but having a working model means I can tweak, try things, and – if I blow something up really bad – go back to a known state!  It’s a happy thing, really!

On the writing front, Beyond – Echoes of Embers (Beyond 1) is done.  I’ve actually started work on Beyond 2, and have the introduction and first chapter.  There’s an event that occurs late in book 1 and is replayed early in book 2, and I’ve actually had to work a good deal to get those interleaved events with flashbacks and intervening experiences to work consistently, but I think I’m there.  Transitions may need some work, though.

Okay, not much else than to say things are moving forward! 🙂

Take care and see you in the future!

JTL