Got my proof copy of The Mysterious Minute-Men Omnibus last night!
What an absolutely wonderful feeling to hold that sucker in my hands!!
The cover printed up SO much better than I had ever hoped for!!!
As some of you may know, I’m “tutoring” one of my employees in English Writing. On a weekly basis, I give her assignments she needs to complete. This week’s assignment was one on describing favorite fruits and vegetables. She ended up turning it into a meme 🙂 So, I figured I’d follow-it up, too! 🙂
Last night I was so tired that I ended up going to bed at 10pm. Having had only 3 hours of sleep the previous night, I was actually surprised I managed to get through Thursday without falling down. This morning, at 5:20am, Kyle fell off his bed which had me rushing to help him back up. Poor little tyke 🙂 He never fell back to sleep as he kept complaining that there were lady bugs in his bed. He was up for good at 6am. Just another thing in the long line of “cute stuff” that the kids do which cement memories 🙂
Like, take Wednesday night and the reason I only slept 3 hours. Deciding to take advantage of some spare time in the evening, I set up my Author account on the Indigo Chapters website/ community. Then, I allowed myself some reading time. Of course, I ended up going to bed at 1130pm. At midnight, Kyle was up needing to pee. Not unusual for him as he goes through this routine maybe 3 times a week. Get back to bed and at 3am, he’s back at my bedside sounding so sad and miserable and close to tears. “What’s wrong sweetie?” I ask. “Nose not working!” he sobbed, trying to inhale while tapping his nose and not getting anywhere. Poor little guy!! So, I scooped him up and we headed to the bathroom where I gave him some saline mist and then rubbed Vicks on his chest and back. I snuggled him and brought him back to his bed where he did manage to fall back to sleep.
Me? Well, at 4am Charlize started crying which made me jump out of bed. I stopped myself from going to her to see if she would settle back and she did almost immediately so I flopped back onto the bed. At 4:30am or so, Kyle started crying and trashing so I ran over to him and calmed him down. At 5:20am, the same thing. I ran over but he was still asleep so I just tucked him in and went back to bed. 20 minutes later I shrugged and decided to just get up and get the day started.
I will say that I’m really glad the going-to-bed routine has gotten much easier in the last week. Charlize -going through quite an intellectual growth spurt- has been fussy/ tired by 7pm and is usually sleeping soundly by 730pm. Kyle will usually go to bed anywhere between that time and 8pm. Depending on how tired he is, he’ll fall asleep quickly (like wed) or be mischievous (like last night). Yesterday, Charlize got into the full swing of crawling. And, she’s fast. Almost as fast as she is in grabbing whatever she sees on the floor and shoving it into her mouth! You know what else she did? Pulled herself UP on the stairs and literally danced. We’ve got it on camera 🙂 What a cutie 🙂
This weekend: We’re going to the Sugar Shack on Saturday, and we start swimming lessons on Sunday (830am! eek!). Kyle will be on his own for the first time! On the other side of the pool, I’ll be in the water with Charlize. A new routine begins 🙂
I was thrilled to receive an email from David Shtogryn last night telling me that he “thoroughly enjoyed” my book. I was especially thrilled to have him admit that he normally reads two books at a time -shifting from one to the other- but once he started mine, he left the other one aside until he was finished 🙂
David’s been a friend of mine since I first met him in the mid-90s on the convention circuit (we were both guests and panelists at, I believe, Primedia followed by ConCept and Toronto Trek). Heck, he even came to my wedding 5 years ago and was the only one (along with his wife) to stay an extra day at the Auberge and have supper with us that second day 🙂 Heck, he was the last person I interviewed back in 1999 for my In Conversation… pieces 🙂
All this to say that along with being a friend, I greatly respect him as a writer of fiction and was really hoping he would like the book. 🙂
Last Thursday I posted how I was very close to finishing the last edits on The Mysterious Minute-Men Omnibus and that I should have the proof copy ordered by this week. Guess what? I finished it all on Thursday night and got the final cover setup/ completed Friday afternoon!!
So, I’m now waiting for the proof/ review copy to arrive in my mailbox and I am jazzed! It’s not often that I can show off a cover of a book to my wife and have her “wow” at it 🙂 I really love how it came out and I look forward to posting it online next month 🙂
Now I can concentrate on Comicopia for the next two weeks 🙂
For the last couple of days, I’ve been getting a ton more “postmaster” spam in my mailbox. Tonight, I decided to take a quick look at one of them (as opposed to simply just deleting them all like I usually do).
Guess what? They’re all from legit domains sending back “message failed” notices to hundreds of different people (with all kinds of zany names) but who ALL have the same email return address… mine.
This happened to me last year with my comicopia account to the point where some folks were directly emailing me asking me not to spam them. Now, it’s happening to my current account at my domain…
I curse those bastards… whoever they are.
Wow. Considering how often I’ve been trying to make time to post and haven’t been able to, this moment comes as a huge surprise. I’m on my lunch break at a course I’m taking and actually have Internet access allowing me to LJ! Craziest of all… I have TIME to post!!
Of course you know where this is going…
I don’t have anything to post about! 🙂
I mean, sure, there have been many items jumping around my brain for the last little while (such as trimming down the selections of the best BDs of 2007 for The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards… upcoming conventions in Toronto and my lack of desire for attending… looking forward to my next vacation… etc etc) but nothing “grand”
I will say that I’m *very* close to finishing the last edits on The Mysterious Minute-Men Omnibus which means that the final draft and book design should be completed by next week at the latest. Then, what’s left is to get a review copy to make sure everything is as it should be. Final review/ edit that sucker and get the book ready for release.
I’m still trying to track down when I first put fingers to keyboard and created these guys but we’re talking something that was about 10 computers ago! I’m almost positive it was in September of 1989, though (just based on what I was doing at the time and the actual time of the year (co-inciding with Halloween 😉 ) ). If that *is* the case, then it means that the full-length novel (Ready For The Future) will be released on the 20th anniversary year of their creation! Wow.
Seriously. Wow.
Today was the first day I wore my running shoes to walk to the train. I checked the weather network and saw that it was going to be a nice (3 degrees celcius) if cloudy day. What happens? During my walk… it starts to snow! I slipped 3 times and fell once. Bah.
Now, I’m sitting in my Sharepoint course and what do I see out of the window? Snow. LOTS of snow coming down. What the heck?
*sigh*
I’m sure it’ll be done by 4pm. At least I have all-you-can-drink coffee… 🙂
You may remember me writing about how my eldest son, James, does a lot of reading. I’m actually quite proud of the fact that he’s taken that from me as I truly and honestly believe that much learning and growth can be gained from this “hobby”.
Anyhow, I wanted to quickly outline some of the books or series that I and/or my wife have given him to read as something of a marker. Namely, the following series:
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings/ Hobbit
Inheritance
Artemis Fowl
Pendragon
Amelia Rules
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Septimus Heap
Plus other assorted books like Goosebumps, The Outsiders, The Catcher in the Rye, The Baby Sitters Club Graphic Novels, some of the Young Wizards books, etc.
The point, however, is that I’m wondering what to start exposing him to next! I had quite a buffer built up but this past Xmas and March breaks, he’s devoured it all!! 🙂 What suggestions do you have? I got the latest Septimus Heap book this week so he can read that this weekend, plus we’ll more than likely get him to read a couple of other S.E. Hinton books (like That Was Then, This Is Now and Rumble Fish). Anyone who’s been to my house knows I’ve got more books than I know what to do with. But, at 13 years old I’m trying to keep him entertained and not overwhelmed. … Actually, I just remembered something! Last year I began introducing him and Melyssa to SLIDERS! and they beg to watch an episode or two every time they’re over. I (of course) have the Sliders paperbacks that were published, as well as the Quantum Leap ones. Hmmm…
Hello. I am still here. Although I’ve been offline for a number of days (and, strangely enough, hadn’t realized it!) I have been reading on and off. I have either had too much to say (and no time to say it in) or nothing new to add. Thus, I chose to stay silent.
As I am in the process of reorganizing my mind, I still don’t have anything to say. I simply wanted to pop in here and say: Boo!
So… Boo.
Edits on TMMM Omnibus still moving along. I have GOT to get it finished within the next 1.5 weeks as I’m expecting 2 other books to come my way for either the “Once Over” or for the “Full Edit” … and with the April 16th Comicopia deadline looming… I’ve gotta get typing!!!
ciao.
