Book Production

Using My Design Skills

By / January 9, 2014

It was a very design-y day for me. I created a new iteration for LOTA, which meant putting margin art into place and scooting things around to make spaces for footnotes. Then I print out a new copy and hand it back to Howard who is working on filling up the remaining white spaces.

Howard made some critique notes for Strength of Wild Horses, so I applied those and created another iteration of that too. I really wanted to send it off to the printer tomorrow, but I think the earliest possible is Monday. I have to walk away from design projects and come back to them in order to see what I am missing. I also have to look at things both on paper and on screen. I see different issues in the different formats.

When my brain was worn out on SWH, I did some rough layout work for Massively Parallel. This pass is mostly to slap strips into place and come up with a page count. We’re hoping to have this book in print before the big summer conventions, so we have no time to dawdle. Howard needs the page count so he knows what space he has to work with for the bonus story.

Then it was time to pick up kids, help kids with homework, and provide dinner. Except I spent 90 minutes watching episodes of Community because my brain was too fried for focus. The good news is that when I re-emerged the kids settled into their homework and they were content with a frozen food dinner.

I had some time to spare while I was supervising homework, so I finished reading through the submissions for the challenge coin PDF. This also required my design brain because I have to figure out how to fit all of these different stories into a cohesive document that is readable. Fortunately I think I’ve got it figured out, now I just need to look up some examples of what I have in mind to make sure that I do it well. Some of the stories made me laugh, others brought me to tears. This is a worthy project and I feel honored to be part of it.

It was a long and thinky day. Now I need to go to bed so I can have another one like it tomorrow.

Working on Strength of Wild Horses

By / January 7, 2014

I stood at our family room table sorting pieces of paper into piles. Each paper represented a person who supported my Kickstarter project. Each pile was a pledge level. It was interesting and humbling to see all those packing sheets spread out: support made tangible. I recognized many names and didn’t recognize many more. Some of the people wrote little notes into the “other notes” field I put into the survey forms. As I sorted, I read the notes. Truly this project keeps on giving to me even when it is using lots of my time and energy. That is the best sort of project, where the work itself is its own reward. The future is uncertain, I can’t guarantee what I’ll be able to do or if I’ll ever get another project like this one. That’s okay. I have this one and 300 piece of paper which means that 300 people get to have it too.

The point of the sorting was to make sure that I have all the names to go into the book and to get the correct counts for cards to order. Now those papers will sit in a file box waiting until I have books to send. Creating the book is my task now. I’ve been working on it.

Strength of Wild Horses has a cover. I’m most of the way through placing the images and interior text. I hope to send it to print very soon. Then I’ll create the postcards, note cards, bookplates, and prints. After that, there is waiting for books to arrive. I’m looking forward to all of it except the waiting part.

Project Funded, and Other Things Going On

By / December 5, 2013

Strength of Wild Horses is funded and then some. I can now do a happy dance and heave a huge sigh of relief. I’ve felt some of that relief since last Saturday when the project crossed the funding threshold. But I feel even more relief today. This is the day when I can stop the promotional push and shift over to making sure I fulfill promises. That is a much more comfortable place for me to be.

Unfortunately I arrive here woefully behind. Yesterday I was flattened by a stomach flu virus and spent the day in bed quarantined from the rest of the household. I don’t remember much of the day and what I do remember was pretty unpleasant. So all of the shipping I was going to do yesterday, landed on today instead. Then today I was able to work at only about half my usual speed. So, pretty much everything is behind schedule and the kids are saying things like “when are we going to get out the Christmas books?” and “Shouldn’t the tree have lights on it?” I’m consoling myself with the memory of one of my childhood Christmases when we didn’t put up the tree until halfway through December. Now I wonder what crazy mess of things my mom was dealing with that year. At least this year I have zero involvement with the church Christmas party, which is a nice change from the past three years. I get to show up and just enjoy it. Theoretically. That is also the day I retrieve Kiki from college, so it is possible we’ll be delayed getting back.

In other news, we got to treat for possible head lice only twenty four hours after decontaminating for stomach flu. The treatment was preventative more than anything because the child in question had been quite thoroughly (and accidentally) exposed to an active case. I’d rather be thorough now than have to deal with a more widespread case later. Patch announced a burning desire to have cello lessons. Link has been taking more control on his homework lately. All of the kids were quite sweet and helpful to me while I was sick. And I can tell that I’m still not 100% because I planned to keep this post far more focused and I ended up rambling.

I thing a few more days will clear the backlog of obligations and I’ll be able to focus on one day’s work at a time. Tomorrow: shipping packages and sending surveys to all my Kickstarter backers. Tonight: sleep

Kickstarter Observations

By / November 25, 2013

There is an increase of interest when days left in the project drops below double digits. This is nice because the project has been sort of idling its way through the middle span of time, which is normal, but can feel discouraging after the frantic energy of the first ten days.

In theory I should nurture that swell and use it to build toward the end of the project.
I have a long list of things I should do to build interest and spread the word. I’ve got people waiting on me. I don’t want to let them down, not when so many people have been so kind and expressed so much enthusiasm for the project.

I am exhausted. Not just from the project, but also because of all the other things that landed in this same time.

My life is made out of “other things” and I don’t know that any other time would have been better. In any case I waited for years hoping for a good time to show up. Instead I had to shoehorn it in even though the timing was not ideal. The truth is that if I wait until there is a “good time” before I reach for my own creative dreams, I’ll be waiting forever. I had to put a stake in the ground, launch the Kickstarter, and declare “this thing is happening now.”

I hope.

Thanksgiving is in two days. Everyone will be away from their computers. Any momentum I build Today, tomorrow, Wednesday is going to vanish. I’ll have to start over again on Monday.

Note to all would-be Kickstarter folks: Dodge holidays, putting them in the last 10 days of your project is not wise.

I’ve heard that December is an abysmal month for Kickstarter. I believe that. I am worried that everyone will have moved on and be otherwise occupied. It is possible that December will prevent me from getting that final 30%.

Running this project has already given me many things. All the support and kindness will not go away even if the project fails to fund. I get to treasure all of it. I’m already very grateful. Very glad. The originals from Angela arrived today and they deserve a joyful post of their very own. I so very much want them to be in a book that I can share over and over again.

70% funded. So close. So far away.

Strength of Wild Horses Links

By / November 18, 2013

The Strength of Wild Horses Kickstarter is 62% funded. That’s a good place to be with two weeks to go. Please pass the word around if you have the chance. One of the reasons I chose Kickstarter to fund this book was because I saw it as the best opportunity to spread the word about these books to families who might need them.

I’ve been out and about the internet working on spreading the word. The lovely Mary Robinette Kowal gave me a chance to tell her blog readers about My Favorite Bit of Strength of Wild Horses. I had to do quite a bit of thinking to narrow it down to my favorite-most part, which I discovered is a moment of transformation.

Then Lou Anders of Pyr Books and the Thrones and Bones series asked me why picture books matter. We both were certain that they do, but he wanted my take on why. I loved digging into my thoughts to find the answer to that question. The result can be read over on Lou’s blog. Why Picture Books Matter.

Doing interviews and writing guest posts has been one of the most enjoyable parts of this Kickstarter process. I’m stretching my thoughts in new directions and it is fun.

Various Updates

By / November 8, 2013

My attention has been fractured all week, which is to be expected during the first week of running a Kickstarter. I’m happy to report that the Strength of Wild Horses project is now over 36% funded. This is a solid start, but I’m going to need to put in sustained effort for the next several weeks to make sure that the project funds. The most surprising discovery of the week is how helpful it has been that I’ve had other projects and concerns at the same time as this Kickstarter. If the funding drive was the only thing I had going on, I would be a lot more stressed. Instead I keep needing to step away and focus on other things, which reminds me just how much more important some of those other things are. Once the important things are managed, I am able to come back with a fresh mind. At least some of the “other things” let me come back refreshed, others not so much. Have I mentioned lately that parenting is sometimes hard?

The other things:
The Schlock calendar is almost ready to print. It was made a little extra frustrating because I had to do some of the work twice. I accidentally saved an older version over a newer one. Now it is nearly done and very pretty. We’ll be opening pre-orders on that Monday.

I shipped things from the warehouse. The system works and is ready to handle the coming holiday shipping load. There are still some paperwork things to manage, inspections and such, which are a necessary part of setting up in a commercial location. Also I still need to go pull the last garbage out of the storage units. Maybe tomorrow.

On the parenting front, I’m accumulating a list of resources available for special needs kids: high school edition. My junior high kid is mostly using resources outside the school system, and my elementary kid seems pretty well, but I need to check with his teacher. The college kid has been busy and not communicating very much, which I take to mean that life is generally going well. All of the kids are headed in good directions, but that doesn’t mean it is easy.

Despite all of the things, life feels like a good place right now. This is a nice change over February-September. I’ll take it.

Interviews with James Yee and Jim C. Hines

By / November 6, 2013

My head is full of thoughts about warehouses, the joys of setting up shop in a commercial building, calendar design, monitoring kids’ online socializing, and whether I’m helping too much with homework. I intend to shape some of those thoughts into words later today. For now I give you two interviews.

Doing interviews is really interesting because the shapes of the questions give me a peek into other creators and their audiences. Yes interviewers are creators. It takes skill to craft a good interview. James Yee’s interviews speak to people who are really invested in Kickstarter and want to know details about how to use it as a tool to create things. His questions reflect that, and I had fun exploring that aspect of the project.

You can read my interview with James Yee over on Kickstarter Conversations.

Jim Hines has been a friend of mine for quite a while now. His blog writing won him a Hugo award for best fan writer. Jim often addresses issues of personal safety, equality, and acceptance, particularly as expressed in the Geek community. But usually when Jim and I are together we talk about parenting because we have kids with similar sorts of challenges. This interview was a lot like sitting down and chatting with my friend Jim, which made it lots of fun. I don’t get to visit with Jim nearly often enough.

You can find Jim Hines’ post over on the Jim C. Hines Blog. While you’re there, you might want to take a glance around. Jim talks about lots of important and interesting things.

Strength of Wild Horses Kickstarter is Live

By / November 5, 2013 / 2 Comments

This morning I pushed the launch button on the Strength of Wild Horses Kickstarter. You can see the project page by clicking on the link. I recommend doing that since the page has pretty pictures. You can also watch the video that I posted about last week. I hope that after you’re done marveling at how uncomfortable I am in front of a camera, you’ll consider kicking in some money to support the project. I love this book and really want to see it made real. If you don’t have a child in your life who needs a book, then perhaps you’ll pass the word along to people who do. Every bit helps, and in fact the most help is when a person, who is not the creator, says “Hey this book is worth looking at.”

This has been a fantastic day. Lots of people have helped spread the word on social media. Friends have been kind and helpful. I’ve got lots of fun interviews and guest posts lined up for the next week. They were really fun to write, having people read them will be fun too. As of this writing the project is 13% funded with 29 days to go. It is a strong start and I’m excited to see how things continue.

Projects in Process

By / November 1, 2013

The trouble with a recorded interview is that I then have hours and weeks to think up better answers than the ones I gave. I do the same thing after conventions, important conversations, or presentations. This is one of the reasons I like writing, I can revise and tweak my words until I’m certain I have them correct. The podcast interview was one of several I worked on today in preparation for launching my Kickstarter next week. This weekend I’ll be writing up some guest posts as well. I’m finding this process fascinating as I talk about different aspects of the Strength of Wild Horses project and about how I’m running my Kickstarter.

But I can’t just focus on that, because tomorrow is the day we move into the warehouse. There are organizational things I was supposed to be doing at a steady pace over the past couple of days. Instead I’ll be doing them tonight if I can develop some forward momentum. It is a real challenge because Friday night is generally work-resistant. The good news is that after tomorrow the heavy lifting will be done (literally) for the warehouse project and I can start focusing on the next thing.

The next thing will be the launch of the Kickstarter and opening pre-orders for the 2014 calendar. Both of those will hit next week. Further out we’ve got the shipping of all the calendars and the final push to get LOTA ready for print. On the family front we’ll be prepping a space for Kiki to inhabit when she comes home for the holidays. I’m not going to run out of projects any time soon, which is fine. I like having projects.

The Jay Wake Book is Complete

By / November 4, 2022 / 1 Comment

Those who want their own copy of the Jay Wake Book may get one in either pdf or print format. For PDF I recommend downloading the low resolution version first. It is much smaller and will allow you to see all the pictures and read the words. The high resolution is sharp enough for print, but much larger in size. If you prefer your books on paper, that print link will take you to the print-on-demand site Lulu. You’ll pay $28.22 plus shipping. All of that price is the cost of full color printing. No funds go anywhere else.

It was an honor to work on this project. I’ve loved seeing all the ways that Jay’s friends see Jay and the ways that the celebrate him. I hope that even those who have not had the chance to know Jay will take time to look at the book.

To those who contributed to this project: Thank you. To those who read the book: thanks go out to you as well, through you we’ll keep the celebrations of Jay going.

Low Resolution PDF 7MB (Recommended)
High Resolution PDF 72MB
Printed Book