Transistions

Each week it feels like a little bit more of the dissertation stress melts away.  This is a good thing, although I'm still working through the transition.

While we always have fun creative projects on the list, I'm finally in a place to get some of them done!  And look at potential employment opportunities, think about getting the house ready to sell, wondering where we will end up...AND forcing myself to not get overwhelmed and enjoy the next downshift from doctoral candidate stress.

So, here are some of the fun creative things that have been going on in our house....

First....

Forever Mountain Publishing has inventory!!!!!

This is a box of Patrick's novel Johnson Farm.  It has been available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as an ebook, but the paperbacks are actually here!!!

After the armed forces were put away...

...an aircraft carrier took their place.

Since dissertation is done...

...that means more time for knitting...














...which means more yarn!

And some creative endeavors are still related to work...

...like that would really stop.

Lastly...

Overhead in the Kidder house...

{Giggles}

What are you up to?

I just catapulted a fairy.

Why did you do that?

Look how far she went!  She wanted to fly!  See, doesn't she look like she wants to fly?

The way her legs are positioned, I think she wants to dance.

(I'm not saying who said/did what...)

The real reason Lisa prefers I go to conferences with her...

Yeah... We're going to get to what's in the title... But first...

Yesterday was the re-dedication of the Idaho Falls temple. We attended the first session via the broadcast to our stake center (and we were grateful for not having to deal with two and a half hours of meetings before church and choir practice after...). It was good, and we're glad to have the temple open again!

Lisa is working on developing articles from her dissertation and teaching (again). She's also got some interesting knitting projects going on and just went to a conference (which she can talk about if she wants to...)

Over on my side of the office I'm editing Going Home the Hard Way, a follow on novel to Johnson Farm.

And by the way...

The proof  for the novel is in and the production run started this morning... I should have actual books available late next week (No you can't have the first one... That one is staying on my shelf...)

Hard Way is going well. There is a lot of work going on with it, but I think that in the end the story will be stronger than the first one. Some of the subject matter is definitely proving more challenging to write...

Speaking of challenging...

There will be a third book in the series which technically is happening in parallel with the first two. This one will be the biggest challenge yet and is one of the reasons Hard Way is taking longer to write. As I've said it's a parallel story to Johnson Farm and Hard Way, which means I need to make sure things match up at some points. But that's not the hard part...

Johnson Farm and Hard Way are told from the point of view of a 14 year old boy. The third book, which currently has the working title of Jamie's Story (but that may not be the final title), has two point of view characters. That's still not the hard part...

One of the two points of view is that of Jamie, a 14 year old girl... This is going to make things really complicated. I've done the 14 year old boy thing (some people say I'm still doing the 14 year old boy thing...), but I've never been a 14 year old girl (or any kind of girl for that matter!). This means I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to write this.

One of the steps I've taken is calling in a little help to get me in the right mindset. I've had the daughter of a friend of ours do a little decorating on the notebooks I intend to use for notes and the actual writing of Jamie's part of the story...

Funny thing number one: This is the only blue one I gave her to work on... I never told her I was using blue for notes...

Nothing weird here. This one just fits the subject matter...

Funny thing number two: The footprints actually make sense with a couple things that happen in Johnson Farm... Again I never told her about them and she hasn't read the book yet... (And you're going to have to read it if you want to know what I'm talking about...)

 Again nothing weird here... Just a pretty flower (and you'll have to read all three books to disprove that...)

Once again a young artist does an extraordinary job for one of the books. This time it's something to help me write the book instead of a finisher, but it's still great and much appreciated.

Ok... So... What does any of this have to do with the title?

Well, I did say some people still think I'm a 14 year old boy at heart...

Well, I mentioned Lisa went to a conference (I had work that needed to be done here so I didn't go... )

Well, you may remember these guys from last post...

Well... They kind of did a little construction while Lisa was gone...

Yeah... I was busy even when I wasn't working...

The whole thing has been taken down now, but it would be feasible to do it again (and possibly better!). Of course I'm not planing on doing so (yeah... and I'm not building an aircraft carrier on the table instead...)

That's it for now. See you next post.

Postgrad Paradise?

Well, Lisa is getting de-stressed from the whole PhD program. It's quite a process as she has been working full time and going to school for several years...

This means she's doing a lot of knitting (as well as working, and teaching, and music for church, and...). But, you know Lisa... She finishes one project and starts another.

And that means..

That's right!!!

Miniature siege artillery!!! (Seriously we built these as part of family home evening last night...

Over on his side of the house Editor in Chief (or was that Lord High Executioner?) Patrick's second book - Johnson Farm is officially on the market as an E-book! The physical edition is at the printer as we speak, so those copies are likely to start cropping up soon...

The next novel is Going Home the Hard Way. It's probably coming out next year (there's a smaller book in the works for the fall and another big book project in the works too).

In the mean time we also both survived birthdays, and had a good time doing it...

The knife in the center has an obsidian blade and those are Idaho opals in the handle. We picked it up in Spencer, Idaho on an opal hunting trip (there are other opals but we want somebody who's a little more of an opal specialist to work on them...).

The little soldier dudes were part of the birthday fun.
And they definitely seem to be up to something...

What are they up to? What new adventures are we going to find ourselves in? Will Patrick actually loose his mind working on this next book?

For the answers to these and other questions tune in to the next post at The Adventures of Patrick and Lisa (And some of you (you know who you are...) should also tune in at the family reunion...).

Well, I guess there's really not much else to say,
Except...

See you next post!

Graduation and new projects...

Ok, lets get the first one out the door (we  know it's what you came here to read about anyway...)

Lisa has officially graduated with her doctorate! Which is a real accomplishment (and gives her the right to wear a silly hat...)

In this pic she's on stage and about to get officially 'hooded' as a doctor...

Would someone explain to the camera person that I am smiling... (seriously... look at the other pics on this blog...)

Here's Lisa with her partners in crime (also graduates of the program).

I'm really proud of Lisa. And I'm going to let her tell her version of the story of this adventure before I say too much... So, on to other things...

What you are looking at here is the reason I got a really good deal on a rifle (it also happens to be the action of a Marlin model 60 I picked up to celebrate Johnson Farm being launched). Basically the guy who owned it previously didn't clean the action... That means it started jamming up on him, and after I cleaned it up it looks pretty new. Unfortunately thanks to the weather and our project load I haven't had a chance to test fire it yet (stay tuned for this and other fun!).

Yes, I did mention Johnson Farm being launched... The e-book version is ready for me to proof (it should be on sale on the 20th...) and a small run of physical books will be available fairly soon. I'm not going to talk about that too much right now (the focus really should be on Lisa's accomplishment...), but it's happening...

As a final item...

This is the best adaptation of Land of Confusion I've heard since the original video in the 1980's...
This is a great Rogue One tribute...
And...

There's a hint to what's special about the third Johnson Farm book  in there... (more than one maybe?)

See you next time...

The end is in fight??? (yes pun inteded people...)

Well, I missed posting last week (almost missed posting this week...).

On Patrick's side of the office the Johnson Farm Kickstarter closed Friday. It didn't fund the backup plan (you did realize there is  a backup plan right?) kicked in and we are somehow still on course for a May release! (Just not the way I'd initially planned...)

On Lisa's side of the office... Lisa is doing her dissertation defense this Friday (which means you can start calling  her Dr. Kidder on Saturday... ( Don't worry you won't have to call me doctor... yet...). So, she's pretty busy and I'm going to let her tell you all about it next week.

Tonight we just had a major meeting on getting books printed (you know since we both have books to print and such...) and will have more news to share soon. In the mean time...

I'd like to thank Drwhoforever96, the BBC, and Guns and Roses for summing up this month so far pretty well...

See you next week...

Johnson Farm - ONLY Available via Kickstarter until April 7th!

Writing is something Patrick has wanted to do for a long time.  We have worked together to make sure he has the time and the space to write.

His first novel is ready!

You now need to contribute to the Kickstarter project to...

1) Get a copy of the book for you,
2) Get some extra swag (who doesn't like extras?)

and

3) Support Patrick (and me)

Click the image to get your copy!

What is Kickstarter?

In order to publish Johnson Farm in hard copy - we need the money to pay the bookbinder.  (For those of you who know the story...remember when Joseph Smith needed to find the money to publish the Book of Mormon?  The process has not changed too much - you need money to get the books to sell the books.  Once everyone likes his stories and keeps buying them, then a company will take interest and offer to do some of this work for him.)

Kickstarter is a way to crowd source the funding to get Johnson Farm in hard copy.

The way is works is people commit to the project, and IF the project is funded, then the money comes out of your bank and your reward is sent out.

If the project does not get FULLY funded, then you have lost no money.  But that means Johnson Farm will not be available in hard copy in May. 😢😞

Yes, you will need to create an account on Kickstarter.
Yes, you will need to pick a pledge option.
No - your money will not be taken out of your account today.  It will come out in the middle of April - but only if the project is fully funded.

Why Should You Get a Book Now?

If the Kickstarter project does not fully fund, we will have to go to plan B or C or D.  (There are back-up plans).  But that means the book will not be available in hard copy this year, and maybe not even next year.

Many of you have expressed a desire to read Patrick's writing - now is the time to support him for all the hard work he has done.  The Kickstarter page has some insights into the story behind the story. (You might also want to follow me on instagram for other insights.) 

Writing is Hard Work

I ran across the image below on twitter today.  I just want to same that this has seldom been the case with Patrick.  He has a plan every day and writes every day.  Sure he has had some days when the writing was more difficult, but he has consistently written everyday (except Sundays, well, sometimes you can't control when ideas come, so they get quickly jotted down to get added to the plan for Monday.)  I am so proud of the work he has accomplished and know that you will enjoy this story (and the others to come).

Kafka's diaries show the real fun side of writing. pic.twitter.com/h7UWC7UFVR

— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) March 19, 2017

If you've reached this far - your next step is: Go to the Kickstarter: Johnson Farm page and put your order in!

The clock is ticking...

T minus 32 (or was that 39...)

Yep, me again posting a little earlier than usual because things are brewing...

First, Lisa's dissertation defense is scheduled for April 14th at 9:00 AM! (That means that after about noon on the 14th people need to start calling her Doctor Kidder (Patrick will be maintaining his title as Lord High Executioner...)). So, um, yeah... She's a little busy right now...

On the other side of the house we are now taking pre-orders for my novel Johnson Farm...
And this time I did make the video...




When you go to the Kickstarter page (where you can preorder the book...) you will notice there are a lot of options to get some extra swag in addition to the book. Now, here for readers of this blog, I'm putting in an added bonus!

Added bonus!

There are two $500 pledge slots on the Kickstarter page. The two lucky people who choose them have the opportunity to name something (a school, hospital or teacher) in the second book. If someone who reads this blog, were to make one of those pledges (or get a family member to (hint hint...) in addition to the school, hospital or teacher there is an entire town in Northern Idaho which goes unnamed in the first book that will be named in the third book! That means a reader of this blog who makes one of those pledges (or successfully motivates someone to make that pledge) could be naming a town in Northern Idaho! (Note: if two people who are readers of this blog make $500 pledges the first one will have the choice of naming the town or a character in the third book! The other reader/pledger will then get to name which ever the first didn't choose).  If these criteria apply to you - add a comment below stating the date you put in your pledge (and use a name/email so we can connect you with the pledge in kickstarter, or send me or Lisa a text - those in the know, know the digits to use.)

I am thinking about other goodies for blog readers who pledge or advertise the Kickstarter and I will entertain suggestions in the comments. (Note that if I come up with additional goodies priority goes to those who have already contributed...)

The actual book copies will go out in May.

Now the funny part...

According to the last plan the Kickstarter was supposed to open today, but the KS team actually pushed it through on Friday and we got our first backer Saturday morning! So, I was going to ask who was going to be first to back it, but somebody already did...

Well, that's it for this week...
I'll leave you with a little Smash Mouth (and a video that hopefully represents my adventure with Kickstarter!)

We'll assume the Mystery Men are potential Kickstarter backers...
See you next week (I hope!)...

Merry Christmas... is it really Christmas?

Have you ever had one of those days where you get working on something and then you look up and it's a couple hours later than you thought?

Yeah... that was the last six weeks...

Lisa has been running subjects for her dissertation and teaching (a lot....). So, she's been busy.

Meanwhile...

I have finally finished the first draft for the second book  (got that?) in the Johnson Farm series (just over 290 pages (71,304 words)). In this book our young hero gets ordained in the church, discovers people aren't always what they seem, and discovers precisely why you never get in between two fourteen year old girls who are angry at each other and carrying weapons (even pretend ones)😨😨😱.

Lisa is still hoping to defend her dissertation this spring, which means she needs to get her whole document written by mid March 😅.

Hopefully in about the same time frame I'm releasing the first Johnson Farm book for sale (Tune in in the coming month or so to find out how to get some cool book launch related swag😎).

In other news Lisa's music folks are doing a significant part of the Sacrament meeting this Sunday (Christmas). So she's working hard on that too...

Now that NANOWRIMO is done for this year and the first draft is in the can I'll be more regular on doing blog posts again (and Lisa will do some too when she gets the time). So, stay tuned for cool shiny things (including some that you can own), school news, book stuff, and other adventures that are sure to come in the next year!

That's it for this one...
There are books to write and things to do.
Merry Christmas everyone!

And for those wondering how we're going to get all this done...

Wee'reee Back!!!

Ok, so people may have noticed that we've missed a few posts here on the Adventures of Patrick and Lisa...

Well, May was an interesting month. Chainmail Bottle Carriers officially hit the market on May 4th (Yes, it was supposed to be April but the guys doing the e-book conversion didn't quite get the idea that captions belonged on the same page as the pictures...). After the e-book there was the Mother's Day shooting incident... (both of which were talked about in our last post).


Lots of wordy stuff:
Since then we have invested in a block of ISBN numbers (those weird little numbers you find on books that let you find the exact book and edition you're looking for) and filed paperwork for our own publishing label. So we are now operating as Forever Mountain Publishing! The first release under the Forever Mountain label is also Chainmail Bottle Carriers (the PDF version instead of the e-book (I hold the rights for it and they're considered different editions because they're a different kind of file...)). The PDF is available here. The e-book has much wider distribution thanks to Amazon and other sources.

About the same time the pitch for my next book, a novel called Johnson Farm, was read and critiqued live in a webinar. I have an appointment with some publishing people about the book next month, so I may be announcing a change in publishing plans before too long. In the meantime I'm fairly on track for Johnson Farm to come out in December.

I've also gotten started on the next novel... Started being the key word... I've got the first couple of  chapters in but I'm finding this one is more complicated than I expected and I'm giving myself more time to get everything worked out. This is also the book that several nieces and nephews asked if I would work their names into it... I've been working on that... That takes a bit of creativity too.
You can expect bits and pieces about this to show up in both blogs, but that's it for now...

Progress...
Lisa continues to move forward on her dissertation. She wanted to be farther than she is but it's a writing process and it takes time. She is also down to do two conferences this year and may be working on the inside of one of them.

Lisa's also been knitting up a storm and interacting in her knitting community. She's officially hitting the point where she's modifying patterns and confident enough about it that she's actually talking to people about the mods (she can talk more about that later...).

Firepower!
I actually have to tell on one of my good friends just a little bit. I picked up a new .357 snub nosed revolver a couple of weeks ago. This one is not a snap decision it's the end of a process of finding the right piece of equipment for our needs.

Well, a friend of mine (who is a shooter but not experienced with the type of weapon in question) went with me for the first run shooting it (still working on breaking it in...). Initially I don't think he was really impressed. He brought his .40 automatic which holds three times the rounds and has a longer barrel and better sights.

Initially he would have been right. The first 20 rounds or so were .38 specials; fairly mild, but good enough (not as powerful as his .40s). Then, when we switched guns for a round or two, he realized I'm actually a lot better shot than people might think...

Those .38s are a milder load but can do the job if you put them in the right place.

Then I loaded up with the .357s... Naturally I didn't hit anything on the first go with them (have to adapt to the heavier recoil and a little different trajectory), but they definitely got his attention! I mean genuine startle reaction time.

I checked a book when I got home and the .357s I was shooting had about three times the energy of the .38s and one and a half times the energy of his .40s... I may have made a new .357 fan...

Summing up...
So that's about it for now. Some projects are complete. Others are moving forward. And a few new ones are coming on line. We're looking forward to seeing some of the family and sharing some adventures with them.

Hopefully Lisa gets a chance to post next week. In the mean time there are words to be written and projects to be done.
What's this month going to look like?
Maybe...


Thanks to DocJackz for the video. Yes I'm aware that The Doctor doesn't carry a gun and James Bonds is a PPK. I'm not claiming to be entirely like either one...

Thanks for reading see you next week.

There and back again... again!

Last week Lisa told the tale of our trip to California. Normally we love going on trips and find them energizing and relaxing in interesting ways, but not that trip...

There were a lot of things going on and a lot to get done after we got home.

In the last week we officially got my first book of the year out (after having to explain to the publisher that captions actually need to be with the pictures and that the captions didn't have to be repeated more than once). I started writing text for my latest book project (due out in 2017). Lisa got chapter 1 of her dissertation to her advisor....

And then there were the things that weren't writing related. Two Sundays ago (the one before Mothers
Day) Lisa got her new choir director and got the choir to meet for the first time in our new ward (and the stake wants them to sing in stake conference next month...). I had a bunch of clerks office stuff to do including pushing to get my new membership clerk (who knows when that is going to happen...) and explaining to someone who really should have known better that as a clerk I do not in fact have the authority to perform marriages for the dead (talk about a looong story). And a whole series of other adventures better left to another time and place.

Somewhere in all of this I mentioned to Lisa that I didn't think the typical ward Mother's Day thing was going to be very good for either one of us at the moment. Lisa quickly found that with some club points we could get a really good price at a nice hotel in Salt Lake.

And then this happened...


Video courtesy of PandoricaGallifrey ...

In all seriousness we did get away for the weekend, and it really was what we needed. We got the relaxation and stress relief we didn't get on the last trip. Speaking of that stress relief...

I know it's a weird Mother's Day activity but we had a good time "bustin' caps" at a local shooting range. Lisa did pretty good for her first time with a pistol. No, the grouping on my target in the picture ain't the best, but considering it was a range gun not mine and this was my first clip with it... I'm not complaining. They got better after that.

Later in the day we went to a really good Brazilian steak house for a nice dinner.

I actually woke up both nights of the trip with ideas about the new book. So, Lisa kindly ignored a lot of rambling on my part...

So my tip to everyone is... If you really need to get a way for a day or two, find a way to do it once in a while...

It really helps.

Here are a few other lessons learned on this trip

1: Fancy hotel manager types get worried when they see a guy with crazy hair wandering into their hotel restaurant....

2: Those same managers get really embarrassed and defensive on the second day of the trip, when they come up to you in the hotel restaurant; see that you're writing in a notebook; and then read your t-shirt that says "Please don't annoy the writer he may put you in a book and kill you" (Thanks to Lisa's mom, Marisa, and company)... Yeah, the service got a lot better after that...

3: Lisa really prefers revolvers to semi automatics. Revolvers don't throw hot brass at you...

4: There is absolutely no point in me not taking a notebook into a restaurant... I only end up writing on the napkins!

Well, that's it for today...
Until next time...
Remember, your mind is your greatest weapon,
Keep it sharp and loaded!

Sidetracks

So many things were happening last week and the week before.  By the time we hit Wednesday, before the trip to California...well, I feel sorry for anyone who encountered us.  Our plates, minds, and emotions were definitely maxed out.

The trip was to attend Patrick's mom's memorial and a quick visit to my family.  My mom is still waiting to start chemo, but I still brought her some hats I made.

The trip began with big fat rain drops all the way down to Nephi.  At times the rain was so loud, I couldn't hear Patrick.  After a stop over in Mesquite and a nice breakfast buffet we headed across the Nevada-California desert.  Baker is the entrance to death valley, and on our first trip back to California we ended up leaving our car there.  So, needless to say we have a "Do not stop in Baker" rule.

So we drove through until we reached Barstow to have some lunch before we left I-15 to head towards Bakersfield.  After a nice lunch and refilling our sodas we were anxious to finish driving for the day.  Our car (or other forces) had other plans.  I could not bring myself to call the roadside assistance so Patrick had to do it for me.

While it took almost an hour to get a tow truck to us, the owner of Fast-Trac towing finally came and took us to his shop himself.  We had just decided to rent a car and let them fix ours over the weekend when Tony (the owner) comes racing back in from the garage and says "Cancel the rental car!  You are leaving here tonight in your own car."  While we did not like this little sidetrack on the way down, the down time was rather enjoyable and included a cockatoo that acted like a dog and imitated the cars outside.

After a nice service in Bakersfield and some enjoyable time with the Wilson cousins, we headed to El Segundo.  Upon arrival, I discovered that I had left my computer in Bakersfield.  Luckily we had exchanged numbers with George and Rich and after much texting confirming that the computer was indeed in Bakersfield, it worked out that Rich and Rob would bring it down as they were flying out of LAX.  While, I do have all my dissertation data, research, and writing backed up in the cloud, I was a bit of a mess until I had my computer back.  (THANK YOU RICH & ROB!!!!!)

We surprised Patrick with a pre-publishing party for the Chainmail Bottle Carrier book.  Just a small group of the El Segundo Laynes, 14 in total.  Madi and Wyatt made an awesome banner with fireworks!

Congratulations Patrick!

Mom and Marisa also made him a new writing shirt.  He does have some mayhem planned for several of his upcoming stories, so do be careful.

On our way back everything was going smoothly until we reached Payson.  We were both exhausted so we stopped in the Walmart parking lot and searched for hotels.  After getting dinner, we wonder if Patrick's blood sugar was low.  It was, however a much needed stop.

We did take advantage of the extra time and drove by the new Provo City Center Temple.  Having spent time in Provo attending BYU, the transformation was amazing.  One day we will go back and do a session there.  For this trip we took the time to go to the Mt. Timpanogas temple, adding to our list of temples. 

After a session in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple

And as a writer is never truly on vacation, I was able to grab a picture of my favorite writer at work (seeing as I had to wait anyways while those precious thoughts were noted in one of his notebooks).

Writing down thoughts in the Temple parking lot

And so we returned home after a quick trip, with several unexpected sidetracked moments.  The house was still intact, and the frig was quickly replenished.

And, while I have not been pulling my weight in posting, I do think I have a good reason.  Although I know that my mere 99 pages of a dissertation in progress do not come close to matching my favorite writer's page numbers.  But I think progress is happening - lots of red ink at the moment - just not on the first page :)

The current state of Lisa's dissertation.

Until next time, just keep swimming.

Two big ones in one joke

"I'm going to hang out here where I'm safe...." The actual words of one of the student workers at Lisa's work...

My only response was to ask him "Given that you're in room with a guy who has a book due out this week; two other writing projects he's working on at the same time, including a murder mystery; has to leave for his mother's memorial service on Thursday; and spends his free time (as if I actually have any!!!) debating whether my cane could best be modified into an axe or a .410 shotgun, how safe can you actually be here?"

Ok, actually covered two of the big ones in one joke (and if you thought I meant something else in the title you have a dirty mind!).

If things go well the chainmail book will be sent for final processing Wednesday and be up on Amazon as an Ebook Friday or Saturday. If things don't go as well I've said it will be out this month so I have two more weeks (but I don't think I'll need them). This last going over had five changes three in captions and two in the text (and the biggest one in the text was changing "one time" to "once". There was honestly so little to fix I was worried I missed something.

I also, at long last, have all five videos up! In the unlikely event someone actually wants to watch all five here's a link.

This book isn't the biggest manuscript I've ever done, but it'll be the first book of the year (with one more planned for fall/winter) and that's not bad for a project that didn't even exist yet at this time last year!

The second one that I won't say much about for now is that I'll be doing family stuff (the non-fun kind) the later half of the week. Those who know know...

Lisa's been a real help in all this and is still fighting her way through her dissertation too. I'll encourage her to give an update and her take on this all next week (or kibitz on this one if she wants to...)

So there it is for the next week or so life around here is...
a mix of this...



and this...



Take care and see you in two (or one if Lisa posts!)

Johnson Farm and Other Oddities

Things are going mildly insane around the Kidder household at the moment...

Lisa's amazing world of nonfiction stuff
Lisa is teaching a QM class (again) and earnestly working on getting the actual worky icky parts of her dissertation done and ready to collect data. It's actually kind of scary having someone I can have a conversation about being published and working on writing with that's on the same page I am...

Lisa is also at a good place in terms of conferences she's got three proposals out with co-author/presenters with words like doctor and assistant dean in their titles. And one to present her dissertation research in the fall (the data should be collected by then...). It will be interesting to see where things go with her conference stuff this year.

Johnson Farm (or... the story gets stranger)
Things have not exactly been quiet on my side of the office either... Last week I finished the final draft of my NANOWRIMO novel Johnson Farm (that is the final draft before I start letting people read it...). This one I finished the pass in about three days (I worked 150 pages last Thursday).

Now, what happens?
Next week (at the beginning of the month) I'm going to be handing copies of the text off to a couple of select readers to be looked over (not Lisa this time, she's got her own stuff and a couple scripts of mine to look over). And this is where things get really exciting...

One of the readers is a young artist here in the area and the first entrant into a little project/competition I'm putting together. The challenge is to read the book and create a piece of cover art for it. I'm actually planning on recruiting a small group of artists to do this with the best (or at least my favorite) three covers being selected as limited edition covers for the first run of the book. I would like to promote the work of young and up and coming artists and giving a few of them a shot at a book cover seems like a good way to do it.

This first cover will be sort of a test case and example for the others I'm hoping to recruit. I'm going with this particular person because she's a local so I can talk with her pretty easily during the process; she's a fast reader; and I like her stuff (Note that there are other artists who fit two or more of those qualifications, unfortunately the ones that read this blog tend not to be local and/or are rather busy and I'd like to have something on hand around the time I'm finished with next months madness with the chainmail book...).

As for the other readers and artist/readers for the first wave... well, I haven't really had time to figure that out. Between editing the book, doing two blogs, the ward boundary realignment and a couple of non fiction projects I've been slightly busy...

The good news is that the crew I'm putting together is helping and things are coming in almost/semi/sort of on schedule. Though I really need somebody to man the camera for some videos (torch in one hand, camera in the other... not good). 

I'm hoping to have Johnson Farm out in the fall and the chainmail bottle carriers book is still on line for April release (but I do need to get those videos done...)

That's the big news for this week.

Until next time...

Don't worry the team is on hand to make sure I don't do anything really drastic (and to guard the soda supply :P

What the other half was doing...

Ok, Lisa posted on Monday about her really good conference performance. What else was going on during that week?

Well...


Thanks to taedh7 for the video... but serious folks...

First off, the Kickstarter ended. In an ironic twist of fate the Kickstarter not funding turned out to be the best possible option! I got it up. I did it. I finished it. Someone contributed. But, not enough contributions to make it go.

Now this is good because 1) I re-evaluated and solved my problem with the ebook version (which will net me higher royalties (think 2-3 times the royalties at half the price to the customer!) 2) I got a contributor in the background who came through with funds for the test kits without contributing on Kickstarter. This got the project going without the fulfillment and tax issues that would have come with the timing of the Kickstarter. The book will be out (to a test audience at least) by the end of the year and in a general release next April.

So what does that mean? (you know besides the obvious I'm a professional author now...) What did I do with the rest of the time ('cause the failing up part didn't really take that long...)

First I'm planning the questionnaire to go with the test version of the book.

Second...( Thanks to Akinius for this one...)



But seriously again...
There are a few thrilling heroics... I'm currently doing a Nanowrimo (national novel writing month) project...
Here are the current stats

I am currently at 34,207 words out of a 50,000 word minimum goal for the month. If things go on track I will be cracking 40,000 on Friday. Basically if you think of it in terms of thinking and page count I've been writing a Masters Degree Thesis a week for the past two weeks. I will write another one this week and probably another one over Thanksgiving week!

After I write the whole thing I will be ignoring it for at least a month and then get into the editing in earnest. Hopefully that part is over by the end of February so I can get the final edits on the Chainmail Bottle Carriers book done in March (Note: I'm not taking December off... I have a short story collection and a diabetes book that are on hold so I can do the nanowrimo thing...).

Now... I'm about to do something here that I've never done here before...
As far as I know nobody except for Lisa has seen this one yet...
An excerpt from my upcoming novel Johnson Farm...

John couldn’t quite put it into words, but he was sure the words he’d read were a special thing, a holy thing. It was the only book she kept on the little desk. It was the only thing she kept among her treasures.

John stopped himself. It wasn’t the only book. There were the little books on top, what did those hold? He almost, almost got distracted by a slab of variegated tigers eye, blue mixed with gold and somehow green. It lay right next to the books and was so beautiful. But the books still called to him. He reached past the stone and pulled out one of the books.

The little hard backed notebook had a worn cover, the ink that looked like a date had run enough that he couldn’t read it. The first couple of pages were water damaged as well. John flipped further back into the book.

Ephraim got a letter today. He says someone named Ezra wrote him about his father. I guess Ezra was a friend from Ephraim’s past. He doesn’t talk about home much. He says that Ezra wrote about Ephraim’s father being sick. I asked Ephraim if he wants to go home. He said he would think about it but he wanted to pay another visit to the quarry before he went anywhere. Who knows when we will be this way again?

“Diaries? Are those all diaries?” John flashed his light side to side across the row of books. “Maybe this is what Ezra meant about answering questions.”

He slid a couple of the little books into his hip pocket and looked longingly down at the desk top. Sure enough there were slabs of every kind of tiger eye; the golden, blue hawk’s eye, red bull’s eye and the variegated. There were several of those, but only one with the green.

The sound of the front door opening alerted him to trouble. John had just enough time to relock the door and hide the flashlight before Dad came around the corner.

So, a little less gun play and a little more word play (note: guns do come up a few times in the story and the John probably would crash the spaceship if he had one...)

That's it for this week.
Lisa will post next week if she wants to and hopefully I will be back and unreasonably cocky in two...(then again I did just write a whole novel so maybe it won't be unreasonable!)

Conferences and Travel (Lisa's belated post)

I (Lisa) should have posted last week, but after 3 full days of travel (still not sure why I had to fly to Minneapolis to get to San Antonio) and back to back conferences, I was tired.

I presented at the first conference (Quality Matters) and got great feedback and made some new connections.  At the second conference (AECT) I competed as a grad student in the 3MT competition - explain your research in less than 3 minutes without any fancy language.  I'm really glad I did it.  Mostly because it got me to really think about my dissertation research.

I was extremely nervous during the first round, and slotted to go last.  I did try to pay attention to the others, but found it very difficult.

The end result?  I won!  Interesting to note that the runner up and people's choice winner was a grad student from BYU.  I love all the BYU (Provo, Idaho, and Hawaii) connections at the AECT conference.

So, if you want to know about my research, I had a friend record me during the finals round - it is only 2 1/2 minutes - and hopefully I didn't get too technical.


I (Patrick) am really glad that Lisa did well. Winning the 3mt is not a small thing. She also did a book signing with her co authors for the  book that she's got a chapter in.

I do have some news to talk about on my front but I will wait to talk about it so as to not detract from Lisa's post.

Reving up, counting down...

Definitely a busy one in our little corner of the universe!

Lisa is leaving for her double conference trip on Saturday. It was originally just going to be a one conference trip but then she was asked to present at the other one. So she's got one where she's been invited to present and another where she's working on making contacts and setting up for the job she really wants when she grows up...

(Ok, ignoring her comments about when  I'm going to grow up and continuing the bragging) She should also be getting bumped up to a higher position with Quality Matters soon (they're the ones who invited her to speak by the way). This is something that's been very good for her (even if it is tiring some times).

She is  on hiring committee for the university (again) and hoping to be done with her dissertation this year (leading to some speculation on several peoples parts about where we will be next year (even without me using our moving to scare our bishop...)).

The conference trip is actually going to be a bit of a challenge for reasons that I'll be talking about in my Wordsmeanstuff post on Friday (no, I'm not going to say it here, because if I don't there's 0.0000001% chance somebody who reads this blog will go and read that blog....)

So next question (and one not addressed in the WMS post...). What will I be doing while Lisa is gone... (thanks to Akinius)



The week Lisa is gone is the first week of National Novel Writing Month (I may have mentioned that before) so, as much as possible, most of my other writing projects will be on hold while I bust out a 50,000 plus word book in thirty days (actually 26 since I try to take Sundays off...).

I will also be doing camera stuff for three or four videos that are on my list to get done. Three of the videos are associated with the chainmaille book so I need to bust those out quick! The fourth one is actually another shop project video that's tied to another project I'm working on (but more about that later (if I talk about and work on that one I'm up to seven book projects on the running list and my official limit is five...).

Note: if the city burns down while Lisa is gone it's not my fault this time! Nothing (almost nothing) I'll be working on involves fire (ok, except that one... and that one... and maybe that one... and the kid in the book might set something on fire (it still won't be my fault if the city burns though... I was working on some other project at the time...))

Speaking of the chainmaille book... you'll notice I haven't really mentioned the chainmaille book or the Kickstarter project. Kickstarter isn't really going too well. But I'm not bitter.

Actually a couple of things have happened behind the scenes that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't launched the Kickstarter and had it follow the course it has so far...



One way or another, Kickstarter or no Kickstarter this thing is launching!

Why I chose something from Starblazers (and even more so a Starblazers Pachinco machine) is something for another post, but I'd like to thank SonicBoom for the clip.

I found the solution to my 'doing this as an ebook' issues and funding that will definitely help with some test kits for select testers. So if the Kickstarter goes it goes. If it doesn't it's actually way easier for me to do it the other way (so actually if you want to slow me down, make the Kickstarter go through...). My royalties will actually be higher on the ebook too (We're talking $2.00 to $3.50 per copy on a $5.00 ebook versus to $1.00 to $1.50 per copy on a dead tree edition...). I'm still planning on the release date I listed in the Kickstarter (April Fools Day just seems right!).

Can I actually pull it off? There are only 156 days left.

That's it for this week.
Till next time... Remember...
Insanity is a sane reaction to an insane world!

What All the Noise is About

Yesss, I know I missed my usual Monday post this week (with everything going on I thought that might happen). It's all for a good cause though. One of the projects I've been hinting about and babbling about is live and about to take flight!

There are a few folks out there that have previewed this for me already, and I'd like to thank them again (you know who you are). I really did consider what you had to say with this.

What am I talking about? Well...
Watch the video and see!



I'm setting up a Kickstarter campaign here: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1094327337/chainmail-bottle-carriers-book

to fund this project. This is kind of the ultimate small press as I am putting this out myself.

If you're not familiar with Kickstarter here's how it works...

I set up the page (here's the link again...https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1094327337/chainmail-bottle-carriers-book), people go to it and if they like the project they get to contribute money and I give them something in return. What I'm giving to people is all on the page... If the funding goal is met by my deadline (3:00 AM November 15th, 2015) I get the money, put out the product and send out rewards. If the funding goal isn't met everybody walks away and nobody is out anything (it cost me my time but I learned a lot so that's a net gain already...).

I'm only running the campaign for thirty days because statistically that's the best length for the campaign, and I'm ending it on November 15th to accommodate paydays and spending habits (I've done my research).

Now, here's a lesser known statistic and where I could use some help from you guys... If a project can get to 30% of it's goal ($754 in my case) the project is 90% likely to go all the way. It's kind of about people seeing it and believing it will go.

At this point it's as much about spreading the word as it is about money (actually for a future project I'm planning to do a Kickstarter specifically as a marketing thing...). If you can and are willing to put some money in that's great (again if we can hit $754 the probability of getting the rest is 90%). You will be getting some goodies out of it.

But... there's an even bigger way you can help! If you're willing to help put the word out about the project that is truly huge! I saw a thing today where someone brought in $10,000 because three people were willing to talk about his stuff. 

Under Kickstarter rules I can't actually offer anyone money or other financial rewards, but I'm willing to barter with people here. I'm willing to offer some goodies, some of the stars I mentioned on the KS page, shiny rocks, and so on for people who are willing to tweet, put this on facebook or otherwise send some attention my way (there is a share button right under the video on the page (on about the same level as the location and my picture...).

If somebody really comes through with promoting this I've got a few bigger items that I could shake loose (like a couple of these carriers...)

Don't worry if I include a bottle it will be a brand new never used one... if someone really really comes through... I don't know we'll have to see on that!

No pressure, I'm not asking for anything that you're unwilling to give. I'm not asking for anything that I wouldn't do (or haven't done) myself.

I'm also very willing to share my experience and provide help in setting up a Kickstarter campaign for one of your projects. If you've never been down this road a little previous experience and advice can't hurt. And if you have been down this road, then you know the value of an extra set of eyeballs (again thanks to my previewers).

So this is the madness of the moment. I think it's pretty cool and one way or another I'm going to succeed with this thing eventually. I'm giving you a chance to get in on the act too (and yes, I really am going to list all the contributors in the back of the book).

There isn't a lot here about Lisa's projects or other stuff like that. Look for that stuff  next week. 

And, if you want to help Lisa out... try sending her a supportive text or email. This grad school thing is tuff!

Well this is my report.

Until next time remember,

You don't know what you can do to until you try.

And, thanks for all the support!