June 27th

Tomorrow is our 23rd anniversary, which is awesome.  We don't have any particular plans. Maybe, if we are very fortunate, we will go out to eat :-).

But yes, 23 years is a long time.  We are truly blessed.

So what have I been up to?  Well, one thing is sorting out Isaac's college classes for the fall. He has been leaping through various hoops and is accepted to both Clark State University and Wright State University.  Clark State is a community college (with far lower tuition) and Wright State is a 4 year state college.

Isaac wants to get a materials science degree from Wright State. Yeah, Materials Science!!

There is a class that he should take this fall at Wright State. But.

He won't.  The logistics just don't work. He doesn't drive yet on his own and I already will be busy shuttling him to and from the Clark State Springfield campus on Tuesday and Thursdays. This class he should take is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for an hour, plus a Tuesday lab. I will go stark raving mad if I have to run him around 5 days a week.

He turns 18 in December and we hope he'll get his license after that. Of course, we could try to get his license before then but it doesn't really work.  COVID and various things have conspired against us.

So for now, he is taking Chemistry and Pre-Calculus at Clark State and I hope to add another humanities class.

It has been really FUN working with two different colleges getting this all sorted out though I will say that at both Clark State and Wright State, the people I have been emailing have been super helpful.

I've also been writing furiously on my second Pride and Prejudice novel.  I find myself a bit nervous about it because people REALLY liked I Am Jael.I have 23 Amazon reviews and they are all 4 or 5 stars.  I worry that people won't like the second book as well.

But oh well if they don't!  I mean, I think it is a good book, an interesting book (the second one, I mean.)  I'm doing the best I can.  They don't have to like it, right?

Is this why some people produce only one book?  Nerves?  Like the Gone With the Wind author only wrote that one book, I think.

Anyway, I am just going to finish it, edit it, publish it.

Birthday Girls

Busy Life!

Let's start with kittens. Aren't they just the cutest?  We fed them kitten formula the first couple of weeks we had them.  Now they are old enough to just eat dry food, but I have a little left that I am finishing up. They are always so adorable when they gather around to drink it. Enjoy it while you've got it, kittens!

We have had a lot of doctor, dentist, eye, chiropractor, and orthodontist appointments lately. None of it is urgent or emergency in nature, we just took a long break during the lock down and are catching up.

Lydia is still job hunting. We keep praying God will guide her to the perfect position.

Our pool was happily hanging in the mid 80's for a week or so, and then we had a cool down.  So now it is about 81. Not bad. The kids and Kevin love it. I want another few degrees before I will really be happy.  My chiropractor is urging both me and Kevin to swim regularly as swimming is good exercise, obviously.  I just want it really warm in there. Is that too much to ask?

My book, I am Jael, continues to astound me.  I mean, I've been writing for years now and have been improving my writing skills throughout. I'm a reasonably good writer.  But still, for a debut novel from an unknown author, it is really doing well!  Last week it was hovering at around 9000 on the Kindle store list, which means only 9000 books were doing better. I was pretty impressed with that, given that there are hundreds of thousands of books available on Kindle. A couple of days ago, it shot up to about 4000 and has been oscillating around there ever since.  Amazon's algorithm's in ranking books are a complicated business; I wouldn't be surprised if the programmers themselves are slightly bewildered by it all :-).




Here is the link if you are interested:

Amazon link to 'I am Jael'

Anyway, it isn't that important except that it is truly nice that people like the book.  I am writing another Pride and Prejudice book rather frantically right now; not because I have to, but because the story is unspooling in my mind and I want to get it down.

I wrote a Ph.D. thesis back in 1996-1997.  I cannot tell you how arduous and boring that was. Compared to that, any writer's block in a fictional Pride and Prejudice (or Star Wars) fanfiction is nothing. So I keep writing and when I hit a block, I write something.  Often I have to change it, but one of my writing mantras is "You can't fix nothing".  Better to have something down, even if it is lousy, than nothing.  I can usually take at least a little of some rotten prose and improve it.

Well, I need to get moving.  The children are still curled up in bed, mostly, and I need to dislodge them.

Rose is 6!

Obsession with Data

My book came out on May 31st.  Since this is 2020, there is tons of data one can find about book sales.  Since I love math, I confess to a fair amount of obsession about what is happening.

First of all, I didn't do any real advertising about the book.  I posted it initially online in a fanfiction forum, then organized it and edited it and published it (with the huge help of family members). I took most of the story down from the fanfiction site because I legally had to.

I also mentioned my book on Facebook.

However, I wrote a book that is part of a popular fandom. LOTS of people write Pride and Prejudice variations so when I posted it on Amazon, there was a ready made group of people who might be interested.

I get money both when someone buys the book (about a $2 profit per book) and I receive half a cent per page read if someone borrows it on their Kindle Unlimited subscription. Since the book is just over 200 pages long, I get about $1 every time someone reads the book.

I can go online and check how many books I've sold, how many pages have been read on Kindle Unlimited. And I'll admit it, it is hard not be obsessive about it.

I wrote the book because I enjoy writing so making money, while nice, isn't really that big a deal.  But I am full of curiosity. Will it continue to make money for weeks and weeks?  Will there just be a brief surge of interest and then it will plummet into total obscurity? 

So far I've made approximately $180 on the book, which is quite respectable.  Today has been a "bad" day compared to the previous three days. Why is that?  Are people not reading much?  Will it uptick over the weekend when people have more time?

Or is this my flash in the pan burst of enthusiasm?

It really doesn't matter, it is just interesting.  How does the great reading public choose books?  How do days of the week matter?  Does the weather matter?  Will I see upticks during winter?

I love data.

Also, people pretty much like my book.  I've gotten 5 reviews on Amazon and all of them were 4 or 5 stars (out of 5) so that's nice.

And yes, I'm working on another book.  Again, it is mostly because I really enjoy writing.  I like getting inside the heads of my characters and going where they lead me.  It is really fun.

I can't draw worth beans, but I can write. Pretty well.

I Am Jael is published!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089GC8PMF/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=i+am+jael&qid=1591048690&sr=8-1


I paid Lydia to get the manuscript put online and she did it in a few days. So I am now officially a published author. I have even sold, last time I checked, 7 copies of the e book!

I am quite excited!  I won't make a lot of money or anything, of course. It's just neat.