Kujira -Copy Edit

'Kujira' Gets a Copy Edit

Hi folks

Just letting you know that I sent 'Kujira' off to my copy editor a couple of days ago and I'll be expecting to have it re-published sometime next week. I gave it a bit of a 'spring clean' myself but nothing too radical. It's amazing looking at your own work, months after you have written it. You can look at the text with a level of detachment that allows you to actually pick a typo or a badly expressed sentence and fix it up. In between I have been spending some time familiarising myself with the notes I took at a workshop I attended that was conducted by 'John Harmon'. I mentioned this in a previous post, 'I wish I had Time to Write'. Anyway, I tried to apply some of the plot design theory to Kujira but decided that for the most part I had already done it. If I had followed the plan 'to the letter' I don't think it would have been Kujira anymore so apart from a few small changes here and there and a decent copy edit, Kujira is true to form. - love it or hate it. Anyway, I'll make a bit of noise about it when I do re-publish.

Interesting to see the 'Occupy Wall Street ' protests have spread to Sydney and to Tokyo . People all over the world are fed up. As for Japan, it is not really the image that people expect of the Japanese though. They are usually passive but if you do happen to stir them up and tip them over the edge, watch out. They are also protesting the actions of TEPCO, the company responsible for the nuclear reactors that got smashed by the recent earthquake and tsunami. I'll be watching the news to see how this all plays out. Did you know that land owners who are seeking compensation from TEPCO are required to fill out a 60 page application form ? Anyway, at the risk of turning this blog into a rant I'll post my comments so far but I'll leave it there for now. Watch out for Kujira, coming soon to an electronic device near you.

Later

Beerubaraoyaji

Memoirs - Kinki Karaoke

Jon and Mike or possibly Mark hard at work inspiring the

'Kinki Karaoke' chapter of 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine'.

Hi Folks

This is a photo I just had to post. If you have read 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine' you will be familiar with the 'Osaka Big Luck Snack' a fictional 'snack bar'. In the chapter titled 'Kinki Karaoke', alcohol plays a part in some comical dialogue inspired by moments like those represented in the photo. This is the real Jon and the other guy is the real Mike or maybe the real Mark - not really sure as both Mike and Mark are a mix of a few characters so I'll leave it up to you. 

This is a fascinating photo because, the two foreign guys are wearing traditional Japanese 'Yukata' and wooden 'Geta' for footwear while the locals are dressed in T-shirts and denim - seemed to work though! Below I have posted one of my favourite scenes from 'Kinki Karaoke' . 

Don't forget that 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine' is available at Smashwords and Kindle.

When they arrived at the snack bar, Tsuyoshi was a little overwhelmed at first, not knowing exactly where to sit such a loud and rowdy bunch of foreigners. The bar had become more crowded since Mike had been there earlier and Tsuyoshi seemed a little preoccupied with all his other customers.
Two young, attractive Japanese women in their early twenties were now also working the bar in addition to Tsuyoshi and there were another two working as waitress for the folk sitting at tables. Smiling politely, Tsuyoshi sat the boys in a corner, off to the side, at first paying them little attention. One of the waitresses came over to take their orders. Happy to be in each other’s company, their mood was lively and flippant. Jon was the first to speak.
"I love you," he blurted in his most refined Manchester accent. Not expecting this, they all smiled, embarrassed, then waited to see how the waitress would react. She stood silently poised, smiling, pencil in hand held a couple of millimetres above the order book but obviously confused.
Jon, sensing that his brazen remark was not being taken in context, tried again, this time ordering a drink in Japanese. He had studied a little Japanese while at university in England and felt reasonably confident that he could negotiate this simple task. He remembered that big in Japanese was ookii and that beer was beeru. He strung the two together and, adding a little Samurai theatrics to his accent demanded, "Ooki beeru arimasu" The waitress maintained her silence.
The other three glanced at each other, while Jon smiled. Embarrassed, he tried to pretend that everything was still okay. Still smiling, the waitress didn’t flinch. Mark, the wild Canadian, who had told the others stories of a previous trip to Japan while they walked towards the bar, took on an air of confidence as he motioned to the waitress and smiled. The others watched on, jaws agape, intrigued by this development. He immediately caught her attention and she turned to him, cocking her head ever so slightly to the side while changing her expression to one of polite anticipation.
"Ano ne," (Umm) he began. Her expression quickly changed to one of relief. "Dai jocky yotsu onegaishimasu," (Four large beers please) continued Mark.
"Dai jocky yotsu," (That's four large beers) she repeated.
With a short and succinct "Hai," (Yes) from Mark, she smiled at each man in turn, twirled elegantly in the opposite direction then walked off to the bar.
"Well, that was impressive!" exclaimed Jeff in a toffy English accent.
Jon, obviously outdone, sat silently stewing, while Mark sat beaming, explaining to the others that Jon had confused the waitress by simply stating that there was a big beer somewhere. 

BTW: I have spent the last couple of days on 'Kujira' and am about half way through another self edit. Glad I did 'cause it is full of typos all provided absolutely free of charge. When I am finished, I'll run it by my favourite copy editor for a fee and then upload. Don't worry Andy, you get the first coupon.

Cheers

Beerubaroyaji

Kujira update.

Kujira means whale in Japanese.

Hi Folks

It's been a while since I posted on my blog. I've been out of action with some kind of work or study or hobby related RSI injury so not much writing lately. I think a three hour written exam may have just been 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. In any case,  I couldn't move for two weeks and was laid up on my couch in pain for the duration. It took six weeks before I could use my arm for anything useful and a couple of months later, it still needs a rest every now and then. 

Anyway, now that I have your sympathy or at least some level of understanding or possibly just your attention, I need to explain the Kujira update. I have left Kujira, my longest novella, unpublished on smashwords for quite a while now. I noticed that someone had viewed one of my posts titled 'Kujira-It's Back'. That was posted quite a while ago and I unpublished the book soon after posting with the view to a huge edit before publishing again. Well I have been at it again but as I have explained above, life has just gotten in the way for the time being. I've been writing recently but I really want to spend some more time on developing the characters a little more. The three main characters Mark, Jon and Mike appear in  one of my other short stories, 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine' available on smashwords. If you intend reading Kujira, you ought to make sure that you have had a read of Memoirs first. Expect Kujira to be re-published towards the end of the year.  

BTW: I had promised to publish a "How-to-do a Rubik's Cube ebook. It is written but it is taking time to get the author to get the accompanying photos organised so that the book loads properly in the varying formats available. Still a work in progress but you can expect it to be published by the end of the year. 

Oh... and I managed to pass the exam that destroyed my arm in case you were wondering.

... and another thing. I decided not to charge for 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine' and the downloads continue. One thing though, If you do happen to read it for free and you like it, please let the world know - especially if you download on kindle. I could do with a few good post-edit reviews to counter the shitty pre-edit reviews.  

Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu

That's all for now

Later

Beerubaroyaji

Memoirs 'cracks the tonne'. To charge or not to charge?

Well, I have hit a milestone or a kilometre-stone depending on linguistic jurisdiction. Memoirs has 'cracked the tonne' or 'ton' depending again on jurisdiction. What I am trying to say is that I have had over a thousand downloads on Smashwords. Admittedly this figure was reached on Kindle a couple of months ago and is collectively more like just under 10,000 downloads if you include Kindle, Smashwords, Sony and Kobo etc.,  but Smashwords is my 'Indie Index' and says to me that Memoirs is OK and is reasonably popular. The 'grammar police' at Kindle are 'off my back' now and have become quite complimentary so now I am thinking that it might even be possible that someone might actually want to pay for one of my creations. So... 'to charge or  not to charge' that is the question. The thing is that the thrill has gone in watching the numbers tick over. I am now confident that my works have some level of credibility and am wondering if I might deserve some level of compensation for all the hard work. Mmmm... I'll sit on it for a while and let you know. If any one who reads this blog thinks yes, just say so. If anyone thinks no, maybe just leave it as I am still undergoing the effects of 'post traumatic stress' after the 'grammar police' assault on Kindle.

BTW: I am almost ready to publish a how to do a Rubik's cube book; not my creation but a publishing experiment on my part.  Should be out in a couple of weeks.  I am still sitting on the manuscript for Kujira and am planning its re-edit but unfortunately I am bogged down with work and study. Property law takes precedent at this point in time and to tell you the truth, its pretty interesting. In my part of the world, a couple of houses have just been sold fraudulently to innocent parties while the owners have been working fly-in/fly-out jobs. The law lets title remain with the new owner while the original owner is forced to seek compensation from the state authorities for the value of the property. In the mean time the police try to track down the bad guys who have taken off with the loot.  Umm.... sorry, I am raving again. But if anyone is actually interested, just comment and I will say more. Anyway, back to ebooks - next one is the Rubik's cube book, then the Kujira re-edit and I am starting to put a new one together in my head but I'll let you know about this one towards the end of the year.

That's all for now. Later.

Beerubaraoyaji

Four stars on Kindle - finally.

 This is the latest review for 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine' at Kindle US.  Also available at Kindle UK and Kindle Germany. Finally - someone gets it! This reviewer gave me 4 stars. She wanted to give me 5 but found a couple of editing mistakes. I'll have to get in touch with the copy editor who did Memoirs for me! If you look it up, you'll have to wade through the one and two star ratings but at least we now know that not all of the people have the same opinion!

This was a very different, rather existentialist sort of short story that reminded me of early computer games like "Adventure". The reader wonders to herself "where is this story going? what is the point?" This is a shared experience with the main character who wanders lost in a city in Japan, trying to find his way back to his hotel. Like Hansel, he tries to leave a trail, not of breadcrumbs, but of vending machines, but they mislead him and he keeps circling back around to the same starting point at the train station, until he discovers a magic cave- well, really a bar, what would you expect in the tourist part of town? But from there, chance encounters happen, there's some drinking and the disjointed sort of things that happen when you are out drinking and an eventual conclusion. 
I really enjoyed this story, unlike most of the other reviewers here. I found it quirky, very well-written and while it and the main character meandered, it all made aesthetic sense. It was easy to feel sympathy for the main character, and to begin to see and feel through his eyes. The author just managed to catch one of those interesting, frustrating and adventurous moments in a traveler's life.

 Take care folks, that's all for now.

Beerubaraoyaji

Grammar Police Alert : Memoirs is now squeaky clean - edit version uploaded

The edited version of Memoirs is now posted on Smashwords and Kindle.

Hi Folks

Late again for my regular post. I've been a bit busy working and studying but still found time to upload the 'Grammar Police' version of Memoirs of a Vending Machine. The downloads are steady and climbing again so it looks like it is still a winner. I had expected a happy and satisfied reader to counter the negative and soul destroying reviews on Kindle with a 'feel-good' sort of good-on-you-for-getting-this-edited type of comment but is seems the comments are reserved for the negative aspects while positive actions apparently go unnoticed. Oh well, just so you know... I feel good on the inside for commissioning the edit for the benefit of anyone who just happens to find Memoirs and decides to read it. Whoever you are, you will now get the best of Memoirs. If you happen to like the story and it gives you some pleasure then it was all worth the effort. If you have already downloaded Memoirs, to tell you the truth it is probably not really worth a re-read as the edit just took out the typos. It is pretty much the same manuscript minus a few entertaining errors. 

One thing I haven't said about Memoirs is that it is loosely based on real events, although I am sure that many a reader has already worked this out. One of the characters, Jon is based on a guy I did know in Japan. He passed away before I actually wrote the story and the ebook is really my way of saying, well it was great to have known you, your life really did have some meaning and still does. If you enjoy the story and Jon's character, it would make my day to hear it, he left this world far too early in life. Anyway, thats all folks. As far as I am concerned Memoirs is done now and I will turn my attention to the next creation. I'll keep you posted. 

Cheers

Beerubaroyaji

We All Make Mistakes

The only mistake is the spelling, the marriage was definitely a good thing as was the chocolate mud cake.

Hi Folks,
I missed my regular post this week. I have been busy as hell at work and with a few study commitments, time just got away from me. Believe it or not, I have had my head wrapped in text books and I have been studying the intricate details of corporations law in this country. In fact, I just received the result for my mid semester assignment and scored a high distinction. One criticism was that in my footnotes,  I misspelled ' Ford's Principles of Corporations Law as 'Principals' although I got it right when I was discussing the law of Principal and Agent. My point being that we all make mistakes but it doesn't always interfere with what we are trying to say. My law professor forgave me and gave me a high distinction. My wife forgave the local Patisserie and still loves me. So why do my critics 'bag me out' with these nice-story-shame-about-the-typos style comments for a free-to-download ebook? Well... I suppose it is a good thing to maintain standards but it sure as hell can be a pain in the ego. Anyway the reason I have even bothered to bring up this topic is that the fee-for-service edit of 'Memoirs of a Vending Machine' is back. It is now squeaky clean so that even the harshest of critics would have to now contain the vitriol and the sarcasm to comments about the plot and characterisation etc. With no clangers to keep them entertained such as "he said with a rising infection" or "Memoirs of a Bending Machine" they may just find the time to read the story and enjoy it for what it is - a story - although I am going to miss these little quirks that have kept me laughing at myself for a few months. Anyway, I am just going through the edit which doesn't really represent any substantial changes other then the typos before I upload the new 'clean version'. Keep an eye out for it, especially if the typos have been causing you any angst.

BTW: 'Bug' is continuing to go berserk by the thousands on wattpad although it is a bit slow on smashwords. It has only recently been approved for distribution so it might take a bit more time.Nothing to report on Kindle yet but I think I need to wait for the technical people to do their thing before anything happens. I will be re-loading and re-publishing 'Squeaky Clean Memoirs' on Kindle as soon as I could be bothered. (This is where most of the bad reviews came from) and will post something on this blog when I do.

Bye for now

Beerubaraoyaji