Photo Shoot

Thursday (Mar 12, 2009) I stopped by Burney Falls on my way back to my place with mom. The time alone was very needed, and it's a great place to go to recharge one's batteries. I walked down to the base of the falls, and then took the whole 3+ Falls Loop, taking pictures along the way. I was rather tired, but I'd also been interested in walking up to the headwaters to get photos there as well, so I took the .7 mile trail up to the headwaters pool.

Right now, I'm transferring my photos, and I'm pleased with how many of them turned out as I'd intended (they always look better on the computer than on the camera). I'll be upping the dpi and then uploading some of these to my photo and art gallery.

http://amehanarainstardrago.deviantart.com

I am contemplating using one of the shots from this trip on the cover of the next poetry book.

Kinda small press to get hacked...

It's very strange to check one's email one day, and then find that while one has been busy, someone over in China has accessed one's Paypal. Betamax still exists? I saw them mentioned on Cowboy Bebop when someone was looking for a Betamax to play an old tape because it wasn't a VHS.

Now that's old... So it was odd to log directly into my Paypal, find it all in Chinese, get it set for US English... and then find a charge paying money to Betamax... in Euros... And then to set about getting things fixed and re-establishing security...

Ayyyyyy... So today, despite being a day I INTENDED to work on my novel manuscript, was spent doing damage control on all fronts (big time on mentally and emotionally).

Come on... CHINESE!!! I don't read Chinese and this computer won't show it because the language packs aren't installed -_- Yes I'm very slowly working on learning bits and pieces of both Chinese and Japanese... But... honestly...

Public Speaking

So, my aunt has invited me to speak at the school she teaches at, regarding my book. We will be working on scheduling it, sometime Mid March most likely. I will make a post with more news once it is set.

An external submission

I've recently received communications from an author interested in having me publish a book with him. Currently, I'm looking over the manuscript. This is the first non-fiction submission that I've received, and when I am done looking it over I will discuss more with the author as to what his expectations are.

I have just finished printing out my current progress on Dragon Shaman 2. I will be seeing my editor, if not today, then sometime soon withing the next few days. We are currently working on chapter 19.

Computers...

Spent the last couple days trying to figure out why my laptop was running so slow and making it so difficult to access my files or run my accustomed number of tasks. A real writing killer.

This is why it's always so important to have current copies of your files on disk so that you can take them to another computer to work on, not that I would have been able to concentrate on writing. I spent quite a deal of time researching online (and reading a book when so frustrated I needed to just take a break).

Someone very close to me did his best to help me fix my problem (he'd better not be surprised to find himself in the dedication with all the help he's given me for so long). The laptop at least works a bit faster, not what I am used to, as I'm very accustomed to going between tasks quickly, but better than the past couple days. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to my writing and art soon, I have many projects that need completion, not only "The Smoky Mirror."

Moved again

For now, all ordering of titles will be done through http://www.lulu.com/rainstardragon again, as the site hoster is still having difficulties with the domain name registration of the site that he had designed.

Progress on the current work "Dragon Shaman 2: Smoky Mirror" is still underway, and I am looking forward to releasing the title for sale within the year.