The Commitment Report

Today’s going to be a big, relaxing day with our friends from Canada, the Church family, and after the week James and I had, we definitely deserve a long day of good friends, R&R and outdoor awesome. I am really looking forward to it, and will be taking lots of pictures of our fun day at Ricketts Glen State Park and Lake Jean.

As I mentioned, this has been a huge week. After going over the final edits and proofreads of From the Dark Side: A Charity Anthology, I started preparing it to preview on Smashwords with James’ Sony eReader. After the file spent literally 8 or so hours downloading on Smashwords, I got an email from the boss of Smashwords telling me uploading sample copies of things was against the smashwords law. Sorry boss of Smashwords. The good thing is, we got to preview the copy anyway, and by Wednesday night, I settled in to start uploading to both Amazon and Smashwords for Friday’s release date.

Both files were ready and rearing to go by Friday morning, and we launched the charity anthology project with a bang via Twitter and Facebook. I set a rather lofty goal to sell 100 copies on our first day out, which I was chided for by Acadia, who said I was setting my expectations too high. Turns out he was right. There’s a first time for everything . We sold 28 copies on Friday and another 10 on Saturday, bringing our total weekend sales up to 38. All in all, we raised about $135 for The Office of Letters and Light Friday and Saturday, and I altered my 100 copies sold goal to encompass the whole weekend, rather than just one day. I am NOT giving up. It’s not in my nature.

Aside from busting my hump getting the anthology out by Friday morning, I also started editing Farrago: The Michael Bekemeyer Project. If you’re not familiar with that particular project, you can read all about it here. We are planning an early August release for Farrago, and edits are moving right along. In fact, I’ve got twelve of the fifteen stories set to be in the anthology all edited and formatted. I hope to have a draft to send to my awesome proofreading friend, Drew Beatty by Monday.

I’ve also been making a huge transition at my job, which I am still not ready to talk about out loud. Come Wednesday though, I’ll be making a big, exciting announcement about work. I can’t wait to share it with you.

The funny thing about all this is in the last two weeks, I’ve managed to get about 6 words written on my personal fiction. I still have two stories to write for the Dark Journeys Collection, and they’re both in the works, but I’ve just been so preoccupied with anthologies and editing, no writing for me. And that’s okay. Both of these charity anthology projects have been incredibly rewarding, and I’ve had fantastic groups of people working with me every step of the way.

As soon as I get Farrago in place and off to Drew Beatty, I am setting my focus back on Jack in the Green and will begin podcasting it before the end of July. In fact, I’m ready to podcast the introduction, but I’m not sure regular episodes will be ready the following week. So I’m considering holding off until I’m sure I have at least five episodes worth of podcasty goodness.

All in all, it was a productive and rewarding week. Next week, I have big plans (as always,) and will be kicking ass and taking names every day. So stay tuned. Today, however, I relax and enjoy the beautiful wilderness.

Hope your week rocked as hard as mine!