Actually, Mr. Janney and I are typically on the road for more than six days at a time.
Sorry for the months of silence. I've been trying to adjust to life on the road as a true team driver. My third trainer was indeed the one who was the one who say me to the end of training. He was patient, even when I know he was getting frustrated with my backing. But I gained confidence with him and tested out early. And because Mr. Janney was in the right place at the right time, I tested out in the morning and was on his truck by that afternoon.
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| At a TA in Washington somewhere |
And since then we've been trying to find out rhythm as team drivers. Some weeks are better than others. We've been sitting at a truck stop in Oklahoma City for a couple days now doing a reset and getting some much needed rest. It's a long haul across the Rockies, loaded or empty, and I do not envy the pioneers who took those mountain passes with covered wagons. Beautiful vistas, beyond doubt.
It took me quite a while to figure out how to continue my writing career out here on the road. It's not practical to get the laptop out after every shift. In the beginning, most days I just wanted a bite to eat and bed. But then, after a trip home, I decided to bring along my old Surface tablet. And it works. I'm able to access my files thanks to One Drive and can do everything on it that I can do on the laptop. I still have the laptop along for days like today, when we're just sitting and relaxing.
With my tablet, I was able to finish my edits and formatting on my rebooted Farmer's Daughter. I did have a few minutes of panic today when I switched from the tablet to the laptop...because the One Drive file wasn't showing ANY of the changes I'd made. I was almost in tears. Even Mr. Janney was concerned. "Did you save it before you switched?" Yes, oh yes I did! But at his advice I returned to the tablet to search for it there...took me some time because for some reason that file wasn't showing the changes either. And then I had a message saying that there were changes that needed to be uploaded to One Drive and did I want to do that? I hit that Yes button quick!
Not sure why it did that, but my changes were saved after all. I think maybe I lost service in the few minutes it was saving the first time. Sooooo, relieved!
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| does not represent actual books. |
I probably could have uploaded the file right from the tablet, but I had to get the laptop out anyway so I could do the paperback cover file properly (it wasn't downloading on the phone). I decided that if this novel was worth 'rebooting' with a few plot changes and new formatting, then it deserved a professional cover. Nothing wrong with the daisy one I made. I just came across a cool cover made by brosedesignz that I felt represented the storyline and characters better. I think she'll be getting more of my money because I'm going to want the series to mesh cover-wise and she's great at what she does!
And, I did hit publish. I'll share the links when Amazon makes them available and I'll try to write here more often too. Hard on the phone, but I'll try on the table, something I haven't done yet.
So, where to now? Job-wise, I have no idea. Writing, I'll hop back to writing book three (Bigger than the Beetles) and editing two (The Ring of Fire).
For those who have read the first version of book one, if you have the Ebook and have your Kindle set up for automatic updates, the book should automatically do so. I'll let you know when it should do so and if it doesn't update for you, we'll see what we can do. If you have the paperback and would like a new copy free of charge, contact me and I'll make sure you get a new one. If you want an autographed one, it'll take a little longer but we'll make it happen.
If you decide not to read the reboot, there will be a section in the third novel detailing the changes I've made in the first two books. My goals are to have both two and three released before the end of the year, lofty goals to be sure but I have to have something to aim for! Realistically, it'll probably just be Ring's reboot released in a couple months - I still have editing and formatting to do there (I learned how to do Drop Cases at the beginning of my chapters and it looks a bit more professional now). Beetles, if I'm lucky, a spring release. But I'm still going to hope for end of the year.
Well, I'm done here. Going to drop another picture from my travels and get back to writing and editing.
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| I see these yellow flowers everywhere out here in the western US I'm not sure what they are, but they are one of the little things That make this job worth it |
