Just when you think it's all under control ...

Remember how I posted about how I know now how not to worry?

Wrong!

As I have whined about before, my company was consumed by MegaCorp. MegaCorp decided to combine our software with theirs and have a release of said software right now -- as in, a month after our merger. We'd planned to release this software this summer. So all of a sudden, my release dates CHANGED pretty drastically. That's why I've been nose-to-grindstone for the last 6 weeks.

But I got it done. This week I was verifying: clicking through the product, checking that I had really gotten it all documented, when I found ...

Screens I had never seen. A moment of panic ensued. WhereTheHellDidThatComeFrom? I talked to the tester on the product and she was bemused. "Hmm. I've seen that before but I don't remember where or when."

Good. That means it hasn't been tested. So I shouldn't panic too much. We went to talk to the project leader and he laughed. "Oh, no. Users won't see that. We'll hide it."

Well, we're a week away from shipping the product. COULD WE HIDE IT ALREADY AND NOT GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK?

Back to no worry mode.

To worry or not to worry?

I think the older I get, the less I take things seriously. Or maybe I'm learning about what's important.

Let me explain. I work in a relatively high-stress job in which I have to hit deadlines and have documetation which is at least close to talking about what the product does. This is tricky sometimes because programmers tend to design on the fly and the writers are often the last to know that an interface changed or a new feature was added, etc.

When I first started in this biz, I sweated every comma. I took endless screen shots, making sure I had exactlyy the right kind of data showing in my examples, and so on.

And now? {shrug} I don't worry about that as much any more. I've discovered over the years that [1] people don't really care about documentation and [2] people are very forgiving. Oh, yeah, you get the occasional butthead who whines about things, but generally customers have a 'hey, close enough for me' attitude.

I think the use of online documentation has fostered that. When print books went away people SCREAMED. Then they found that they could do without them ... yeah, painful at first, but it was doable. Now if customers get *any* documentation that's relatively coherent, they're happy.

My attitude was reinforced last night when I was working on the monthly newsletter for my local writer's chapter (I'm the newsletter editor). The president, who reviews the newsletter, was having a meltdown because of the way I'd formatted an inclusion of extra information. I just jerked the extra info out, put it in its own little document, slapped in some other info as filler and was done in 10 minutes. It just wasn't important enough to waste sweat on, you know?

I hope this laissez-faire attitude will continue as my daily work life continues to acclimate to the New Big Company who has absorbed us. Every day is a ... challenge in some way.

But hey ... don't sweat it.

Peeking around the web ...

In my continuing quest to get my promotional possibilities organized, I've been surfing the web, checking out various review sites and blogs. Review sites are just that -- places where authors can have their books reviewed. These include places like Coffee Time Romance, Armchair Interview, Dear Author, and others.

I never knew so many existed -- I mean, there's GOBS of them. Some devoted to romance, some to mystery, some to one particular author (Nora springs to mind), and some a mixture of genres.

And the blogs -- holy moly, who would have thought? There are blogs about blogs, too -- and blogs where you can get invited to blog, and blogs where just authors blogs, and blogs where reviewers blog. It's mindblogging (excuse the pun).

And then there's .... {ominous sound} ... My Space. I have delved into this just a bit, but it's sort of scary. It seems like most of the world is on My Space and are 'friending' each other. There's also gather.com and other like spots, where people put these 'personal pages' and other people sort of subscribe to them. To be honest, I think it's sort of tedious -- I mean, why do I really care about all these people? But it's also a good way to connect (with readers, with reviewers, with others), so it's something I need to explore.

But let's face it -- I've only got a finite amount of time for this. I currently blog (either here or elsewhere) almost every day of the week. I 'chat' about once a week, sometimes twice a week. I keep my web site updated. I also work a 40-hour week outside the home. And I'm editing and writing. And let's not forget conferences, travel, and relaxation.

I have penciled in My Space for May, possibly June. No, I'm not being facetious. I have a calendar that extends into 2009 on which I am penciling in things to do ('trip to Left Coast', 'possible book signing in KC', 'dude ranch vacation with the girls'). I also have penciled in when I can write new things and when to expect edits on books releasing -- that sort of primes me to get creative, as it were.

Note that I said it's all in pencil ... I know better than to try to truly plan ahead!

We have a title!

Finally!

I've got a title for the Pig Book. Are you ready?

Candy, Corpses, and Classified Ads

I am pleased, I have to say. I contacted my other publisher and we changed my title of The Readjustment Blues to:

Brownies, Bodies, and Breaking the Code

This way my first-person mysteries all have a similar feel and title. {whew} You have no idea how long this has taken to get this title ironed out!

And more breaking news -- The Brownie Book will be out in mid-June and in print in mid-August. Lots faster than I thought it would be. So that means, this year, I'll have:

mid-June: e-book (The Brownie Book)
July 1: e-book (Your Saving Grace)
mid-August: print book (The Brownie Book)
Sept. 20: e-book (Forgiveness)
Nov. 1: e-book (The Pig Book)
Dec. 27: e-book (If Not For You)

And I may have one more print book in there, possibly from Cerridwen.

When it rains, it pours!

J

On the road again ...

I'll be out of town tomorrow, so figured I'd post today. Just a road trip, a nice relaxing trip out of town. After the hectic month I've had, I'm looking forward to four hours of driving on good roads and a lot of songs on my CD player.

I enjoy traveling for the most part. I used to hate flying. I don't mind the flying, but I hate the "Rush to the airport", "wait for the flight", "cram into the plane" and the whole out of control feeling.

I've since given up all that. Now I get to the airport plenty early and have my wheelie bag (see picture: mine is bright red, though). I wander around, drink a cup of coffee, watch people, pull out my ebook reader and read a bit, wander to the gate, take my Dramamine (which ensures I will doze on the plane) then get on the flight, usually ahead of others.

Why ahead of others? Because I've splurged and paid for an exit row seat. It's worth the $15 to me to have plenty of room to spread out and to get on the plane early, before the crush. Then I put in my earplugs, turn on my ebook reader, and settle down.

It's not really relaxing, but I've found that if I change my attitude about it all, it's bearable. I used to want to "get there and get on with my trip". Now I just take it one step at a time.

Sort of like getting published -- just take it one step at a time. I've been angsting (nice verb, eh?) over whether I've made the right choices on publishers. Should I have signed with A when B might have been better? Let's face it, they all offer about the same in terms of $$$, but will my books do better with publisher C or is publisher A better?

But heck, the books haven't even released yet. Let's not sweat it.

One step at a time.