It's Prep_tober!

NaNoWriMo 2018 is coming fast and furious and I'm currently rooted in my preparations for the 50,000 words in 30 days challenge (term Prep_tober coined by Rachael Stephen).

In order to force myself to finish projets, I like to keep to only one active project, and I haven't complete my manuscript from 2016-17 The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic which would normally mean I'd be a NaNo rebel and try to add another 50,000 words to that manuscript.  But I'm feeling motivated to write on a new idea and motivation is key to success in the NaNo challenge, so break my own rule, I must.

My new novel-to-be, Revenge Served Neat, is part mystery, part thriller: When Lydia “Liddy” Randall’s husband, Nick, dies on what should have been the most significant night of his budding political career, she thinks it’s the worst night of her life. But the night before the funeral, the police arrive at her door to tell her that Nick’s heart attack appears to have been triggered intentionally by an overdose of a prescription medication, making the recent acquisition of a high dollar figure life insurance policy for Nick very suspicious and changing her from grieving spouse into the number one murder suspect. Liddy must dig through Nick’s life and hers to figure out who would want him dead before she’s charged with murder and loses custody of her children to her enraged mother-in-law.

See the cover on my Works In Progress page - it's fabulous!  I purchased it from SelfPubBookCovers.com.  (I'm not affiliated or compensated by them in any way.)

Over the few remaining days in October (only 21 to go!), I'll be posting a bit about my planning process.  For now, if you'd like to know more about NaNoWriMo or are interested in taking the NaNoWriMo challenge: visit NaNoWriMo.org

Truce or Consequences Book Chat

38 minute chat with Kelly Lopushansky, Author of Truce or Consequences

Truce or Consequences Book Trailer

A one-minute synopsis of Truce or Consequences

One Author's Plea Regarding the Terror of a Book Release

Today, my novel released as an e-book which means that people may, in fact, read it.

While an exceptionally exciting time in my life (goodness, I should be in a more celebratory mood), it's also one of the most terrifying.  Why?  Because people I actually know, and who know me, may read my book.  My stomach churns at the very thought.  Someone I know might read it!!!  Ack!  Is this really what I signed on for?  (Answer: yes)

People I actually know, may:

1) Hate it.  (Please don't tell me if you just plain hate it and have no other thoughts to share.  I'll never even know you purchased it unless you tell me, so just don't tell me you bought it, read it, and hated it.)

2) Judge me for its content.  (Perhaps you don't care for something in the book.  Maybe you're shocked by what I wrote.  Maybe just reading this book will change your opinion of me, discolor our friendship forever, and I'll never know why.  On this one, I think I'd rather know, even though I can't do anything about it.  At least I'll understand.)

3) Find errors.  (I may melt into the floor, but PLEASE TELL ME if you find an error.  At least I can correct it for a new edition.)

4) Not like it.  (This is fine.  I've read books I didn't like.  You can tell me it wasn't your cup of tea.  That won't offend me.)

5) Have a criticism that they share with everyone BUT me.  (Please, if you have a comment worthy of sharing with anybody else, share it with me too.)

I'm sure there are more items to add to this list of neurotic thoughts, but at the moment, these are the ones preying on me.

If you've released a book and have any suggestions on how to battle the crazy, please comment your thoughts.  I need them!

Measure Twice, Cut Once and a Review of CreateSpace.com

With the upcoming release of my second book, Truce or Consequences, I'm looking forward to some on-line promotion, including a "book chat" video that will post to youtube.  With that in mind (and that fact that it will probably be recorded this week), I dashed out for a haircut to make myself more presentable.  Thankfully, the cut turned out great.  But it put me in mind of the frustration I've had all week with putting my paperback together.

On the topic of measuring, I have proof that I can't measure on a computer worth anything (no matter how many guidelines I use).  I've now upload 4 different versions of the book jacket.  Unfortunately, CreateSpace.com takes about 24 hours to review the jacket and interior before I can see if I've got it the way I want it, so it's taken 5 days.  The book back has been fine since upload #2, but the front has been "a little off" every time and I keep hoping that this next one will do it.  In this case, I've measured 4 times, and haven't cut a thing.  (For the record, it's possible I'm taking the hard route, making my book jacket rather than having it done by the site, but I purchased a beautiful book cover for the ebook and I want it on the paperback exactly that way.)

With the release due on 2/10, I don't think the paperback is going to quite make it, but I'm not losing heart... the ebook is out everywhere as a pre-order already!  So the release will happen.  I'm just sorry the paperback may not be available the same day.

A quick review of CreateSpace.com for creating a paperback.  First, the service is print-on-demand, meaning that when someone orders the book, that's when it's printed.  No warehousing and no indie author purchasing a hundred copies to sit in their basement for however long it takes to sell them.  A pretty great model!  The author can also purchase copies at a "member" price plus shipping and handling (no royalties for those, of course), so you could fill your basement, if you wanted.

The process of creating the book, with the exception of the trouble with the cover, which is my fault, has been simple and fast.  Once I chose the size of the book, they provided a template for the interior.  I pasted in my manuscript, made a few tweaks with the templates styles so my chapters looked just right, and uploaded it.  All told, the interior took about an hour.  Had my manuscript been shorter, I doubt it would have taken that long and the interior has been perfect since the first upload (though I caught a typo and had to do one more).

They also provide everything you need to put together your cover.  You can even choose a style from their pre-made layouts without extra cost.  I looked at this method and you can use your own images and so on.  I chose to make my own because I wanted something very specific and their layouts didn't match my vision.  But, the layouts were very nice and extremely professional.

If you want someone to do all the work for you, you can pay for it.  I didn't even consider it, so I didn't shop around and I can't say whether or not the pricing is competitive... but the products are fantastic.  Check it out, if you're interested.

On many issues, CreateSpace is very flexible.  The range of book sizes is tremendous and they do tell you about the industry standards, very important for a first-time publisher.  You can use your own ISBN or get one from them for free, I chose their free one.  In order to sell on-line, you need to provide information to Amazon about your book.  They have a creation step that walks you through it and they provide answers to your questions as you go.

You have a pretty wide choice for distribution, though they are owned by Amazon, so that's the major retailer at which the book is available (not Barnes & Noble).  They do provide options for expanded distribution, including libraries and independent booksellers, but the cost does go up (hey, everybody needs to get their cut, so I understand).  One of the creation steps is dedicated to pricing and they provide help with that too.

Unless you don't want to work with Amazon, I definitely recommend CreateSpace for indie publishers.

A word about pricing and my book... due to the length of my book, the cost to have it printed is pretty high, so I decided to stick with just Amazon distribution as my paperback portal for now.  This way, I can keep the price lower.  While I'm always going to hope for some paperback sales, the truth is I expect far more from the cheaper ebook.

So, why publish a paperback at all?  Since CreateSpace doesn't really charge me for the service (I guess that their cut is in the orders), I really didn't see a drawback to having a physical book.  I figure you never know who might hear about it and want a physical copy.  I know I still like to read that way.  And then I thought about having a copy sitting on the my bookshelf that I could see and touch.  That's worth it's weight in gold.

I'm my own punchline

Today I visited my local Barnes & Noble with my husband and daughter.  I like to browse through more sections than either of them, so I was under a little bit of time pressure (they are pretty patient with me, but I prefer not to keep them waiting too long).

I picked up two books in my general browsing and then met my family in the bargain books section.  The line to check out wandered past some of those tables and I found myself leaving my selections with my husband to peruse "just a little bit more."  I came back with a third book.

On the way home, my husband was discussing his purchases, a desk calendar and a puzzle book, and commented that he hadn't actually looked to see what I had found.  I immediately told him about the books I had chosen earlier on but was stumped with the third bargain book.  I knew that the cover was yellow and the price was $7.98!

We laughed a little that I could remember the price and not the title.  (Once again, I chose to share something embarrassing for a laugh.)

After we arrived home, I jumped at the chance to see my purchases and discover the title of the yellow covered book which turned out to be "Ageless Memory" a book on how to improve your memory.

I'll be reading that one first.

"Read an Ebook Week" #ebookweek17 #smashwords

Interested in discovering, reading, and supporting Indie Authors at a vastly discounted price? Smashwords.com (a publisher site I use and highly recommend for both their catalog and their treatment of authors) is hosting their annual "Read an Ebook Week," where, for one week only, thousands of Smashwords authors and publishers will provide discounts on Ebooks, of 25%, 50%, 75%, and even 100%.

At one minute past midnight Pacific time on March 5, the special Smashwords Read an Ebook Week promotion catalog goes live on the Smashwords home page. Readers can browse the catalog and search by coupon code levels and categories.  After 11:59pm Pacific time on March 11, the catalog disappears. Coupon codes to receive the discount are displayed on the Ebook's book page on Smashwords.com

I'm participating and my Ebook, Heavenly Matchmaking: Meant to Be will be FREE for the entire week (use coupon code SFREE at checkout).

Whether you are interested in my Ebook or interested in looking for great deals, this is a week not to be missed. You'll have the opportunity to discover new authors, many for free. Ebooks are available in multiple formats, including epub, mobi, pdf, lrf, pdb, txt, and html so they can be read on most E-readers, phones, and computers/netbooks with WiFi/internet connection.

When The Well Runs Dry

I haven't posted for quite some time due in part to my need to over-achieve with my bill-paying work and in part because my creative well ran a little dry.  Notice that in the previous sentence I didn't use the phrase "day job."

While many people use that term to describe the work they perform to pay rent and buy groceries, I don't care for it.  Firstly, while I do work during the day, I also tend to work that job in the evenings and sometimes in the night, making mine an 24 hour a day job.  Secondly, how many people have a "day job" that is actually performed in the evening or even a night shift while they attempt their creative endeavors in whatever hours they have free?  I have no idea why I feel like nit-picking those details but I do, at least I do at this moment... so there it is.  I won't use "day job" to refer to work that pays the bills but doesn't completely fill up my soul or any other work that is part of the journey toward something that does complete me.

All right, now that I've said my piece on that topic, I'll turn my attention to the remainder of the first sentence... my creative well.

I'm sad to say that after NaNoWriMo and then the hustle and bustle of the December holiday season, I found myself very worn and not feeling particularly inspired.  It isn't surprising, pushing so hard for such a long period of time (a whole month!) is exhausting.  So I've given myself a small gift, I set aside a little time to read.

As a writer, I feel guilty when I read and when I don't.  Next to writing, I believe the best way to improve as a writer is to read other work.  Even without in-depth analysis, I can learn some techniques just by reading the text and absorbing the style.  But when I read, I'm also not writing, hence the guilt.

Due to the exhaustion, I spent most of December and some of January in a television coma when it came to my spare time.  But, a few weeks back, I picked up Foundation by Isaac Asimov (kudos to my dear husband for wanting to read the series... he's why it's in the house).  As a science fiction lover, it's hard to believe that I've never read the series.  It's a staple of the science fiction universe and something that non-fiction science authors refer to also.

I gobbled up the first book in a weekend, my usual pace for something I enjoy.  A week ago I picked up the second, Foundation and Empire.  I'm going a little slower with this one, not because I'm not enjoying it, but just because I haven't been able to give it the time it deserves.

So what does this have to do with my writing journey?  I am absolutely intrigued by the writing style of this series.  Not just the diction and sentence structure, but the story structure as well.  The story is told mostly through conversation while the action of the story takes place off-page, or off-screen if you like.

Not seeing the action doesn't detract from the story-line, at all.  To be honest, I wonder if some of the more current novels I've read wouldn't have benefited from taking some of the violence off-page too.  It makes sense that stories written at a time when both movies and television steered away from portraying violence (and sex) and merely alluding to it, that literature would do the same.  And it follows that now that we show much more violence in the movies and on television, we'd see it in literature (or should I say the other way around, with movies and television following the literature).

This train of thought brought me to consider my favorite classics in both literature and movies and I've realized that I do tend to prefer older movies (from the 30s, 40s, 50s) - but again, not ones that show violence.  In books, I like both classics and more recent fiction, but I do shy away from the on-page violence.

I wonder now if I could actually allow a little violence in my own work, if I just kept it off-page.  Our current reality, unfortunately, embraces violence.  Any books that place themselves in our current world may need to do the same.  I'll be pondering this for some time to come.

50K in 30 Days (actually 29)

I won!  I'm going to bed.

And So It Begins...

I'm off and running with NaNoWriMo. On this blog, I added a widget to display my progress, if you're interested. The first day, Tuesday, I was particularly lucky to have a little extra time and to be very inspired. I was able to write ahead of the minimum to be on track (basically, I wrote two days worth of words). Very helpful the last two days when I couldn't make the 1,667 minimum.  I'm still on track!!!

The story is shaping up nicely. I haven't decided if I started in the right place yet, but the stasis is coming out well. I've just about established my main character and the two side characters that get to join her early on. (Still a little nervous to be holding off introducing the two other major players much later... it seems like I'm withholding or something. Probably because I've never written that way before. I usually introduce all the characters in the first few scenes, major or minor.)

Favorite sentence written tonight: The bindings were as barren as a salted field, but undoubtedly still yielded fruit below the protective sheath.  Refers to old books that don't have text on the binding or the front cover.

Sharing the Joy

Since I published my first book, I've had many ups and downs. Sales are slow which is not unexpected. It's difficult to get the word out about the book. But slow or even nonexistent sales will never sour me about writing (publishing, maybe...).

I had the opportunity to speak  about NaNoWriMo at my daughter's school on Friday, specifically the Young Writers Program. Sharing about writing and the 30 day NaNo challenge with the 4th and 5th grades was definitely one highlight of my year. Not only was it fun for me in the sense that I do love to share in general, but the kids really moved me.

They had amazing questions, thoughts, and ideas. They are originals and ready to write about anything from sports, to video games, to nature, to space, to history. This generation certainly has the potential to outshine the rest of us. Some of them are already writing collaboratively!

I'm going to keep that day locked in memory forever.  :)

Pay and Panic and Positivity

To begin... I've been paid! It's not much, but it's actual money. I made $11.24. This means that I'm officially a paid author.  My hope is that I'll be able to make more off of my second book, but that's in the future.

So, about the panic... I've twisted myself all up in knots. My calendar keeps taking on more and more for November, which is supposed to be the time I'll crank out the first draft of The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic, or at least 50,000 words of it. I don't know how I'm going to squeeze in enough hours to write. I'm trying not to get it in my head that I'm going to fail this year, because I do tend to fulfill negative thoughts. Instead, I'm looking for positive thoughts.

My short list of positive thoughts: I love the idea for my new book. I love the characters I'm creating for my new book. I will enjoy writing the new book.

If any of you out there are positive thinkers and have words of inspiration for me, please leave a comment. I can use all the positivity I can get!

What's in a Name?

Many of my characters for The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic now have names! I try not to let myself struggle with character names because I've always figured that I can change them as I go, or even in an edit. But, I don't change character names. At least not so far. Especially not in an edit... I grow attached to the characters as they are.

So, without further ado, please meet the starring cast of CCIM:

Haley Peters - Owner of "Re-Views on Main: Used and Collectible Books"
Penn Smith - Cryptanalyst at the University and Haley's best friend
Megan Douglas - Owner of “Mystic Moon” Spiritual Books and Supplies
Dorothy "Hypatia" Meadows - Employee of "Mystic Moon"
Deputy Alejandro "Alex" Rossi - Deputy with the County Sheriff

Trouble is coming to South Fork...

Just One More Revision to My Logline

Revision is the butter to the writer's bread. Everything, yes, sadly everything, can probably be improved. I'm a very lucky person to have a good friend who will beta read pretty much anything and everything I give her. She's provided some valuable feedback which helped improve my logline. (Thank you, Richa!) In addition, last night I spotted a flaw in my thinking...

Although my main character's best friend will provide initial antagonism... he will not be the primary antagonist. Instead... this is so much better... he'll be the one arrested for her magical mistake!

I know it's not attractive to toot your own horn, but boy am I pleased with this idea change. While it's extremely threatening to have a Federal criminal case hanging over your own head, how much worse when it's someone you care about and it's your fault! Do you walk, or perhaps crawl, away? Do you "save" him? Ah, so much potential for drama!

The revised logline is below. Again, I am soliciting thoughts and opinions. If you have a suggestion, please comment.

On the verge of a another slow small-town Summer, a shy used book store owner receives an old and incomprehensible tome which she finally interprets as a book of wholly useless magic with the help of her cryptanalyst/hacker best and only friend; but when she uses the text and causes her friend’s arrest for a felony theft he didn’t commit, she must learn to make real-world friends and request their help to undo her mistakes, before the mysterious group attempting to purchase the text decides instead to take it from her or her best friend is convicted. – The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic

Thought for the day

I'm taking the day "off" from planning, meaning I'm not actively sitting at my computer typing. But that doesn't mean I'm not working on my book...

"The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.” - Agatha Christie

Progress on a Logline

I'm not going to pretend that this is the final version of my logline, but it's starting to resemble my vision for this novel. It's time to float it past some people. If you have a comment, please leave it. It can be specific (certain words that don't fit or a question on the plot) or very general (love it or hate it).

If you think you read this genre, but this doesn't look like a winner, I'd especially appreciate hearing from you.

On the verge of a another slow small-town Summer, a shy used book store owner, who prefers the company of books to most people, receives an old and incomprehensible tome which she finally interprets as a book of wholly useless magic with the help of her University-employed cryptanalyst/hacker best friend; but when she uses the text and finds herself a person of interest in a felony theft investigation, she must learn to make real-world friends and request their help to undo her mistakes, before the mysterious group attempting to purchase the text decides instead to take it from her or she finds herself facing a Federal prosecutor. – The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic

Celebration and Preparation

3 P.M. So little time and so much to do...

I completed my first draft of Truce or Consequences on October 1st. With NaNoWriMo right around the corner, I've had to launch myself straight into the preparation phase of my next book with no time off.

It seems appropriate to pause for one moment and celebrate my second novel. No, it isn't finished, but, as I wrote above, I have a completed draft. In December, I'll be able to come back to it and begin editing. If you're a writer, you know how amazing that is. Staring at a blank page is much harder than fixing problems in a manuscript. (I don't mean to imply that making changes is easy or fast, but it's a lot easier to edit something than nothing.)

All right, moment over.  Time to move forward. My next book... I've had an idea I've been kicking around for quite some time, based solely on an idea for a title, The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic. The last few evenings have been spent trying to turn that title idea into a theme and a plot, and most importantly, I'm trying to create some characters that fit into the world and will drive that plot. This is the first time I've ever started from something as vague as a title. As I've posted before, I usually start with the characters.

In an effort to bring as much together as quickly as possible, I've been re-reading my copies of the "Save the Cat!" books by Blake Snyder. While the focus of these books is on screenwriting, I agree with the woman who turned me on to these books, the storytelling aspects are just as applicable to a book as they are to a movie.

To my surprise, I've spent over five days agonizing (no, I'm not kidding, I'm talking about serious pain) over what kind of story I'm going to be telling. Clearly, my genre is Fantasy. But what kind of a story is it? Is it a quest story? A wish-fulfillment tale? A story of friendship/love? Or a rite of passage?

Those are my top four choices, but there are other possibilities. Overall, I tend to read romantic fiction and, thus far, that's what I write. Logically, unless I plan to stray from my natural inclination, a love story seems to be the choice. This is probably why I'm struggling. Because I look at the scenes I've imagined and keep thinking that this is really either a wish-fulfillment tale or a rite of passage story. There's no reason I can't have a love story intertwined, but I just don't think it's the main focus.

So that leaves me twisting and worrying. Should I change the story (rebuild the characters I've already played around with and upend the plot) or should I stick to what is already simmering in the back of my mind and shape it into a rite of passage or wish-fulfillment tale?

Blake's advice, at least as far as I interpret it, is to give up things that don't work. I can almost hear him add "and don't look back." If I follow that advice, then my move is to pick a story type (I guess I'm leaning toward rite of passage) and start shaping what I've already created so it will work and discard anything that isn't fitting right.

Hmm, how disappointing. I really hoped that by just writing this out, I'd have some kind of epiphany about what I should do. Truly, if I'm to be ready for NaNoWriMo on November 1st, I should have my logline by now and be working on character sketches and maybe even the storyboard. I've only 21 more days to flesh this thing out before I start writing. Oh, who am I kidding? There's nothing to flesh out yet. Not even a choice of story.

This blog post has gone downhill very fast. From celebration to a mild tone of panic. Perhaps even strong panic. I need to make some decisions today.

10:31 P.M.  Deadlines really are magic.

Feeling the pressure helped me make one decision. I'm keeping the characters, just reshaping them a little. My protagonist (yet to be named, poor thing) will be the proprietor of a used bookstore in a small town that boasts of the small town feel, while having a University just outside the city boundaries. The antagonist will be a friend of the protagonist who will initially aid her with her quest to understand the strange book (exact means of acquiring the book to be determined) in her possession but will later discourage her exploration and use of the magic within the book under the guise of protecting her from harm (while in reality stunting her growth).

I've many twists and turns yet to plot out and I can't go much further until I pick my story. Just these decisions however make me more confident that I will figure this out. It's a matter of going deeper. Looking much harder at the conflict. On the surface, it now feels like a story of friendship (and the pitfalls of thinking you know what's best for others). But, I will delve deeper... I did use the word quest.

Onward... to the logline!

Royalties in the Amazon

This will be a short post with an update to the information posted previously about Royalties.  It looks like on Amazon, I'm earning $1.02 for every $2.99, so that's about 34%.  Dramatic difference, no?

Royalties aka Getting Paid

Okay, totally blasé post title, but I'm not feeling especially brilliant regarding titles at the moment. The content, however, I'm much more passionate about... money!

How do I make money off of this eBook? It's actually very much the same as in traditional publishing - royalties. In my case, with the exception of Amazon, my publishing site is Smashwords. While they call me the publisher, the book is still on their site, they process the fees, and they also provide IRS documents, etc. This means that they are taking on some liability and a lot of accounting, so I won't receive all the money from my novel, I receive a percentage.

The difference here is the exact percentage. At Smashwords, I'm selling my eBook at $2.99. Of that $2.99, I receive $2.21! That's almost 74%. Of course, I've also priced the eBook at $2.99. I could have chosen a higher dollar figure and the amount per eBook would seem even more dramatic, why? In traditional publishing, most fiction authors receive somewhere in the neighborhood of a $1 per book sold (after the book earns back any advance money, if there was an advance).

Nice?  I think so. This is heavy on my mind because if my account meets the minimum dollar figure, Smashwords will pay me royalties quarterly.

Note: The other sites that Smashwords has distributed to, such as Barnes & Noble, iTunes, etc. pay at different percentages. If a book is purchased as Barnes & Noble, they'll take a portion of the cost, and then send the rest back to Smashwords, who will also take a percentage. I'll receive the remainder. This is not a complaint; both sites deserve their cut for their work. I'm merely sharing with you how the electronic distribution and royalties are managed.

I'm so pleased to report that I actually made the minimum as of yesterday, so I'll get paid this quarter. Special thanks to my friends who talked about my eBook to other people. Word of mouth is my main sales driver.

Anyway, after the end of this month, I can expect to be paid for my work. That means I'm not just a published author, but a paid author. Will I ever be making living at this? I don't know, but the truth is, I very much hope so.

Qualms and Quirks

In a previous post, I mentioned my concerns about supplying my bank account number to Amazon in order to self-publish my ebook. The concerns revolve around hacking, not Amazon, but I just don't want my numbers out there. My solution: open a new bank account

That's what I did today, and I have since submitted my ebook to Amazon. It should appear in their catalog in 48-72 hours. That will complete my distribution to the ebookstores that I consider most important.  I'm quite certain that there are other ebookstores that do a great deal of business and I'll be missing them, but for the moment I'm accepting that. If you happen to have a favorite online store other than the ones I've listed, please leave a comment. My greatest limitation for distribution is lack of knowledge of all the outlets.

That was all for qualms, now on to quirks.

The theme for my day was upsets and embarrassments, though the majority of those had nothing to do with my writing or publishing. I found a monstrous error in my ebook, the Title Page had the title for my next book! This wasn't true in the early distributions (I updated it once due to a dislike in formatting) but I found it today. The only word I can think of is mortifying! The wrong title!

While I will puzzled on how this happened, I set to correcting it immediately. A fresh upload to Smashwords has been completed and hopefully will distribute rather quickly. I don't have a rush of sales right now, so I'm not too worried anyone will stumble on it.  But still...

Another quirk I ran into was on Barnes&Noble. They don't use ISBNs for ebooks.  Instead, they assigned an EAN to my book. Searching by title will bring up the book, as will searching by EAN... but not the ISBN.  I'm more than a little befuddled, but there it is.

So future self-publishers, you've been educated... not everything in publishing uses the ISBN after all.

It's the Labor Day weekend, so I'll sign off by wishing you a good holiday.  I plan to relax and write.  :)