I was musing at a recent post that dealt with what advice adults should provide children as they progress through school. The advice was well meant and certainly making information available to school children can’t hurt. As an example, Grandson Nick is interning twice a week with a Police Department. He’s also been taking Marine Junior ROTC, so if he decides to enter one of the services, he’ll have some idea of what to expect.
Maybe, with experience and good advice, he’ll find his niche.
As for me, I didn’t get that advice. But finally I’m doing something I love, willingly spending days writing or revising, trying to make my books something readers will not only read but like well enough to buy others that I’ve written.
It’s what I did; I bought anything Heinlein wrote, just as an example, as soon as the book became available. Ditto WEB Griffin, although his brand is now so corrupted that I probably won’t buy any more with his name on the cover. Like Tom Clancy and so many others, only the name is there; someone else now does the writing, and it shows.
I’ve been working on Darwin’s World, mostly formatting and revising how the words read. If you bought the book before, you can download the new version free when I publish it later this week. But you don’t have to; the story is the same, as was the case when I revised Combat Wizard.
The current revision also is changed to make reading via Kindle or even smartphone a better experience. I’ve taken more control myself, rather than hoping Amazon’s software would produce something that looked good on their screens. It’s not been easy; I use Word, which is extremely capable but daunting if you’re discovering how to make changes to the program as you go.
I’m hopeful that the improved books will reflect a better ‘brand’. It’s my name on the cover, not a pen name; I want the product to be the best I can produce.
I often willingly put in nine-hour days now. No boss. No added income. It’s just the desire to make what’s there under my name as representative as possible of the best I can write.
It took me seventy-three years, you see, to finally find my niche, what I was meant to do. It’s what I’ll do for the rest of my life, as long as my mental capabilities still function.
