And The End Result Of Contest 2.0 Is...

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd this will be an incredibly short post today. I have drawn the winners of Contest 2.0, which was held to celebrate the print re-release of my commercial debut.

Amazon

The grand prize winner of an autographed copy of The Inner Sibling is Brandon & Bryan from A Beer For The Shower.

Smashwords

The 1st runner up for a free e-book copy of The Inner Sibling is Hart Johnson from Confessions Of A Watery Tart.

Smashwords

And the 2nd runner up for a free e-book copy of Broken Promises is Granny Annie from Fools Rush In.

I will be contacting the winners over the long Christmas weekend and I want to thank everyone for stopping by to play.

As for me, I will be taking a short break from posting, partially because of Christmas, but mostly because we are now entering the flex part of my work schedule, where for the next 7 days, starting on the day after Christmas (not including Sunday), I will be working at least 52 hours. So to all my friends, readers and fellow bloggers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. Catch you on the flip side of 2015.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

So What If You Treat Me Special, I'll Still Complain About You

First up, I want to let everyone know that I will be picking the winners of my half-month long contest on Christmas Eve, so if you still want in, just let me know in the comments. Clicking on this link will give you all the details you need.

This is a follow-up/part 2 of I Wish To Register A Complaint, the tone of which may offend those who live their lives to the philosophy of Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil. If you live your life that way, please give strong consideration to finding something else to do, like going to this wonderful website.

Did you ever notice that even though you might go above and beyond what you normally do for your job, you still get treated like shit by the very people that you go that extra mile for? Well, I have, and frankly, it's getting very tiresome. The amount of schtuff that I do during my work day is quite a lot and the blowback that I'm getting from those staff members who have an over-inflated importance of self is getting seriously annoying.

From 2006 thru the 3Q of this year, it has been my personal rule of thumb to treat everyone like adults and sometimes go above and beyond what I usually do in order to make my job not only easier but enjoyable as well. However, the amount of blowback I've been getting has gotten stupider and nastier, and quite frankly, I'm getting quite fed up with it.

If I send you an e-mail giving you at least a week's notice that I will not be somewhere due to prior commitments and that you'll have to do something just a little different, don't spend three hours creating Mt. Everest out of an anthill. Just do what I want when I want so that I can get my job done in a timely manner.

If I tell you over the phone that I work on particular something once a month because we are short staffed and I have to PRIORITIZE my duties, don't give me athlete's scalp by going over my head to someone who is not my supervisor to bitch about it. Nobody likes or respects a bitchy co-worker. Nobody.

If send you multiple e-mails asking for an item so that I can do my job by making sure that someone gets a paycheck, don't tell me, "Okay, I'll get it to you." and then not get it to me. Believe me, I understand what you go through on a daily basis, so I make sure to bother you only when absolutely necessary.

If you ask me to do something for you because 1) you really need it and 2), no one hasn't gotten back to you in order to fix your problem to begin with so that you can do it yourself, then tattoo it inside your brain that I'm not going to do it again for you. "One and done" is the working phrase of the day here. I'm not your personal secretary, so learn to get it for yourself. If I can get the same thing for myself, there should be no reason why you can't get it for yourself as well.

What this really boils down to is that I'm not going to put up with blowback from anyone anymore. I have a semi-photographic memory, and if you couple that with a mania for having a paper trail, I can almost guarantee that I will not tolerate being lied to, lied about, having words shoved into my mouth or get thrown under the road paver.

2015 is a brand new year, and remember, I can play the same kind of bullshit games as you, only I can do it better and with consequences that affect 100% you and maybe 5% me.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Radio Silence

By basic definition, radio silence is a military term signifying that no radio communication of any kind is to be had between a given unit (or ship or plane, etc.) and its base. Sometimes a tragic result can happen as a result of radio silence. In the non-military sense of the phrase, radio silence often means that a particular someone decided to either voluntarily or involuntarily cut off contact with the either the outside world or the cyber world.

In my particular case, I involuntarily cut off contact with the cyber world.

This week has been particularly brutal as the flex part of my work schedule (getting home after 6:30p) had absolutely crushed any desire to be even remotely social, and in fact, turned me into someone who was anti-social with both the outside world and the cyber world. How anti-social was I this week? Facebook was kind enough to send me an e-mail yesterday (12/18) that politely informed me just exactly what it was that I had missed for the week. The only meaningful conversation that I had took place with my cat.

Wasn't that just oh-so---SPECIAL! of Facebook to do that for me?

So.

I am finishing up this very brutal week and at exactly 4:46p, I will be partaking in an extended four day weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday), which will entail of me doing my Christmas shopping, recharging my batteries, catching up with my blog reading and most importantly, picking a few winners from my contest of a week and a half ago. Believe it or not, there is still time to enter. If you haven't enter yet, just mention in the comments that you want in, and presto! you is in!

In the meantime, I leave you with this wicked cool song from Tonic to start your weekend.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

I Wish To Register A Complaint...

There is still time to enter my Book Giveaway Contest 2.0 for your chance to win a free autographed proof copy of The Inner Sibling. Click on the link for details.

At my job, I generate a world of complaints from all sorts of people. Unlike in the private sector, where if you buy a defective product you wind up have conversations like this:

Which basically means that you argue until you're blue in the face and then maybe, just maybe, you'll get a small sliver of satisfaction.

In the public sector (aka, working for a municipality, state or federal guv'ment agency, or any other type of guv'mental agency for all of my non-U.S. readers), you can basically bitch, moan, groan and creatively stretch the truth to suit your own needs, and pretty much someone will pay attention to you just to get rid of your whiny ass, because after all, a whiny public sector worker is a lazy public sector worker.

Anywho, in the past 8 1/2 years that I've been encamped at my current place of employment, I have generated enough complaints in regards to my assigned duties that a variation of the following conversation between myself and my supervisor has become the longest running joke in my unit.

I Got A Whole Lotta Nuttin'

That's right boys and girls, I got a whole lotta nuttin' going right now. Work has been steadily kicking my buttocks this week as Murphy's Law 2.0 Workplace Edition is now in full Kiss-My-Grits Mode. As for writing, Fugget About It....ummm....Fuhgeddaboudit!

So.....about the only thing of real note I can post talk about is that The Free Schwag Giveaway is in full force! Click on this link for more details, and I have just one more thing: Sometimes being pulled kicking and screaming into the 21st century can be a major female of the canine species, especially if having this is the main reason why you're kicking and screaming.

In the meantime, here is THE SONG that everyone and the bff tries to sing for those local pseudo America's Got Talent shows.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

It's Here! It's Here! It's Here!

No, we're not talking about this particular movie, but we're talking about this:

Amazon

That's right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls above the age of 18, my pride and joy has come full circle. Previously known under the title Line 21 (copies of which are still available for purchase), and now known as The Inner Sibling, is now available for purchase on both Amazon and CreateSpace (soon to be available for purchase at Books By G.B. Miller Spring 2015).

My friends, bringing this book back from the great beyond was both a source of pride and perseverance. Pride in that once again, I can show to the world that I have conquered the second level of my writing journey (getting a book published by a traditional publisher), and perseverance in that getting the final version of my re-release out allows me to work on the two novellas that have been waiting very patiently (like at least 2 years) for me to publish them.

In celebration of completing the final step in the journey of my commercial debut, I am running a contest for some free schwag this week. All you have to do to enter is to either comment on this post or share it with others on Google+, on Facebook or even on your own blog and let me know that you have done so as well.

Grand prize is the proof copy of The Inner Sibling, autographed by yours truly.
1st runner up is the e-book version of the same (available at Smashwords).
2nd runner up is a copy of my short story trilogy Broken Promises.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

A C. M. Classic: Post #156

Time now, for the redundant portion of Father Nature's Corner, where we produce another post in the occasional series entitled "Cedar's Mountain's Classics", in which we take an old post from the original six year odyssey that was my first blog and retool, revamp, regurgitate, reactivate and simply reanimate to something very new and very shallow.

Today's post repeater is a spoof/rant/re-tool on taking a vacation, either from the cyber world or the real world. Feel free to read the post, although it isn't anything to speak of, other than most of the commenters have long since stopped commenting and/or visiting my blog, and two of them have all but abandoned the blog world for greener pastures (one is a very successful NY Times bestselling indie writer).

Back in the halcyon days of Cedar's Mountain, I used to go on hiatus about two to three times a year, mostly around the major holidays. After all, doing semi-fun things/recharging the batteries at the time was slightly better than hanging around cyber space. But...as the years slowly trudged by, I found that going on hiatus, much like going on vacation from work, was really boring.

I know, hard to believe that taking time off from blogging/writing/real world could be called boring, but that is how I actually feel about the subject of vacation. I don't take a lot of vacations from work, other than taking what I call "vacation cap days", in which I use just enough vacation time in order to receive the vacation accrual that I'd busted my chops for in the previous month. I don't like giving back stuff that is rightfully mine to begin with.

So...while taking a vacation can be exciting for most, I find it to be excruciatingly dull. Which is why when I take vacation days I bitch, moan, groan and whine about what a crappy time I'm having.

Relaxation.

It ain't the be all to end all. Or is it?

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

IWSG Post Day 4!

IWSG

Welcome my friends to the blog that never ends, I am your most excellent host, G.B. Miller!

Not only is today December 3rd, but it's the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means? It means it's IWSG time!

The first Wednesday of the month is set aside for insecure writers across the blog-o-sphere to share all of our individual experiences, the gud, the baaaaaad and the plug ugly. You can either click on the link at the picture, or on the IWSG page located at the top of this blog.

Today's topic is one that is not only near and dear to my heart, but most definitely near and dear to yours. It's a topic that we deal with every single day of our lives not only as writers, but as regular yobs as well.

Time.

Unlike the wonderful Pink Floyd song from their long running Billboard 200 album (something like 30+ years) where the person has gobs of time, I have an excruciating lack of time to do almost anything, and I mean almost anything, writing related. While that may sound odd, considering that you're reading a blog post about lack of time, blogging is basically the only thing I can do that requires a maximum of ten minutes out of my wickedly cluttered day.

I say "cluttered" because about a month ago I started a new flex style schedule that requires me to work 48 hours every other week, and if you couple that with the fact that semi-mandatory overtime is required (short staffed) every other Saturday, you can understand why excess time is a commodity that I simply do not possess.

And for me to be able to do any kind of decent writing, I need a modest block of about two hours that I simply cannot find. Which means on average, any writing that I choose to do, only lasts about five to ten minutes tops, which is just enough time to open a document and tighten/tweak the grammar/sentences/paragraphs before having to close it.

One final example about the lack of time: in my last IWSG post, I said I would have something good to share with everyone. Well, due to the lack of time, I was not able to complete the task required in order to share that good news with everyone.

Time: if you got it, flaunt it to the best of your abilities. If you don't, then you need to practice time management skills in order to get it.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Yes, Stupid Things Can Happen When You're Bored

By now, most of you have had your blog's comment section butchered by Boycott Guy (for lack of a better name) with his rants about American women. And I'm sure that none of you sensible people have even remotely thought about scoping out his website. Well my friends, have no fear, G.B. has decided to do what all you sensible people have chosen not to do: He scoped out that website.

I popped in the URL and IE11 immediately took me to Yahoo search (if put in a URL that doesn't exist or if I misspell a URL, it automatically redirects me to Yahoo.), which brought up an entire page of cached pages for that website. It even gave me a cached copy of his dearly departed Blogger Blog, as well as a cached copy of a WordPress blog that he had set up as well.

To save you the time and trouble, just because I'm that type of guy, here is a brief summarization of his blog.

This blog was alive from 2010 thru the summer of 2012; it has actually been shared on Google+ 19 times; the comment he leaves is verbatim from his blog description; his "posts" are quite articulate, much like the talking heads that bloviate on underground radio (and you know what kind of talking heads I'm implying here); and he managed to write roughly just under 300 posts before he was shut down.

I will give this person credit, no matter what the topic of the blog is, he has hit it. I scrolled through several pages and this guy has hit blogs ranging from agricultural to feminists to mommy blogs to historical society blogs and everything in between (and I mean everywhere in between. Bodybuilding? Family History? Nigeria?).

So while he is a certified nut, he seems to be a harmless nut. Just the same, stay vigilant and keep that unwholesome spam out of your blog and on your plate, where it belongs.

In summary, when you are bored, you can truly do pointless things to keep yourself amused. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find out why my local useless newspaper dropped Beetle Bailey.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Music 202: Rules For The Blues 2

Continuing with the wickedly funky e-mail that was thoughtfully passed on to me by Riot Kitty, here is #2 of Rules For The Blues. If you missed #1, check it out here.

13} You have the right to sing the blues if:

1. You older than dirt
2. You blind
3. You shot a man in Memphis
4. You can't be satisfied

14} You don't have the right to sing the blues if:

1. You have all of your teeth
2. You were once blind but now can see
3. The man in Memphis lived
4. You have a pension fund

15} Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got a let up on the blues.

16} If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the blues.

17} Other acceptable blues beverages are:

1. Cheap wine
2. Whiskey or bourbon
3. Muddy water
4. Nasty black coffee

18} The following are NOT blues beverages:

1. Perrier
2. Chardonnay
3. Snapple
4. Slim Fast

Thanksgiving....

More than enough to go around, don't you think?

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Music 202: Rules For The Blues I

The other day, I got this very funky e-mail from my very good friend Riot Kitty, who in turn got it from someone else. So, for lack of any lengthy original topic (trust me, dealing with Amazon and having a toddler file a grievance against me for not answering an e-mail in a timely manner, not make lengthy diatribes. One of them, and the 1st 10K guesses do not count, does make a medium sized explicative laden diatribe), a little musical humor for the day. Enjoy part 1 of Rules For The Blues.

1} Most blues begin, "Woke up this morning...."

2} "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town.

3} The blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes...sort of: Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pounds."

4} The blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch--aint' no way out.

5} Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUVs. Most blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and company motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6} Teenagers can't sing the blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults can sing the blues. In blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

The other might, I was perusing the blogs that I subscribe via the e-mail (roughly one dozen) when I came across a post from a blog called The Real Blogger Status about using verification for anonymous comments. I read it with great interest, and afterwards, I gave some serious thought about reactivating anonymous commenting on my blog (singular).

To refresh everyone's memory, I stopped allowing anonymous commenting around June 1, 2013, which was directly due to getting nailed with roughly 75+ spam comments Memorial Day weekend.

But as they say, sometimes necessity will trump the annoyance/common sense factor, so with mild trepidation, I reactivated anonymous (along with name/URL) commenting on just this blog only. My other blogs will not have it, because quite frankly, I'm not in the mood to perpetually monitor 5 blogs for spam.

And wouldn't you know it, a long time spammer (circa 2008) left the first anonymous comment. For those of you who have been around since the last decade, there was a blogger who intensely disliked American woman, and he made sure that everyone one and their 3rd cousins twice removed knew about it. Suffice to say, in no short order, he was completely binged and purged from Blogger. He still pops up from time to time to peddle his nonsense, but overall, he's like a little annoying mosquito that you have to zap during the summer.

So, with that little announcement about a very minor change to this blog, on with the main course.

Spend Those Greenbacks Wisely And You'll Never Be Disappointed Again

I thought for today, I would share my unique experiences/viewpoint on the wonderful world of self-publishing. I say unique because I'm one of those rare breeds that have accomplished the publishing trifecta: published through normal means, published through vanity, and published through an indie platform.

We'll completely skip being published through normal means because the cost of doing so is basically zero if you don't have an agent, 15% if you do, and go right to the other two-thirds of the trifecta.

Being published through a vanity is a basically a case of not spending your greenbacks wisely, because let's face, shelling out dollars to someone to publish your book as is, repeat as is, is stupid. I should know, because I did it myself, and it took me about three years to recover from the financial hit. The only silver lining out of being published via a vanity publisher is that the books you wind up buying can be used to set up shop as a boutique store (i.e. Books By G.B. Miller) and thus file a Schedule C on your federal taxes. For those of you who are wondering about the financial hit, overall it cost me somewhere in the general neighborhood of $2300.

Now, being published by an indie platform, which in my case is both Smashwords and CreateSpace/Amazon. In each particular case, the greenbacks that were spent, were spent wisely.

Vent Or Promo?

I have a bit of a quandary today.

Originally, I was going to do a little promo work on one of my books. You know, a little puffing of the chest and the groveling on the ground as it applies to my writing. But yesterday (11/13), I got the wind slightly knocked out of my sail when I received yet another complaint that called into question my KSA's (that's Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) as it applies to my job. But, unlike the Cruel Shoes, this was a complaint that I, in the 18 1/2 ungodly years spent working for state of Connecticut, had never previously received.

Suffice to say, I am seriously pissed off about this particular complaint from this toddler. And as many of you know, when I get seriously pissed off about something (apologies for the uncouth select adjective), I have a tendency to slice, dice and julian about it on my blog.

However, after giving a mini-version of this issue on Facebook, I'm not so sure I want to vent about it on my blog. After all, the last thing I really want to do on my blog is come off like a whiny little toddler, which of course would be a major coup for me, considering I'm just a tad south of 50.

So after spending a few hours calming down (can you picture how bizarre a calm G.B. would look?), I decided to take a crack at doing a little pimping of my latest. For those of you who need a mild refresher on what my latest is, please peruse either the Blogger version of my book blog or the Tumblr version of my book blog.

So the news about my latest is this: I got the manuscript back from the formatter and once I get the cover back from the graphic designer, I'll upload everything to CreateSpace this coming weekend.

And that, in a nutshell, is the highlight, both personal and professional, of my week.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Life: Is Where It's...At?

Philosophically speaking, I do not have two turntables and a microphone. Instead, I have five payrolls, four parts of fiscal insanity, three parts of labor stupidity, two parts round pegs/square holes and one part of what's-in-it-for-me?

Mentally speaking, I am simply here in body and barely here in spirit. I am maladjusting quite nicely to my new schedule and the side effects that I'm experiencing are simply awesomesauce:

Seriously long work day plus getting home late plus having dinner very late plus having almost no time to run errands or properly decompress from the aggravation of the day plus a severely messed up sleep schedule equals burnout on the level of this (modern):

or burnout on the level of this (classic):

What's this mean for you the reader? For now in the short term, it means that my blogging will be even more sporadic that usual (if that's possible). But on the flipside, it means I will make a concentrated effort to get out and visit your blogs more regularly.

As always, the ultimate goal is to shake off what ails me (which in this case is serious work stress and serious personal stress, but surprisingly no financial stress) so that I can return to the normal chaos that I'm used to functioning in. Until then, keep knocking at the door, because you never know when you'll find it unlocked.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

IWSG Post Day 3!

IWSG

Welcome my friends to the blog that never ends, I am your most excellent host, G.B. Miller!

Not only is today November 5th but it's the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means? It means it's IWSG time!

The first Wednesday of the month is set aside for insecure writers across the blog-o-sphere to share all of our individual experiences, the gud, the baaaaaad and the plug ugly. You can either click on the link at the picture, or on the IWSG page located at the top of this blog.
Today's post is about a topic, while not exceptionally dear to my heart but resides just to the right of me (seriously, like my XP computer that I do my writing on is like one foot pace away from me), that is the latest plague ailing me, and I'm sure at one point has ailed you.

Having story that grabs you, shakes you around for several seconds to get the juices flowing, then unleashes you like a category 5 hurricane on an unsuspecting computer.

Right now, I can count on one hand (using the old calendar rhyme) the amount of times that a story has grabbed me in such a way that I had to simply spend all my free time writing it to completion: six short stories, of which three reside here and one resides here, two novellas of which the synopsis of one is here (note: this links is to my adult blog) and one novel.

For the past year I have fluttered between roughly a half dozen or so stories of various lengths in an attempt at finding the one story that will unleash the storm within and so far, I have a batting average that is extremely south of the Mendoza Line. Let me tell you, as someone who probably has some latent OCD flowing his veins, this has really bothered me at a level that I am simply not comfortable with being at for any kind of period of time.

But, as they say, there is at the moment, a microscopic glimmer of hope that this will be soon turned around. About four months ago, I started yet another writing project (shades of OCD), in that I wanted to do a short story anthology. I've already re-written one story, while it didn't really grab me like I wanted, it gave me enough of a nudge to perform the BICAW maneuver and actually complete the assigned task. I performed a quicky search of my XP hard drive and found a few more stories that looked like candidates. One, entitled Rain, has become the possible front runner of being the story that will become my category 5. While I haven't spent all of my free time rewriting this, I am spending some of my free time outlining a few plot possibilities for the story, which I will take as a good sign.

And that, my friends, is the plug ugly portion of my trifecta. Tune in next month when I will have the gud portion of my trifecta.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Moanday....

A semi-short pointy post about nothing (funneling my inner Jerry Seinfeld, which in and of itself, is a very scary thing) today, since we're hip deep into the extended version of my work schedule (48 regular hours + 2 hours of OT) this week. For those of you who need a super short yet highly informative post, please wander over to the Tumblr version of Father Nature's Corner.

For those of you who can't stand the data suck up that Tumblr can inflict on a computer, I have this annoying little song that is guaranteed to stick in your brain for the rest of your Monday.

BTW, this is the B-side (Just Like) Starting Over.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Family Movies Is My Dirty Little Secret

That's right boys and girls, my dirty little secret is that I like certain kinds of family movies, mostly of the PG & PG-13 variety. As a rule, I really detest most Disney movies (the amount of Disney movies that I have seen you can count on one hand, and the last one I saw was when my daughter was in the single digit age range), which harkens back to watching the Wonderful World of Disney and the Saturday afternoon town movie matinee as a kid.

While I'm willing to watch almost anything, the ones that I do enjoy watching are the ones that are story driven. While a few of those are of the R rated variety (21 Grams for example featuring Sean Penn. Say what you want about his politics, but he is willing to stretch it as an actor), the remaining ones are PG & PG-13. While this short list is by no means definitive as it applies to me, the ones on that make this short list are those that really resonate with me as a movie-goer.

So without further ado and in no particular order of importance, here are some of my favorite family oriented films, along with the appropriate link and maybe a factoid or two.

Please Keep Your Impure Thoughts To Yourself

As most of you know, I listen to a lot of college radio, which is due to the fact that it's the closest I can get to an eclectic mix of music w/o paying gobs of money (yes, I can be cheap sometimes). I also enjoy listening to talk radio, mostly on the drive home from work and when I'm running my nightly errands after work. What I don't enjoy is when people try to mix the two.

While I'm not ashamed to admit that I consider myself to be a moderate Republican, that doesn't mean I want to strictly listen to politics that lean extremely right. I consider myself to be a rather open minded individual, but not so open minded that I would tolerate politics that lean extremely left.

Now, I bet you're asking me, "What in the world does this have to do with music?"

Plenty.

Grammar Gone Wild!

I haven't done a writing update since nigh on three weeks ago yesterday, so I thought for today it would be nice gesture on my part to articulate precisely what it is that I have been doing with all of the nouns/verbs/adjectives/adverbs/superlatives/subjects/predicates/conjunctions/phrases/clauses that have been rattling around my brain stem for those past three weeks.

Smashwords
 

On the book front, specifically, the one you see just to the right of this paragraph, my latest is now at the formatters being prepared for a November release via CreateSpace, which I found surprisingly easy to set up and use.

On the writing front, after doing a lot of waffling (aka deep contemplation) for the past week or so, I switched gears and returned to the slushie shelf my monster rewriting project. The primary reason as to why it got returned was time. As in, precious little time to put in the required due diligence in order to create something worthy of me. I learned quite a while that to put a crappy product just to have something out can ultimately do a lot more damage than good.

So....I went to some seriously old files on my old XP computer and found roughly three short stories that I could have some fun with. Why? Because I already have one in the can (1st draft only) and I'm looking to create another thematic short story trilogy, just like I did with Broken Promises.

The first story I'm rewriting (seems like all I do is re-write these days), is called "Rain", and the most interesting thing about this is that I'm rewriting it the old fashioned way: my hands. It seems that my Dragon software was creating way more aggravation than creating words on paper, so I finally relegated it to the land where old programs go to be ignored: my C drive. And because I'm using Dragon at work (v. 12) the hand fatigue has dissipated to the point where I can do some relatively normal typing at home. Which means that I'm making steady and slow progress on the story, which features a couple of humanoids and good old fashioned sexual fun.

And finally, a little promo work for good blogger friend Kim Talon. Kim, who has a fantastic poetry/prose/photo blog called appropriately enough, Talon, has just released her debut mystery novel called Strings And Bones, published by Mundania Press and available in print and the major e-book formats.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Expanding My Musical Horizons, Courtesy Of My Public Library

I love my public library.

At the library, I can indulge my reading fix of new and not-so-new fiction and non-fiction to my heart's content. I can also contribute financially to the "Friends Of The Library" by purchasing gently used c.d.'s for $1 & $2. I find that having the opportunity to purchase gently used c.d.'s at roughly a 98% discount basically allows me to explore genres/artists that I wouldn't give a 2nd glance to, and to explore a given artist's deep catalogue of work.

I've made roughly a half dozen purchases over this year totaling just under 2 dozen c.d.'s and costing me about $23, which if bought new, you would have to add a 0 and double the final total. All of these c.d. are from either artists I've heard of (listening to college radio has seriously expanded my musical horizons) or genres that I've made known I seriously hate (i.e. country pop).

My purchases are of the basic principle, As Is, and for the most part, what I bought is what I got. However, I did have one or two surprises with what I'd bought, so in no particular order of importance, here is what this almost 50 writer/blogger has acquired for used music, courtesy of his public library. By the way, because I've listened to almost everything under the sun, there is almost nothing that I don't like. Almost.

Structured Chaos The 2nd

Yesiree Bob, I's already switching gears with my blogging schedule. I tell yas, this has to be a first for me, 'cause normally I wait a while before I decide to switch gears and tweak a plan. Anywho, I'm publishing today 'cause I'm hip deep within the recesses of my own mind. Specifically, journeying through uncharted territory that is self-publishing.

Specifically specific, trying to determine what I exactly want my book to look like on the inside. I'm not used to having an semi-infinite amount of choices when it comes interior decorating, so I want to make doubly sure I don't SELECT ADJECTIVE this up (see, see, see, I can be G-rated when necessary!), which means that I'll be twisting myself into a tasty pretzel this week. Now, if you mix in the fact that my new schedule kicks in tomorrow, then you'll know why I'll feel blue without.....Laverne & Shirley.

On the far side of the hill we got momentarily sidetracked on YouTube for oh....35 minutes while doing some...er...some...research, yeah, that's the ticket.

Anywho, over on the dark side (heheheheheheh....), we done published our first post at Father Nature's Mountain. It's not much, but it's a start. I'm pretty sure you can comment on it (I hope) and I so far, I haven't figured out how each post has its own individual url, so until then, when you click on the main link, you'll brought to the main blog page, and if you want to comment there and don't want to through the aggravation of registering (that is, if the anon feature doesn't work), feel to comment here about over there.

And that, my friends, is what's going on so with me. Tune in next week when I'll have tales of brave Ulysses to share with you.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Structured Chaos

Howdy do folks!

As promised previously, I would let everyone know exactly what is was that I had decided with my blogging/writing life. Well, today is that very day that we've all come to dread. To quote The Clash, Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Well, suffice to say, I am staying here. Kind of. That is to say, I'm still sticking with blogging, although there will be a few changes.

1} I'm cutting my blogging here to just twice a week, with the plan being Mondays and Fridays. This could change to different days due to an upcoming change at work which will be fully explained later in in the post.

2} I started a new blog over at the dark side, called Father Nature's Mountain (yes, I know, not very original). It will be mostly a photo blog, since that seems to be the easiest thing to post over there. No official link as of yet, because it will be a Wednesday only blog. Once that post goes up on 10/15, I'll provide the link to there here.

In other sordid news, I took the next step with The Inner Sibling and the goal is to have a print release in November. Factoid, I went through that manuscript for the 7th (and I hope final) time to find & fix any and all typos. Reality check, I'm figuring it will cost me a minimum of $235 per release of what  I already got in the can (two novellas and a short story). This is not due to paying someone to publish, but paying people to create book covers and to professionally format for e-book/print release.

Remember I mentioned later? This is later. Due to a key agency policy change, our unit was able to get a positive answer to the question of flex scheduling at work. For us, flex scheduling will be a bi-weekly schedule of four 10 hour days in the first week (payweek) and the normal five 8 hour days the second week. Due to the multiple payrolls (including a facility) that I'm responsible for, I chose a flex schedule, which takes effect on 10/17. Which means that going in early (7:30 start time) and going home late (6:00 end time) for half the work week will make G.B. a very grouchy person for the next month or so.

Welcome to my world. Be sure to stop by and visit our gift shop on your way out for your complimentary compliment that is guaranteed to be delivered with minimum effort and maximum panache.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Bubbles!

Huh? What? Where am I? Oh...yeah. Now I remember.

Ola!

This is Bubbles along with her lovely owner Jenelle:

Bubbles is a very tiny ferret who can get into all kinds of mischief:

Which it turn exasperates her owner:

But, we like Bubbles, anyways, 'cause she just like getting into all kinds of trouble! Not like the 3 amigos, who just like relaxin'.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Crossroads

It is often said that to start a journey, you have to take that first step in the direction you want to travel. But what if you come to an intersection on your journey where you're suddenly seized with indecision? What do you do then? Do you continue on the same path? Do you veer off to the left? Do you veer off to the right? Or do you pull up the proverbial chair, sit down, kick off your shoes, pull your hat down over your eyes and become lost within the nooks and crannies of your mind?

Roughly 6 1/2 years ago, I decided to start a blog. The blog was mostly about me and my adventures in writing. Through all the trials and tribulations, peaks and valleys, highways and byways, I basically poured my heart, soul and spirit into 1,448 posts spread out over 6 blogs.

This past weekend, I managed to wedge in some precious personal down time. It wasn't easy to do as I had all kinds of things (personal, professional, financial, etc.) vying for my immediate attention (like the cliché, they wanted it yesterday), but I found a way here and there to do it.

What I spent doing with my down time was thinking about my writing and my blogging. These days, both are vying for my attention whenever I decide to recharge my batteries. As of late, the pull of writing is stronger than the pull of blogging, which in some aspects is a good thing. In others, not so good.

Got Those Employment Blues

Got those old employment blues today. Employment blues are different than unemployment blues because basically, you're employed and you got the blues 'cause you ain't making enough dollars to pay the bills.

So.

I thought for today, I would share with everyone a few of my favorite unemployment/employment songs. Take each one for what it's worth, and have a happy Friday.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

ISWG Post Day 2!

IWSG

Welcome my friends to the blog that never ends, I am your most excellent host, G.B. Miller!

It's October 1st, and you know what that means? It means it's IWSG time!

The first Wednesday of the month is set aside for insecure writers across the blog-o-sphere to share all of our individual experiences, the gud, the baaaaaad and the plug ugly. You can either click on the link at the picture, or on the IWSG page located at the top of this blog.

Today's post is a mixture of good news and a reality check.

First, the good news. I created a new book blog at Tumblr. Called Books By G.B. Miller, it's basically a referral/linky to my main book blog here on Blogger. The are only two reasons as to why I decided to do this.

First, I wanted to take advantage, however small, of blogging's dark side, and for better or worse, Tumblr is blogging's dark side. Any thing that your twisted little heart desires you can basically find on Tumblr, so I figure since my writings are flavored with sex (twisted to a small degree), why not try to take advantage of all possible mediums.

Secondly, and most importantly, I created a 2nd book blog in order to bail myself out of Facebook jail. Hard to believe, but I'm in the first level of Facebook jail, which is having to supply the CAPTCHA to any book blog link (and only my book blog) that I post to Facebook. The only reason that I can think of as to why I'm being punished, is that I went a tad overboard back in late 2012/early 2013 post links to my new (at the time) debut novel.

Realistically, Facebook is a double edged sword, in that they want you to pimp yourself/your product all over the place, but if you do it too much, you get knocked down a couple of notches. I have friends who have been put into Facebook jail for something as simple as thanking people for accepting a friend request. So my friends, always keep it in the back of your head that Facebook will punish you for perceived transgressions of excessive verbiage.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

I Is Over There!

Greetings and Salutations to one and all!

As you can probably guess from the title of my blog post, I am not here today. Instead, I am over at Penny Estelle's blog, Penny's Tales, where I'll be pimping my latest release:

Buy Here

Please stop by to say "Hi!" and to read a nifty little blurb featuring Jeannie and Aissa Mitchell.


(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Nowhere To Run

Today, I'm glad to give up some blog space to fellow writer Jeanne Bannon, who earlier had written a fantastic debut YA novel Invisible, to help her promote her upcoming romantic thriller novel Nowhere To Run, available everywhere on October 3rd.

Jeanne can be found in the cbyer world at Twitter, Amazon, Facebook, Goodreads and at her personal website

Nowhere To Run (The Blurb)





What’s a girl to do when she falls in love with the man whose mission it is to bring her down?

With the murder of her only sister, Sara, just a few months past, Lily Valier—a woman of beauty and substance—tops the sheriff’s list of suspects in small town Maine, and for a very good reason. Dear old Dad had willed his fortune to Sara and only Sara, leaving Lily to fend for herself. However, with no murder weapon or witnesses, the evidence against Lily is only circumstantial.

Enter P.I. Aiden O’Rourke, black-haired and blue-eyed, charged with gaining Lily’s trust and learning her secrets, all to finally get the goods on her. Things move fast and feelings run deep, yet when Lily discovers the truth about Aiden, everything begins to come apart.

Aiden’s torn. Despite his feelings for her, Lily is the most logical suspect, with a great big fat motive. Except something’s not quite right. Aiden trusts his instincts and they’re screaming at him to have a look at a former suspect with far more to hide than first appeared. With little left to lose, Lily decides to stand her ground, and staying put has its consequences when the murder weapon finally turns up—and it’s Lily’s gun.

What happens to love, when trust is betrayed?

 

click on the read more link for a tantalizing excerpt

This Is What You Want?

Welcome to Hump Day, where normalcy is lunacy, lunacy is always good with parmesan cheese, Romano cheese and beefy meatballs, and having a picture of an unbalanced Johnny Rotten great you when you click on the blog will make you spit out your coffee.

Boxer brief background: Back in the day, MTV would sometimes play a video that would inspire me to buy an album for a song. The above video was one such purchase.

With The Inner Sibling unleashed to an unsuspecting general public (so far, roughly a dozen sample downloads but no purchases yet), I'm now in the process of doing a few touch ups/marketing promos for the book. For instance, next Monday I will be stopping by at fellow writer Penny Estelle's blog to pimp my book. And I'll be adding yet another page to my book blog, this time to use as a temporary link to the original print version from Smashwords, which will last until next month, as that is the working plan to release the new and improved print version.

Speaking of books, I decided to sign up for a Tumblr account this past Monday. Now, we all know that I need another blog like I need to go to the barber shop, but hear me out on this one.

For those of you who don't know, Tumblr is what I like to call the dark side of blogging. Whereas you're somewhat restricted with Blogger and WordPress, Tumblr has no such restrictions. Whatever you want to write about or show (especially show), you can do it on Tumblr. So I figure with the type of stuff that I write and plan on publishing, a book blog on Tumblr might help attract a few readers here and possibly a few books sales as well (if you check out the tags for my book, one them says "adult actress"). So at the very least, I'll have another venue to pimp myself and my writings.

So my friends, that's my agenda for the week. What/s yours?

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Now Playing, "The Inner Sibling"

As I previously mentioned about a week ago, I had to go through one last proofread of my novel before shipping it off to Smashwords. So that night, I sat butt down in chair and proceeded to go through page by page of said novel looking for any typos/misspells/faux pas that would/could be corrected.

Sad to say, I found exactly four.

Now the major headache was how to fix without compromising/jeopardizing what I spent my hard earned dollars on to begin with. I e-mailed the wonderful company that formatted my book and asked them precisely what I could and could not do in order to fix the typos. They did, so I did without doing what they said I couldn't do.

After having to save it under a another title (Word13 does not allow you to save an old version under the same name once you've performed edits), off to Smashwords I went. Even there, things did not go off w/o a hitch. I spent roughly 30 minutes writing the long and short synopsis, choosing the proper metatags, price ($2.99), etc., and as I got to the very end, I decide to refresh my memory on their T.o.S. Major mistake as the link did not open in a new window, but opened in the same and blew out all my hard work. Joy.

Anyhow, after all was said and done, I now present to you my new e-book, exclusively at Smashwords in all the major formats:

Buy It Here

For a free five page preview, click here. For a longer sample, click on the Buy It Here link. For the now removed Amazon reviews of the original version, Line 21, click here. For the classic print version on sale now, click on the classic banner caption.

Buy It Here

My friends, this is but just the first page in a brand new chapter of my writing journey. Please join me for what is sure to be a very creative and invigorating journey.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

A C.M. Classic: Post #1022

Time now, for the redundant portion of Father Nature's Corner, where we produce another post in the occasional series entitled "Cedar's Mountain's Classics", in which we take an old post from the original five year odyssey that was my first blog and retool, revamp, regurgitate, reactivate and simply reanimate to something very new and very shallow.

Today's classic post is #1022, dated July 8, 2013, entitled Medical Update.

The subject of said post was my lovely wife Joanne, who while camping last year, managed to fracture her ankle. Which in turn necessitated her having screws and a plate to hold things in place. The funny thing about this injury, if you can call a fractured ankle funny (g'wan, I dare ya), is that this is 2nd serious malady (besides giving birth) that she had to have surgery performed in the 27 years that we've been together.

Now me, I am not what you would call to be in perfect health by any stretch of the imagination. In the 27 years we've been together, I've suffered the following injuries: cracked rib, bruised sternum, lens implant, fractured knuckle (twice), tendonitis, cyst removal (twice), kidney stone, and knee drained. Add all of that stupid crap with my very permanent medical malady (no, not the sugar, the other), and I possess a body that even Burke & Hare would not touch.

So basically, I came in first for a race I did not care to run or win. Being first with most broken body parts in a relationship is definitely not what it's cracked up to be.

Nevertheless, I need to put a new twist on this post, so instead of a medical update on myself, which would be duller than dull, I give you instead, Tom Lehrer. Have a Happy Friday everyone, and make sure you turn into Monday's post for a very special announcement!

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

I'm A Guy, So....

I'm a guy, and as most you gals know, us guys rarely, if ever, admit defeat whenever we happen to be doing something that is far beyond our capabilities to handle, like running a washing machine. So the usual rule of thumb is to ignore warnings like those in pic because, hey, we're guys and know it alls, so reading a how-to manual to do something is way out of our comfort zone.

So as much as what I'm about to say pains me, I must reluctantly turn my back on my frat bros and say with the utmost sincerity, I am admitting defeat for Wednesday.

That's right, Wednesday has delivered upon to me a major ginormous whipping of my buttocks with a slimy wet noodle. For all intents and purposes, I must skulk back to my den and whip out from it's hiding place, the manual for blog writing. With shaky hands and a blend of a Bill Clinton quiver and a Billy Idol sneer, I must spend some time reading this all important manual, because you know, if I want to know what's in it, I don't have to vote for it first.

So my friends, with eyes wide shut and brain closed loosely, I shall partake and digest the verbiage of said book, 'cause you know, a sniveling Marvin is a dead Marvin. Except in my case a confused G.B. is an easy touch G.B.

 

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

More Suite Than Short, But 5' 5" Will Do For Now

Yeah, I know, major disconnect with blog title and blog content. It's Moanday, so please fasten your safety belts.

Life does indeed revolve around me, or in this case, revolve around this:

To whit, the following was either done or on the TBD list for this week.

1} Got manuscript back from formatter? Checkmate.
2} Proofread one last time before moving on to Smashwords? Not yet.
3} Got promo postcards for distribution? Yes, but performed a faux pas. Reorder was completed.
4} Got a few ideas for marketing? Check-o-roonie.
5} Update your book blog to let the half dozen or so people who decide to check it out that you have new product coming out? Absolutely!
6} Ready to pull your hair out with a pair of zircon encrusted tweezers because you have to proofread your novel one last time? What do you think?

In addition to all of those bullet points (note, bullet point #2 will be the death of me this week, so forewarned is forearmed) I'm also having a devil of a time trying to outline what I want to do for the two novellas I want to rewrite. Let tell you something, it ain't easy trying to figure what to keep and what to use when your rewriting something. It's almost enough to make me want to pull out my father's vast collection of music featuring this country artist.

In the meantime, please entertain yourself by either clicking on Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3, and please keep this one thing in mind: the writer of this blog was born in '65, came of age in the 70's & 80's, thus has a most peculiar sense of humor.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Shameless Promoing 101

Greetings and Salutations to one and all!

I thought for today's post I would use this blog to shamelessly promote me, myself and I. After all, it was almost some 6 1/2 years when I'd started blogging and the original intent was not only to pimp myself, but to pimp my adventures in writing as well as my writing.

So starting today, we'll shameless promote our writing at least three times this month in the good hope that you will find me and my writing interesting enough to investigate further. The first item on our action packed agenda, is my e-book trilogy:

Available @ Smashwords

Published in August of last year, Broken Promises was at the time my re-entry into the world of self-publishing. The main premise behind this trilogy was basic economics: I wanted to keep my name out there amongst the general public while I was deciding on what my next writing move should be. The stories that make up this trilogy not only were previously published in my defunct short story blog, but are what I believe to be the best unpublished work (non-blog related) I had at the time. All three stories were tidied, tweaked and polished to such a high glossy finish that I was blinded by its brilliance.

So, if you were ever curious about what I write or seriously intrigued about my definition of quirky fiction, then please consider giving Broken Promises a spin in your favorite reading device, because you know I got you covered in all the popular formats (save Kobo). You won't be disappointed.

Plus, now thru the end of September, if you purchase a copy of Broken Promises, you can save $1 off the classic hard copy of my soon to be re-released commercial debut novel. Just shoot me an e-mail copy of your receipt at the time of purchase. Details about how to purchase the original print copy of The Inner Sibling can be had by clicking on the link.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

Who Are You?

Ever have this problem?

You're standing at the counter of your favorite c-store (or any kind of small retail outlet for that matter) pulling out your wallet (or purse) to pay for your schtuff, when someone at the next register says, "Hi G.B.!" You look up, give them a puzzled look and either ignore them or acknowledge them with the kind of response that speaks volumes about the fact that you have no clue on who they are.

Or, say you're at work and a colleague that you barely know calls you by your first name and asks "how's things?" You can't simply give them the brush off, because quite frankly you have no freakin' idea on who it is that's talking to you, but you know damn well if you have a snappy comeback it will come back to bite you in the ass times ten. So you give them a rather neutral answer and hope like hell they leave you alone.

Uggh! It's Moanday....

A lot of work related stress that started on Friday is still chugging through my veins today, so I thought this video would be serious compliment to my state of mind.

The drummer is Meytal Cohen, and she made this video as an audition video for the show "America's Got Talent". She is a phenomenal hardcore metal drummer. Her website can found by clicking her name and she can be found on Facebook as well. Oh, and the song is Toxicity by System Of A Down (Armenian hard rock band).

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

I Gots Tagged For Writing!

Greetings and Salutations to one and all!

For those of you who are just passing through, I am your most excellent host (shades of Bill & Ted) G.B. Miller, and today's post will feature a four question writing meme that I was tagged with by the ever popular Debbie from The DogLady's Den. So if you're ready, willing and smartly able, let's begin at the beginning.

1} What am I currently working on?

Well, I was working on a short story, but since that's done, I will pull another one out of my slushy pile of verbiage. In all seriousness, I've just started work on a prequel to a medium length novella that I wrote some years ago. The prequel itself is pretty average, but I think with some moderate gutting, splicing and rewriting the characters in my unique style, this could turn out to be a moderately above average novella. No writing yet, but I plan on re-reading what I got so that I can create a good outline in which to start from.

2} How does your work differ from others in the same genre?

Good question. I've always had problems trying to properly "label" my writing. Other than calling it paranormal/fantasy, the way it differs from other is in two unique ways: women who use sex as a weapon of power, and the fact that my female MC's are not WASPish by any stretch of the imagination. In other words, they are proverbial colors of Benetton (examples, the characters in my debut commercial novel and my short story trilogy).

3} Why do you write what you write?

Most of my writing is flavored, to a varying degree, with sex. I feel most comfortable writing about different kinds of sexual situations, ranging from innocent flirtation to hardcore debauchery. Over the years I've gotten better at tempering the amount of sex contained in a story, so that if a scene calls for hardcore, I write hardcore; if it calls for something milder, then I write something milder. I've always had a healthy respect for the wonderful of world of naughtiness and over the years (you should spend a day with me just listening to the double entendres and sly play on words that I perform).

4} Describe my writing process.

Yikes! Not that! Seriously though, my writing process is a bit weird. Because I work full time and have a house full of family to contend with in the evening, the only time I can get any writing done, regular or blogging, is on the weekends. Spring and Summer, the family goes camping so I have plenty time to get something accomplished. Fall and Winter is more difficult because I can't really do it at home much, so I go out to the public library to write (pen and paper). Sadly, because my hands are getting steadily worse, if I want to do a lot of writing (not blogging) I have to use Dragon Software in order to accomplish it.

I'm told that the rules state that I must tag three other people. Unfortunately, I can only tag one person, fellow blogger Riot Kitty. However, if you feel up to participating in this little meme, by all means, step in to take a good crack at it. Once again, my sincere thanks goes out to Debbie of The DogLady's Den for tagging me with this meme. It was a pretty cool thing to do.

(c) 2014 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.