I fixed a few things since Friday, mostly yesterday evening.

The big one is probably the Collision MySpace.  After a fair amount of hair-pulling, I managed to pull the black background out from behind the black print, so the site can now be read.  I also sent some friend invitations (to people who already know the band, so that means locals), added a brief history (which needs some editing), and uploaded the lyrics of our first song to the blog (since I didn’t see a place for lyrics).  I sent Baxter and Brittany notes alerting them to this.  I also took note that our MySpace site name is CollisionAtHopewell.  Checking in briefly now, I note that we’ve had positive answers to two of our invites.  If I tell you that they are from my son and Baxter’s sister, I hope that doesn’t make you think less of us.

The second repair job, which I actually did before that, was on the Temporal Anomalies site.  I proofread my response to Vazor’s blog, made a few minor corrections, and then redid a piece of the directory structure for the site, changing the section name that was “Correspondence” to “Conversation“, adding to the subindex of that section the new page plus the four pages which were responses to questions on another site years ago, and redoing the links on all the pages in that site to include those five along with the two dozen letters.  Hopefully it will make site navigation a bit easier.  Meanwhile, I note that Vazor has thanked me for my response, on his blog, and promised a followup post; I will have to keep alf an eye there, although I have asked that he notify me when he posts it.

The third thing that got repaired is really the first.  I started once more reading through the book Do You Trust Me?, and fixed two or three spots that could have been said better.  There is a rule in this business that if you wait until something is perfect it will never go to print, and I can feel the pain of that rule with this book; however, the reason for my delay is entirely that the cover art is not ready (which seems to be a reason that delays most of my books at some point), so the fact that I am still tweaking the text is not an issue.  I do have to format it to page size and add the page numbers to the table of contents, but that will come soon enough.

I have been giving serious thought to combining the three books, Do You Trust Me?, What Does God Expect?, and About the Fruit, into one volume, tentatively entitled A Christian Primer.  I could sell the one book for less than the three individually, and I think that they fit together in a coherent package.  I am minded in this that C. S. Lewis originally published the three books we know as Mere Christianity separately–somewhere I have a copy of the second, Beyond Personality–but that combined they make a coherent whole.  From a marketing perspective, the single volume would probably cost the reader less than the three books separately without impacting my profit.  I would keep the individual books available, though, because someone interested in only one would still be able to buy it (and then come back for the other two eventually).  Anyway, it’s on the table for consideration.  The Trust book has to go to print before anything will be done on combining them.

I accomplished something.

–M. J. Young

I would love to tell you that Ubercon X was great, but I would be lying, and although I will obfuscate and conceal, I do attempt not to lie.

It was not without its highlights.  I very much enjoyed meeting Timothy Zahn and his wife Anna, and hope they will find the time to drop me a note eventually.  He and I sat on one panel on early influences, along with Josepha Sherman, and the Zahns came to our otherwise sparsely attended Sunday morning Christian Gamers Guild-sponsored worship service.

That panel was recorded (were I to say “taped” I would be showing my age) by a group that produces a broad and podcast program under the name Non-productive, and it will be airing on the Rutgers radio station and another local station fairly soon.  They also tapped me to do a promo for the show, which they let me write:

This is Multiverser author M. J. Young encouraging you to listen to the most Non-productive broadcast in any universe.

The tech says I have no idea how accurate that is, and that it will go over well with their fanbase.  Now I wonder whether anyone in their fanbase would have any clue as to who I am.

I was on two other panels, one entitled How to Write a Game Anyone Can Play, but I’m not sure that the panelists all agreed that was a suitable goal.  Chris O’Neil, Peter Schweighofer, Tony DiGeralamo, Dave Simpson, and someone who did not make any of the program listings were part of that.  Much the same group also talked about how to attend cons and buy books without going broke, although we all joked that if anyone had any ideas on that we’d love to hear them.

However, it was a very slow con.  Tony DiGeralamo agreed with me that there were fewer people here than at previous cons, and most of them the same people.  Even so, many of the expected people were absent.  One fan purchased copies of the two new books, Faith and Gaming and Game Ideas Unlimited Volume 1, but when it comes to it my mother bought more books (one of each of those plus copies of About the Fruit and What Does God Expect–and yes, my mother bought those books, as gifts for her pastors, but I charged her the convention discounts for all books).  If my count is accurate, we had three new players at the table; no one had any money to spend on books, although several expressed sincere-sounding regret on that point.

Of course, conventions are always tiring for me.  I get booked rather solid, with just enough time to sleep overnight before returning in the morning.  I also lost most of an hour of time to a late Friday night phone call which burned up my cell minutes and my sleep.  I should have cut that shorter, but I do enjoy talking to friends even when I should know better.

Further complicating life, I realized sometime on Friday that my resistance was struggling against something, but I had forgotten to bring the Cold-Eze Tropical Fruit drops that are so good against this.  The next morning I found no drug store open, and the next morning although the drug store was open I was late for the first session (a meet and greet Kaffeeklatsch that was mostly guests and staff chatting about games and conventions).  I finally obtained this important medication on my way home after dinner with my parents, but it was too late as I was already plunging into a serious case of bronchitis.

Since I am already a respiratory patient (the asthma), it was insisted that I be seen by the doctor today, and that I obtain an antibiotic for the malady.  I must thank one of my sons for assisting me with the obligatory trip to take my mother-in-law shopping, especially as it seems to have gotten him in dutch with his girlfriend.

All of this means I am collapsing, with little to show for my efforts, and posting this only because I did not want phone calls or e-mails asking where I am.

Thanks for your understanding.  It is to be hoped that tomorrow I will be able to begin catching up on everything that has backed up since Friday.

–M. J. Young

There is as yet no word on the truck, beyond that the garage is backed up and turning away work (one of their mechanics had a baby this past weekend (actually, his wife had the baby, but he’s out for the week) and they are very much backlogged). Our houseguest got his car back today, timing chain intact, although I am waiting for the check from his mother to cover what I paid on it. I had thought this would mean that we could return the rental and that as long as one of the other two cars come through we Ubercon would happen–but the lady who controls the vehicles has said not to return the rental until at least one of the other two cars comes through, and the way she sounds she won’t want me going unless there is a car for me and a car for her, so things are still looking rather grim. On the bright side, she is off on Thursday, so if we have the truck and the new car is ready she can get me to it. On the dark side, someone has already tried to get her to commit to being somewhere else that night, and our son who comes home during the week needs to return to Delaware that night, so it’s not going to be simple.

I would love to say that I am otherwise ready to go, but with all the confusion and complication all I can say is that I paid up the cell phone and ordered copies of my own books (What Does God Expect? and About the Fruit, which have not yet arrived). I’m not sure what happens next. I have not given up on getting to the convention, but I am not encouraged by the situation to this point.

–M. J. Young

I’ve got a list of things to do, but I can’t recall that I’ve done any worth reporting here.

I’ve got a few people who did reviews of What Does God Expect? to whom I promised to send free copies of the new book About the Fruit, but I’m still trying to get their addresses together in one place, pack up the books, and get them mailed. It doesn’t help that I sort of don’t have enough copies. I have six copies, and I’ve promised them to three reviewers. However, my wife has one of the copies, and two of them have been handed to people at church. One of those has been thoroughly thumbed, and I promised to swap it for one in like-new condition and pass the thumbed one to one of the reviewers (who get theirs free) before I accept any money for it. Thus I have to hold onto one of the like-new copies until I can swap it for the slightly thumbed one, and that means I’ve only really got two copies I can ship unless I snatch the one my wife borrowed. (The other that is on loan will probably be gifted to the church library when it returns to me, so I’m not worried about it being a bit thumbed.) Meanwhile, I can’t find one of the three addresses I need, so maybe I’ll ship the two good ones and the third reviewer will get the slightly used one (which I think he won’t mind, particularly when he learns that he got one of the few copies that won’t have the ISBN bar code on it–he likes the rare collectible ones).

I also have to do my laundry and make dinner, but one of my houseguests was cooking a few minutes ago, so I figured I’d get this written and then do that.

–M. J. Young

I am like way behind today, and it’s really my own fault.

I knew quite well that on Thursday I was going to have to launch the new book, About the Fruit, and that having launched it I would have to update my own website to announce this. I also knew that once I was certain of its availability I would have to send a special program to the radio station for my Quick Word radio show to announce the book, followed by the new programs that have been sitting on my drive for the past couple of weeks. I knew this would all be a frustrating process of jumping through hoops. Even so, for some insane reason on Tuesday night I decided to start recording an audiobook version of What Does God Expect?, which I continued to do on Wednesday night, giving me a nearly finished project this morning.

Then I got a request to drive someone to work unexpectedly; then by the time I’d finished my morning study I was being asked to go on a couple of quick errands which turned into a three hour tour, making dinner (still not served) rather late, and later because no one did the dishes as instructed.

However, About the Fruit is now available, and in fact is for a limited time on special at a twenty-five percent discount from my intended price. The paperback does not yet bear the ISBN, which is being processed, but you can get copies without it if you’re interested.

I have uploaded the new pages to the web site; I hope I caught all the incomplete bits. I’ve also sent the announcement program to the radio station, but still have to send the four new shows to follow it.

I also have a rather important major undertaking that I should be doing tonight, as instructed by our company president; but I’ve been advised to discuss it with our vice president for public relations before I proceed, which makes sense, since it’s as much his area as mine (development). It just means that in addition to getting everyone fed, I’ve got to make a visit to Delaware tonight to catch him at his day–er, night–job. It should be good to get together with him outside of meetings and pressures, but I’m going to be beat tomorrow.

This is not to mention that my mother-in-law needs to get her social security check to the bank; my sympathy for her is low, because she insists that she needs the assurance of actually taking the check to the bank herself, but doesn’t understand the inconveniece to me of two hours of driving just for that purpose. I also promised my pastor’s wife that I’d have the remaining 7dB audio equipment out of their basement this week so they can get the rugs cleaned, and it has just been a crazy week for transportation anyway. The engine of the new car is currently disassembled to fix a broken rocker arm and a bad engine mount, and one of those parts won’t be in until maybe Monday, so I’m still dealing with the one car problem.

I’ve also had to delete a few comments whose sole purpose for their vapid remarks was to add a link to a commercial interest that has nothing to do with our purpose.  That’s not a problem, really, except that the upload of the radio program files was tying up my bandwidth and making the process run like molasses, which increases the frustration level a bit.

You didn’t come here to read me complaining, though, so let me let you go while I find out what else I have to do tonight.

–M. J. Young

It is not my birthday today, but it is close; the birthday girl is out at the moment, and her birthday dinner is getting cold, but she is probably having dinner with friends anyway so there’s no point stressing.

After hours last night I started a new project. It was not quite an impulse, but it was rather sudden. I had previously considered whether to record my books as audiobooks–obviously not the Multiverser rules or world books, since audio reference books are not terribly practical, but the novel has been considered several times. This weekend the editor of the tiny paper for which I have occasionally written apologized that she has not had time in over a year to read my incredibly short book What Does God Expect?; as mother of two small children, the only reading she ever does is usually about silly animals. Then as I was visiting the Lutheran forum yesterday evening, there was a thread about listening to audiobooks, and I asked whether people would actually buy my book recorded for more than the same book in paperback. A couple of affirmative answers put me onto the idea, and then late last night I recorded about half the book, each chapter as a separate track. Once I have the other half finished, I’ll burn a copy (it will probably take two disks, but we’ll see) and listen to it, and then see whether it’s worth putting it up for sale.

I’ve still got some of the old radio voice, but the long stretches are challenging, and one is not certain just how much one is allowed to fumble before re-recording. However, progress has been made.

–M. J. Young