my little brother is awesome

Before we talk about how awesome my little brother is, I want to announce that MacDowell Sisters and AnnaBeth is officially out of print. That was the first edition of Destined for Darkness with a different title and cover, etc. If you didn't get it yet, I guess you're out of luck. lol.

I do plan to put Destined for Darkness into print in the next month or two. More on that later.

One more: The limited print edition of Lair of the White Wyrm should be up on Lulu until about the end of March, then that version of the book will also be out of print.

Why is my little brother awesome? I haven't seen him since last year. We don't live that far apart, but his work keeps him busy. That’s not why he’s awesome. When dropping off an older computer for him (he enjoys tinkering), I picked up Christmas gifts from him and the Mrs.

He previously told me that he got me Uncharted 3. I've only played the first one, but I loved it. Uncharted is a lot like Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider.

So I pick up the gifts and the game is in a big box. It's the friggin' collector edition. Over the course of my decades of gaming and geeking, I have had exactly zero collector edition games. It is so cool. Let us look upon it with awe and wonder.

This is the case. I have it sitting on top of my movie shelf. It's pretty big, but it's also very pretty, so I have no problem displaying it.

Here we have the inside of the case. The thing on the left is the actual game case. It's made of tin. On the right, we have a statue of Nate. I left him in the plastic. In the middle are two drawers.

Drawer number 1 has a reproduction of Nate's ring on a necklace. The inscription on the outside says "Sic Parvis Magna", which supposedly translates to "Greatness from small beginnings". I have tried to figure out what language it is and have determined that they are not real words. My first guess was Latin, but according to Google translate, it is not latin. I think one word came up when I plugged in the phrase. I have decided the game creators made this up.

I did remove the ring from the package so I could make a necklace of it. I removed the leather strap because I would just tear it up. I have the ring on a dogtag chain.

This is a reproduction of the belt buckle that Nate wears in the game. I left it in the package. What the heck am I going to do with a belt buckle? It's still really cool though.

and that is why my little brother is awesome.

movie: Super 8

I adored this movie.

Super 8 is about a group of kids who is making a zombie movie with a home video camera. They’re filming next to some train tracks when there is a horrific crash. The military swoops in and basically takes over the town. They’re looking for something but are tight-lipped about what that something is.

Why did I adore this movie? Several reasons. The general feel of the movie, the story, the grown-up sounding banter between the kids, reminded me of Stephen King. In fact, while we were watching the movie, I actually looked up who wrote it because I thought maybe I missed this book release. JJ Abrams was the writer and the director. You might’ve heard of some of his other credits: Lost, Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest. The man kicks serious ass.

Super 8 takes place in the summer of 1979. I think they seemed to do a really good job recreating the time period, visually. I can’t remember the actual time period of course because I was like 2 years old. But the scenery and wardrobe, etc. all feels authentic and not cheesy in any way.

Special effects were amazing. The story was compelling. Very good. Super 8 gets a big, fat A.

A brief announcement

Hi! Just popping in to announce that Like Clockwork and a Tangled Mind and What the Dead Fear are now available on the Wattpad app and website.

Blog Tour Stop #1

Today Jill Elizabeth was kind enough to host an excerpt from Lair of the White Wyrm on her blog! Here is the link.


http://blog.jill-elizabeth.com/2012/02/24/guest-post-excerpt-from-xx-by-lea-ryan/

in which limitations were learned

I think it's Rihanna who has a tattoo that says, "Never a
failure, always a lesson". I've had some lessons in the last few days.
Let's review, shall we?

First, my release date (Tuesday) snuck up and sucker-punched me in
the back of the head. I had a task list for the day before the book came out.
My intention was to minimize the task list for the actual release day.

Monday was Presidents Day. That day, we all (husband plus
children) had the day off, so we went to the Children's Museum in Indy. It was
a lot of fun. I did not realize the significance of the date aside from the fun
I was having on the holiday. After having a much needed day off with my fam, as
I lay down to go to bed, it hits me - tomorrow is release day. Stream of curse
words in my head.

I woke up an hour early to get the ebooks on Smashwords and Amazon
running. Laptop screens are glaringly bright that early in the morning, btw.
Then I headed off to the day job, did my time there, went back home and started
updating the website, the book trailer, posting the release announcement on the
blog, setting up the limited edition on lulu, which I decided to do last
minute. Basically, I ran my ass off to get where I needed to be.

What did I not do? Send out the stuff for my first blog tour stop,
which was supposed to be today. I spaced it. so very my fault. I did end up
sending it last night with no reply from the blogger. I'm guessing she was
irritated with the late entry. I can't say that I wouldn't be annoyed if
someone did that to me. It just sucks because that was not one, but two blog
tour stops on a site with great traffic.

So what have I learned?
1. Hover over the calendar the week before release day and set up annoying
beeping reminders on my phone, so that I don't have to leap out of bed before
work.

2. Do not schedule any activities other than updating links and
making announcements for release day. It just doesn't work, not for me, at
least.

3. Do not piss off the bloggers.

book day!

Lair of the White Wyrm is out in the world.

It is currently available at:

Amazon

and

SmashWords

There is a limited edition on Lulu, which will only be available until I get the CreateSpace edition going. That's going to take me a month or so due to various difficulties and necessary delays. The Lulu edition has special cover art. The front cover looks like this.

Print edition on Lulu

Here is a link to an excerpt of the book on my website - Link

YAY!

website

Good Friday, weblings! Did this week seem long or what?

The website is hustling and flowing. The domain name transfer went relatively smoothly. Microsoft transferred it out of their system to an Australian company who charges $37.50 per year! yikes! I paid $8 to transfer it to godaddy because they charge slightly less.

Hosting is through Google sites. Their interface is a tad awkward but I'm getting the hang of it. The hosting is free and I can do pretty much anything I want as far as media capability.

So, after a whole bunch of work and research and experimentation, the website drama is settled. Here is the link in case you want to check out the new digs.

http://www.LeaRyan.com

When I grow up...

Some day I will have all of my shiz together. I might have to push
the print release out by a week or so due to various outside forces like the
website drama and internal forces like the fact that I have trouble stopping
myself from editing. I think I'm ok though. I can step away, I swear.

I need to take care of various print release tasks like designing
the back cover, formatting the book interior, and ordering a proof copy. I'll
probably finish all that business this weekend, assuming there is time. If the
print delay makes you sad, take heart. A few chapter-long excerpt shall appear
online on 2/21.

The domain name transfer for the website is taking forever! That
is not a super easy or efficient process. There are all sorts of numbers and
account settings and requests involved. Hopefully that will be resolved by
release day. I was hopeful it would be resolved by now! The transfer is
apparently not something they really want you to do.

For the next release, I would like to be better about finishing
certain tasks at least a month before the book comes out. This round, because
the lag between releases has been so long, I'm probably a bit over-eager to get
it out into the world. In the future, I need to be okay with holding onto the
finished book while I get all my business in order. I'll be more organized and
focused then. yes.

To My Mr.

To my husband. You know who you are.

You are the
Han Solo to my Princess Leia,
the Mickey to my Mallory,
the Kermit to my Miss Piggy,
Peter Parker to my Mary Jane
the carrots to my peas
and the guy that puts gas in my car
For these reasons and a few others,

I shall keep you around slightly longer.

Happy Valentines Day!

Movieless Mon

I have no movie today! shocking, right? I don't think I watched any movies this weekend. We were busy and just never got around to it, I guess.

Our backup Blockbuster closed, which means we have no Blockbusters close enough to rent from on a regular basis. We get most of our movies from Netflix, so it's not a huge deal but it still sucks, nonetheless. I liked the convenience factor. They had crazy deals this weekend. We ended up buying like 20+ movies for about $30.

Im surprised that no news outlets have picked up on all the blockbuster store closings. I'm sure it will probably be most of them. Maybe everyone is just so used to seeing them as a sinking ship that no one cares. That's really sad. I miss them already.

I'm still working on the website business. I should have more on that later this week. I like the way the new site looks. It has a lot in common with the old site but is more straightforward. The home page has more of a bookshelf feel than before. There's not an actual shelf graphic, but the layout is almost shelf-like.

book working and a black keys video

Last week's sickness really slowed me down last week. However, I am feeling much better. Woo healthy!

I did an evaluation of where I stood on Sunday and was like whoa. I have some serious stuff to finish before the book is released. I do have to do one more read-thru because I made a mistake. I thought I could do a hands-off edit with a printed manuscript. That did not work. If there's writing on paper in front of me, there is a 90% chance I will scribble something on it.

So there will be one more, very quick read-thru that will take me down to the wire on the editing deadline. That's ok because I have enough time, she says hopefully. I will use the kindle this next round.

I have moved most of the website to a new home. The domain hasn't been transferred yet, however, and the wyrm page is still at the old site. I should get all that business resolved by the end of next week if all goes as planned. I wasn't able to get everything on Blogger as I had hoped. When you create pages aside from the primary blog page, they don't have the same functionality as the blog home page.

I decided to use Google sites for home base. The interface is awkward, but I can work with it. It's free too, which is always good. I'll do a post on that when everything is settled.

Have I mentioned my love of The Black Keys? Their music is just this gritty, beat-heavy rock and roll, genius, really. They put out a new video for Gold on the Ceiling, which is one of my favorite songs on the new album. I embedded it below for your viewing and listening enjoyment.

movie: The Hangover 2

Did anyone else think Madonna was awesome in the halftime show? I loved it. I thought it was amazing. I couldn't believe people were ripping on it today. Then I decided that ripping on the halftime act has become a tradition. Musical artists, good or bad, if you play the superbowl, expect some disses. Also expect every molecule of what was on stage to be dissected and evaluated for flaws. geez.

Anyway, so The Hangover 2.

Loved it. Here is the description from IMDb: “Two years after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.”

It was quite hilarious. I read some reviews when it was first out in the theater that said it was exactly like the first, they just did some minor changes. It was similar in places. They wake up with a man lost, this time the bride’s brother. There were a few other parts that I caught, but I’m not going to risk spoiling anything. Despite the similarities, nothing about watching the movie felt stale to me. It was still very entertaining.

However, should there be a Hangover 3, they're going to need to switch the story up some more. The formula they're working is going to get old by episode 3.
The Hangover 2 gets a B-.

And, just because I think it’s super sexy, here is an interview with Bradley Cooper in delicious French. Oh my.

tossing the website into the juggling act

I am so displeased with Microsoft at the moment. For the last couple of years, I've used their website hosting service. The price was great. I never had an issue. I get an email yesterday that they’re discontinuing the service I use, turning it into some kind of Office related mess and jacking up the price by about 600%.

They can keep their overpriced mess as far as I'm concerned. I'm leaving, of course. However, this has presented a couple of problems.

Hosting is a lot more expensive now than it was when I first set up my website. Seriously, ouch. Every company I've looked at charges about $10 a month after their introductory offers expire. That's fine and dandy if you're setting up a storefront, but my website is basically a showroom for my books. I make $0 through the site directly.

I’ve found a couple of free hosting services, but I’m not loving them. I will probably continue looking around.

I have a plan for the moment. It's a pain in the ass, but I think I can make it work. I'm taking my domain name with me by transferring to godaddy. I'm going to link it to this blog and basically turn the blog into my website. That might actually work better in at least one way.

When I first set up my website, I wanted to feed the blog into one of the pages. I wasn't able to do it. If the website moves to the blog, that won't be an issue. Everything will be all close and snuggly.

There is one other problem, however. I've been setting up my blog tour stops using the email address that goes with the website. Once I move on out of Microsoft, that inbox will be no more. That means I'm going to have to notify all the people I've been talking of the new email address and hope no wires get crossed in the process.

I'm working I'm transferring everything this week, so you might see some craziness and new pages popping up in the blog in the next week or so.