BLOG POST 198

Tessera Trilogy Blog Post 198

Kashan Kashmeeri - Progress has been made. All pages out of the final 176 have been reviewed, marked up, reprinted and paper clipped for further editing where necessary. A further round of reviews, markups, re-editing followed. This included multiple word by word checks, looking for improper tense, duplicate words/phrases, incorrect spacing of paragraphs and use of identical font and bolding in Chapter numbers. POV shifts were identified and corrected, as were grammatical, tense, and character name errors. After the cover is finalized the final product needs to go to BOOKBABY for processing as a Print On Demand product.

Novel cover - CamScanner, a phone app for iPhones and Droids, allows you to capture scenes to JPG or PDF format, crop, reorient image, change colors, and make your own special novel cover. I used a new program (Freeware, so it cost nothing) to modify photos taken of a Tree of Life rug, the cover of the novel. It’s called Paint.net.  I searched on that term under Google, downloaded and installed it. One opens a JPG file under the program, and like Photo Shop, one can edit it, and insert title information for a book cover.

DATA LOSS – While transferring twenty plus year’s worth of data files (HI CUZ data files and blog entries, Tessera Trilogy novels research, they ALL DISAPPEARED. I went to Best Buy’s local Geek Squad. They couldn’t recover the data and said it needed to be sent away for recovery.  I then tried a local company, ComputerProsToday. Their estimate was better, and they said there would be no charge unless the data was recovered. Awaiting return (they pick up and deliver the affected drive/PC) of my external hard drive and the new one I bought to take over the duty of data backup.

In the meantime, while I await what the data recovery company can do, I’m attempting to find and recover Journals, HICUZ Blog posts, Tessera Trilogy Blog posts, and other data from email strings.

Data now, end of August, has been recovered. Well, most of it. A number of file names were too long to recover, and all the data is now grouped by type, mostly without its original title, and all the folders are gone. So I face months of opening, renaming, and saving all the data files. Found in initial search of the files that I have 4533 PDF files, all without recognizable titles other than an alpha-numeric  string of characters. YIKE!!!

They recovered "all" data, though I'm still wading through it to see what might be missing. The data came back as an enormous listing of numerically titled files. So I have to open each and every one, re-title it, then decide if it’s a dupe, still wanted, then put in newly designated folders by subject. I think it will take me months, amidst other projects. I feel confident I have most of the files.

I'd recommend the company, now known as Computer Pros Today. They charged me $279.00, which was way less than Best Buy. Best idea coming out of this mess - Backup files to multiple ext hard drives.

The Next One – the sequel to The Tessera Trilogy, has begun to take form. It has survived its first Books-A-Million critique session.

BAM 29 Aug 2016 critique comments

BAM member –

1.      First few pages funny, He seems paranoid and delusional – working

2.      His sense of awkwardness seems off - disagree

3.      Does he have asberges? He seems chatty though – still developing character

4.      Well done, but did you intend him to come across as a loon? – No, he’s brilliant and bizarre

5.      Minor editorial comments – agree

BAM member –

1.       Liked first few pages, then got sidetracked by IQ references - still developing character

2.      Will this be a satirical story? – wait and see

3.      Liked background info on setting - thanks

4.      Better of reader knew who Tom was early on – agree, working

5.      Minor editorial comments – agree

6.      Liked description of unvoiced footsteps - thanks

7.      Too numerous, confusing references to IQ and BP – agree, working

BAM member -

1.      Funny, His minds activities ramble. How does he know his BP is rising? – working on story

2.      Identify George as having a photographic mind – agree

3.      Great character introduction – thanks

4.      Thoughts of dates and his chances were out of place – disagree, essential to story

5.      Minor editorial comments – agree

6.      How does Bai know of heart and BP conditions – her mother is an RN

7.      A great piece - thanks

8.      Bai would have to had extensive training to know how to take BP - disagree

BAM member –

1.       Liked, but nothing different to add – thanks

2.       Waiting to see what happens in next segment - thanks

3.      No written comments

BAM member –

1.       Funny! Is he a genius or crazy. I think he’s crazy – no, brilliant, but weird

2.      Liked the IQ of 197 bit - thanks

3.      Rambled, then heard steps again (he reassessed access points) - working

4.      No written comments

BAM member –

1.      Liked it, funny, Does the main character have asperges? Appears to behave like someone on autism scale – They have to be coached in life – He is an interesting character.

2.      Good writing – thanks

3.      Liked description of characters rambling mind, good character detail – thanks

4.      Spell out Blood Pressure (BP) – agree

5.      Explain how Bai knows about BP checks – her mother is an RN

6.      Liked character having IQ of 197 and developing tests himself - thanks

7.      No written comments

BAM member –

1.      Change telling (he normally felt safe) to showing, or dialogue – agree, working

2.       Stay focused on characters fears, apprehension – disagree. His mind wanders

3.      Don’t have him reassess the footsteps – disagree; intentional part of his wandering mind and character

4.      Correct conflict between “rambled” and “organized” – disagree: intentional part of his wandering mind and character

5.      Remove characters thoughts of dates – disagree, intentional part of his wandering mind and character

6.      Why did character not describe the woman in front of him – because she is in a shadow, working

7.      Why does characters heart rate go up and down – agree, working

8.      Correct POV shifts – agree, working