Finally. The Scent of Pine in Moonlight is available on Amazon. Free for Kindle for the next three days.
 (7-23-203 trough 7-25-2013)

Janine can’t figure out if her husband, Carson, is an apparition from the fog of alcohol, simply a hallucination born from a life of crushing stress, or a real ghost.

And she’s afraid of what she wants him to be. 
 
This is another story from my Toma Lee pen name and I’m labeling it a romance for beta tag reasons in spite of the story’s possibly supernatural component. I don’t want to toss out any spoilers but I suppose the blurb gives away one plot point: Carson dies somewhere in the story.

By the way, The Scent of Pine in Moonlight started the entire process for the “real” ghost story  I’m working on. The scary kind.

While Janine struggles to determine the truth of her conversations with her husband I tried to create a world where readers hoped
Carson’s ghost was real.

That would be the stronger love story.

 - Chester

A Stir of Pique is free for Kindle through July 6, 2013.

First some nuts and bolts stuff. I wrote about this stuff for A Stir of Pique a few days ago so I won’t re-bore you with details. Suffice to say I had to upload a corrected version, for a third time, but now everything seems to be working in the eBook.

It’s still free on Amazon for another day so if you want a version with an actual working table of contents, go for it.

Oh yeah, the cover seems awkward. Don’t know why. I always use a 1.6 ratio for my covers but this one looks short and squat. Looks alright on my Amazon author’s page, though.

Now on to the story.

SPOILER ALERT

The working title was The Day the Machines Stopped. I changed it to A Stir of Pique for several reasons.

First, the machines didn’t stop on a day, or for a day, or whatever. Everything builds to a finale so the working title didn’t really fit.

Second, the working title gave away too much of the story.

Second, the working title was too rudimentary. I mean, The Day the Earth Stood Still can get away with it, but that’s a classic science fiction film. (And I’m talking about the 1951 original film, not the 2008 piece-o-shit remake.)

Anyway, the final title has more of a literary bent to it which is good because the story is really literary.

Okay, I lied. It’s not literary, but the final title is way cooler than The Day the Machines Stopped.

This is also the first of my ebooks to offer a bibliography linking to my other stuff. Yes, I’m still working on retro-fitting all my previous stories with bibliographies, and stuff. This crap takes time and there’s a lot of casinos within driving distance that Toma and I have to visit.
 
Also, back on May 22nd I posted on this very web site a discussion of upcoming publications. Forget all that. And I promise to never again predict a publication chronology. You simply would not believe the life events that crop up conspiring to thwart your best laid plans.

Now, all the stories I discussed back in May are still in line. I’m just no longer sure when they’ll hit the Kindle store. I won’t even tell you which story is coming next because…I don’t know. Yet.

The Magic Purse

I don’t remember where I got the idea for The Magic Purse. Every once in a while I wake up in the morning with foggy memories of screaming nightmares from the previous night. That might be where this stuff comes from.

And I do like the story finding something positive about “small magic” instead of my original version which was all gloomy and shit. And nothing good came of it. And then the universe exploded, and everyone died, even the people who hadn’t even been born, yet.

Ready?
Wait for it.
No that didn’t happen in the original. I’m lying, again.
But it was gloomy to the last page and ended on a sour note. (F# I seem to remember.)

Well, that’s all I have to say on the subject(s).   (That (s) thing is a nerdish indication of a possible plural.) 

Now it’s back to work so I can get the next story published. (And I refuse to tell which one. In case my mood changes.)

 - Chester 

Adventures in Self-Publishing
 
Wrote A Stir of Pique.
Revised.
Sent in for line edit.
Small revise to editorial suggestion.
Formatted content for publication.
Designed and built cover.
Wrote blurbs.
Built bibliography.
Loaded into Kindle Direct Publishing.
Activated the previewer to check formatting.
Looked good.
Clicked “Save and Publish”.
Book went live about eight hours later. (Faster than normal.)
Checked everything on the Amazon listing page.
Clicked “Look Inside”.
Contents page messed up. (My fault, damn.)
Made corrections to master file.
Re-uploaded.
E-mailed KDP.
"Can I set the free promo while book is reconverting?"
"No, wait until it resets."
"Okay."
Book goes “live” for the second time.
Contents page looks okay.
Set free promo for July 4, 5, and 6. (Starts at 12:01 AM on the fourth.)
Go back to A Stir of Pique Amazon listing page for paranoid recheck.
Cover looks awkward.
Hey, cover’s not in 6 X 9 ratio. Looks fat and short.
Open cover jpeg and crop to proper ratio.
Now topography is screwed up. (Am I an idiot?)
Open Microsoft Publisher.
Redo entire cover.
Save as MS Publisher file and jpeg file.
Reload cover into KDP.
Click “Save and Publish”.
Now I have a free promo scheduled while book goes through conversion again.
Don’t know if that’s going to work.
Oh yeah. Had trouble building links on the master file for table of contents and bibliography.
Can’t check functionality of links until book goes live again and I load into my Kindle Fire.

This self-publishing crap is the coolest job I’ve ever  had.
 
  - Chester