Category: Poetry
‘KEEPIN’ IT WEIRD’ NEWS

‘KEEPIN’ IT WEIRD’ NEWS

By |

Dateline: November 26, 2020

You’re in the right place

for a mix of stories you just won’t find 

anywhere else…

“Here’s to the allure of the obscure!”

November 2020 Newsletter

In this issue: 

1. Blessed!

2. Another New Book

3. Featured Guests

1. Blessed!

We traditionally celebrate the month of November for many reasons. Among others, we revel at the change of season into magnificent Fall colors (north of the Mason-Dixon, that is), or allow balmy breezes to tickle us once summer’s southern anger surrenders. But most of all, this month is a time to give thanks with family and friends, and yes, with an eye toward Christmas.

This year, we could lament what we do not have or are denied, which compared to so many less blessed than us, would be frivolous, wouldn’t it?

For those less fortunate, we pray.

What are you thankful for this November?

Kay and I are feeling particularly blessed this month. Indulge me. You will relate to a few of these.

While we chose not to physically get together with our family or friends this Thanksgiving–for everyone’s safety and peace of mind–our love and friendship remain stronger than distance. For that, we celebrate ongoing, even though I may have to upgrade my cell and zoom plans.

Recently, Kay suffered from morning headaches, nausea, a general soreness, and fatigue. We created a narrative in which she had either contracted COVID, or she was pregnant at a youthful seventy years of age.

We convinced ourselves of the improbability of the latter, and began worrying about the former, like so many others around us, that she had been infected.

I arranged for her to be tested at a drive-through site outside a local CVS Pharmacy. Then we chewed our emotional nails for three days. Finally, we received her results in her online portal: totally negative.

We concluded she’d been visited by a less-complicated strain of flu. What a relief! She feels much better now. Again, we brimmed with gratitude and thanks that we had access to a local test site and health insurance that paid 100% of the $139 cost. We are also blessed to have had the cash had that been necessary.

New topic. I’ve been visiting the bathroom three or four times each night for months. Some characterize me as a youthful (but balding) Caucasian male, six-one, 160 pounds, in general good health, and approximately 65 years of age, to which I reply, “Thank you!”

In fact, I’m a few years older than that, and until recently, lived far to the north of a rotund two bucks. As an alleged member in reasonable standing of the male species, I am statistically prone to prostate cancer. It was time to venture out of my COVID bunker to seek a diagnosis. Off to the local VA in my mask and gloves (that is another COVID story). After two visits for blood draws, I subjected myself to a full physical last week–a “digital probe” and scoping lungs are still not feasible via Zoom.

Yes, I have an enlarged prostate, but no cancer! So says the science. Again, we’re oozing with relief and thanks. After the doctor examined me, she even declared, “Mr. Jurrens you are a model of good health for your age,” to which I replied, “you shoulda seen this hot mess a year ago!”

Imagine that: me a model, despite my lack of a monster ego that still yearns for a long-abandoned youth! I will not go gently… !

So our year of living dangerously has paid handsome dividends. Isolated from the gym, other than our own meager facilities within our trusty bunker (condo), we still manage a reasonable exercise regimen.

I regularly patrol the perimeter of our sixteen acre “yard” on the shores of Charlotte Harbor. Plus, we hit the elliptical and free weights a few times each week (Kay more than me).

You may know Kay and I have enthusiastically embraced a vegan lifestyle. For us, it’s about fearlessly exploring alternatives.

I lost 65 pounds in the first half of 2020, maintaining that weight now for six months. I can almost hear my aging immune system whispering thanks. Miss Kay is doing even better! But that’s not my story to tell. Yeah, you guessed it… we’re thankful.

At my age, I celebrate each birthday as a dividend, a pleasant return on my ups-and-downs investment. Having achieved yet another year of memories, my portfolio has expanded one more year. I remain vertical (mostly), I still take nourishment, and we plot yet another trip around the principle star in our solar system together. We celebrate the opportunity to conjure more memory-accumulating adventures. For us, it’s more about what we do than what we have.

As of the writing of this paragraph (November 20, 2020), and barring untoward circumstances, in 16.5 hours, I will have achieved the youthful age of 71. Yup–a thankful, grateful and blessed septuagenarian who gaffs memories with the tip of a sharp pencil for fear of them descending into the abyss of forgotten dreams already achieved. That’s one reason I write, but there are so many others.

2. Another New Book

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know next month my paranormal sci-fi trilogy will publish (barring unforeseen delays)…

But here’s something I haven’t yet told anyone, not even my bride of fifty-one years. As a loyal subscriber, you are the first to hear of this! Ready for the big reveal?

Now you may not care about this news, but that is a different matter. If you’ve read any of my books, you know I am not afraid to confront gargantuan risks as an author. If you are a published author, you get it. Putting myself out there, naked for all the world to see, requires a unique brand of foolish courage. Especially for a book like this.

One of my mentors describes me, in a literary sense, as “fearless.” Personally, I think she’s being polite. I looked up that word to see if it was a synonym for “stupid.” Alas, I was spared that shame. At least for now.

An early draft of the cover art.

So the big news? By January 2021, I’ll publish yet another book, this anthology forty years in the making. “A Narrow Painted Road” represents my most radical departure yet from mainstream commercial literature. Are you ready for this? Am I?

“A Narrow Painted Road,” a compilation of images, poetry and essays I’ve been creating most of my adult life, represents a legacy. One more item on this old bird’s bucket list.

I jump right in with “that poetry stuff” just inside the front cover with the compulsory disclaimer, although it’s probably not entirely legal. Guess what? I really don’t care:

While barristers dismay, should I neglect this little tome,
That decries any connection to real places, folks, or home,
I faithfully echo these silly words so prescribed,
Lest anyone think I’ve fallen to taking bribes,
Or spuriously slandered he who takes himself too seriously,
And rends his savagery upon this scribe far too furiously.
Should anyone object to this tome rendered in said verse,
I say to one and all, pound said sand and be so cursed.
Amen. That’s all.

This book came to be both serious and frivolous, different from most books of poetry. I precede each poem with one of my original images, some of which are award-winning (the one below is merely original and unpretentious).

After each poem you’ll find a brief personal essay that explores the mental machinations of the mad poet who composed the verse (that would be me).

And a bonus: like or hate my poetry, the book includes a fun and easy-to-read “Poetry Reader’s ‘How-To’ Guide” that both novice and advanced readers of poetry alike may find a useful reference. I culled this guide from dozens of masterworks that study the craft of fine poetry so I could voice my own approach to the enjoyment of reading this quizzical verbal art form.

This guide, of which I am particularly proud, includes my own technique of “solving” a poem. Wouldn’t you like to become a poetic detective? Or are you satisfied remaining a complacent “civilian?”

One playful piece I wrote not too long ago pokes a bit of fun at a novelist who is so bold as to think he can also craft fine poetry…

“On Verse Versus Not”

I am much more prone to pen verse, versus prose, these days.
It fascinates me to taste the myriad ways
poets must say so much more with much less,
I’d like to think no more cleverly obsessed
than me… 
or than you.

It’s curious what draws me to this unique brand of insanity.
Is scrawling my novels at length as dubious a vanity?
Why not, I say loudly to you? Is it frivolous to think
that songwriters, like singers, don’t tread close to the brink
of light… 
or her foe?

Look, my obsessed friends, don’t you gaze hypnotized,
as a haunted scribe writes, and you drink, still surprised
of terse verse that slams you with rhythm or some rhyme, 
that sustains, so immune to razor ravages of time,
of heart… 
or of trivia?

Re-
joice

our
voice!

Partial Notes That Follow “On Verse Versus Not”

I come from a tradition of writing prose. Composing a compelling narrative in prose is complex, poetry even more so, and I believe the latter may be the ultimate written and spoken art form. That’s what prevents the page from gulping my ink like a glutinous puppy slopping water all over the kitchen floor. Is it not wondrous? Especially for someone as naturally verbose as me?

The wonder of it all consumes me. Let’s poke around this piece. Note that quotes from the poem you just read, along with some of the sexier terms of poetry’s anatomy, are italicized below and can be found in the handy reference, “Making Sense of the Language of Poetry” in Appendix B. This is your deep dive where I render explicit the mysteries poetic language offers after the introductory Appendix A: “Poetry Reader’s “How-to” Guide.”

I learned as much as I could about the craft of poetry. I now allow enduring imagery to magically flow onto the page with enduring sharp contrast and high drama. Examples: “Poets tread close to the brink of light… or her foe; gaze hypnotized; haunted scribe; grabs you; razor ravages of time.”

As I wrote this and all the poems in this book, constant vigilance demanded I eliminate the few clichés to which I fall prey as a sometimes-lazy scribe. For example, in this piece, “dear friends” became “obsessed friends” and “the passage of time” became “razor ravages of time.” You can see and hear the dramatic difference, right?

Poetry also differentiates itself from prose with an array of powerful sound devices in the poet’s tool box. You can peruse a more detailed treatment of these and more in this book’s appendices if you like. Try a few examples on for size:

  • alliteration (prone to pen; verse versus; rhythm or rhyme),
  • assonance (taste ways; cleverly obsessed; brand of insanity),
  • consonance (prose… days; gaze hypnotized) and, 
  • onomatopoeia (slams, scrawls). 

Yes, I have fun painting with words, crafting a puzzle for the mind of an astute reader. You? My wish is for you to have fun reading these carefully crafted word puzzles, and to appreciate clues to solving these puzzles.

We also see words or phrases echoed for dramatic effect. For example, “Poets must say so much more with much less,” and “than I… or than you.” Used with care, such echoes just sound good, don’t you think?

I keep the pace of this piece moving quickly by using words with back-end-emphasized syllables called iambs and anapests (see Appendix B), combined with short lines of short words. Can you feel them brush by like a fresh breeze tickling your hair? The notable exception is the third stanza…

Oh, and did you notice the not-so-subtle rhyme pattern (aabbcd)? But remember, not all poems must or should rhyme. I just felt the first one in this section, “Of Poets and Other Dreamers,” should rhyme, but that’s just me slinging artistic license. 

Is that not a lot packed into a little poem about poetry? “Smile. It don’t hurt!” Take a chance, buy the paperback in January 2021. Then I can spring for a basic breakfast at Denny’s. I’ll come up with the tip on my own.

3. Featured Guests

Before I introduce you to a fascinating couple, latch onto this word: serendipity. The dictionary defines serendipity as “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”

Now I did not seek a relationship with my two new friends and their charming family, but as you read the story I am about to share, I’m convinced that like me, you’ll find this story an agreeable and valuable thing.

As a preamble, Kay and once owned a small ship that defined a good portion of our adventurous lives together. We lived aboard and sailed a few thousand miles in her during the fifteen years that she was in our lives.

The good ship Sojourn even made it to the pages of my debut thriller, “Dangerous Dreams” as a heroic character in her own right.

The good ship Sojourn before we sold her in 2010.

With no small degree of consternation, we sold her in 2010 as we decided to try our hand at “land yachting.” Now we live and travel much of the time in a 43′ bus (motorhome).

Recently, I received a text from an unknown party proclaiming they had just purchased Sojourn. After a flurry of subsequent texts and a phone conversation, I learned that Sojourn’s new owners were a uniquely fascinating family.

This is their story and it intersects with our own in an obscure but serendipitous fashion.

I can’t do justice to their entire worldwide sailing adventures in this limited space, but I found their story uplifting and inspirational, not to mention incredible.

But I will tell you the vessel within which they sailed from Florida to Europe to Russia, and all over the Baltic and North Sea before they cruised the South Pacific shares just a glimpse of our common history. Serendipity. Maybe synchronicity too: “meaningful coincidences if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be meaningfully related.”

Mark and Yvette bought our boat, Sojourn after selling (trading) their boat, Bear, in Australia at the end of their extended multi-year voyage. Now here comes the serendipity–maybe synchronicity.

Their boat was built by an engineer who worked at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota toward the end of the last century, as did I. He moored Bear (Linda Marie, at the time) at the same exact spot on the same dock in the same marina in Lake City, Minnesota exactly where we later moored Sojourn for thirteen years before piloting her to the tropics ourselves.

But let’s ask the world-sailing Wirta-Clarke crew to share with you a (small) piece of their story in their own words…

***

From left to right: Jenefer, Maya, Yvette and Mark

Gene,

We are grateful to be home in Florida after an epic adventure spanning eight years, 25,000 nautical miles and 24 countries. 

We arrived home October 2018, leaving our steel-hulled sailing vessel Bear, our 53′ cutter-ketch, for sale in Sydney, Australia.  There is no conceivable way to digest all that we have experienced in this short introduction; however, we are happy to report that the world is indeed a beautiful place and mostly full of kind people striving for peace, unity, adventure and friendship.  

In 2017, after returning from our European voyage (Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Estonia, Russia, Germany, Holland, England, Spain, Portugal…) which began in 2011, and after completing a two-year refit of Bear, we sailed from Florida and headed toward the Pacific. 

Our stops included Key West, Cuba, Cayman Islands, the San Blas and through the Panama Canal, then Columbia, Galapagos, Marquesas, Tuamatos, French Polynesia, Tonga and Fiji.  There, we placed Bear into a literal hole in the ground called a cyclone pit for the storm season and took off to tour New Zealand.  

We purchased a van and fitted it out for camping at our newfound friends, the Peterson’s of Auckland, whom we met cruising. The 10,000 kilometers of land travel through the North and South Islands that followed revealed to us some of the most beautiful landscape we have ever experienced.  We interspersed our camping with Air B&B stays which added enormously to our experience, staying with local super-hosts who shared their enthusiasm for their country.  

We returned to Fiji, launched Bear and rekindled boatyard and cruising ties. We joined a plethora of “kid boats” (boats traveling with kids, like us), enjoying their camaraderie in the Fijian and Vanuatuan waters.  We relished a short layover in New Caledonia as we set our sights on Sydney, Australia. 

Our landfall was 200 miles north at Coff’s Harbor, where we weaved through whales migrating their way north.  Heading south from Coff’s proved to be some of the hardest sailing we had encountered. 

Once in Sydney, we rented an Air B&B for a month, were lent a car by our cruising friends and readied our 38-year-old steel boat for sale. She was a safe, comfortable and seaworthy boat and will always have a place in our hearts.

Coming home was an adjustment.  Mark and I are both retired and fidgeted about, not used to looking towards the horizon without a journey beckoning us.  There are lots of projects around the homestead to keep us occupied but are just not as fun.  I did receive a new right hip in October of 2018–a result of my rheumatism–which I am determined will not curtail our future adventures.

Our daughters Maya and Jenefer have assimilated well to life ashore.  They reconsidered their initial desire to join traditional school as home schooling (after years of “boat schooling”) continues to serve their needs. Besides, the independence gained from world travel at their age was hard to relinquish.

They rejoined the rowing team and in doing so, delight at the social exposure to like-minded youths. One of the many perks that we found traveling in close proximity to our children was the pleasure of sharing their company and being their captive audience.  As they branch out and away, we’ve adjusted.

Speaking of which, we adopted another family member.  After ten years of canine abstinence, we picked up our Portuguese Water Dog puppy late 2018 in Gainesville, Florida.  We so enjoy having a dog in our lives again, one of the few things we missed while traveling the seas. 

Now we’re excited to begin fresh coastal cruising adventures aboard our new vessel, Sojourn, between Florida and Maine, perhaps elsewhere! We were equally excited to connect with Gene and Kay who obviously made Sojourn an important part of their lives, as she now will be in ours.

We wish you all the best health and happiness in the year to come and beyond.  

Peace.

Yvette, Mark, Maya and Jenefer

Bear in Bermuda
Bear in Russia
Maya and Jen in the Galapagos

That’s it for this month. A host of thanks to our featured guests. If you haven’t already subscribed to GKJurrens.com, please consider joining the tribe. Namaste…

With pen in hand, thankful I can still grasp it,

Gene (and Kay)
Get Back Up!

Get Back Up!

By |

So are YOU invincible? I am not. And contrary to what you might believe, neither are you. So PLEASE stay home if you can. And if you can’t, protect yourself and those around you. Practice reasonable pandemic etiquette.

I’ll make a deal with you. I won’t infect you if you return the favor. Fair? Just remember, none of us is invincible. Expect the unexpected.

Beware! April is National Poetry Month. And I write poetry sometimes, so I thought I’d share one of my poems with you. Don’t worry. It won’t hurt.

I created the following poem in late 2017 and published it a year later before most folks included the word “pandemic” in their daily vocabulary–well, at least in their (our) thoughts. But this might help distract and entertain you now. Yeah, I accidentally reread it this morning and had to share… nothin’ too heavy. Promise.

Even though you might not like poetry, check it out anyway. Below you’ll see an excerpt from an anthology of poems I published early last year. I’ll be relaunching the 2nd edition of “A Narrow Painted Road” in the coming months–a collection of my best poems, original images and essays. So here we go.

Ready to “Cowboy up?”

Get Back Up 

September 9, 2018

Author’s advice: Just enjoy. Feel your own best rhythm. It’s a rather simple piece, but it’s fun figuring out the slight rhythm variations as you read. Read at least twice, hopefully once aloud and proud. Get your cowboy on. Go ahead. It’s fun (says this kid from The City). Then go palm a big apple for your favorite Dapple Gray before reading the brief essay that follows. 

A lone rider’s one reborn companion, beside
the road, is born-again pain, from just one more short ride
of another cantankerous bull. Standing tall… in
reflection near the pens, stomps a bull with a grin.
One cocky young rider hums one thin sweet memory
of his young love back home, his time drifts in reverie.

Now one thing: young riders seem dead-bull’s-eye clear:
at no time does he have much time for dark fear,
he might choose a less bumpy path, he would declare,
but to ride a desk? A real God’s-truth awful scare!

The circuit’s in his blood, like his daddy’s before.
What else would he do, could he do? And what’s more,
why would he? What could compete with the roaring
bright Sunday night lights and eight sweet ticks of glory?

Naw, bull ridin’s a blood thing, along with the rest
of the life. Drinks always free, but friendships are tested:
the hardest. Them eight seconds just ain’t enough,
but more’n that? Salt-sweaty, leathery, tough!

The time for reflection is long past, 'a course.
Cinch up, boy, ride glory, collect the damn purse.
Reachin' some sky, for that high glory catcher,
but Bull puts him down hard now, no getting up after.

This here ride’s your last, young busted-up drifter,
your sweet love will mourn you, may be grown bitter…
You’re now on the sky road, alone you still ride.
Her arena now hollow...

                                             She’s died dry inside.

Poet’s Notes:

This city kid met a cowboy poet who was also a cowboy action shooter (don’t ask… it’s fascinating, but scary). This is different planet stuff, but he inspired me to write this playful piece. And when he read it, he grinned big!

In the introductory image, I painted a rodeo competitor in watercolor stretching his (her?) sore back muscles. Faceless, but we can relate, especially if we’re well-seasoned life-riders ourselves.

BT Blade and his partner Pam are from St. George, Utah. We met at a star party, a component of the Southwest Astronomy Festival on the summit of Cedar Breaks National Monument in Southwestern Utah. The night was so very dark up there at over 10,000 feet, but the conversation shown brilliant. 

As we pursue our passions in life, there is a price to be paid. Sometimes the price is a loss of relationships, sometimes the price takes a physical or spiritual or emotional toll. We may feel we have few or no choices in life, but we always have a choice, however small. Sometimes it’s a simple matter of facing our perceived fears and conquering them. We are able to muster the courage we’ve demonstrated elsewhere in our lives. We just need to conquer our doubt. 

The story is simple. A young bull rider is good at what he does. He gets hurt and doesn’t survive his injuries, leaving his young bride behind and alone. A simple story with straightforward characters deserves a simple rhythm and rhyme structure. Toss in a bit of country vernacular, et voila! A cowboy poem in anapestic tetrameter. 

In case you’re not aware, the reference to, “eight ticks to glory” speaks to the eight seconds a competitive bull rider needs to stay astride to remain in the running for the purse. 

A few metaphors and symbols drive home a few other points. For example, “a less bumpy path” suggests a less violent and less physically punishing career. “Sweet” and “young” echoed throughout the piece symbolize youth, exuberance, and a sense of invincibility. “Alone” and “lone” heavily echoed through the poem brings sharp focus to the solitary nature of the rider’s chosen profession. “Time”symbolizes the temporal nature of our brevity on this Earth that can end when you least expect it… maybe when you’re feeling your most invincible. 

Finally, the mood journeys from hopeful, to doubtful, to dismal, even existential. But hey, most cowboy stories end badly (“hurts so good”). 

So keep on keepin’ on, brothers and sisters! And stay off that bull!

Gene
New Lessons: eBook to Print

New Lessons: eBook to Print

By |

How many of you publish eBooks only (Kindle or iBook editions…)? That’s me. For now. But…

Now I’m thinking all things paperback publishing. No hardcovers for now, and that’s okay. 

In fact, more seriously than ever, I’m considering embarking on the tree-killing phase of my independent publishing journey.  

That translates into “Fear of Commitment.” Once on paper, no more easy revisions!

I flirted with starting down this path well over a year ago, and shared what I learned at that time in an article about one print-on-demand (POD) vendor, KDP, or Kindle Direct Publishing, an Amazon company. FYI, if you were familiar with CreateSpace, it has been absorbed into KDP. I posted some good info in an article you can find here. 

You can see I’ve learned more since then, but rather than repeat much of that material, see that article for good questions self-publishing authors of print books should research on cryptic topics such as book format, spline width, full-bleed, text boundaries, etc. Not for the feint of heart, but essential questions all. Fortunately, Print-on-demand (POD) vendors are helpful navigating this morass. 

Here’s what I’m learning today:

  • Scrivener remains my overwhelming author software of choice; however, I need to learn even more new terms and why they are important as I set my sites on print. For example:
    • What is the difference between mass-market and trade paperbacks? See Joseph Kunz’s excellent article explaining the difference. I’m aiming at mass-market for lower unit cost (and price).
    • What precise formatting dimensions are expected for each, and how does that influence my design (my “copy,” or text; and graphics) for a front cover, the spine (the narrow edge that shows when the book sits on the shelf), and the back cover?
      • I suggest studying the detailed specifications of each POD vendor before spending time creating your own format and design. Don’t waste time redesigning, like me.
      • For example, guidelines for KDP can be found here.
    • I design my own cover art using Canva which offers some nice basic designs from templates, especially after I add my own artwork, which is optional. If you hire the services of a professional cover designer for several hundred dollars or more for each project, you need not worry so much about this part of the process other than paying your artist. A few ideas for you:
      • Use your favorite search engine (my favorite is duckduckgo.com because they don’t micro-market to me like the big boys) to locate “book cover designers” and roll the dice! Or,
      • Consult with successful authors to discover their favorites. Joanna Penn has made a name for herself writing and publishing both fiction and non-fiction. Take a look at her extensive list of book cover designers here.
  • Scrivener continues to be my amazing all-in-one writer’s studio. All of my formatting, even for paper, can be achieved within this single program. As I discover I need them (e.g., for print), I’m finding useful features in the Compile (format/export) feature of Scrivener:
    • The “Print” function in Compile, for example, doesn’t mean I need to print to paper. Rather, I will format for print, and save my output in a PDF file format, or some other type of file, to pre-flight (inspect) the results,
    • Heretofore unimportant (to me) formatting and ID options, such as:
      • Margins. They now need careful consideration. New terms, such as guttering are now important. These are the margins closest to the center of the book, where the rightmost margin of the leftmost page is closest to the leftmost margin of the rightmost (facing) page. The gutter. Why? Well, the thicker (as in more pages in) the book, the wider the guttering margins must be. Huh! Who knew?
      • Page Count. Too many pages means too high a book price required by the printer (they charge by the page). If the book costs too much, that impacts my sales. Artificially lowering the price (a tighter profit margin) leaves fewer pennies left to drift into this author’s bank account. And my CFO claims it’s not enough to justify a year’s worth of effort. Huh. Alas, what is a poor scribe to do. Is not every word I pen precious? The truth is it ain’t worth a plug nickel if nobody buys the darn book because it costs too much!
      • Scrivener Compile for Print: This may require a good deal of experimentation, but this article is helping tweak my freak. And remember, experimentation with the look of the book can be achieved without killing a single tree. Select Print formatting in Compile and then export your format to a PDF file instead of to a printer. I will spend the time to get it right!
      • ISBNs: A comprehensive discussion of ISBNs can be found in this article. ISBN is an acronym for the all-important International Standard Book Number. This article is a must-read for all self-published authors!
        • While I haven’t needed an ISBN to self-publish an eBook within a single channel (think only Kindle Edition only on Amazon, for example), a unique ISBN is required for each:
          • Print book,
          • Audiobook,
          • Language.
        • ISBNs for use in any sales channel are not free. I’m saving my pennies to buy 100 ISBNs for $575 (better deal than $150 each!). Why? Well…
          • I’ll have 4 books published by year-end x 3 (eBook + audiobook + paperback) = 12 ISBNs I require now, and,
          • I’ll require 3 additional ISBNs for each new book (potentially).
          • Each revision requires an additional IBSN for each format
          • If I should choose to publish other authors’ books (unlikely), I will have some ISBNs to spare.
          • Plus I have several shorter projects like short story anthologies and novellas in the wings.
  • I’m discovering new resources on the Internet for exploring features I had yet to learn within Scrivener, and will be useful as I commit to print. Some features ease the task of writing, while others ensure a consistent look and feel across all my books once printed. Very cool stuff. Such as:
    • Keywords. Here’s why. I assign a keyword to each scene or chapter within which a certain character appears. Then I can search on that keyword in my 100,000-word novel to see how many scenes or chapters in which that character appears. Or I assign a different keyword to all the scenes or chapters relevant to one storyline, and a different keyword to another. That helps me understand the balance and distribution across the storylines. 
    • Templates. Let’s say I don’t want to recreate dozens of settings for each new book. I only publish one book a year. Remembering all those settings for that long is a pain, and if dozens of options are not precisely duplicated, the latest book doesn’t look quite like the last one. This is particularly problematic for a series. Using the same template for each project simplifies matters. I discovered some wonderful articles for future projects that you might find useful in structuring your own work. My advice? Study Scrivener templates! Create your own! Or modify someone else’s for your use to keep your projects consistent! Examples:
    • Page Formatting Options for Print:
      • I’m in the process of crafting my fondest page and book formatting dreams within Compile in Scrivener. And not just for Fractured Dreams, but for all my projects. With quality and consistency. But this will take some work on my part unless I want to spend money. Here are the options:
        • This Page Formatting Tricks article includes some clever ideas on how to use Scrivener Collections to track different versions of the same project (ePub or iBooks, Print, or Kindle). I like these ideas because it keeps me from needing external tools,
        • Alternatives to focusing on Scrivener Compile include spending money formatting your manuscripts with other products like Adobe InDesign (free trial, then $21 monthly!) or the ease-of-use-per-dollar value, Vellum ($250, one-time charge for eBook & Print), but those are still additional significant expenditures and learning curves of other tools. 
        • Or you can spend even more (thousands across multiple projects) hiring one of the countless professional book formatting services to do the work for you. All are reasonable choices with different price points, but the choice is yours.

So it occurred to me that even after spending a few years using just the Scrivener features I needed, I’m still learning more this amazing tool can do for me. 

Sally 6/5/9 126

Now that my manuscript (final draft) for “Fractured Dreams” is out for beta readers to pick apart (thank you, all!), I’m spending some time learning all this print stuff before I start work on the next project.

You get the idea. Thinking paperback requires different considerations than thinking eBook; however, Scrivener continues to keep this author from straying.

That pleases me because I SO dislike jumping between two or more tools.

Put this in your “for what it’s worth” department.

With pen in hand, and Scrivener on the screen,

Gene

Author of Dangerous Dreams, UpLife – Reality 2.0, and A Narrow Painted Road.

Look for the sequel to “Dangerous Dreams” entitled “Fractured Dreams” late 2019.


New Lessons: eBook to Print

New Lessons: eBook to Print

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How many of you publish eBooks only (Kindle or iBook editions…)? That’s me. For now. But…

Now I’m thinking all things paperback publishing. No hardcovers for now, and that’s okay. 

In fact, more seriously than ever, I’m considering embarking on the tree-killing phase of my independent publishing journey.  

That translates into “Fear of Commitment.” Once on paper, no more easy revisions!

I flirted with starting down this path well over a year ago, and shared what I learned at that time in an article about one print-on-demand (POD) vendor, KDP, or Kindle Direct Publishing, an Amazon company. FYI, if you were familiar with CreateSpace, it has been absorbed into KDP. I posted some good info in an article you can find here. 

You can see I’ve learned more since then, but rather than repeat much of that material, see that article for good questions self-publishing authors of print books should research on cryptic topics such as book format, spline width, full-bleed, text boundaries, etc. Not for the feint of heart, but essential questions all. Fortunately, Print-on-demand (POD) vendors are helpful navigating this morass. 

Here’s what I’m learning today:

  • Scrivener remains my overwhelming author software of choice; however, I need to learn even more new terms and why they are important as I set my sites on print. For example:
    • What is the difference between mass-market and trade paperbacks? See Joseph Kunz’s excellent article explaining the difference. I’m aiming at mass-market for lower unit cost (and price).
    • What precise formatting dimensions are expected for each, and how does that influence my design (my “copy,” or text; and graphics) for a front cover, the spine (the narrow edge that shows when the book sits on the shelf), and the back cover?
      • I suggest studying the detailed specifications of each POD vendor before spending time creating your own format and design. Don’t waste time redesigning, like me.
      • For example, guidelines for KDP can be found here.
    • I design my own cover art using Canva which offers some nice basic designs from templates, especially after I add my own artwork, which is optional. If you hire the services of a professional cover designer for several hundred dollars or more for each project, you need not worry so much about this part of the process other than paying your artist. A few ideas for you:
      • Use your favorite search engine (my favorite is duckduckgo.com because they don’t micro-market to me like the big boys) to locate “book cover designers” and roll the dice! Or,
      • Consult with successful authors to discover their favorites. Joanna Penn has made a name for herself writing and publishing both fiction and non-fiction. Take a look at her extensive list of book cover designers here.
  • Scrivener continues to be my amazing all-in-one writer’s studio. All of my formatting, even for paper, can be achieved within this single program. As I discover I need them (e.g., for print), I’m finding useful features in the Compile (format/export) feature of Scrivener:
    • The “Print” function in Compile, for example, doesn’t mean I need to print to paper. Rather, I will format for print, and save my output in a PDF file format, or some other type of file, to pre-flight (inspect) the results,
    • Heretofore unimportant (to me) formatting and ID options, such as:
      • Margins. They now need careful consideration. New terms, such as guttering are now important. These are the margins closest to the center of the book, where the rightmost margin of the leftmost page is closest to the leftmost margin of the rightmost (facing) page. The gutter. Why? Well, the thicker (as in more pages in) the book, the wider the guttering margins must be. Huh! Who knew?
      • Page Count. Too many pages means too high a book price required by the printer (they charge by the page). If the book costs too much, that impacts my sales. Artificially lowering the price (a tighter profit margin) leaves fewer pennies left to drift into this author’s bank account. And my CFO claims it’s not enough to justify a year’s worth of effort. Huh. Alas, what is a poor scribe to do. Is not every word I pen precious? The truth is it ain’t worth a plug nickel if nobody buys the darn book because it costs too much!
      • Scrivener Compile for Print: This may require a good deal of experimentation, but this article is helping tweak my freak. And remember, experimentation with the look of the book can be achieved without killing a single tree. Select Print formatting in Compile and then export your format to a PDF file instead of to a printer. I will spend the time to get it right!
      • ISBNs: A comprehensive discussion of ISBNs can be found in this article. ISBN is an acronym for the all-important International Standard Book Number. This article is a must-read for all self-published authors!
        • While I haven’t needed an ISBN to self-publish an eBook within a single channel (think only Kindle Edition only on Amazon, for example), a unique ISBN is required for each:
          • Print book,
          • Audiobook,
          • Language.
        • ISBNs for use in any sales channel are not free. I’m saving my pennies to buy 100 ISBNs for $575 (better deal than $150 each!). Why? Well…
          • I’ll have 4 books published by year-end x 3 (eBook + audiobook + paperback) = 12 ISBNs I require now, and,
          • I’ll require 3 additional ISBNs for each new book (potentially).
          • Each revision requires an additional IBSN for each format
          • If I should choose to publish other authors’ books (unlikely), I will have some ISBNs to spare.
          • Plus I have several shorter projects like short story anthologies and novellas in the wings.
  • I’m discovering new resources on the Internet for exploring features I had yet to learn within Scrivener, and will be useful as I commit to print. Some features ease the task of writing, while others ensure a consistent look and feel across all my books once printed. Very cool stuff. Such as:
    • Keywords. Here’s why. I assign a keyword to each scene or chapter within which a certain character appears. Then I can search on that keyword in my 100,000-word novel to see how many scenes or chapters in which that character appears. Or I assign a different keyword to all the scenes or chapters relevant to one storyline, and a different keyword to another. That helps me understand the balance and distribution across the storylines. 
    • Templates. Let’s say I don’t want to recreate dozens of settings for each new book. I only publish one book a year. Remembering all those settings for that long is a pain, and if dozens of options are not precisely duplicated, the latest book doesn’t look quite like the last one. This is particularly problematic for a series. Using the same template for each project simplifies matters. I discovered some wonderful articles for future projects that you might find useful in structuring your own work. My advice? Study Scrivener templates! Create your own! Or modify someone else’s for your use to keep your projects consistent! Examples:
    • Page Formatting Options for Print:
      • I’m in the process of crafting my fondest page and book formatting dreams within Compile in Scrivener. And not just for Fractured Dreams, but for all my projects. With quality and consistency. But this will take some work on my part unless I want to spend money. Here are the options:
        • This Page Formatting Tricks article includes some clever ideas on how to use Scrivener Collections to track different versions of the same project (ePub or iBooks, Print, or Kindle). I like these ideas because it keeps me from needing external tools,
        • Alternatives to focusing on Scrivener Compile include spending money formatting your manuscripts with other products like Adobe InDesign (free trial, then $21 monthly!) or the ease-of-use-per-dollar value, Vellum ($250, one-time charge for eBook & Print), but those are still additional significant expenditures and learning curves of other tools. 
        • Or you can spend even more (thousands across multiple projects) hiring one of the countless professional book formatting services to do the work for you. All are reasonable choices with different price points, but the choice is yours.

So it occurred to me that even after spending a few years using just the Scrivener features I needed, I’m still learning more this amazing tool can do for me. 

Sally 6/5/9 126

Now that my manuscript (final draft) for “Fractured Dreams” is out for beta readers to pick apart (thank you, all!), I’m spending some time learning all this print stuff before I start work on the next project.

You get the idea. Thinking paperback requires different considerations than thinking eBook; however, Scrivener continues to keep this author from straying.

That pleases me because I SO dislike jumping between two or more tools.

Put this in your “for what it’s worth” department.

With pen in hand, and Scrivener on the screen,

Gene

Author of Dangerous Dreams, UpLife – Reality 2.0, and A Narrow Painted Road.

Look for the sequel to “Dangerous Dreams” entitled “Fractured Dreams” late 2019.


A Profile in Personal Courage

A Profile in Personal Courage

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An excerpt from my latest book, “A Narrow Painted Road Seems So…”

Available worldwide on Amazon & Kobo

A Profile in Personal Courage

Author’s advice: 

The solitary image below stands on just one leg. While beautiful, it seems ill-defined with a shadowy and a finite cool color palette. This creature is unsure of himself, looking within his hollow heart for answers to arrive at some conclusion about his inflexibility. We must find this ironic as others have always viewed him as flowing and flexible, until now.

This poem, though using metaphorical imagery, is self-evident. Even so, I will offer you a few insights why I used some unusual phrases in the brief essay that follows the poem. 

“Hollow Heart” by GK Jurrens

A Profile in Personal Courage

A solitary soul stands alone so preposterous,

no longer a mere reflection, now a beacon.

A cacophony, their platitudes ring so boisterous,

bounce around him like so many who have weakened

to temptations of easy mirrors grown squalid,

he’s polished his keen vision to a deep stained-less screen,

their certitudes still echo behind, he greets a less solid

footing, slipping and sliding on a cellophane sheen. 

Poet’s Notes:A Profile in Personal Courage

First, I’m proud of the image used to introduce this poem. It captured a blue ribbon (first place) in the 2011 Florida Council of Camera Clubs statewide competition in the Creative Photography category. 

This poem ponders a man with a closed mind, listening only to that which supports his beliefs, but an unspoken event occurs to open his aperture. We do not know why. Maybe he doesn’t either. Let’s explore the rationale for the language used.

When we follow what we are certain is true, that is the time to challenge why we are so sure of ourselves (“no longer a mere reflection”). That stand may isolate us from our peers (“A solitary soul stands alone so preposterous”). We may do so despite the surrounding noise to the contrary (“A cacophony, their platitudes rang boisterous”). We may even share our discoveries with others (“now a beacon”). Even though the strength of our newfound convictions may cause others to see us as feeble pariahs we remain strong (“bounce around him like so many who have weakened”).

The simple path of the benign follower (“to temptations of easy mirrors”) no longer draws our hero. In fact, they have become a sordid taste to his evolving social palate (“grown squalid”). He has, for an unspoken reason, clarified his view of himself and the impurity of his earlier motives (“he’s polished his keen vision to a deep stained-less screen”). With the old platitudes haunting him  (“their certitudes still echo behind”), he second-guesses his new attitudes (“he greets a less solid / footing, slipping and sliding on a cellophane sheen”). End of poem. 

So is that it? What else? As in real life, some applaud someone for taking a stand if he’s transforming himself, but we do not see the entire story. We cannot peer into the future, nor can he. The rest of the story remains a mystery. This is where your imagination takes control. Go wild.

Oh, by now, you will have observed an abab rhyme pattern. Mechanics cleverly contrived. 

***

You will have noticed all poetic terms and quotes from the verse are italicized.

So what do you think of the format? Each poem in the book is preceded by some “author’s advice” and one of my original images, then followed by a short essay to explore what was on the poet’s (my) mind as the poem was composed. I’d appreciate your feedback. Thanks in advance.

With pen in hand… Gene


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