First stage complete

Nearly five months of training and I have reached the standard required. It took five weeks longer than it should have due to my lack of pushups plus an extra two weeks for the Christmas break but today I completed training.

On Monday I will get on the bus and move on. Not sure if I will be going into a holding platoon for a few months or just a few days but I still need to complete the next round of training before I can get on with the job of doing my job.

I'm looking forward to driver training, I like big vehicles and it should be quite interesting.

Just stay focussed.

Last post... for a while

I fly out to work early in the a.m. tomorrow, so this'll be my last post on here for a while again.

I'll have intermittent internet access, mainly via my phone. But the biggest issue will be being time poor, so not a lot of opportunities to post on this blog that nobody reads.

Although I've been running this blog since 2007, the updates have been a bit hit and miss. At least now I have an excuse.

I'll also try writing a few posts in this app and batch uploading them when I get 'net access, see how that works.

See y'all around. I'll be writing every chance I get...

Horse, then cart!

The last book printer I've been looking at is blurb.com who have mmp-like books available also around the $10/book price.

What I'm liking about Blurb is that the company founder specifically set out to set up a company where someone could get a single copy of a book printed. Which is exactly what I want.

I figure I'll have a fair amount of down time when I'm off shift at work and rather than just watching movies or killing time I can do something productive and write. It may even become a potential revenue stream some day. Since I'll be away from my family, may as well do something to potentially generate more income.

But before I can print, I need to actually write stuff. So carts and horses and all that...

Book printing

Well, after a bit of hunting around, the two leading contenders for my needs are Amazon's createspace.com and thebookpatch.com

Both seem to offer me the ability to print a handful (5 or less) physical copies of a book in mass market paperback (mmp) size for around the mmp price. Under $20 per copy, possibly as low as $10 per copy.

That's ridiculously cheap considering some Australian printers (not publishers) charge around a thousand dollars in setup fees with minimum orders of 100 books.

And createspace.com offers the option of a sales outlet (for a fee) should I choose to try and sell my book(s) {Note the optimism!}

So at the moment the plan is to write as much as I can, and if I can get enough words down for several halfway decent books I'll get physical copies printed. Both of the above companies allow me to upload my own cover artwork so I can make the spines match so the books look good next to each other on the shelf.

I doubt I'll apply for ISBN's though. I mean, I can get 10 for under $100 but that's still $100 I could spend on bills or fuel or food.

* Note for any aspiring authors who might read this: I'm looking for a printer who can just provide me with a physical copy of my manuscript in a halfway decent looking book. A publisher is a company that wants to promote and sell your manuscript. A (proper) publisher will pay you and never ask you for money. (And read the fine print! Before signing or agreeing to anything.)

Getting back into writing

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. The good news is that I have a new job which will hopefully turn into a stable long-term career.

The down side is that I will be spending time away from the family. This last stretch went from the start of September to the middle of December. Three and a half months away from everyone I care about and love. And this next stretch will be even longer. Ouch.

Well, since I will be spending so long away from my family, I may as well put some of my time back in to my writing. Who knows, it may bring in some money someday.

Just for the fun of it, I was having a look at some printing options. I don't plan on trying to sell my books, but being able to get them printed and have a physical book would be really cool. I've found a couple of on demand printers that will let me print as little as five or just one copy. Most Australian printers seem to hover around the $60 per book price, but there are a couple of online printers hovering around the $10 a book price.

Still looking at hidden costs, set up fees and minimum order quantities but it shouldn't be too hard to locate a decent printer. I doubt I'd go to the extreme of getting an ISBN issued.

Unless I felt a book I wrote was marketable. Not at that level yet, but it could happen.

Though I guess I should write first...

Sneaker the sneaketh

 Going to be a little underhanded, and see if I can insert this post (written end of Jan 2022) and have it show up on my blog back in... let's say 2014? Let's try that. Either it'll show up as the most current post this year (I did one a few minutes ago that is already published) or this'll show up sometime back in 2014. I picked this year because I only did 4 posts for all of 2014 - one in January and three in December. Let's aim for June.

Tired

All week the boys have been up late, shouting and thumping and slamming doors. I get up before dawn to go to work and I am ready to collapse.

I love the boys to death, but I am going to be so glad when they go to their dad's. I'll finally be able to sleep...