Writerly World

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been MIA heads down working on a new book. Well, the world still keeps on turnin', churnin', and burnin'. So what else writerly has been going on?

In July Erin and I got to be guests at Raleigh Super Con! Woop! Slacker me didn't write a blog post about it. Fortunately Erin came to the rescue (cue superhero music) and wrote about it!

Erin is my very own Supergirl!

Here are a few moments from our adventures!

I'm no dummy. Sit next to the most beautiful
woman at the con and people will flock to you!

OMG! Lady Vader not be cuter!

LOL! Erin didn't see Thor but then this gent strolled by.

Iron Man rocks!

I loved getting to meet Captain Hobbes!

Aaaaahhh! Barf! One of my favs!

This three-foot Storm Trooper might stun
you with her adorableness!

Groot and Rocket! OMG! Such amazing costumes!

The cons are awesome because you get to meet a slew of great geeks, there's tons to see and do, but mostly what I like about them is that I get to do them with my best friend. She's the one that makes all things awesome!

Hangin' with ma best friend at the con!

Erin's New SciFi and Her Company
In our long-term plans we are to become professional vagabonds and hopefully be able to support ourselves with our writing. To that goal, Erin has started an editing business, Erin Rhew Editing and Design.

Erin Rhew Editing and Design

I'm working on sharpening my content editing skillz to be part of her company. For practice--and because I REALLY wanted to get to read her newest novel--I got to be the first to read and edit her new book!

At the beginning of November, Erin sent me her recently-completed rough draft of her new SciFi, code named Molly and Ryder.

Erin's new SciFi
Code named: Molly and Ryder

Friends, y'all are in for an awesome treat. Her story of what happens when social media takes over a nation, has a riveting storyline, great characters, and a page-turning pace. I'm unbelievably proud of my bride for her brilliance and creativity. I can't wait for her fans to get their hands on it!


My New SciFi
It wasn't planned that way, but both Erin and I have been working on SciFi's at the same time. My book, The Extractor, is about a virtual reality gaming company that murders people so they can steal their memories to enhance their video games. (Dang, still need to work on the elevator pitch).

After writing myself an editorial letter (read about it!) I finally finished the first round of self-edits and am getting ready to dive into the follow-up novel, The Injector. I have the first line written (I've texted it to myself after it came to me while I was trying to fall asleep) and a vague idea of where it starts and what happens. At the end of The Extractor, Lincoln Grey, our hero, is arrested for treason and a series of murders he did not commit. He's really hoping my pantser writing style will get him out of the fix he's in. :-)

These stories explore your right to privacy and not just in the traditional sense, but when you die do others have the right to download and relive your personal memories? Does those memories become part of your estate for your family to do with as they please? What about celebrities or presidents? Would you want to relive some of the key moments in the life of Winston Churchill or JFK?

While my books explore the fight for your rights to memory privacy and piracy, Erin's story is all about people willingly giving up their privacy for ratings. Would you give up your privacy to social media--making every moment of your life available for anyone to peruse--for fame and power? Needless to say, Erin and I have had a lot of discussions about these two differing potential futures.

Also, just for fun, I put in a couple of goose eggs for my bride to find. Let's see if she can do it!


Birth to be Rebirthed in Audio
Just connected with a narrator who will begin recording and audio version of Birth of an American Gigolo at the beginning of January 2018!

Birth of an American Gigolo Goes Audio!

Out of over 100 audition clips, I got the narrator I wanted the most and am completely stoked for you to get to experience Lindsey, Dios, Angel, and Stewart! Stay tuned. Birth will be reborn in the first bit of 2018!

Three years! Insanely lucky fella!

Erin and I have been been married three years now. We do everything together--even write!--and it's more incredible than I ever imagined. I can't even begin to tell you how happy this vibrant, smexy woman makes me. What's greater than celebrating our third wedding anniversary at a Tim and Faith concert? Getting to celebrate our third anniversary AGAIN in May! Yep, I'm no fool. Marry the girl twice!

Here's to three more years and three more and three more!

Until later, my friends, adventure on!

Rising from the Depths...For Now!

It's been a few months since my last blog post. Partially because Erin and I moved, partially because of life, but also because I've been head's down writing a new book. I got the rough of my new SciFi, The Extractor, done in May and hunkered down in the Bat Cave for editing.

But I'm rising up from the depths, to say howdy and fill you in on what's all been going on!

New Home!

Deek and Erin get a new home!

So what's been going on? Well, to start with, this last June Erin and I bought a house! My bride is better at multi-tasking than I am and wrote about our new digs. I love our house. It's a small townhome and, while not extravagant, it's simple like me, but cute and sweet like Erin. It's a good mix of the two of us. No yard to maintain, no outside work--painting, roof, etc--either, so nice and easy to keep up.

Erin did a heck of a great job decorating it--Heeeeellllooo, Craigslist!--and it looks amazing decked out for Christmas. :-)

Heartbreak
At the beginning of July, we lost a wonderful man when Erin's PaPa passed away.

PaPa and his Babydoll!

He'd been a huge part of her life and one of the best storytellers ever. I'd am incredibly blessed to have gotten to know him over the last few years and get an inkling of what a special person he was. Erin, PaPa's Babydoll, wrote an touching tribute to him.

Since July, it has been a series of firsts without this wonderful man. PaPa's first birthday, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas. Erin's incredibly strong and is working through these firsts one at a time. I'm so very proud of her. She wrote about missing and loss at Thanksgiving.

I'm honored to get to stand beside her and hold her hand as she faces each day.

Across the Country
At the end of June my parents made the trek across the country for their first visit! Of course we had to show them the land and introduce them to some of the finer things in the South. We started with a trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway!

Charlotte Motor Speedway!

Outside the Speedway

We got to take a bus tour of the grounds. Charlotte Motor Speedway has been the filming location of a ton of movies, including one of my favs Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Erin and Deek get to tour the track where
Ricky Bobby drove!

The Speedway also offers bus tours, so we got to take my folks around the track and learn some of the history.

Busses from the annual school bus race!

Our little town has an adorable Fourth of July parade and gets all decked out to celebrate our nation's birthday.

Deek and his mom

Deek's Parents

Getting cozy with my love for a little fireworks action!

Since August is my mom's birthday, we took her to one of our favorite restaurants for some fajitas and a little birthday fun!

Getting some sombrero birthday love!

We are lucky that our parents get along so incredibly well. Check out this motley crew! They look like they could be up to all kindsa mischief!

Deek and Erin's Motley Crew

My bDay and Christmas!
I'm incredibly lucky to get to get to spend my days with my best friend. And this season Erin and I have been busy as monkeys at a banana factory! To kick things off, Erin surprised me with a day trip to the beach!

I am a TOTAL beach bum and fortunately for me, my bride is a total beach babe. Like sand and salt water we go perfect together.

Deek and Erin beachin' it in the

PNW and again in the South!

My beach babe and some java!

Time for some Christmas cheer!

Check out the smile on the Bearded Sleigh Master!
No judgement, having that beautiful woman on my lap
makes me smile too!

Checking out the lights in our neighborhood!

This woman is so much fun!

Getting on our dark side as we check out the latest Star Wars flick!

Insane light displays!

Spending the holiday with my love!

Simply breathtaking!

Erin always makes me smile!

I'm so beyond blessed to get to spend my days with this amazing woman. She makes my heart happy and has taught my soul to dance.

#Happiness

Merry Christmas to all and until next time, Rhew on!

KD Proctor - Meet Me Under the Stars

Meet Me Under the Stars

by KD Proctor Publication Date: July 18, 2017 Genres: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords

When ratings for her popular DIY show start to circle the drain after the sudden death of her sister, Charlotte “Charlie” Conti has only one mission—to plan a comeback. But her sister had other plans. As part of the will, Charlie must work with *him* to create a memorial scholarship in her sister’s memory. The same *him* Charlie fell in love with three years ago while working at a summer camp. 

The same *him* she dumped, to protect his heart.

Sexy, British player, Nate Walsh, has sixty days to find a new job or he’ll be deported back to England where he’s no longer welcome. He doesn’t have time to work on a memorial scholarship with *her*. The same *her* who shattered his heart without explanation or warning.

The same *her* he’s never gotten over. Unable to agree on the specifics of the scholarship, Nate and Charlie challenge each other to a winner-takes-all competition. They both know the only way to win is to turn up the heat and tempt one another with the one thing they both want: each other. But as sparks fly, their true feelings resurface. Nate and Charlie must decide if their love is worth the effort and if they can overcome their disastrous past mistakes to spend forever together.

About KD Proctor

KD Proctor loved college so much that when it came time to graduate, she didn’t want to leave. Trading in her textbooks for student handbooks and policy manuals, she began a career in College Student Personnel and she fulfilled her wish to stay on a college campus forever. She always joked that one day she’d write a book about college students, never expecting that to come true!

KD lives in West Central, Minnesota with her husband and fur-kids. She likes to write fun twists on the usual tropes that we all love. Her characters are smart, funny, and always swoony. And yes. They always get their happily ever after. Before being accepted for publication, MEET ME UNDER THE STARS (formerly titled IF YOU’RE EVER IN TOWN) was the 2016 YARWA winner for the New Adult category.

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How to Create an Audiobook - Part 4

Welcome back! This is the final installment of my How to Create an Audiobook series. If you haven't already reviewed the previous posts, check them out:
 * Part 1
 * Part 2
 * Part 3

By now, you have recorded your first chapter. Woop! Congrats! Let's see if we can make it even more interesting by adding in a bit of intro music. There are several places to get free clips you can use, but some of my favorites are:
  * Sound Bible
  * Zap Splat
  * Free Stock Music

Make sure your clip isn't more than 7-10 seconds long. This is an audiobook, not a musical. Once you've found your intro, create a new track.

For the Input type, choose No Input and click Create.

From Finder, drag your file to the new track.

My file is called Intro-Wind-Mark (see the image).

Replicate the Chapter 1 track and create an introduction for your book. All that will go into the introduction is the name of the book and your name.

Here are the first few paragraphs from Norman and the Demon complete with intro.

I didn't have a lot of time to create this chapter and when I go to make the final version, I'll do a couple of things differently. First, notice there's a lot of popping. This is because I'm too close to the microphone. Next time, I'll move it away a bit. Also, there are a couple of times I munged words. When this happens, pause, and reread. The munged words can be edited out.

Nothing quite like examples of what not to do! :-)

Okay, intro, music, and chapter 1 complete. Time to upload!

ACX
ACX manages the audio content that is sold on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.

Create an ACX account:
Go to www.ACX.com and enter your name or ISBN into their search bar:

 With a little luck, they'll find your books:

Choose your book and click This is My Book, then click I already have audio files for this book, and I want to sell it.

You will be prompted to log into Amazon. After that, complete the ACX registration. I was prompted to choose my book again, and I had to re-choose I already have audio files. Select your distribution preferences.

After that the site walks you through uploading your book.

Congrats, my friends! You now have a published audiobook!

I hope this tutorial has been helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.

Adventure on,

Deek