Dose of Happiness: Beta Help

Dose of Happiness: Street Team

My new book, 122 Rules - Redemption, is set to release August 27. My editor and bride, Erin Rhew, and I have edited it so many times, I've lost count. Erin is an AMAZING editor, but after a dozen readings (including THREE rounds of content edits and a dozen rounds of line), even she is susceptible to missing some of the flaws in a manuscript.

And honestly, at this point, I'm really sick of the story.

Every time I think of going through it once more...

Please. I beg you. Not again.

Fortunately, in comes the Cavalry to save me!

The Cavalry Arrives!

In this case, the Calvary is my advanced reader team. Those merciful, patient souls willing to tag in and find the logic problems, character inconsistencies, and word flounderings that I've missed.

Here are a few examples of some of what my street team found:

Out of order words.

Extra words.
Becky has some seriously great hawk eyes for typos.

Timeline problems

Misspellings both I and Word missed.

Repetitive

Who's talking dialogue problems.

Chrissy is awesome at finding story problems and
doesn't hold back on telling me exactly what she thinks.

Jess is so good at making sure to we tap into the characters' emotions.

Geographical problems.

Don't forget how they feel!

Even though Redemption is still out with several more beta readers, but I wanted to give a shoutout to my street team...

Thank you!

Until next time, adventure on!

Want to become part of the Jaguar Street Team?

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122 Rules - Redemption

122 Rules - Redemption

Sam Bradford’s worst nightmares are confirmed when the mutilated body of Monica Sable washes up on the Pacific coast. The woman he’d fought and sacrificed so much to save is dead. Armed with his wits and mastery of the 122 Rules of Psychology, he breaks rank to track down the murderer—notorious hitman Tyron Erebus, whom Sam thought he’d eliminated during his last assignment.

When his investigation leads him back to Monica’s hometown, he discovers that the floating corpse was a decoy. Monica is still alive. But Erebus, having escaped the grave, is hellbent on finishing the hit he’d started but failed to complete.

The madman has her in the crosshairs...again.

After a storm washes out the only bridge in or out of town, Sam, Monica, and everyone in Alabaster Cove are trapped with the psychopath who is mercilessly reigning terror upon the little community in his relentless quest to fulfill his personal vendetta. When his training fails him, Sam is forced to throw out the rules and face the lunatic head-on, before Erebus annihilates the city and everyone in it.

Though Redemption officially comes out August 27, 2019,
you can pre-order it today!

Dose of Happiness: Coffee Dates!

Readers of my blog know that I'm a simple fella. As a minimalist, I don't need a lot of stuff. Things don't make you happy. Piles of gizmos, giant houses, massive quantities of anything won't put a dance in your step, nor lighten the burdens in your heart.

In fact, given time, those things will bury you.

Too much stuff!

Aaaaaaahhhhhh!

Sure, I have my weaknesses. I'd be lost without my computer, phone, and coffee maker, but the items themselves aren't what make me happy. Simplicity and making memories are where it's at.

I've talked about Fryday--the one day a week Erin and I share a small Wendy's fry and a pizza--well, this goes hand-in-hand with Fryday: Coffee Dates!

Coffee Dates

Easily some of the most overlooked joys of life are simple times like grabbing a cup of joe down at the local coffee shop. Usually we walk to our local Starbucks--a trek that's five miles round trip. Then when we arrive, we chat it up with our favorite baristas. Every time we go in we learn a little more about them, get a little more familiar with their life stories.

For me and Erin it's more than just coffee, it's about connecting. Connecting with each other and those around us.

And of course, it's about drinking coffee, which come in all flavors and types!

Erin's favorite, Ice Cinnamon Almond Milk Caramel Macchiato

When we aren't Starbucksing, Erin will go for a Califia

Parents say, "Don't play with your food." Bah! Who can resist Starbucks in sunglasses?

Gimme your coffee and nobody gets hurt!

LOL! The baristas know me well. DOUBLE whipped cream!

Peekaboo!

Hangin' with my best friend!

In the end it's really all about hanging out with my partner, my best friend, my beautiful bride.

Deek and Erin - Brewin' Togetha!

So, go out, get some coffee--or whatever floats your boat--and make some connections!

This is Deek, with a little dose of coffee happiness!

Adventure on, my friends!

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Dose of Happiness: Book Happiness Part 2!

Book happiness? Didn't I just blog about that a couple weeks ago? Why, yes, yes I did.

Again and Again!

If you missed it or don't remember, check out Dose of Happiness: Book Happiness.

This week, we're talking:

Formatting!

122 Rules Cover Page

Sure the covers on your favorite books rock, but what about all the pages in between? Someone had to spend HOURS meticulously laying them out, finding the right fonts, the right headers, the right chapter breaks.

Oh, and let's not even get into "widows" and "orphans."

No, not those widows and orphans, I'm talking about trailing little devil lines at the end or beginning of a page.

For print book layout, we use Adobe's Indesign. Erin has always done our book layouts and is smashingly good at it, but it was time for me to take the reins. So, she used The Prophecy's template to springboard the 122 Rules set up. She did the heavy lifting of setting up the master pages, fonts, headers, so on and so on.

She also worked with our cover designer, Anita Carroll of Race Po!nt, on the dimensions, page count, and things random sounding things like "gutters" and "bleed." All of this mess requires more precision than a mission to Mars or KDP will chew your book up and spit it out.

Then it was over to me to clean up the content. Compared to all that other stuff, cleaning the content doesn't sound like a big deal. I've got this.

Okay, maybe not as much as I'd hoped.

I've worked in programs that seemed to have been designed by drunk monkeys, and while Indesign wasn't quite that bad, the tipsy primates sketching the buttons and menus were clearly feeling prankish. Within the book itself there are a TON of things that you have to get just right--not only the widows and orphans--to make a book look polished and clean.

While it took a lot longer than I thought, with Erin's guidance, I think the results speak for themselves.

122 Rules - Cover Page

122 Rules - Chapter One

122 Rules - Rule #73

122 Rules - Chapter Break

And while I messed up a bit and asked a ton of questions, my amazing bride was profoundly patient and worked with me through all of it.

Next up, we tackled the Smashwords and KDP ebook versions. Those have their own, completely set of rules. Smashwords will upload your book to places like OverDrive, B&N, and Apple IF you are in their premium catalog, but to get there takes a whole lot of work.

Fortunately, Erin knows the 128 pages (yes, 128!!!) of rules and guided me through the process. Happily, Smashwords accepted 122 on the first try!

My bride is a brilliant editor and a total pro at book design layout. She even has her own company for just this service.

Erin Rhew Editing and Design.

As a side now, 122 Rules is now available under its new Tenacious Books Publishing home!

122 Rules on Amazon!

I'm incredibly lucky to have such a talented, patient bride who's willing to help me learn the ropes. 

Erin is a total pro all the way!

This is Deek with another Dose of Happiness!

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Every month or so you will receive the latest news from Tenacious Books Publishing.

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Dose of Happiness: Book Happiness!

This past month has been all about covers and editing and formatting and covers. Now that 122 Rules is being re-published under the Tenacious Books jaguar, we thought it only appropriate to give it a brand new cover to celebrate!

The Jag welcomes 122 Rules!
He's one cool cat!

But covers don't just happen. Sure, anyone can take an image, slap some verbiage on it, and call it a cover. But to really create something amazing and eye-catching, you need an artist.

No. Not that kind of artist.

The kind that can take a vague idea, some random images, and create something truly spectacular. That's why today's Dose of Happiness is about our cover artist, Anita Carroll, of Race Po!nt, because she is just such an an artist.

Book Cover Dose of Happiness

We began this process three years ago. Three! When we created the original cover for 122 Rules, we batted around a ton of ideas. The funny thing is, the original concept--and the one we have now gone with--was what both Anita and I, each individually, envisioned. I'd had in my head the idea and after she read the book, she also--without knowing what I thought--suggested something similar.

Wut? Yep!

Though the final cover turned out really good, ultimately, we didn't get to use our idea.

Original 122 Rules Cover

It's pretty sweet, right? Though, cool, I never let go of that original vision. I talked it over with Erin, who told me that it was worth spending the $ to get the cover re-done when we brought 122 under the Tenacious Books jaguar.

Erin wanted to see my vision brought to life. Seriously, could I get any luckier? 

So, this last February I told Anita I envisioned a man on a motorcycle, racing toward the reader, hell bent on a mission.

Yep. That's what she got from me.

Have I mentioned that I'm really lucky that my peeps are so patient and understanding?

Here are the pics I sent her:

Umm, yep. That's what she had to work with.

Fortunately, Anita didn't even blink. She took that hodgepodge of stuff and created...

<drum roll please>

Presenting, the brand new 122 Rules cover!

New 122 Rules cover!

I'm so pleased with the result. It matches exactly to what I've had in my head all those years.

I'm incredibly lucky to get to work with a great group of professionals, and am please to include Anita among them. She's a graphics artist pro from concept to delivery. There's a reason she's done the cover for everything in the Tenacious Books library and Erin and I created the hashtag #AnitaIsAmazing.

We have 122 tentatively scheduled for relaunch on April 10, 2019. I'm super excited to get to release it under the jaguar and with a cool new cover!

This is Deek, giving you a little dose of book happiness!

Adventure on, my friends!

122 Rules

Dose of Happiness: Home Projects

Nobody ever says that doing home projects are fun...well, almost nobody. But, this one made me happy.

Say what?

Yep, it's true! Erin and I have been planning to replace the fans in our bathrooms, paint, and hang our barn door for several months now, and this weekend was it. So, as soon as I got off work on Friday, Erin came and picked me and we headed to the hardware store.

One of the things we had to do was figure out how to connect a super-sucker, modern-day bathroom fan to our antiquated 1980's attic venting. Erin and I worked through the limited available pipe pieces until we came up with a Y-adapter that would connect two fans with 6 inch exhaust pipes to a 3 inch flexi-vent pipe.

Rube Goldberg, eat your heart out!

Our ridiculous contraption looked both like the funnel on a steam engine or, well...

Be jealous, my Portland peeps!

In the end the venting worked perfectly, though this one looks kinda like a scorpion.

And this one, well, I don't know, is just a mess.
Functional, but a mess nonetheless.

And the results... Drumroll please!

Before

During

After

Dose of Happiness

Okay, so how does all of this tie back in to a dose of happiness?

Easy!

Erin and I did this together

And, really, for me to be happy that's all it takes. She and I had fun picking out our color, piecing together the crazy vent pipe, planning, and ordering the parts. During the project, which took most of the weekend and FOUR total coats of primer and paint (yes, FOUR!), we talked, laughed, and jammed out to country tunes.

Saturday evening, we had to go up to the hardware store for the inevitable thing that we forgot, but instead of driving we took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked.

Gorgeous sunset from the hardware store parking lot

It just kept getting prettier as we walked home.

As seeing as how Saturday is also Fryday, we then went to Wendy's, got our small fry, and ate in the parking lot. Dude, tastes SO good after a day of sweating and painting and bending and stooping and wiring in the attic! AND after we finished for the evening, it was pizza night!

In my past life I would have done the whole project alone. But my best friend and partner was there every step of the way, and together we rocked it!

Deek and Erin, back again, party on party on!

This is Deek, giving you a little dose of home project happiness!

Adventure on, my friends!

Dose of Happiness: Fryday!

Erin and I spent months and months losing weight via Keto. It worked awesome and we shedded the pounds like melted butter.

But what do you do after you've lost the weight?

Unfortunately, a lot of people go back to their old habits and put the weight back on. Erin and I got rid of all our "fat" clothes, thus committed to keeping the weight off. So we incorporated the changes into our lifestyle.

We like fitting into our clothes. We like feeling energetic. We like taking pictures and not worrying if we look bloated/puffy/fat.

While we were dieting, we had our weekly cheat-meal day. Pizza, Starbucks, and we split a small Wendy's fry. I'm affectionately coining this day:

Fryday!

Mountains of delicious salty goodness in a convenient sleeve

You can taste their warm, salty, goodness can't you?

But who eats just half a small fry? Actually, we do. Once a week.

Fries are one of those things that there's diminishing returns for each delectable, salt-ladened stick. The first few blow your socks off. The next curl your toes. After that, it starts losing something and the enjoyment factor goes way down.

As a kid I was always told to clean my plate. Starving kids in Africa/China/California, yada yada yada. But SHOULD you do that with unhealthy foods?

Anyway, we decided to carry on the habit of our once-a-week cheat meal over, incorporating it into our lifestyle. We get our fry and sit in the parking lot, savoring it. And just when we are starting to get diminishing returns on our caloric investment, they're gone.

Food-wise, Fryday is easily my happiest day of the week! While we eat great stuff all the rest of the time, this tops the charts...plus, it's the weekend, so I'm hanging our full time with my bestie and sleeping in.

This is Deek, delivering a little dose of Fryday happiness.

Adventure on, my friends!

Dose of Happiness: Four Day Weekend!

Woooop! Today marks the first day of my four day weekend! Sleeping in, editing, and chillin'.

So, what's the occasion? Well, really it's nothing special. During the day, I'm a code-slinger: One of the geeks that helps make a web page do its thang.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. The last couple of months, have been one of those isn't times. My job is awesome. I love the people and the work is always interesting, but there are times it's mentally exhausting to get the right words and information to show up on the screen.

So, after our last release, I scheduled a couple of days off. And what better days than Thursday and Friday?

Both of those days, I'm tagging along with Erin as she run errands and does the usual day-to-day. The only difference is that I get to do them with her.

#Winning

Saturday, we are attending a book festival.

#Winning

Sunday afternoon we have a date at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Can anyone say:

#Winning

So, despite the stress of the last couple of months, we got our code out and our customers satisfied, and I get some great time with my bride.

This is Deek, delivering a little dose of happiness.

Adventure on, my friends!

Dose of Happiness: Back in Jail...Twitter Jail!

So, I'm back in Twitter jail. Well, really this is the like being sent to the corner. Basically, when I reply to someone's tweet, like a tweet, or just tweet, no one can see it unless they look at my feed. It's something that happens to my account on a regular basis and I think it's because Twitter thinks I'm spamming.

What the what?

Yep. Last time it happened, I was tweeting a blog post. This time it happened I was also tweeting about blog post.

But guess what? I'm grateful it happened!





Again...what the what?

Yep. Because this time I was tweeting about Erin's new book, The Transhuman Project!

Follow me here: I'm in jail...or in the corner or whatever...because Erin has a great new SciFi book out and I'm so proud of her, I'm tweeting her blog tour posts. And the Twitter Skynet does not like it.

But the world still gets an awesome new book by my favorite author of all time, so, yep, totally winning!


This is Deek delivering a little dose of happiness.

Adventure on my friends!