Daniel J. Hogan's Blog

That's right kids, I'll be at Motor City Comic Con all weekend! I'll be a guest there and I'll be selling copies of The Magic of Eyri for a special Convention Only price. So if you're in the 'hood, swing by and say hi. I'll have free mini-pins and Air Heads candy at my table.

Learn more at: http://www.motorcityconventions.com/motor_city_comic_con/

In other news, my promo cards from lulu.com didn't come yesterday so I WON'T have them for this weekend. I'm all kinds of pissed off about that.  I only have about 50 cards left, which should be OK...but having a fresh batch of 500 would have been nice *grumble* I blame the pokey process that lulu.com uses for ordering said cards. They should really stream line it. Watch, I bet they'll show up today, but I won't be there to get 'em. Grrr. So I whipped up some proxy cards last night before getting on the road. They ain't that pretty, but it is better than nothing. Gotta make due "Adapt. Improvise. Overcome," as Dad likes to say.

I scored a new (used) computer desk this weekend from an aunt. It is much nicer than my previous desk: an old bed room door my dad added folding legs to. While the door was a great desk (lots of space), it was too tall for my desk chair and thus wasn't the best ergonomically. I'd have to sit cross legged most of the time to type comfortably - which was leading me to use my laptop more and more at home in the other room. I considered for a moment using this new desk as a laptop desk in the other room, but quickly changed my mind. The old desk was causing me to have back problems and such too.

So now I have a fancy-schmancy new wooden computer desk complete with roll out drawers (including a keyboard drawer, which I love) and holes for storing stuff. The desk not only holds my computer (duh) but my printer/scanner and my stereo receiver that I run the computer's sound through. I had to move the speakers off the desk because their magnets were staring to mess with my monitor's screen. One of the speakers resides on my short filing cabinet next to the desk and the other on a pair of stacked comic book short boxes. So far so good.

It is now officially tax season and this time around I have my small business taxes to file in addition to my regular kind. This is going to be interesting, I can already tell. Thankfully, I kept all my 'business' receipts organized - so it shouldn't be too hard, just tedious. The advice given to me by a friend who does independent stuff on the side like myself is that I don't really want to make a profit, just to break even at best and have my 'business' pay for all the stuff I do (like conventions, advertising, etc). It helps that Dad is self-employed, so he has been giving me a lot of help (told me to open separate accounts for business stuff, have separate credit cards, etc).

I can tell you right now there is no way I made a profit in 2007, I would of had to sell about 1,000 copies of The Magic of Eyri for that to happen. While there are things I like about being independent, financially it isn't the most fun. But this is the road I'm on at the moment, so I may as well stay the course see where it goes.

I bit the bullet and put up some Google Ads on danieljhogan.com and magicofeyri.com. I won't make a bunch of money off it but it'll help a bit. My preference is not to have ads, but getting some kind of income from the sites is nice. I can always take them down. I already had to block three ads from my sites (one was for a 'sexy singles' website), so I have to keep an eye on what is popping up.

I have a feeling any refund I get from my regular taxes is just going to go back and help pay off my bills from all of this book stuff. All things considered though, I'm not doing too bad. Yeah, I have some debt because of all of this but it isn't that much and I'm playing parts of it off each month and I'm watching my spending. Skipping conventions would be the best way to cut my costs, but I really can't do that - the exposure I get there is well worth the money and being able to sell books face to face to people is a priceless experience for me.

Oh well. At least people are buying the book, if they weren't and I was spending all of this money then I'd be in real trouble ;)

Conversation with Dad on the phone yesterday:

Me: "I went to Starbucks yesterday and got a bunch of writing done."

Dad: "Oh, workin' on that steamboat short-story of yours?"

Me: "...Steampunk, Dad. Steampunk."


Hilarious.
Speaking of, I did get some writing done tonight. This is very much a first draft, and there are a bunch of things I'm gonna rip out and switch around - but I'm glad I finally came up with an interesting back story for one of the main characters that helps frame the rest of the short story. Most of my ideas come out while writing, not before hand in the planning process. I'm at about 2,500 words I think and the limit is 3,500. But I'm not worrying about that now - I'm just going to write what I want to and revise it later. I think I'll end it pretty close to that though.

Feeling a little better too, which is good. I can't believe it is after 11 already, I haven't even been up for 12 hours yet. Going into work tomorrow is going to be a joy, I can already tell. I should have just got up at like 8 today and forced myself back onto my normal sleep schedule.

Wow!

I went to the local Goodwill store on a whim, looking for last minute stocking stuffers (I know my previous post re: Christmas may have made me sound a bit down on the whole gift thing, but I take endless joy in finding a 60 cent used book that one of my parents may actually like - it's fun). After picking up both volumes of [CENSORED] for Dad, a copy of [CENSORED] for my sister, and a hilarious copy of [CENSORED] for Mom, I went to look for anything I might enjoy for myself.

I skimmed the tall shelf, and to my shock I spotted a copy of Ian Flemming's James Bond adventure, You Only Live Twice - and I had just watched the movie version yesterday. Weird! The version I found was a 1960s book club edition (hardcover). I kept looking and I found ELEVEN more James Bond books!

So I ended up with (in no particular order):
Diamonds Are Forever
Casino Royale
Doctor No
Octopussy (with Living Daylights and Property of a Lady)
From Russia, With Love
You Only Live Twice (two different editions)
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Man With the Golden Gun (two different editions)
Goldfinger
Thunderball



So yeah, I ended up withs some doubles - but for 50 cents a piece, it is hard to say no (and they had a deal if you bought X amount, you got a price break). Especially if they are actually collectible - the hardcovers are all from the 1960s. I've never read any of the Bond books, but I've wanted to since Casino Royale came out last fall. If I don't like 'em, I'll just try to sell 'em online or donate them to the library's used bookstore. I don't have a problem spending money on used books. I'm going to start reading Casino Royale right away, and sadly put reading Out of Sight on hold (I've seen the movie already anyway, I'm sure Elmore Leonard would understand. I'll get back to it soon enough).

Looks like I only need Live and Let Die, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only and On Her Majesty's Secret Service to complete the James Bond series.

Today's Frazz comic strip sums up my feelings about most Christmas music. I'll be very happy on December 26th, because I won't have to suffer through countless versions of the same tired old songs until next November (or the way things have been going, I'll be happy if I make it through October).

I really just wish Christmas was more like Thanksgiving. I could rant about commercialism ruining the holiday and people going crazy about buying things they don't need (and don't even get me started on the whole Nintendo Wii thing -- brilliantly summed up here by the comic Dueling Analogs, read the blog post below the comic too), but I'd be beating an army of dead horses.

I'm being hypocritical, I know, because I've been doing what I can to get people to buy copies of The Magic of Eyri for presents - but I gotta do what I gotta do. Hate the game, not the player as the saying goes.

I think now that I'm older (in addition to being single and childless), Christmas just doesn't have the same magic as it did when I was a kid. Before it meant fun stuff, now it just means stress for me and those around me. Don't get me wrong - I'm very happy to see my family and I love that part of the holiday, especially now that I have moved away and my younger sister is married. And that's what I think the holiday should be about: family (and/or friends), not getting a ghastly shirt from your great aunt or trying to remember which season of Full House to buy your niece.

BUT - there is a new tradition that has popped up on my dad's side that I've grown to enjoy and that my mom's side has taken up as well: bringing a random $20 gift and drawing cards to see who gets to pick first (we don't do it where you can steal gifts though, which I think it is a good idea - especially on Dad's side. Trading after everyone is done is allowed though). I like this concept, it takes pressure off you because no one has expectations about what they are getting and there is an added touch of mystery and the always fun "AWWW Man - why didn't I pick that box?"

Merry Christmas y'all.