Modern Life and Its Challenges

Today I figured out the reason my heart lives in the Middle Ages. Granted, in the 10th-14th C. where I belong, we had our challenges: unsafe drinking water, childbirth, Viking raids, bubonic plague.

All these pale beside the challenges I faced today. I mean it!

To wit: the RT Booklovers' Conference is coming up. They have graciously agreed to make our e-books available to lovers of such media (which ACFW refuses to do, but do not get me started. Not today). To do that, we authors must go into a particular e-book vendor's site and load our title and publisher information.

"No problem!" I say to myself. Aye, me. Naive was I, and oblivious to the pitfalls awaiting me on said e-book vendor's site.

First, I must sign in. No problem. It already knows my name. I go in and click on that. Then it wants my e-mail addy. No problem. I enter it. Then it wants my password. I type my standard "nobody'll ever figure this out" password.

You guessed right. It rejects.

No problem. I shoot them an e-mail under the "forgot password" header. Apparently this happens all the time. They shoot me an e-mail with my gibberish password they created for me, probably eons ago when I allowed such things.

I return to said web site and enter the gibberish password.

You guessed right. It rejects. It says, "you already have an account."

Well, duhh. I feel stupid, but I already knew I had one, thanks very much. I shoot them another e-mail under the "create trouble ticket" header.

It's now 45 minutes later than when I began.

No problem, say I. I shall go tackle a different issue -- creating the postcards I need for each book for said RT conference, upcoming.

I've created postcards on this very popular site before. It was easy as a wink. I upload the .jpg file the publisher's created and sent me just prior to release. I include some back cover copy for the postcard. I click the "approve" box, place the order for my required number of postcards, and voilá! I'm done.

You guessed right. It rejects.

For some reason, the images I used to create postcards a year ago are now "not high enough resolution" to create them now. I try a different version. It rejects.

It's now an hour and a half and a phone call later. The customer service rep was very nice indeed, and she tweaked, buffed, polished, resized, reformatted, and basically did everything she could to my cover image.

You guessed right. It still rejects.

I'm done for today. Methinks it best to head back to the 14th century and mull the aftereffects of the Black Death. Much, much less stressful.

Toiling Onward

A Faithful Reader (hi to all three of you!) reminded me I hadn't posted in ages. I'll rectify that.

First & foremost, thanks to all of your good thoughts & prayers. I am no longer stuck. Instead, I'm working on agent-suggested revisions for the piece, DAMAGES, we want to send to Steeple Hill. I'm also working on editor-suggested revisions to SEASONS IN THE MIST, the time-travel story. I'd tell you who the house is who's interested, but my agent says then I'd have to shoot you.

Work on PEACEWEAVER is also perking along. My crit partner actually likes it! More reason to celebrate.

Next month I'm off to American Christian Fiction Writers' annual conference, along with several of you. I'm very cranked for this event, and as usual, I have to warn myself not to set my expectations too high. That way lies a major bum-out.

In other news, my web site is being nicely redesigned. I had to get a new domain name 'cause the old host played dirty with my old one. So if you get a chance, take a peek at www.debkinnard.com, currently under construction but shaping up to be very cool indeed.

That's it for now. Gotta go write something. Cat Kelly Kinnard says "mip".