Duane

About Duane

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You know what’s funny?

Yesterday I was writing, and the group was just walking through the woods trying to get to the next village, and it occurred to me how boring that would be, so I had Jarrod ask Derek to tell everyone a joke.  The funny part is, the joke he told is actually one I dreamed up one night.  I was laying in bed in a sort of a lucid dreaming state, and this joke ran through my head just completely out of nowhere.  I woke up with the punchline solidly locked in my brain, but then I had to remember the rest of the joke, which I eventually did.

Now here’s the funny part.  Not only was the joke completely original, but…I didn’t get it.  Honestly, somehow I came up with a joke that I didn’t get!  Now here’s the really funny part.  I told it to my wife and she actually explained it to me, and when she did I was like, “OH DUH!!!” *insert facepalm here*

That was actually one of two times that that’s happened to me.  I actually started out having him tell the other joke, but it wasn’t as funny and didn’t work as well, so I switched.

Anyway, it stuck with me, so I threw it in there.  At least a couple of the characters got it, so it didn’t fall totally flat, but still… 😉

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Max Maryan

Author Interview Form
Tell us your name and where you’re from.:
 Max Maryan. There are a number of countries that I can call
“from”. Am Ukrainian born, New York raised, England educated and
Brazilian married, currently residing in New York.
What led to your decision to become an author?:
 I have been reading in a few languages since I have learned
to read. Over the years quite a few ideas accumulated in my head. One
day my father challenged me to put something on paper.
Tell us about what you’re currently working on, and
what you’ve written in the past.: 		Having finished my first sci-fi novel which I plan on
continuing as series I am now working on a sport fiction novel about
World Cup 2018.
Are you self published, traditionally published or
both? Why did you choose to go that route?: 		After receiving a few rejections from some agents I decided
to go on my own in electronic format only.
What format are your books available in? Which of
these formats do you prefer and why?: 		” Coerced Assassin” is available in all digital formats,
although .epub is my favorite.
How do you go about marketing your books?:
 Sales, Goodreads, Smashwords and of course Facebook.
Have you ever had to deal with harsh criticism in a
review, and how do you handle it?: 		At this point I would kill for any criticism or any review at
all.
What are your favorite genres to both read and
write?: 		Fiction, Science Fiction, Comedy.
What authors have influenced or inspired you?:
 The master of Fantasy, Tolkien. Jim Butcher as of late.
What kinds of things do you enjoy doing when you’re
not writing?: 		Soccer is my other passion. Watching and playing. Electronics
are my other passion.
What software do you use for your writing? Did you
try others before you settled on the one you’re currently using?:
 Various Android office suites. MSOffice for
proofreading.
What is it that you like about the software you’re
currently using that makes it the best solution for you?:
 Mobility. Being that my daily commute takes up more than 3
hours a day, being able to type on my Tablet is extremely
convenient.
What’s the best advice you could possibly give to
your fellow authors?: 		At this point I’d rather get some of it.
Where can people find out more about you and your
books?: 		Amazon or Smashwords. My website maxmaryan.com is almost
fully up and running and of course I can be found on Facebook and
Twitter.

 

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Two days of hell…

So a couple of days ago I installed some caching and security plugins on the server that runs both this site and the film magazine I run called Rogue Cinema.  Rogue was just recently converted over to WordPress, and this site’s been running on it since the beginning.  Well after I installed the plugins on both sites, I started having problems with them.  Everything from forbidden messages to nothing more than a directory listing.  It wasn’t even anything that was reproducible, which made it even more frustrating.  Everything would run fine, and then boom, it would start doing it for no apparent reason.  A restart of the server software would get it working again for a while, but then later, it would start all over again.

I spent the last two days cleaning out the databases of all the old options, getting rid of file system locks, cleaning up .htaccess files and everything else I could think to do, but nothing seemed to work.  Finally I gave up and upgraded both the web server software and PHP to their current versions, which was a total pain because the Apache upgrade was a major revision, so I had to comb through all the config files making sure I had all the settings there that needed to be there, and I had to do that for PHP as well.

The long and the short of it is, after two days of massive frustration, I think I finally have it fixed now.  I’m crossing my fingers anyway, but it seems to be running ok.  Now I can finally get back to my writing.

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Apologies for the site down time.

My apologies for the downtime.  I was experimenting with some security plugins for WordPress and was having some really serious problems with them.  I’ve stopped using the last one I tried now, so hopefully there won’t be any more down time.  Crossing my fingers anyway. 😛

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Kate O’Hara

Author Interview Form
Tell us your name and where you’re from.:
 Kate O’Hara from the dead center of the lower 48 states.
Emphasis on the word dead.
What led to your decision to become an author?:
 I like to reinvent myself every 10 years or so. This is the
new me I chose for this decade.
Tell us about what you’re currently working on, and
what you’ve written in the past.: 		I have one short ebook published – The Dystemporal Reporter.
It will eventually be incorporated into a series called Tapestries.
The books are designed to be a biography told in short first-person
narratives with collections representing time spans. The series uses
the oral story-telling traditions to weave the tale of a life.
What are some of your strongest points as a writer,
and what if anything are you constantly working to improve upon?:
 My strongest point is probably evocative language skill. I’m
a poet disguised as a reporter. I am stretching my styles and genres
to create this series, so am learning to write romance instead of just
report it.
Are you self published, traditionally published or
both? Why did you choose to go that route?: 		First item is on Amazon. It seemed like a relatively painless
way to get past the publishing block and move on.
What format are your books available in? Which of
these formats do you prefer and why?: 		For now, Kindle only. Eventually when the collections are
published, I expect to also make them available in paper format for
those who prefer the feel of a book.
How do you go about marketing your books?:
 I haven’t yet.
Have you ever had to deal with harsh criticism in a
re view, and how do you handle it?: 		Not yet (first book just published). Four 5* reviews so
far.
What are your favorite genres to both read and
write?: 		Prefer to read crime now, but have a huge collection of
classic Sci-fi collected over a half-century. I write or have written
everything over the years as a freelancer. The Tapestries collections
will use memoir, romance, paranormal and outright heaven/hell battles
as the story progresses through the decades. It will always be
“informational” because I can’t help still being an investigational
reporter in my writing.
What authors have influenced or inspired you?:
 All of them – for better or worse.
What kinds of things do you enjoy doing when you’re
not writing?: 		Reading, teaching, movies…. the usual stuff.
What software do you use for your writing? Did you
try others before you settled on the one you’re currently using?:
 MS Word. Have been using it since its first release in 1983
for DOS. I also use Acrobat and have experience with many others, but
Word has always been my favorite.
What is it that you like about the software you’re
currently using that makes it the best solution for you?:
 Familiarity
What’s the best advice you could possibly give to
your fellow authors?: 		Write! Let it out so the spark of inspiration can keep the
fires of creativity banked.
Where can people find out more about you and your
books?: 		Amazon or my new website http://www.kateoharabooks.com

 

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Subscribe to the newsletter…

I’ve added a newsletter subscription to the official website.  You’ll see it over on the right side in a widget right below the search widget.  You can subscribe if you’d like updates about book releases as well as contests and such.  So if you’d like to keep up with the series and know what’s going on, go ahead and subscribe.  Everything is local to the official site, so your e-mail address will go no further, nor will it be used for any other purpose.

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Duane L. Martin