revjim.net

May 9th, 2006:

and they will know me by the trail of sawdust

May 9th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
3 comments

Jess and I are nearly finished reflooring the studio. Those of you that have been around to see it — namely, my parents, my sister, and her finance the day we put the floor down, and two friends last night — might have some idea of how much work has been involved. At this point, it needs to be sanded one more time, taped off and painted, and then sealed. Then, after we peel the tape up, we’ll need to retouch some of the baseboards. If I’m very diligent it’ll all be done before a photography session I have on Friday. If not, I’ll put painting off until next week.

I hope the floor ends up being as durable as we were led to believe it would be because it’s been a lot of work to put in. Thankfully, aside from the effort involved, the costs have been low. So, if it doesn’t work out, we can always destroy it and put in something else.

I think that, when we finally get it finished, we should throw a photo party. Interested?

Next we’ll be digging in to the living room floor. It’s already without carpet, now we just need to put something on that concrete.

As Long as You Both Shall Live

May 9th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

Congratulations are in order to Bonnie and Justin on their wedding this past weekend: May they find peace, safety, and acceptance in each others arms from this day until eternity.

I seem to get lucky at every wedding I’ve ever been in. No! Not like that. But, I’m always finding myself in the wedding escorting a very attractive bridesmaid on to the ceremonial platform. She and I even joked about it and did our posed for the cameras that would have been pointed at us if only we got the publicity we deserved. Eat your heart out People Magazine!

I spent the majority of the after-party watching another guest and wondering how many drinks it would take before he decided to punch me. Thankfully, he acted honorably and ignored our bad blood. I had to drive a beat up Honda with one headlight shoddy breaks and the suspension of a bounce-house several miles down the freeway some time after midnight in order to get a drunk and belligerent guest back to his hotel room. I spent the majority of the trip trying to decide if I was more afraid that the car would fall apart under me or if the police would pull me over and I would have to say, very truthfully, “It’s not mine, sir, I swear.”, because I had no idea what was in that car but I certainly had my suspicions. The smell sort of gave it away. Despite these complications the after-party was a blast. Justin and I sang our usual Indigo Girls tune, Jess and I sang “One Week”, as we usually do, I sang “Pencil Thin Moustache” with TayTay, and I even sang “Patience” nearly by myself after Justin forced the microphone in my hands.

cancelling Finding Place?

May 9th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
5 comments

I may be cancelling “my book”:http://revjim.net/books/20054q-finding-place/ all together and refunding the money to those that purchased it.

Those of you that pay even moderate attention to my writing will know that I did a lot of market research, opinion seeking, and put out lots of feelers before deciding to sell a book of my work, and even more research before deciding where to have it printed and how much to sell it for. Based on my research, I had expected somewhere between 50 and 100 copies to be sold in pre-sale. It’s been very shocking and a bit depressing to find that I haven’t even manged to reach 20% of that low estimate.

I’ve been putting off finishing the book in hopes to pick up a few more before the price goes up but I don’t feel like I can put it off any longer. So, I’m currently heavily debating whether I should refund the book pre-sales and cancel the book entirely or finish the production of the book and just not make any more.

At this point, if I consider sales final, finish the book, put in my printing order and call it done I’ll make about $75, assuming I don’t have any misprints. Considering that I’ve put in at least 10 hours developing it and Jess has put in at least 3 more, $75 isn’t even a fair wage, let alone a real profit.

If you have advice I’m all ears.