Site Design/Changes

In case you hadn’t noticed, I changed things around here at Chocolate for Dogs a little bit.  The most obvious change is the new site theme; this was just as much functional as it was aesthetic.  I’ve been thinking about posting source code to the site for programming tutorials, and while I was able to find a plugin that allowed for decent syntax highlighting, it looked like crap on a black background.

Aside from that, I’ve also cleaned out some of the pages around here — everything related to the writing side of my life, basically.  I’m going to be putting those up at http://matthewcory.com/ over the next couple of days, so I didn’t want things duplicated here.  It’s also part of my effort to do a little partitioning in my life — CFD’s going to be more focused on programming (maybe) and random crap, and I want the writing life to be over at the other site for now.

Anyways, just thought I’d post it as an FYI for anyone who may be wondering what the hell happened.  Catch you on the flip side.

–Matt

Podcast: New Site and Marketing

Okay everyone, got a new site and a marketing tip for all you writers out there — you’ve probably heard it before, but it bears repeating.  Check it out!

New Site and Marketing (~6:00)

New Site Up!

Just wanted to let everyone know that there’s a new “official” site, specifically for the writing junk. You can find it at http://matthewcory.com/ (yes, it feels pretentious to me too). There’s not much there yet, but stop by and say hello. I’ll be moving most of the content regarding my works over there during the next week or so, and I’ll be posting regular updates on Shattered and whatever else I’m working on there as well.

Just FYI.

Podcast: Rough Drafts and Editing

Got a new podcast for you this morning. A bit of an update/clarification on what’s going on around here, and we do a bit more emphasis on the whole “Let Yourself Write Crap” mantra from the other day.

Bit of an Update/Rough Drafts and Editing (~9:00)

Winding Down

Thought I’d post again real quick.  Today’s finished up pretty decently, though for a few minutes I’d thought about getting back into the promo stuff again.  Switched the home page back to the Like Glass page, looked at it, realized how much more work I’d need to do to get going again, and switched it back to the “Due to lack of interest…” page.  Like the title on that one better anyways.

It’s wierd how your body tells you that you’re doing the “right” thing or not.  You get that edgy feeling in the pit of your stomach, maybe your breathing starts to speed up a little bit.  Mind starts to race a little.  That’s when you know you need to stop whatever it is, regardless of whatever someone else says is “right”, and reconsider what you’re doing and why.

The book stuff just isn’t me.  I’m not a hard worker, not in the ways most people would like me to be.  I’m not much of a people person, or anything like that.  This is right; this is me.  Just bullshitting on a blog about nothing important while I’m smoking my last cigarette for the day.  If an agent or a publisher comes along and wants to do something with the book, that’s their business and I’ll help them along as best as I can.  But it isn’t me, this whole drive-yourself-crazy-over-a-book just ain’t me.

I’m going to bed.

Out of the Fight For Now

Got a decent nap today; that seemed to put me back in a “normal” mood.  Unfortunately, I think the missus is still a little angry with me for how I’ve been acting, but hopefully that’ll clear up.  It’s also dinner time, and the end of the weekend, neither of which make for a good mood.  Anyways…

Been doing a lot of thinking along the lines of programming.  I miss doing javascript stuff at my last job, so I’ve been playing with it the past few days.  Fun stuff.  I might try and do a couple of little posts on it, but don’t get your hopes up ;)

Went to Sears and got the plugin for the dryer that should be coming tomorrow.  That’ll be nice; no more standing around at the laundromat; and I’ll be able to do at least my own laundry every once in a while instead of relyng on the wife to do it with everything else.

I want to say thank you to someone right now, for something they’re helping us with.  You know who you are and what you’re doing, so I’m not going to mention anything; thank you though.

God, I feel like I’ve been asleep for days…  If you’ve never had to deal with depression, you’re lucky.  It’s definitely not fun (well, by definition it’s not fun, but you know what I mean).  I’m not sure if I want to try and do damage control or just pick up and move on.  I don’t think I pissed anyone off while I was in the fight; if I did, let me know and I’ll try to take care of it.

Okay, I think dinner’s almost ready, so I’m going to cut this short.  Have fun, where ever you may be.

In The Fight: Big Surprise

Well, today was “day 2″ of my whole away-from-book-promo life, and I spent most of it in the fight.  Bad, too: spent all day trying to sleep and not succeeding very well; still tired as hell.  Miserable all day, sad, lonely, the whole nine yards.  Pretty much expected this after trying so hard with the book crap.  The wife’s getting tired of it, and I can’t very well blame her — hell, I’m tired of it too.  But what can you do?

I don’t know what’s up.  Thought the meds were working good, but apparently not.  Aside from everything else, I was very much in an “ASH” kinda mood today — I’m not going to explain it; you can google it if you’d like, but I don’t promise you’ll find out.  No biggie anyways.

Watched “Celebrity Rehab” tonight with the missus, and it brought UBH back.  Kinda miss that place.  Having to be there sucked, but at the same time, it was a good environment (strangely enough, being around a bunch of addicts and loonies was quite calming for me — I felt in my own habitat).  That and I could sleep all day if I wanted to; no one would’ve cared.

We did talk about good stuff tonight.  The missus asked if I’d ever thought of becoming a teacher.  Strangely enough, that’s a career path I’ve given lots of thought to, I just don’t know what the hell to teach.  English?  Computers (ugh…)?  Music?  Psychology?  History?  Middle School?  High School?  College?  Then there’s the whole finance crap — have to pay UTEP off before I can get my transcript and go for financial aid.  Course, I know a lot of people will say “Just do it, it’s not that big of a deal,” but that’s one of the fun things of being in the ring with yourself: everything’s a big deal.

Anyways, I think the missus is going to bed, so I’d better mosey that way too.

Life as a “Civilian”: Day 1

Well, today was my first day after taking myself out of the “public” eye, and I must admit it’s been quite relaxing.  I cleared out my Facebook and MySpace friend lists to just those people I know personally and the handful of people I met through those sites that I consider actual “friends” — instead of just a name on a list — and for some reason, it feels a lot nicer now.  I can’t explain it, but for some reason only having 24 people see what I’m doing is a lot more relaxing than 1K+.

Today was great though.  Took a nap, did some hobby-ish programming, played Guitar Hero II and got my ass kicked hard core by Beast and the Harlot.  I think this whole “just me” instead of “Matthew Cory, Author” thing is going to be great.

I need to start getting ready for dinner; we’re going to see Twilight afterwards.  Don’t tell the missus, but I kinda wish we weren’t :\  Much rather stay home, but what can ya do?  She’s been wanting to see it for a while, in spite of the fact it’s going to be nothing but teeny-boppers at the theater.  Oh well.

Mailbag Closed

Related to last night’s post, I’m closing the mailbag for the podcasts.  I only had two questions sent in (yes, there was one podcast I fibbed and created two questions, in hopes it would get someone interested in it), so I’m guessing this won’t be that big of a deal to anyone.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Due To Lack Of Interest…

When I was growing up, I remember my mom had one book in particular with a title that always caught my eye: “Due To Lack Of Interest Tomorrow Has Been Cancelled”.  Never read it myself, but she said it was good.  The title, though, I think of at least once a week even to this day.  It has just the right amount of absurdity to stick out.  I swore I’d find some way to rip it off someday.

That day is now.  I’m closing up shop on the writing/business stuff.  I know I said this earlier this week, that I’d give it until next week before I stopped trying to push the book, but it’s gotten to be too much and I’m frankly tired of it.  It’s causing problems at home with my wife, and as some of you may know or have figured out, I have “problems” of my own anyways, and it’s aggravating them.

It’s just not worth it.

As a great poet once said “No one said it was easy/No one ever said it would be this hard…”  I bit off a hell of a lot more than I could chew, and it’s time to spit it out and find something a little easier to swallow.

So, yes, I’m doing what I’ve threatened to do for about a week now.  I’m doing what I’ve been whining towards for the past few days.  I’m giving up.  Here’s the game plan.

I had been planning on offering a special discounted price on Like Glass to members of my fan page and the group I have on there.  That is no longer the case.  I’m extending that 20% discount to everyone, effective immediately, and continuing until I decide otherwise.  Details are at the end of this post.

Like Glass will still be available in paperback through the first of the year at least.  After that, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it.  I may release it digitally for free under a creative commons license.  I may try and auction the rights just to get them out of my way.  I may just let it collect digital dust on my hard drive.  I’ll decide that when the time comes.

Chocolate For Dogs will once again be my personal blog and will no longer be a marketing utility.  This means there will probably be a lot more whining when I’m in my down-swing days.  There will probably even be days I blog about being suicidal or other fun topics like that.  I may start talking about programming, or I may give up the fight and talk about writing.  I’ve kept myself from talking about either of those, because neither software developers nor authors buy novels from websites they go to for information.  I say this from my own experience, on both sides of the computer.

In other words, expect Chocolate for Dogs to be more “me” and less “Matthew Cory, Author of Like Glass“.

Shattered will come out as Shattered comes out.  I’m not concerned about it one way or another right now.  If it gets written, then great; if not, well … you have my apologies.  If it gets to the point where I truly think it’s dead, I may release it “as-is” just for kicks, so that anyone who had any kind of interest in where Rob et al. may go can get a little bit of fulfillment.

I will continue writing as the mood strikes me.  That’s something that I’m not giving up on, and I don’t want anyone to think that.  The only difference is that I’m not going to necessarily let anyone else know about it.  I know myself too well, and I can’t deal with trying to get myself out in the public eye.  Hell, I don’t deal too well just trying to find someone else who can get me into the public eye.

It’s been an interesting trip, and I can’t say I’d do it again, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.  Thank you everyone for your support.

To get the 20% discount on Like Glass, go to this site and place your order.  In the next screen or two, there’ll be a box for a discount code.  Enter ARKH8A5Y in the box and place your order — you should see the price difference before you commit your sale.  If you have any problems, let me know.

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