The Skype Hype

Today I am going to try Skype. I'm a newbie, a first-timer, a frightened adventurer into the unknown. Yesterday, my publisher wanted to show me a few ideas for Anaedor's new book cover. He wanted to use Skype so he could physically show me the pictures. Great, I thought! My husband has Skype...we can use his. There was only one problem.

I couldn't figure it out.

Okay, first I had to figure out how to get to it. My husband's computer is a bit of a landmine to navigate but he managed to guide me through it via iChat (I didn't want to use the Linux Operating System apparently). Next, I needed to set up my own account. The site kept asking me to download Skype. Well, my husband already had it on his computer. I didn't need anymore Skype, thank you very much. Skype didn't care. Finally, I gave up in disgust. Of course, I'm sure the answer to my dilemma was sitting right in front of me, but I was too blind or tired to see it.

Story of my life.

Last night, my helping hubby set up an account for me, in like seven seconds. Plus, he told me I had to turn on the microphone and sound. Hmmm...That makes a lot of sense. So even if I could have used Skype yesterday, I wouldn't have been able to hear anything, or be heard. Nice.

Today, I actually had a conversation on Skype. First I had to tell my four-year-old to stay away while the door's closed. Ha! He wasn't too sure about that. Then I had to find somewhere to put our overgrown puppy. I didn't need a dog licking me or trying to get me to play when I'm trying to look sophisticated and business-like. So I decided that Dorrie could hang out in Grandma's room - she loves it up there because that's where Harold resides (my mom's dog).

Well, as you might have guessed, she decided to leave Grandma's room and find me. There were only a couple minutes before the conversation was about to start...so I let her come into the office...she was nosing at the door and making sad sounds. Once inside, she immediately left, curiosity satisfied. Good, I thought.

Well, my publisher and I finally worked the Skype right and we had a nice conversation about my book...after the fiasco happened, that is. The dog stole a toy from my son and my son chased the dog into the office. The toy she stole? Once of those bouncing noise making balls that sings, "Louie, Louie!" and makes cat calls. She lost it under my desk and then got a hold of the mouse and started playing with that. Needless to say, I had to interrupt the conversation to save my computer. Finally, I removed both child and dog from the office and the conversation continued quite nicely.

So, here's my opinion on Skype:

Bonus: It's free, easy to use (once you're set up), and you can see the other person and they can see you (if you have a web cam). What you need: A web cam (my husband's apple has one built in) and some sort of microphone and sound system (again, he had that all figured out - you're on your own with that).

Negatives: The set-up is hard to figure out (well, it was for me), you have to agree on a time to do the call, there was some feedback on my end (I could hear my voice repeat everything I said, which was distracting), and finally, you can see the other person and they can see you. Actually, I was glad I wasn't able to make Skype work yesterday. Let's just say I wasn't at my visual best.

Anyway, it's free and kind of neat. I would certainly use it again.

Give it a try yourself...Skype's Website

I Have A Vision!

This post is going to be messy and most likely discombobulated. My life is crazy right now (I think I’ve said this before). We are moving! We have found a new house - not a castle, not yet, anyway - but a farm that even has a cemetery on the property. And we are also selling our old house (which, in this market, is amazing in itself). The problem is…the new buyers want our house by the end of July. We can’t move into our new house until late August. That means we are moving twice.

I’m feeling faint.

We will be living with my sister, her daughter, my mother, her little dog, their three cats, our three cats, my three boys, my husband and myself…during the lovely month of August. Pray for us.

To add to this rollercoaster ride that I’m on, I have changed to a new publisher, Variance (Breakneck Books is merging with it). I was a little worried that my book wouldn’t make it through the first round (a small release, which if it went well, would turn into a big release). Anaedor is not really the same kind of book as what the other authors do, so I thought I’d be the first to go. That was until I received an email a couple weeks ago from my publisher saying he wants to do a re-release of Anaedor. I think that means we’re skipping over the small release entirely. That’s what I’m hoping anyway!

Here’s the kicker…He’s going to have an artist draw little pictures above the chapter headings and do a new cover (although I love the old one - kudos to Breakneck on that one). He wanted to be sure to get my take on the whole process and see that the artist captures my vision. My first reaction was, "That is so awesome!" My second was, "I have a vision?" Later, I realized that I didn’t really believe this was happening - I’m still not sure that I do. Knowing that things can go wrong, I am being pessimistically optimistic about it all. If it actually goes through - hurray! If not, well, I was expecting it not to, anyway. Now I have all my bases covered.

The cool thing is that it’s typically nearly unheard of for a publishing company to get the author’s feedback on the process. I feel so blessed to be consulted! The artist called me a few days ago and she was so nice. I’m really looking forward to working with her and seeing her take on my ‘vision’! Plus, she liked my book, so she can’t do anything wrong in my eyes.

So a lot is going on in my life, but it’s all good. And as I’ve said before…It will get done; it always does. I’m just wondering who’s going to do it.