Random Ramblings…

I have returned to land after my last submarine deployment for three years! It feels amazing and I was so excited to see my wife and two children. They were both a little shy when they saw me, but warmed right up to my unfamiliar visage after I was around them for an hour or so. Sophia is talking a lot more, saying more words clearly and starting to speak complete sentences. Declan has grown so much, acquiring numerous teeth and is almost walking around on his own now.

After the kids had been put to sleep for the night, I checked up on my work. “One Last Delivery” had received another 5 star review on Barnes and Noble, but that was the extent to it. It’s hard to be excited about your passion when nobody is reading it, sadly. Nothing, no new downloads, no new reviews, or anything for “SPIAR”, which I was hoping would have a couple random paragraphs written about it somewhere. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but I am still carrying on, “SPIAR 2” is in the works, and is currently at 17,000 words. I didn’t write as much as I thought I would while I was out to sea, but I plan on catching up with where I want to be very soon.

I am intending on joining “Self Publisher’s Showcase” today in order to increase my visibility and to garner some new writing and reading friends. I’m hoping to get some good feedback on my writing this way. I seem to be getting a nice and steady download count for “One Last Delivery” on Barnes and Noble, which I find strange in some way. It’s only a short story, but I guess people are liking it very much. I have a couple more ideas for a few more short stories that will be titled “One Last…” I think that I am going to keep a series of them starting with that in the title, I think it has a nice attachment to it. My main focus right now, though, is my first novel’s sequel, and it’s hard enough to find the time to continue on with that.

The kids don’t nap anymore, which means that my only real opportunity to write is during the night time hours. After playing with the kids all day, and feeding them and changing diapers, my motivation is down in the gutter once the day is through. I need to regain my focus and charge on with my career, or else I won’t have anyone else to blame but myself for my work’s publicity.

Being back and about to transfer to a different command has me a little worried, I must admit. After serving on the USS Rhode Island for five years, I think that adjusting to a new CO, XO, and CMC will be hard. I know how things are run on the boat, who to talk to, and give advice to. I’m about to enter a whole new world in a couple months, but I guess I am somewhat excited as well.

That’s all for now, Sophia wants “Pizza! Pizza!”

Easy days and blissful nights,

V. E. Bystry

Suggestions, anyone?

Good evening,

Looking forward to tomorrow in a way, have to get up at the crack of dawn to go PT. Regardless of the fact that it is my day off. Oh well, a little extra exercise never hurt anybody, right? After that is all said and done with, I will return to my humble abode, shower, and commence my morning writing. Everyone else in the house should still be asleep so I will sit at my desk, plug in my headphones and hit play on whatever music strikes my fancy, and type away.

While I am on the subject of writing, I would like to pose a question to all of you fellow writers out there that may or may not stumble upon my blog. I am currently writing this blog post from my iPad mini on the WordPress app, utilizing the on screen keyboard. While it does the job and I think that I’m relatively fast with using it, it is mot ideal for writing manuscripts with this keyboard. I have in my possession a bluetooth keyboard with tiny keys that I can attach to my device, and I think that I’m getting used to it.

My real question is, what app do you use on your mobile devices to write? I find it annoyingly mundane searching through numerous writing apps on the app store. I have tried Storyist, Documents 2, Pages, and a few other applications. I was using Storyist this previous deployment, as I could transfer my manuscript via Dropbox from my laptop. I’m trying to complete the novel on my iPad alone, though I would like to hear what you all use and prefer. Pages is what I am currently using, but it doesn’t have Dropbox implementation. The fact that I might have to transfer using multiple apps to get my story where I want it to go is excruciatingly aggravating. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Easy days and blissful nights,

V. E. Bystry