Richard Freeborn

Fiction and Non-Fiction

Author: Richard Freeborn (Page 1 of 13)

A Quick Update

February 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Just a few sentences this week as I have a lot happening that I’ll share more about over the next few weeks.

The paperback author copies of Ceres to Vesta arrived yesterday and I saw I’d misaligned the title a little. I’m surprised Amazon didn’t flag it as a potential issue, but ultimately the responsibility is mine, so back to InDesign and fix it. That’s one of the great things about publishing independently, I can fix problems like this in a day or so.

And talking of InDesign is a good reminder that a couple of weeks ago I mentioned how I was struggling with the layout for a paperback cover. A little bit of time, and some judicious use of search engines and I came up with the answer. You start with a three page spread at 8.5″ x 5.5″ page size, then use the Page Tool to resize that second page until it matches the spine width you want.

I’ll try it in the next week or so with the next short story collection – Where Infinity Begins – and let you know how it works out.

A Punch in the Mouth

February 10, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I was going to write this week’s blog on a separate subject, then changed my mind after watching the Super Bowl last night which reminded me of Mike Tyson’s comment which is the title of this blog.

Firstly, congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles on an emphatic victory.

I had mixed feelings about even watching the game. The teams I follow or have an affinity for, either didn’t make the playoffs, or were eliminated early on. That said, there was a part of me that leaned slightly toward the Kansas City Chiefs, mainly because whatever Patrick Mahomes has done is constantly compared to the achievements of Tom Brady. Three Super Bowl wins in three years would definitely set Mahomes apart from Brady, and the Chiefs from those other teams with extensive winning records – Lombardi’s Packers, the 70’s Steelers, the 90’s Cowboys, and the Patriots.

The first sets of plays in the first quarter brought to mind Mike Tyson’s comment. Tyson’s comment came in response to a question about his opponent having a plan. Tyson replied. “Everyone has a plan until I punch them in the mouth.”

That was how I felt about the Chiefs. The Chiefs had a plan for the game. The plan worked until the Eagles punched them in the mouth. And then the Eagles kept doing it.

While I doubt any of us writing or reading this blog have been, or will be, appearing in a Super Bowl, we all suffer setbacks during our lives. Some are minor. Others more serious, akin to Tyson’s punch in the mouth, set us back on our heels, or put us on the floor. I believe it’s how we react to these situations that define who we are. If you can pick yourself up, dust yourself up, make another plan, and move forward again then you improve the chances of getting what you’re striving for.

I’m sure there will be some long and hard conversations in Kansas City over the next few months, but don’t be surprised if they’re back in the Super Bowl next year in San Francisco.

First Deliveries

February 3, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The first of the short story collections I mentioned last week is now available on the top retailers. The book is titled Ceres to Vesta and contains five stories about the asteroid belt.

I came close to missing this weekend because I changed my cover design tool mid-week. For the past few years I’ve been using Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher for my covers. When I was designing the cover for Ceres to Vesta I wanted a sans serif science fiction like font. The Affinity products didn’t have a font that looked right, so I did some searches and found what I was looking for. The font family wasn’t free and I was okay with that until I saw the price of a commercial license, and the fairly low usage count that went with it.

Before I clicked the buy button on the font family, I recalled a comment someone made a year or so ago that you get a commercial license for all the fonts available for Adobe InDesign. So I flipped open a new browser tab and did some research on the Adobe site. The annual license for InDesign was only slightly more than the license for the font family and also gives me access to the thirty-thousand fonts in Adobe Fonts, so it ended up being an easy decision.

I then spent nearly two days working out how to do some basic tasks in InDesign that generally took ten minutes in Affinity. After some heavy use of the Google search engine, I had the color, layout, and spacing the way I wanted.

The eBook covers were easy. The paperback cover not so much. InDesign doesn’t like the Amazon cover templates – or if it does I haven’t worked it out yet. I’m on the ground floor of knowledge when it comes to InDesign, but I’m glad I made the switch, and if I reach my publishing goals for 2025 then by definition my InDesign skills will improve.

More on 2025

January 27, 2025 / / 0 Comments

In many ways this post is a follow on from last week which helped me put some concrete ideas around 2025 writing goals.

When I first considered my 2025 goals one of the thoughts was to publish a novella each month of the year. The challenge with that is a novella can often stretch into a full length novel. I know I want to write at least one novel this year so that made me rethink and lower my sights a little.

After a lot of thought, I decided a target of eight publications in 2025 was reasonable and they would be a combination of novels and novellas.

Last weeks discovery of those languishing short stories rather upended those thoughts. If I have enough material for four collections, or even eight, I could reach my 2025 publishing goals without writing a word.

Not exactly what I had in mind.

So after a lot of thought, I went back to the twelve publications for 2025. That’s the original eight novels or novellas plus the four collections. I also plan to run a kickstarter on one of those novels. For the collections, I have covers, sales copy, and introductions for the first two, plus content for the third. I am still planning on the collections coming out quarterly.

The goal is to finish the setup, editing, and production of the first collection this week and have the eBooks available by the end of January.

Another Big Number

January 19, 2025 /

The number I have in my head today isn’t as large as the 7,500 I talked about last week, but in its own way it’s pretty big.

Part of a writing assignment this past week was to look at the catalog or inventory of stories I’ve written, and determine how many are published, how many out for submission, and how many are sitting gathering dust on a hard drive. For my novels and novellas it was a pretty easy task – everything written is published. The short stories were a different matter.

Once I stripped out everything that’s with various magazines for consideration, and those stories already in collections, I had over sixty short stories that are languishing doing nothing. I had been vaguely aware there were quite a few, and in some cases, like Puzzle Store stories, I knew I needed another one or two to have enough for the next collection. That still left a substantial number, so I went through each story one by one. Some of those stories still defy a genre, while others fit together more naturally together – either by character or location, or theme, or just by being flat out weird.

The end result is that just from this, I have enough material for four collections. Interestingly enough, three of them are science fiction collections. I’m leaning toward publishing a collection a quarter for the rest of 2025, but that may change as I look at the remaining forty or so stories.

I’m excited about these collections and will be working on covers, introductions, and edits this coming week.

7,500 Days

January 14, 2025 /

I’m still putting the final touches to my 2025 goals. While doing that, I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about an executive who every year sits down and carries out what he calls a pre-mortem. He imagines he’s at the end of his life and reflecting on what he is pleased about having achieved, then he walks it back and makes it happen.

One of his comments was about having maybe 7,500 days left in his life and making sure each day counts.

I did some math on that one – 7,500 days is about twenty years and six months. That made me think about where I was twenty or so years ago, and how I felt about what I’ve done since. Some of it has been good – Twenty plus years married to a wonderful person, and actually getting my writing career started. Some of it not so good – a couple of failed investments that on reflection I should have stayed well away from, and spending too long with a company where the culture is best described as toxic.

Thinking about the next 7,500 days is maybe a stretch. I’m assuming I’ll still be alive. In which case what do I want to do to make every day one I’m pleased about? I’m going to give that some thought over the next week and I have a feeling it might change some of my thoughts on 2025.

First Thoughts on 2025

December 30, 2024 /

Here we are, two days from the end of 2024, and nothing dramatic to change the results for this year.

Next year I expect to continue Morning Pages, and this blog. The big difference is I’m planning to move the blog to a Shopify store, which will ultimately replace this web site, and also give me the ability to manage a mailing list. Look for announcements on that in February or March. There are some other business goals, like building my mailing list, and at least one Kickstarter that are in my head, but not fully fleshed out yet.

I still have publishable word count goals for 2025, but the focus is going to be more on completed projects rather than just a raw number of words.

With that said, I’m still looking at what the publishing goal is for 2025. I’m rolling between something conservative, or a big wild crazy set of goals. I’m not making any decisions about what those stories will be at the moment, although the current work in progress is clearly the first. There’s a high probability the next Jacob and Miriam story is in there somewhere as well. 

Beyond that, I’m not making any predictions other than to wish everyone a safe, happy, and prosperous 2025.

2024 In Retrospect

December 23, 2024 /

It’s difficult to believe we only have eight days left in 2024. It seems like only a month or so ago, I was scribbling thoughts down for what’s I wanted to achieve in the coming year. 

In January, my writing goals for the year were to write this blog every week and post on a Monday, keep the Morning Pages streak alive, and write a thousand publishable words a day. In terms of projects, I was close to publishing Death at a Wedding, so that was a given, and I had started The Corpse in the Courtyard, so in my head was the expectation to publish that during 2024 as well.

The blog has appeared weekly. Mostly on Mondays, although there have been some Tuesdays and I think at least one Wednesday. Morning Pages continues. As I wrote in September, that was the one year anniversary and I am continuing to put something on the page every day. For publishable words I’m going to end up at about 45% of my goal. Not great but it will be the second highest annual word count since I began tracking words.

The two novels did get published. Added to those are a short story collection – Beach House on the Dune, and a novella, The Head of the Serpent. I also had three stories published in magazines.

I’ll talk about 2025 next week or the following week, but I think the focus will be on projects rather than raw word count, and building the business.

Everything Expected and More

December 18, 2024 /

As I expected, the private viewing for Heallreaf 5 was everything I anticipated and more. In addition to the “regular” tapestries, there was Dancing Vessel 2 by Barbara Burns – weaving displayed on a ceramic pot, and Nostalgia by Magenta Kang – a four sided tapestry on a wooden frame. Both are hard to describe but you can see them here: https://www.heallreaf.com/heallreaf-5.html

As a visitor, you can select one of the pieces as your favorite. At the end of the exhibition series in Sedburgh in April the votes will be tallied and the winner receives an award. I’m already looking to see if my schedule will allow a visit in the Spring to see who wins.

And, yes, I did spend a morning browsing through Waterstones in Piccadilly, and it was wonderful. I was tempted by Ottolenghi’s Test Kitchen, but a quick online search showed I can buy that in the US – not the point of the expedition.

Finally, I walked out with a two volume biography of Oliver Cromwell which with the books my sister has for me, gives me plenty to read on the flight home, and a need for some careful packing.

Next week, I’ll spend some time on a retrospective for 2024.

Travel Preparations

December 11, 2024 /

Later this week I am traveling back to England to visit family and friends and to visit Heallreaf 5 at the Morley Gallery in London.

I have all the logistics sorted out – flights, rental car, and hotel, and I have a good idea of the clothes I’m taking. Which leaves the hardest choices of all – what reading material am I taking with me. And how much space do I leave in the bag for items to bring back. For items, read books!

I know there’s at least two books coming back as they are waiting at my sister’s house. There will possibly be more as I have a trip planned to at least one bookstore in London. If that sounds to be a crazy idea ten days before Christmas, I can only agree.

I’ll let you know how the book shopping expedition goes.

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